let's bring in peter bergen and gloria borger. does it surprise you that the views on the war are different that senator mccain did not criticize president obama today? >> he's kind of old school on that. also he really supports this strategic agreement because he is a part of the republican party that wants to see a long-term commitment in afghanistan. i think one of the reasons you haven't heard from other republicans is actually -- and you know this, anderson. there's division within the republican party. i mean, more than a majority of republicans oppose the war in afghanistan. so republicans want to get out of afghanistan. and so the president went over there to announce that he's winding down in afghanistan. and if you're a republican, you know, that's kind of not a bad thing. because republicans are very fiscally conscious and at a time when the economy is not good at home, there are more and more questions about whether the money that we're spending over there is cost effective. >> it is interesting we've reached a point w

peter bergen joins us now. welcome. >> thank you, margaret. >> warner: so in all this reporting you've been doing over a decade and in preparation for this book, what was the most startling, telling discovery you made about the hunt for this man. >> one of the most startling anecdotes that i found in the course of reporting the book was michael morel, the deputy director of the cia, several months before the operation went down, went to president obama and said to him that the circumstantial case that iraq had weapons of pass destruction was better than the circumstantial case that bin laden was living in abbottabad. so i think that is, you know, that shows the level of uncertainty that existed about the intelligencement and for people who-- we have heard this week a number of people saying essentially anyone would have made this decision. that's very easy to say sort of post facto when you know how the operation turned out. another similar kind of anecdote, michael morel and his boss, leon panetta the head of

hopefully a leader will come up. >> peter bergen, i appreciate you being here.ew book takes you inside the hunt for osama bin laden. thank you all. we'll be right back. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy? hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy. this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here. [ woman on r♪ bum-bum,stinct ] bum-bum, bum-bum ♪ ♪ bum-bum - ♪ ai, ai, ai - ♪ bum-bum - ♪ bum-bum, bum-bum - ♪ [ ice rattles rhythmically ] ♪ bu

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much more now with peter bergen. joining also is fran townsend and major general james "spider" marks. fran, just strategically, as you look at this agreement has been signed, how significant is it? >> it is sort of a rhetorical commitment to the afghans. and it is significant the president went there to sign it, to give them reassurance. >> he could have stayed in washington and signed this and done it electronically. >> that's right. but it makes sense that he wanted to go there as evidence of his commitment to afghanistan. i will tell you the most important part is will it get funded by congress and what will troop levels be. he talked about once you get to the 68,000 in september, there will be a steady drawdown through 2014 until we're out of afghanistan. but that timetable has to be recommended and the numbers will have to be recommended by u.s. generals on the ground and what will that look like and what is the afghan force ability to fill that vacuum. >> there's also the question about what other internationa

great show, peter bergen, author of the new book manhunt. know bhau are thinking, are you just saying that so you can say abbottabad, i know. i'm sure it will be an interesting conversation. lev laugh. >> jon: as you know osama bin laden has been all over the news this being the onier an verse ar of his passing. >> good morning, we are getting a brand-new look into the mind of osama bin laden. parts of bin laden's personal letters nabbed from his compound in pakistan by navy seals have just been released. >> jon: whooo! personal letters. of bin laden. dear wife number 7. (laughter) >> jon: how is son number 19? i miss you. tell me what you are wearing? over your face. laugh laugh come on, the guy was run one of the world's most feerdz terrorist network. i can't imagine he had a lot of time to keep up with correspondent. >> nbc news has been told by senior officials that there were as many as 15,000 distinct individual documents that were taken from that compound when bin laden was killed by navy seals. >> jon: 15,000, the guy wasn't a terror

joining me now is peter bergen. his latest book is "man hunt." also is fran townsend. peter i know you interviewed osama bin laden. you spent time with him and met him. we know that the president is going to talk in his speech in a few moments. he is going to talk about having successfully decimated al qaeda. true? >> yes. according to counter terrorism officials two leaders of the organization left because of the efforts like fran townsend under the bush administration or the last six months a lot of senior members of al qaeda were killed in drone strikes. i looked at some of the documents of the compound. bin laden was aware of how damaging these drone strikes were to al qaeda. he was advocating that his group move to afghanistan which he thought was safer for the tribal regions. >> and we just heard john mccain saying i don't think this is political because some people are saying that a visit on the one year anniversary of the president would be political. said we worked on this security agreement together. i worked on it. lindsey graham worked on it. safe to say tha

