he visited bin laden. another transformation moment was the battle in 1987 where bin laden fought the soviets and out of that battle group the base called al-qaeda. and al-qaeda the base became the name of the group by 1988 a year after the battle there begin meetings to formalize the founding of al-qaeda in a more formalized manner and it was nothing there indicate an anti-american -- with the minutes of those meetings which may be anybody who's taking notes in meeting those the notetaker can put his our spin on it but the point is we have contemporaneous documents about the founding of al-qaeda. there was nothing about the united states. bin laden was at the american because of your support for israel by his own account and i believe this by other eyewitnesses in the mid to late '80s he's delivering speeches in riyadh and jetta criticizing the united states call for boycott of american goods because of its support for israel. the invasion of kuwait, saddam threatening saudi arabia, bin laden offered his

but to escape the battlefield with bin laden at 11:00 p.m. bin laden disappeared. the reason that is so interesting as we know that was exactly eight half hour time difference between the united states and afghanistan. was arms exactly at this moment donald rumsfeld doing a lengthy discussion about the iraq war plans for the iraq war plans were 800 pages. he had a week to rewrite them. then he did the briefing that day. literally as the world trade center considered to smolder and i went back to soon the pile would stop smolder. the architect is escaping we do not put extra boots on the ground. lou should've been more soldiers on my account the reason i say that with certainty is unfortunately now is dead special forces officer led the american forces. he counted a total of 70 american special forces and total of 70 that included 12 people from the british special boat service. both of them said there were about a hundred. if journalist could get there, it's not like they had c-130s. [laughter] and apache helicopters. in fact it matters, interestingly and up to 150

find and get bin laden.hat room described it to me, when the president lightd a fire under the cia director, he lights a fire under the agency. >> developing any opinion on whether it had not been a priority after 2000? or was that a substantial error? >> that was a huge error. there was an argument inside the pentagon. wanted to go in relatively lighter. who knows if that is why he escaped. when i talk with some people who were there, remember, obviously, the team comes in 2009. lighting a fire under the cia. i had some people push back. deputy director and had been there the whole time. he had forgotten about bin laden either one or the other. whatever the priority was under bush and in the later years, it went back to square one. >> this is a compound of interest. you said that they sought out confirming evidence. certainly not overwhelming. what do you think is the most important pieces of evidence that gave them the confidence? >> what really convinced them? >> first of all, fighting about the compound

they didn't know that bin laden was there. when i said to o'neill how dangerous it do you think it was and he said a one-way ticket. he said suicide mission. he said if he is there there is no question in my mind that when our helicopters hit the compound it is going to explode and when that happens and we go into the main house where we think if bin laden is there, that's where he's hiding. they will have bodyguards and throw hand grenades at us and overwhelming force. he said i was perfectly prepared to die if i could get bin laden. that was a bargain that i was willing to make and he said i was doing it for the one who went to work on 9/11 in the world trade center and the plane hits the tower and at a certain point confronted with a choice between the inferno where it is 2500 degrees fahrenheit and looking out the window to a story drop and decides going out the window is the better alternative. there are strange different breeds but god bless them and am i glad we have them at the tip of the spear. >> let's go to the bott

government with the rise of bin laden.a little bit what was the relationship between al qaeda andnd the taliban now? does that tell us anything they did come and negotiate with this al qaeda would not have done that. they have long-term relationships and-tho government and others responsible they have had discourse in ways al qaeda would not. what should we understand as the relationship with the same about al qaeda and thehe taliban and what is different? what is the difference? >> they want more on the negotiating table than on the battlefield. and there's more to go along with perhaps. they divorce themselves from alac qaeda. the relationship of the united nations is not an organization promotingg war and here sank the al qaeda andhe the taliban are very close. because there's intermarriage and so of course the tallow man is an ethnic group that wants to establish bureaucratic state that is kind of al qaeda's goal hoping the style, just trying to summarize the two. one is a nationalist movement which is a total nutcase

