The Events that Led to 9/11

CBN News) -This weekend, ABC plans to air a controversial mini-series documenting the events that led to the September 11 attacks.

Some Democrats and former Clinton administration officials are crying foul because parts of the movie are fictionalized.

But the film still underscores a failure that was very real.

On September 11, Osama Bin Laden became the most wanted man in the world. But unknown to most Americans, the terrorist mastermind had been wanted for years prior to that, and 9/11 was hardly an isolated incident.

Flash back to February of 1993. A truck bomb detonated inside the underground parking garage of tower one. Six people died, more than 1,000 injured.

And, as presented in the ABC mini-series "The Path to 9/11," it was the moment that the war on terror really begun.

The ensuing hunt for the terrorists responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing ultimately led them to Ramzi Yousef. Yousef, a member of al-Qaeda, fled to Pakistan hours after the bombings.

He continued his attacks, and nearly downed a passenger jet after assembling a bomb in the plane's bathroom. But authorities tracked him down, following a trail that wound up also flagging a rebel amassing power as a terrorist leader.

The FBI's John O'Neill talked with the NSA's Richard Clarke, both leading counter-terrorism experts.

JOHN O’NEILL: "They call him the tall one, 6'4", Saudi millionaire. From a family worth billions. He pledged support for the blind sheik, and paid for the defense of Ramzi Yousef. He owns safe houses around the world where Yousef's been hiding out. His name is..."

RICHARD CLARKE: "Usama bin Laden. We call him UBL."

O'NEILL: "That's him."

CLARK: "He just released a fatwa to his followers... a declaration of 'jihad' against America." (reading UBL's statements:) "'There is no room for negotiation, unless, and until, America converts to Islam.' What do you think?"

O'NEILL: We're at war.

The two men dedicated part of their careers towards fighting a threat, the magnitude of which few realized.