American efforts to kill or capture Osama bin Laden span more than 10 years and three presidential administrations, yet the elusive terrorist leader has managed to stay alive and in hiding all this time. Some CIA and military operations to get bin Laden, however, have come tantalizingly close. A Tomahawk missile raid on his camp in August 1998 missed him by mere hours, for example, and a cave-busting bombing assault in the Tora Bora Mountains in December 2001 left him injured and on the run. As a result, many experts interviewed in HISTORY(TM)'s 10 WAYS TO KILL BIN LADEN, a compelling two-hour special that premieres Tuesday, June 29, 8-10pm ET/PT, tend to agree that the mastermind behind 9/11 is living on borrowed time. As Gary Berntsen, CIA chief in Afghanistan, puts it, :We only have to be lucky once. Bin Laden has the responsibility of staying alive every single day.:
10 WAYS TO KILL BIN LADEN recaps the 10 boldest, most ingenious missions employed thus far to capture or kill the Al Qaeda leader. The first such operation dates back to 1998 and the Clinton administration, before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks made bin Laden the most notorious and most hunted man in the world. The special also dissects why these missions were ultimately and often frustratingly unsuccessful.
American strategies range from ambush and abduction plots to air strikes and ground assaults to a daring plot to infiltrate Al Qaeda. CIA agents, Special Forces soldiers and government officials intimately involved in every aspect of these missions share their insights, explain their combat tactics, demonstrate their military hardware, reveal their intelligence-gathering techniques and discuss the diplomatic give-and-take that often complicated their efforts. 10 WAYS TO KILL BIN LADEN also features footage from current military missions and CGI-enhancEd Battle analysis that reflect the ever-changing rules of engagement in the search for bin Laden.
10 WAYS TO KILL BIN LADEN is produced by October Films for HISTORY. Executive Producer for October Films is Denman Rooke, Producer/Director is Steve Webb and Editor is Andy Greening. Executive Producer for HISTORY is Susan Werbe.
HISTORY(TM) and HISTORY HD(TM) are the leading destinations for revealing, award-winning original non-fiction series and event-driven specials that connect history with viewers in an informative, immersive and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. Programming covers a diverse variety of historical genres ranging from military history to contemporary history, technology to natural history, as well as science, archaeology and pop culture. Among the network's program offerings are hit series such as Ax Men, Battle 360, How The Earth Was Made, Ice Road Truckers, Pawn Stars and The Universe, as well as acclaimed specials including 102 Minutes That Changed America, 1968 with Tom Brokaw, King, Life After People, Nostradamus: 2012, Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed and WWII in HD. HISTORY has earned four Peabody Awards, seven Primetime Emmy(R) Awards, 12 News & Documentary Emmy(R) Awards and received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's Save Our History(R) campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. Take a Veteran to School Day is the network's latest initiative connecting America's schools and communities with veterans from all wars. The HISTORY web site, located at www.history.com, is the definitive historical online source that delivers entertaining and informative content featuring broadband video, interactive timelines, maps, games and more.