i thought i would just talk to you briefly about countdown bin laden. i spoke to the club last year and now because of the reaction and what i wanted to accomplish it kind of t came organically ad that is that i wanted to write a history thriller and one of the things that struck me is i think it sounds a little pretentious, but it's written very much in the rearview mirror. we know what's happened. now let's analyze how it happened or why it happened. but to me the thrill of history is when the people were going through it, they didn't know what was going to happen. there's this countdown format i began in that case truman becomes president and is told that day about the existence of the manhattan project until he made the fateful decision in early august to drop the bomb on hiroshima there were all kinds of questions and unknowns and tension because they didn't know as they were living at this history at the present time it didn't seem to work and it was a best seller and folks seemed to like it so i thought i wanted to do it again. my one frustration

from american bin laden? and i believe there's 107 people i believe that is very close although the numbers are not precise but of course he's been very steady in the united states but in the 1970s with 100 hijackings in the united stateses and those that detonated 75 bombs but that is apparently fairly constant feature. and then with the american bin laden. and in those t training camps in oregon and those organizations that would be very hard to do with those rising extremist and those who have interest in what we are tracking and then to that conservative methodology we don't include it and those attacks to people in rwanda in 2016. but then we just came up with this recently with that insurrection. and with that government and then the enemies of the state they are legitimate targets. because it is a real issue. >> there are some who argue because there is a o book coming out where basically i think is connecting the process of fighting the war onn terror and itss impact on domestic civil discourse and it

this was a saudi guy who wound up in the mountains north of the pech in the years after bin laden is death, because of the documents found in abbottabad in may 2011 when they killed bin laden we knew he was a person who bin laden self-anointed and who enlightened self that sort of scene great things for and given orders to establish a new al-qaeda sanctuary in the mountains north of the pech in kunar and nuristan. he became a figure of great, great interest for the u.s. intelligence community at the joint special operations command which rampages long drone campaign trying to get him. but as far as how much of a threat he really posed, that was always essentially e question to answer. there were pieces of information would come in suggesting he's been linked to bringing in pakistani nationals who are british passports and clean records and train them for something. that suggests international terrorism. but how much we would be able to do with them and so the other end of the spectrum if indeed he is just stuck up hunkered down trying to survive, , trying to avoid the drone campaign,

on getting osama bin laden, and then it was to pick up the trail of bin laden. and the presidential decision carried out through the cia director tenet that led to the influx of troops into the pech valley in 2003. and they flowed into the pech called operation winter strike, due to this tacking in washington and that left behind a patrol base and that was a change in strategy and tactics that were not mandated by washington or something that anybody, you know, at those high levels in the white house or the pentagon would be aware of. it's an out post that's left behind and behind at the outpost and their job was how to figure out how to fight the war there. similarly, you see in the obama administration, as the ground roll reads, as u.s. forces on the ground leaves, you see the administration all the-- fairly involved in a high level decisions like when does a certain operating base close? the forward operating base was a ceo base and to close it in 2014 was a subject of serious and extended debate within the obama administration, but the operation drug campaig

because of the documents found in 2011 with bin laden, we knew that he was a person who bin laden knew about. he had given orders to establish a new al qaeda sanctuary. so, he became a figure of right interest for the u.s. intelligence community which ran a years long campaign trying to get it. a but, as far as how much of a threat he really posed, essentially, question to answer. pieces of information that would come in suggesting, bringing these british task force and clean records and training them for something. that is international terrorism. but, how much we would be able to do with them. they were just stuck up there. just hunkered down trying to survive. the drone campaign needs to maintain that state of affairs. they did eventually kill him. it took five years of conservative effort. these little pockets is how much resources, how many drones, you know, how many are appropriated on a guy, a couple of guys, a group of guys. the indication of the state. it was complicated because of the islamic whole mo of this tax whether they are necessarily directly plottingin them. you star

people kept coming up to me in time square saying we got bin laden. we got bin laden.at. i found out later. i was not on seal team six. in fact, i don't think i would meet any of the requirements unless they are looking for a slow runner that pees when he's afraid. [scattered applause] i think the only thing i'll miss after covid is finally behind us is going into a business and seeing a note that tells me they clean something that i've assumed my entire life they'd always cleaned. i don't think i'm going back to that diner. they brag about washing forks. mental illness has come to the forefront during the lockdown. a friend confided to my buddy and myself that he was feeling kind of depressed and my buddy blurted out why don't you just try to be happier and i said that's pretty bad, you just told a person with mental illness to use his brain to not have mental illness. that was the whole problem area to start. that's like telling a person with schizophrenia, why don't you just try to see the people that are there. that's not fair. that's the thing though the worst at.

