Zero Hour: A History of 9/11

2001 - 2011 Osama bin Laden pulls off a disappearing act at the Battle of Tora Bora, and spends the rest of his life as the world's most wanted terrorist, on the run or in hiding.   After nearly a decade's worth of intelligence leads and special forces operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the manhunt for the Al Qaeda leader culminates with a risky, top secret raid at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

2002 - 2009 With the Taliban ousted and Al Qaeda on the run, the United States begins to shift its attention and resources to Saddam Hussein and Iraq.   The United States and its allies topple the Hussein regime fairly quickly, and soon learn how difficult it is to assume responsibility for running the very fractured country.   Meanwhile, a new U.S. president orders the CIA to come up with a plan to find Osama bin Laden, who has not been sighted in years.   The renewed hunt leads to tragedy during one of the darkest days in the history of the agency.

2001 - 2002 In the aftermath of 9/11, the United States and its allies invade Afghanistan for the beginning of a decades-long stay.  Al Qaeda and the Taliban are decisively routed in a matter of weeks, but Osama bin Laden manages to give the U.S. military the slip at Tora Bora.   Meanwhile, the United States and other countries around the world begin to face new security challenges, from the outside as well as within.

The events of September 11, 2001 are explored from almost every possible angle: the hijackers; the flights; inside the World Trade Center and the Pentagon;  the first responders who risked their lives to save others in an unprecedented emergency; how the President of the United States and top White House officials reacted to the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.  It is a story of ordinary people forced to do extraordinary things; of the best of humanity responding to the deeds of the worst; and of people making life or death decisions with incomplete and even inaccurate information.  But most of all, it is fundamentally a story about how one day literally changed everything, a day whose repercussions we are still living through more than two decades later.

2000 - 2001 While planning 9/11 and running Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden somehow finds time to marry a new bride, and his other wives aren't happy about it. As 9/11 approaches, his family life begins to fall apart, and eventually he is forced to make a choice.   In Washington, George W. Bush is sworn in as president several months after a closely contested election. His government is filled with experienced Republican public servants, particularly on the foreign policy and national security side.  What did or didn't they do about Al Qaeda during his first eight months in office?   Meanwhile, as the terrorist chatter increases in the months before the attacks, intelligence and law enforcement officials miss crucial warning signs that don't make sense until after the attacks.  Two days before 9/11 and half a world away, Ahmed Shah Massoud, a war hero in the fight against the Soviets and leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated by two Al Qaeda operatives posing as journalists.   Less than twenty-four hours before the attacks, all nineteen hijackers are in position, wrapping up loose ends, and waiting.