peter bergen, fascinating conversation. i look forward to your book as well.ou. >> thank you very much. >>> cnn's state of the union is coming up at the top of the hour. candy crowley sitting down with the former presidential candidate newt gingrich today. she'll have a live preview for us next. highway maintenance is underfunded, costing drivers $67 billion a year, and countless tires. which drivers never actually check because they're busy, checking email. this is why we engineered a car that makes 2,000 decisions every second. the new audi a6 is here. the road is now an intelligent place. ♪ you know who you are. you can part a crowd, without saying a word. you have yet to master the quiet sneeze. you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts. well, muddlers, muddle no more. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. zyrtec®. love the air. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old

my name is peter bergen. laden in eastern afghanistan in march of 1997. >> reporter: peter bergen, a cnn consultant, is the author of "the osama bin laden i know." this documentary is based in part on his groundbreaking reporting. >> he is the son of a billionaire who lives a frugal, simple life. he's sleeping on a floor. he's not using air conditioning. won't even drink cold water. >> reporter: an heir to one of saudi arabia's wealthiest families, he did not want to stand out. at least not yet. >> he doesn't like really to be a leader. never put himself in a position to be a leader. >> reporter: but that would soon change. bin laden was about to be swept up in a movement that would carry him from student to the leader of a holy war. it was a religious movement, one that would pit young muslims against the establishment. it was called sawa, or the islamic awakening. >> it was the sahwar, at that time it's all about religion and about how to practice islam. >> the sahwar was the islamic awakening of the 1970s.

recordings, and vvdeos saved more than one hundred other devices.cnn national security analyst peter bergenlly examined some of his latest book.""t shows bin prone strikks advising one of his ssnss o move out of the pakistani triial regions." "money was tight. he was tallinn with his teaa abbot kidnapping, which al qaeda defaulted to as a fund-raising measure.while some of the remain confidential for securitt easons, 17 were released online thursday by the combattng terrorism center at west point."because of the renewed interest on this anniverrary in tte missiin ttat led to in laden's ddmise that this was deemed an pission that led to bin - laden'ss dmise that ttis was ddemed an appropriate time to release them."they offer behiid bin laden's terrorist taccics,as well as some of his targets."he was asking for attacks on the uniied states. presideet obama. generalldavid petraeuu. e said don't botherr rying tt kill vice president biden, sec. oo defense robbrt gates or admiral mike mullen. we two guys. "the iiformation gleaned from bin ladee's personal terrorism trove,,can help he u-s goveenme

nic, peter bergen previewed those bin laden documents. in them, osama bin laden says we need to extend and develop our operations in america and not keep it limited to only blowing up airplanes. it's terrifying. >> reporter: it's absolutely terrifying. one of those documents, he says, specifically to his sort of und underlings, if you will, it would be nice to nominate a brother to look after the plots in the united states. we've seen the nsome plots foiled. the united states remains a target but knows they have to look at another way of targeting it. >> check out this bin laden quote, nic. the americans have great accumulated expertise, a photography of the region due to the fact they've been doing it for so many years. they can even distinguish between houses that are frequented by male visitors at a higher rate than normal. pretty sketchy and paranoid, right? >> totally paranoid. this is bin laden's concern about al qaeda's training camps in the border of pakistan and afghanistan, the waziristan area. we know also from the documents as