we knew the enemy will be started war with al qaeda and bin laden.within the first six months, al qaeda was gone from afghanistan. the leaders had been captured. that part of the mission had been accomplished. here we are two years later still fighting. we still have troops there. we cannot really define who the enemy is. even the defense secretary cap. who are the bad guys? i do not know. if you are going to war and you cannot define or identify the enemy, you know that you are in trouble. this subset out more than anything. after three years of reporting and getting our hands on these documents at the washington post, we were ready to finally publish. we decided we would publish a series about what went wrong in afghanistan and this is, i am just going to read you the headline and the first paragraph this is in december of 2019. a confidential trove of government documents obtained by the washington post reveals that senior u.s. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in afghanistan throughout the 18 year campaign. making pronouncements th

bin laden went to pakistan. actually did not have many troops in afghanistan.were not spending that much money. 10,000 troops there. the bush administration was trying to keep those troop numbers really low. we would run into repeat during the 1980s when they got stuck in a quagmire. trying to keep our troop levels low and not spend money at a time when frankly afghanistan was a real mess at that point. sort of a nuance answer. that is why we see it to begin with. we just took our eyes off the ball. afghanistan was unstable. we were not quite sure what to do.. it kind of drifted during those early years. >> thank you. did secretary of state colin powell know what was going on or was he being sidelined? >> that's a good question. they fought tooth and nail over many things. including a rock. you can read this, a number of folks of oral history interview to the miller center at the university of virginia where you really see this come out. i think most of the time they did spend arguing about iraq. they really spent time disagreeing about the training and equippi

george bush made decisions he wanted to get bin laden although it wasn't focused purely on getting osama bin laden it was a priority of his and then in the fall of 2003 it was to take it back up so the decision was carried out through secretary rumsfeld and directly led to the influx of the troops in 2003. there was a direct response to this task from washington and that operation left behind a small patrol base that became the scene of changes in the strategy and tactics that were not mandated by washington or the high levels because the outpost had been left behind into their job was to figure out how to fight the war. you see in the obama administration is the forces on the ground leave and it becomes a campaign, you see the administration involved in decisions like a cia base and the subject of debate within the administration but the special operation forces carrying on at the same time were not launched by any of the kind of micromanaging we hear. it wasn't having to comply with the t policy guidance. so you see the effects trickle-down and sometimes directly but it's a massive shi

author of the pulitzer-prize winning "ghost wars: the sect history of the cia, afghanistan and bin ladenviet invasion to september 10, 2001" and most recently "directorate , s: the c.i.a. and america's secret wars in afghanistan and pakistan." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. as we look at the growing alarm over limited communitarian catastrophe in afghanistan since the taliban seized power in august. the united states and other donors have cut off financial aid. the united nations warns nearly 23 million people in afghanistan, more than half the population, face potentially life-threatening food shortages this winter, with nearly 9 million already on the brink of famine. for more, we are joined by pashtana durrani, an activist and executive director of the educational non-profit learn afghanistan. she's now a visiting fellow at the women's center at wellesley college. if you could start off by talking about the humanitarian crisis that afghanistan is in the midst and is facing even further this winter and what you b

. >> osama bin laden declared war on america, and then came the attacks.ne something. >> yes, although i think there were other warnings, too, that came later. >> i believe the title was "bin laden determined to attack inside the united states." >> i think that was the name of it. >> he was really adept at serving it up to show either hypocrisy, abuse of power, and it connected for people. >> is tonight the night that they exploit 9/11 or is tonight inspired empty promises for the future? >> i loved to have a story broken down for me in a different way. the news can get really dark the deeper you go. that's why i loved jon so much. that's why i loved "the daily show" so much. >> you're doing theater when you should be doing debate, which would be great. what you do is not honest. what you do is partisan hackery. >> you've got to be kidding me. >> you're on cnn. the show that leads into me is "puppets making crank phone calls." what is wrong with you? >> all the comedians that came out of stewart's shop, the larry wilmores, the john olivers, the samantha be

