It’s a story whose beginning and end are embedded into the American psyche. The events of Sept. 11, 2001, known after as 9/11, marked the first time the United States had been attacked on its own soil since Pearl Harbor. Nearly a decade later, on May 2, 2011, top government officials including then-President Barack Obama and then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton gathered in the White House Situation Room to witness the surprise raid on a compound in Pakistan to take down Osama bin Laden, the founder of the militant Islamist organization al-Qaida. But less is known about what happened in between, and what operatives, officials, and counterterrorism experts faced in order to capture and bring down one of the most notorious terrorists in modern history.
“Being thrown into the driver’s seat after the worst attack in American history would rattle anyone, even these brave men and women who had devoted their lives to protecting Americans by assessing geopolitical threats and sounding alarms that were often ignored,” directors Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy (Camp Confidential: America's Secret Nazi) tell Tudum. “But the intelligence analysts didn’t have time to grieve or reflect. They had a mission at hand: to figure out who did this and stop them before the next attack.”
The three-part docuseries focuses on the experiences of the individuals whose tough decisions and swift actions played out in secure rooms all around the world. “Our goal,” the directors say, “was to transport the viewers into these places, in real time, and ask them: ‘What would you do?’ For us, the best way to understand history is to truly experience it.”
American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden features interviews with intelligence operatives and Special Forces who assisted in the global pursuit of the leader of al-Qaida, including insights and recollections from former CIA, Department of Defense, and FBI officials including Leon Panetta and Henry A. Crumpton, as well as journalists including former ABC reporter John Miller and Nayyera Haq (who previously served as state department spokesperson), and White House officials including Ben Rhodes, who served as deputy national security advisor in President Barack Obama’s administration.
“American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden does not tell the story of the United States and the War on Terror,” say Sivan and Loushy. “It tells the story of the people tasked to find the world’s most wanted terrorist and bring him to justice. It [was] a hunt that changed their lives, America, and the world as we know it.”
American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden follows this year’s American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson and 2023’s American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing.
All three episodes of the series are out now. Watch them here.