peter bergen joins us from new york. early access to ll lle e material while researching for your book. give us a sense of what the most interesting things are that you learned about bin laden. >> well, suzanne, you know, one that leaps out is bin laden was constantly trying to incite young muslim men to join his holy war, but when it came to his own 20-year-old son, hamza, he was advocating that this guy leave pakistan's tribal regions if he was in that area and go to the prosperous and peaceful sort of switzerland of the middle east. i mean, one of the things, of course, is bin laden's sort of hypocrisy when it came to the safety of his own family versus what he was saying publicly. he was very concerned about the drone program in pakistan's tribal regions, very concerned about the effects it was having on his group. he was telling them they should move to perhaps the eastern province of afghanistan, very row motor, heavily wooded, mountainous area where they would be able to be sort of avoiding the all-seeing eye of a

it's just come out and our national security analyst peter bergen is joining us right now. is situation about as well as anyone. is this going have a happy ending for the united states when all of the dust settles? >> well, i think it has to, wolf. it doesn't matter if it's president obama or president romney or president hillary clinton or any future potential president of the united states. they all know the history of afghanistan. we closed our embassy there in 1989, basically switched the country off into the vacuum and came the civil war and the taliban. a version of that was replayed in 2002 and the george w. bush administration which had an ideological opposition in nation building did it on the cheap and we're now doing a serious effort and the strategic partnership agreement that has been signed today is an indication of the united states plans to be in afghanistan in some shape or form for the next decade and the devil is in the details and i've been speaking and listening to senior administration officials describe the terms of that agreement and that, you know, t

in 1997 peter bergen had the first interview with bin laden.that interview, bin ladin declared war on the united states. peter's obtained access to the compound before it was demolished. these are national security analysts. he's out with a fascinating book "manhunt." it takes you into the ten-year search for osama bin ladin. the wish list of attacks, what are their capabilities? how capable are they of pulling off small and big attacks? >> i think their capabilities are pretty limited, anderson. i was given access to bin ladin's own writings ijthingwri. the picture that emerges from these documents, bin ladin's calling for big attacks, kill president obama, general petraeus. and his guys are pushing back saying, we're under pressure from the drones, the united states is not that easy. >> they're citing the drones in particular? >> well, it's interesting, bin ladin writes a 48-page document about how he is worried about the drones, how many of his people have been killed, he's urging his people to move to a remote part of afghanistan. his 20-ye

peter bergen personally analyzed some of the items. >> it shows bin laden very worried about americantrikes, advising one of his sons to move out of the pakistani tribal regions. he was talking with his team about kidnapping, which was al-qaeda's default to a fundraising measure. >> reporter: 17 were released online thousand by the combat and terrorism center at west point. >> because of the renewed interest on this anniversary in the mission that led to bin laden's demise, this was deemed an appropriate time to release them. >> reporter: they offer insight into the methodology behind his terrorist tactics as well as some of his targets. >> he was asking for attacks on the you said, on president obama, petrias, he said -- petrus. he said we really should focus on these two guy, he said. >> reporter: they can help the u.s. government better prepare troops on the ground overseas and anticipate threats. >>> cinco de mayo is almost here. and today president obama marked the occasion at a rose garden reception. >> of course there's still plenty of unfinished business, including fixing our

, the 10 year search for bin ladin from 9/11 to abbottabad, please welcome back to the program peter bergene) thank you for being here. manhunt, 9/11 to abbottabad, boy, it's like you were in the room with these guys throughout 9 process of locating bin laden and executing the mission. how do you get the type of access that you appear to have. because this is not con jek ture this is what happens. >> yeah, i mean i think si have some credibility on the issue of bin 4r5din and al qaeda. this is my fourth book on the subject. >> yes. >> and talked to people at the white house, the cia, department of defence, you know, a number of people, eventually talked to enough people, if this doesn't talk somebody else will talk. so i was able to build up a pretty good picture of what happened. >> you visited. you were the only guy who visited the house, the compound. >> right. >> how did you get to go to the-- we went in at night with hell corporaters then pakistan was very mad at us and you come in and say my name is peter, i would like to look around. >> i -- >> i was thinking of buying a place in abb

