Interview - Inside The Situation Room: 9/11, Two Presidents and The Hunt for Bin Laden

Mosheh Oinounou (0:00)

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Hey everybody, welcome back to a special edition of the Mo News Podcast. It's Moshe Oinounou here as we mark the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 We want to go beyond simply remembering what happened and understand what it was like inside the rooms where America's response took shape and the moves that helped dictate world history over the course of the past 25 years. Few people can offer that perspective quite like Michael Morell. I had the good fortune of working with him at CBS News, but prior to that, he spent more than three decades at the CIA, and on 9-11, he happened to be the intelligence briefer for President George W. Bush. Traveling with him that morning, he talks to us about what they briefed on that morning and then what unfolded over the course of that day and the weeks and months that followed as the country came under attack and the US responded. Ten years later, Michael Morell also happened to be in the Situation Room with then President Obama as the administration debated whether Osama bin Laden was really hiding inside that building in Pakistan and whether to launch the raid that would ultimately kill him. At that point, Morell was Deputy Director of the CIA. I have jokingly called Michael the Forrest Gump of the War on Terror because he was there in person with the Presidents during some of the most defining moments from intelligence warnings before 9-11 to 9-11 to the wars that then followed in Afghanistan, Iraq, as well as the hunt for Osama bin Laden. As I mentioned, Michael Morell spent about 33 years at the CIA, eventually serving as the Deputy Director and then the Acting Director of the CIA.

We worked together at CBS News. I always appreciated how candid he was. He's very careful in terms of what he can say, of course, given what he has been privy to over the years, but he has an incredible way of explaining these very complex topics in ways that all of us can understand. I think what's ahead for you guys here in this conversation is fascinating. It is worth listening to the entire conversation. We ended up going about 90 minutes as we taped this earlier in September. We talk about what took place, his conversations, multiple conversations with President Bush and then President Obama through the years. We examine the successes, the failures and the lasting consequences of America's war on terror. The various conspiracy theories relate to 9-11 that exists today. And what happens next? Did the country learn the right lessons? And would we be able to unite again? Should we face attack as well as what he considers to be the biggest threat facing America today? Stay tuned for his answer on that. With that said, here's my conversation with former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell.