also military analyst retired general mark hertling. and philip mudd. good evening gentlemen. appreciate you joining us. let s start with alex. what are you learning tonight about this mission and how it went down? well don, this was a remarkable and complex mission. we ve got a lot of the details from a senior administration official who spoke to reporters shortly before president biden spoke with the nation. now this was months in the making. it was back in april when president biden s first briefed on the fact that the war was believed to be, not just in afghanistan, but in the afghan capital of kabul. in that city. living there he was told that members, his wife, his daughter, his grandchildren. now the intelligence community believes that he never left the house. that it was only as family members who went out. that is wife and daughter use what this administration called a terrorism trade craft to make sure that they weren t tracked or detect it. now they failed on
wanted terror list with the word deceased. good evening, gentlemen. appreciate you joining us. alex, what are you learning about this mission and how it went down? this was a remarkable and complex mission. we got a lot of details from a senior administration official who spoke with reporters before president biden spoke with the nation. april president biden was briefed on the fact al-zawahiri was believed to be in the afghan capital of kabul living in that city and living there he was told with family members, his wife, his daughter, his grandchildren. now the intelligence community believed he never left the house, it was only his family members who went out and his wife and daughter used what this administration official called a terrorism trade craft to make sure they weren t tracked or detected. they failed on that front because patterns were detected and, in fact, al-zawahiri went on to be seen on the balcony of this safe house. a priority of president biden we are t
also military analyst retired general mark hertling. and philip mudd. good evening gentlemen. appreciate you joining us. let s start with alex. what are you learning tonight about this mission and how it went down? well don, this was a remarkable and complex mission. we ve got a lot of the details from a senior administration official who spoke to reporters shortly before president biden spoke with the nation. now this was months in the making. it was back in april when president biden s first briefed on the fact that the war was believed to be, not just in afghanistan, but in the afghan capital of kabul. in that city. living there he was told that members, his wife, his daughter, his grandchildren. now the intelligence community believes that he never left the house. that it was only as family members who went out. that is wife and daughter use what this administration called a terrorism trade craft to make sure that they weren t tracked or detect it. now they failed on that front
wanted terror list with the word deceased. good evening, gentlemen. appreciate you joining us. alex, what are you learning about this mission and how it went down? this was a remarkable and complex mission. we got a lot of details from a senior administration official who spoke with reporters before president biden spoke with the nation. april president biden was briefed on the fact al-zawahiri was believed to be in the afghan capital of kabul living in that city and living there he was told with family members, his wife, his daughter, his grandchildren. now the intelligence community believed he never left the house, it was only his family members who went out and his wife and daughter used what this administration official called a terrorism trade craft
but the idea that he would have gotten all the way to syria, there s a massive manhunt going on for him right now. he s the most wanted man in europe. and he hasn t exhibited the best terrorist tradecraft. a few hours after the attack he called a couple of friends in brussels to pick him up in the middle of the night. they almost got arrested by french police. they didn t know he was a suspect yet. he gets to brussels and gets picked up by another friend, stops off in a cafe for some time. this is not a guy who is a sort of james bond villain when it comes to terrorism trade craft. i would be very surprised if he managed to get all the way to syria given all of that and one of his potential accomplices was actually picked up on november 21st in turkey on the way to syria. they have been able to pick these people up. and with hyatt, she was not a