if you think back to the passions of the day, the idea of his face alongside icons, i mean, bin laden'snd dr. king, that would have been hard to stomach. so i kind of under. yet as i spoke with many of you today on the radio i was taken by how similar a choice the editors of "time" have this year. it's easy to make the case that health care workers as a group would be appropriate. after all, they have kept working as we turn numb to almost 800,000 american deaths. and they are still there as cases spike yet again. but then again that was true last year, too, right? then there are researchers like drew weissman and kate kariko whose foundational research led it the rapid development of the two covid vaccines. just like the selfless work being done in the nation's covid wards, their brilliant represents us at our best. can you say that our best has embodied what was important about this year? instead, i offer you two other options. both suggested by radio listeners of mine. people like you. there was darren from massachusetts. he suggested the unvaccinated. the less than 30% of us who for

but also the states dirty war on terrorism with he was the only judge to prosecute osama bin laden, but he also investigated systematic torture at guantanamo, according to this confidential report from the u. s. embassy in madrid, he investigated everything. all this gave him a reputation as ambitious wanting to be in the spotlight. i know the truth is that gotham soon understood that in a globalized world, justice cannot be limited by national borders from madrid. he prosecuted the leaders of the dictatorships in argentina and she led her he couldn't do the same at whom his attempts to investigate crimes committed on the franco were blocked by the spanish judiciary. his unorthodox interpretation of the law and him many enemies in 2012, while julianna's son's room ins under house arrest, judged bust aside. gotham sits in the dock before the spanish supreme court. with gotham was investigating the country's largest political corruption network at the time, which also involved the ruling spanish, conservative party peace accused of misconduct. and the supreme court delivers its verdict. i

but also the states dirty war on terrorism with he was the only judge to prosecute osama bin laden, but he also investigated systematic torture at guantanamo. according to this confidential report from the u. s. embassy in madrid, he investigated everything. all this gave him a reputation as ambitious wanting to be in the spotlight. i know the truth is that gotham soon understood bet in a globalized world. justice cannot be limited by national borders. from madrid. he prosecuted the leaders of the dictatorships in argentina and she left her he couldn't do the same at whom his attempts to investigate crimes committed on the franco were blocked by the spanish judiciary. his unorthodox interpretation of the law earned him many enemies in 2012, while julianna's son's room ins under house arrest. judge bust assad got on sits in the dock before the spanish supreme court deal with gun was investigating the country's largest political corruption network at the time, which also involved the ruling spanish, conservative party peace accused of misconduct. and the supreme court delivers its verdict

and he was the only judge to prosecute osama bin laden, but he also investigated systematic torture at guantanamo. according to this confidential report from the u. s. embassy in madrid, he investigated everything. all this gave him a reputation as ambitious, wanting to be in the spotlight. i know the truth is that gotham soon understood that in a globalized world, justice cannot be limited by national borders from madrid. he prosecuted the leaders of the dictatorships in argentina and she led her he couldn't do the same at whom his attempts to investigate crimes committed on the franco were blocked by the spanish judiciary. his unorthodox interpretation of the law and him many enemies in 2012, while julianna's son's room ins under house arrest, judge bust assad. gotham sits in the dock before the spanish supreme court. with gotham was investigating the country's largest political corruption network at the time, which also involved the ruling spanish, conservative party peace accused of misconduct. and the supreme court delivers its verdict. in an unanimous ruling has been bought from

s. entered the country with a mission to hunt down osama bin laden unpunished. the taliban government that ruled most of the country since 1996. the promise was one of retribution, the goodies defeating the bodies. we must rid the world of terse or children and grandchildren can grow up in freedom. we are not nation building again. we are killing terrorists me in the, in the i they call it collateral damage to you and i, that's innocent. people in the wrong place at the wrong time when 10 civilians including 7 children, were killed in an strike. the military initially defended it only a month later, did they acknowledge it was a tragic mistake, and yet none of the military personnel involved will face any kind of punishment. then consider the hundreds of other similar cases exposed by wikileaks. in reality, the kind of peace, the u. s. has brought to the country, has left its people so terrified, they've run for their lives and the 6000000 off guns. i've either been displaced internally or have fled the country altogether. fueling a refugee crisis that continues