. >>> joining me now is peter bergen, one of the true experts on bin laden and al qaeda. mr.n in 1997 for an interview in eastern afghanistan. when bin laden made his first threat to the united states on camera. >> translator: we declared a jihad, a holy war against the united states government because it is unjust, criminal and tyra tyrannical. >> since then he's written new books. his newest is "man hunt, the ten-year search for bin laden from 9/11 to abbottabad." clearly al qaeda is still a threat but this thwarted plot is a failure. what do you make of it? >> the plot originates from the al qaeda on the arabian peninsula. the one on christmas day 2009 failed. also the attempt to bring down two cargo planes. they were detected in october of 2010. we now have this plot. the details still pretty fuzzy, but whatever it was has been averted. they tried to kill the senior counterterrorism official in saudi arabia at the beginning of this kind of cycle with these kind of very hard to detect bombs. that also failed. so it's really a record of failure, al. >> what does it say abou

peter bergen will talk to us in a minute or two.ference in cleveland about these five arrests just moments ago, so, let's listen. >> planned anarchists conspired to develop multiple terror plots to impact the greater cleveland metropolitan area. law enforcement took swift, collaborative action based on this intelligence and undertook a techniques in order to eliminate the risk of violence and protect the public. i want to stress and we all want to stress that at no time during the course of the investigation was the public ever in danger. applauding these individuals continue to evolve and eventually came to be centered on the use of explosives. the co-conspirators considered and researched possible targets and ultimately settled on the plot to damage the brexville, northfield, high-level bridge, which provides route a passage over the cuyahoga national park from brecksville to saga moore hills, ohio. the individuals explored the illegal purchase of explosives, as well as the concept of using precursor chemicals and internet knowled

cnn's peter bergen traveled to the former pakistani compound and got access to the documents found iner: bin laden's calling for bigger attacks, kill president obama, kill general petraeus and his guys are pushing back and saying, wait a minute, we're under pressure from the drones, attacking the united states is not that easy. >> bergen also says bin laden's new al qaeda reputation was tarnished and that bin laden was very afraid of what u.s. strikes -- drone strikes were doing to that terrorist organization as well. >>> two grandparents have been arrested for taking their granddaughter on a dangerous ride. you will not believe this story. they hitched her hot wheels toy car to the back of their suv with a dog leash and then took her on a little drive. deputies in sarasota county say both of the grandparents were drunk at the time. they say they spotted that little 7-year-old girl trailing behind the suv. parentally she was wearing nothing more than a bathing suit and certainly had no helmet. thankfully that little girl is okay this morning. >>> private flight company space x is maki

peter bergen's manhunt recounts the ten year search for osama bin laden. you can find more on these bestsellers by going to new yorktimes.org and clicking on parts. >> hello, everybody. welcome to this third annual gaithersburg book festival. i am a member of the book festival committee. gaithersburg is a vibrant diverse city that celebrates its cultural arts. we are pleased to bring you this event free of charge thanks to the generous support of our sponsors. a couple quick announcements for the consideration of everybody, please silence any devices that make any kind of noise. to keep improving this event we need your feedback. surveys are available here and at the information booths and online at our web site. your thoughts are important to us so take a couple minutes to fill out the survey and enter yourself in a drawing for a nook by doing that. the woman who was working on putting offers in hotel rooms and things like that and didn't have all the names of the books in front of her got an e-mail from a gentleman saying he needed housing for saturday a

but let's dig a little bit deeper now with the national security analyst peter bergen.out warren winestein for a moment. the demands that al qaeda wants for his release are? >> one of the big demands is the blind sheikh, the guy who's the intellectual author of the 9/11 attack who's in poor health in an american prison. that's when a constant demand for al qaeda for the past year and a half. the president of the united states said that he will not negotiate with al qaeda. it has not been unknown that money changes hands, of course there's sort of some legal issues because the money of course would then be going to an al qaeda terrorist organization. but other hostages have been released, i'm thinking of hostages in iraq who are american citizens, and i can't believe that money didn't change hands at some point. how extraordinary is this video that we saw today? >> i think this is have unusual. i can't think of an al qaeda prisoner coming out of pakistan ever. >> what about daniel pearl? >> in terms of a kidnap demand video, this is unusual. of course in iraq, we saw qui