Zero Hour: A History of 9/11

2011 - 2026

The final episode of the series examines how 9/11 has become a part of our history and collective memory. There are also updates on people and events since the killing of Osama bin Laden.

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.