we weren't so bad when you sent 27 conservatives to go kill bin laden -- but it is almost as if theyre doing it on purpose, because they don't care about winning wars. lloyd austin come our secretary of defense two or three weeks ago said -- after china tested a hypersonic nuclear capable missile, rate, he said -- right, he said, maybe we should probably focus our energy back on china. right? lake -- are you kidding? -- like, are you kidding? it's all you should have been doing. but no consequence. right? you keep getting your promotions as long as you are really woke. as long as you're conservative and you express your opinions even suddenly, you will just never got promoted. i saw yesterday the air force put out any -- a new logo for their diversity inclusion and whatever the other part of the acronym is, equity. because again, it's not about giving everyone an equal shot to succeed. it's about guaranteeing an equal outcome. they are bringing in memes to life. in the meme wars, i appreciate this, but like -- [applause] three weeks ago or so, a month ago, i put out a meme which was

osama bin laden himself was found in a facility in pakistan.at not everyone was identified or caught on a battlefield during a hot conflict. and yes, some individuals were found through information that might have been paid for but that does not change the fact of who these individuals are and whether they pose a risk in this ongoing conflict. and, to her point about was this prison for the afghan people? we had facilities in afghanistan for a lot of the detainees at bagram, which i had a chance to visit and where after once during the agreement with the taliban a number of detainees were released, that is correct. in a number of people were released after the taliban took over and as i swept across afghanistan freeing hundreds of terrorists and terror detainees. these 39, again, we transferred out over 700 individuals. the people that rosanna is talking about have largely been transferred out and now these 39 last remaining individuals, some are clear for transfer but the majority of whom are hard-core terrorists and the question is should the

the two terrorist groups al qaeda and isis both have a history of chemical weapons even with osama bin ladene went said weapons of mass destruction so in afghanistan of the various chemical weapons and isis or the predecessor so in syria there is an opportunity and so then isis decides the next best thing is we will try to make our own. you can see how spectacular with just a few rocket shells of sharon. and with thosese terrorist movements that here is a terrorist group with laboratories and university facilities. they did not get very far because with these activities going on we devote a lot of effort quietly and so then we stopped them fairly quickly that they did and that making mustard gas. but it was i very crude in the sense it tended to deteriorate very quickly and so for that reason when the investigators examined they said it's not from the syrian stockpile but it's not high-grade stuff and eventually they would conclusively say this is isis manufacture the moral of the story is even though isis does not get asik far as it would have liked some scientist managed to flee the countr

for globall studies and fellow at new america author of the new book the rise and fall of osama bin laden. his book is available online at your local a bookstore also thank you to all of our viewers. >> welcome to today's virtual commonwealth club humanities program commonwealth club board member and your moderatorod as we continue to host virtual events we are grateful for thehe continued support of our members and donors we hope you'll also consider making a donation online or text donate (415)329-4231. the club also thinks that bernard osha foundation for supporting today's event and for being the bookstore partner and george hammond to help organize today's event just a reminder if you have a question for today's guest please submit those in the chat. now it is my pleasure the author of i will be the queen the great-granddaughter of fight it be wells and has written and edited or contributed to 16 books for both adults and children to navigate african-americans working on several public history projects for streets and monuments as historical markers in the united states she has recei

one thing president biden points to a lot of is the death of osama bin laden in 2001. in the original goal of dismantling al qaeda that raises the question of what were we trying to accomplish for the ten years since then. retired cia officer provides an inside look into how the agents prior to and after this september 11th 2001 terrorist attacks. >> welcome to the institute event. my name is charles lister and i direct the program on counterterrorism. today's event marks the release of an excellent new book of nonresident colleague a retired decorated 34 year veteran of an intelligence agency and distant service. his experience is the intelligent community leader created effective positions and multiple field assignments as cia chief of station and director of national intelligence representative in the presidency near representative. over the 34 years of

