To mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the CBC presents a two hour documentary The Secret History of 9/11.

The extraordinary tale of intrigue and espionage begins with the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. The Secret History of 9/11 provides a look at the long, secret war waged against al-Qaeda from the White House, the CIA and the FBI, and examines the key intelligence failures that allowed the 9/11 plot to happen. Interviews include Richard Clarke (Chief of Counterterrorism at the White House) Mike Scheuer (the head of the CIA Bin Laden Unit) and Gary Schroen (the CIA field agent who was trying to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden throughout the 1990s).


Richard Clarke,
Former Counterterrorism Director is a important contributor.

Watch a riveting minute-by-minute account of what was going on behind the scenes on 9/11. There was confusion in air traffic control, a failure to promptly notify the military about hijacked planes, and a breakdown in communications around the President. George W. Bush was reduced to trying to contact Washington on a borrowed cell phone. The presidential order to shoot down any further hijacked airliners never reached the fighter pilots who could have carried out the order.