aftermath of the tree of life synagogue shooting, and peter bergin in the rise and fall of osama bin ladenmost of these authors have appeared on booktv, and you can find their the programs on booktv.org. just type the author's name in the search bar at the top of the page. >> on a recent episode of our author interview program "after words," journal nist libby johnson discussed her new book, "paradise," which looks at the causes of california's 2018 camp fire. she was interviewed by terry baker, ceo of society of american foresters. here's a portion of their discussion. >> i think there were decades of decision the making that went into play. fires mt. past never burned all the way through town. that gave them a false sense of security and so, you know, there were decisions they could have made that would have made it possible -- it seems like they would have made the evacuation efforts a little easier and smoother. but, again, you know, they had these other concerns to look at too. and i think paradise is just so emblematic, again, of all of these places across california and across the w

, one of the iconic symbols of the cold war, a symbol of the post 9/11 era, photographs of osama bin laden with the ak-47. what is interesting on the flag of four countries, mozambique, zimbabwe, just think about that. the mozambique one is interesting, there's an awesome bob dylan song called mozambique and it is meant to be ironic because mozambique was torn apart and the final one that is not discussed often is all of this takes place against the backdrop of decolonization. at the end of world war ii, you've got a lot of countries, but nowhere near the amount of countries that eventually become independent with the cold war. the best cold war, to decolonization and think about all of the european powers after world war ii, probably beaten up. almost the whole of the beginning of the cold war is under european, some form of european control. the literal states of the indian ocean all the way from oman and yemen all the way through to southeast asia and asia all controlled to some level by european powers. after the cold war that is no longer the case and you see the west and the east get

but regardless of who it is, i wouldn't care if it is sadam hussein or bin laden. no one deserves to be left here. and the kid pass by and see it. elderly. that is what frightened a lot of people into leaving. we don't know if he is a victim of vigilanties or what but his body has been allowed to remain out here for over two weeks. amy: in september 2005 democracy now! spoke toen president hugo chavez in his first sit down interview in the united states. amy: your assessment of president bush, of the invasion an occupation of iraq and do you think if it were not iraq it would have been venezuela? >> it feels like u.s. government wants the oil. first they try to get the venezuelan oil and through a coup. that is what it is an oil motivated coup. they want to have the control of the oil before going toward iraq. they failed in venezuela. so they went to attack iraq. amy: in 2007 juan gonzalez and i interviewed then lou dobbs on democracy now!. >> the question is that there's a huge disparity between the economic levels in mexico and chick levels of the united states

we saw in afghanistan, when he opposed the rescue mission to take out usama bin laden, his judgment onrything military, foreign policy, for his entire career is one of weakness and cut and run and retreat and putin knows that. carley: russia have 90,000 troops stationed on the ukrainian border and intel suggesting 175,000 could be deployed for a full-scale invasion as early as next month. todd: live look at capitol hill where the senate voted to repeal the federal vaccine mandate on private businesses. show manchin of west virginia and john tester of montana joining republicans in voting against the mandate but the legislation brought to the senate floor as a congressional review of the president's executive order is unlikely to overturn the mandate. president biden will likely veto the measure if it passes the democrat led house. >> eric adams slamming current mayor bill deblasio's eleventh hour vaccine mandate on all private businesses in the city. a spokesperson to the new york post, quote, the outgoing mayors when something like this knowing the implementation and enforcement would

the rise and fall of osama bin laden. these authors. in book tv. you can find your programs apple tv.org. just type the author's name in the search bar at the top of the page. >> should business and politics mix? corporate america with culture increasing. here's a portion of his argument . >> 90% of both sides could actually agree on is people who are economically disempowered. live access to the educational system. access to participate in the economy. embracing the agenda that lists everyone out. sharing in the same way. the economic empowering everyone over characteristics like race, gender and sexual orientation which is what i think we are focused on today. defining exactly what we need for inequities that we do need to address. inequities that affect people that have nothing to do with race. >> you can watch the rest of this interview along with all prior episodes on our website booktv.org justli afterwards tab near the top of the page. it is also available as a podcast. .... .... service. on about the books we delve into the latest news of t