sky scraper. instead tonight there's open partisan warfare that began with this ad narrated by bill clinton. >> it's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person. he was referring to the hunt for osama bin ladin. what he did mean by that? given osama bin ladin's role in killing 3,000 americans on 9/11. >> he had to decide. and that's what you hire a president to do. you hire the president to make the calls when no one else can do it. >> that wolf blitzer tape was part of this ad. the ad provoked a sharp response from john mccain, turning 9/11 into a cheap political attack. he went on to say, this is the same president who once criticized hillary clinton for invoking bin ladin to score political points, it's the same president who said after bin ladin was dead, we shouldn't spike the ball after the touchdown. keeping them honest, senator mccain is factually correct on both those counts. you can decide whether for yourself the killing of bin ladin, a year after the event constitutes spiking the ball. you can't deny he said those words, nor can you deny he criticized hillary clinton for running a primary ad featuring bin ladin. he seems to be doing to mitt romney what was unacceptable to them when the hillary clinton campaign was doing it to them. unacceptable in their opinion. this is how they categorized this on "meet the press" this weekend. >> there's a difference in the roles they would play as commander in chief, that's fair game. >> he's managed to turn it into a divisive, partisan, political attack. i think most americans will see it as a sign of a desperate campaign. >> whatever you think of the politics surrounding the killinç of bin laden, president obama's actions as president have been consistent with candidate obama's position to make his capture a priority. governor romney's position have changed. it's not worth with heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars just to catch one person. it is worth fashioning and executing an effective policy to fight global jihad. and i have a plan for doing that. now, here's mitt romney in new hampshire. >> you would have given the order? >> even jimmy carter would have given that order. >> took president obama less than two hours to hit back this afternoon. >> i assume that people meant what they said when they said it. that's been at least my practice. i said that i would go after bin ladin if we had a clear shot at him. and i did. if there are others who have said one with thing and now suggest they'd do something else then i'd go ahead and let them explain. >> at which point the romney campaign fired off a statement, reading in part, it's unfortunate president obama would prefer to use what was a good day for all americans as a cheap political ploy. they went on to say, governor romney has always understood, we need a comprehensive plan to deal with the myriad of threats america faces. a short time later, the obama campaign responded in a tweet, when did romney ever outline that counter terrorism policy? al qaeda wasn't mentioned a single time in his foreign policy speech. we invited both campaigns to come on the program tonight. they declined. instead, republican strategist ari fleischer, he's with us by phone and also paul begala who is now advising the obama superpac. now he's using it in his own campaign ads. isn't that a flip-flop? >> sure, but there's a difference. there was an accomplishment. back then it was simply a hypothetical debate. he didn't like hillary clinton saying he would be tough enough. he said on friday, august 3rd of 2007, these are his words, if we have actual intelligence about high value terrorist targets and president musharraf won't act, we will. when he said that, he was attacked by senator clinton, senator mccain and governor romney. governor romney called those remarks ill timed and he attacked obama for saying, they would go into pakistan if there was actual intelligence locating bin ladin. i think senator mccain is a very honorable guy. i think for some of my friends from the bush administration who have a problem with this, one of their first ads, which showed a flag draped body carried out of the world trade center, if they knew that, that was really beyond the line. this is a legitimate triumph that the president led. and he has a right to claim credit for it. >> is this a legitimate triumph that the president!xas the right to claim credit for? >> if that was all it is, i would be praising president obama and saying this is absolutely what a president should do. i think it was false when people criticized president bush after keeping us safe after september 11th. i think president obama has every right to make his case about how he's keeping us safe, and he should brag about killing osama bin laden up to a point. where he crossed the line is by taking the one-year anniversary and turning it partisan and attacking governor romney. you're not moving heaven and earth, you're sending in the s.e.a.l.s. totally different from what mitt romney said. the president shouldn't have attacked mitt romney. think how much better it would have been by inviting president bush and former president clinton along with navy s.e.a.l.s and cia operatives to use the technique and indefinite detention that led to the information. that would have kept this about the moment. president obama missed that opportunity to do it. and i think he blew it. he had the chance to really elevate the nation, keep them together about the killing of bin laden and he blew it by turning it into an attack on mitt romney. >> has he politicized this? romney has not said he wouldn't go after bin ladin. >> romney attacked senator obama when senator obama said he would go into pakistan, then romney as you quoted him said he would not move heaven and earth. this is how we got bin ladin, president obama came into office and he re-organized the bin laden unit in langley at the cia headquarters. he made them work more closely with tampa, the central command in tampa with the forces in kabul. he moved heaven and earth. he reorganized, as president bush said just six months after 9/11, bin ladin was one person, and i don't spend much time on him to be honest with you. five years after 9/11, the president was saying to fred barnes and i quote, not a top priority use of american resources. president obama had a different view. he made getting bin ladin a top priority. and he made a call, some calling it the gutziest call he's ever made. mitt romney saying, anyone would have done it is not born out by the stated positions of governor romney and the lack of actions by president bush. >> it's amazing that paul still >> all right. can't be gracious about it, the fact of the matter is, if president obama had not flip-flopped on the very thing he criticized president bush for, enhanced interrogation techniques, indefinite detention, those were the techniques the cia used under president bush that led to the information about the courier which led then years later the ability to track the courier which president obama took advantage of, to president obama's credit. i praise the president for that. this is actually -- both parties andç especially the cia deserv the credit and especially the navy s.e.a.l.s. but attacking mitt romney over it, when it's not what mitt romney said, it's so unnecessary. it's revealing about president obama's character. when he ran in 2008 as the post partisan, someone who would bring us together. boy did he sell us a bill of goods. there is nothing post partisan about him, if ever there's an occasion to be post partisan, it's the one-year anniversary of the killing of bin laden. he had everything in his hands to bring us together. he chose instead to split us apart once more. >> do you agree that torture is what led to the killing of bin ladin? >> i'm no expert nor is fleischer, but i did look up what one expert said at least, mark fallin, a former interrogator and special agent in charge of the criminal task force at guantanamo bay. he was on television the other day. he said, by saying some event in waterboarding years ago is a disservice to our service members. a whole lot of experts. this is all for the experts to argue. a lot of experts say that's not the case. and by the way, they were waterboarding under bush, and they did not get bin ladin, those are two facts that we know. we stopped waterboarding first under bush. bush stopped the waterboarding. >> the technique was not waterboarding in this instance. it was a combination of indefinite detention. the person who said this was just interviewed on "60 minutes" sunday night, who just wrote a book about this. >> that's the guy that also destroyed the videotape of the enhanced interrogation. >> that's correct. that doesn't change the fact of what information was derived to help get bin laden. the point, again, is the cia professional did this, the navy s.e.a.l.s did this and several presidents, president clinton did his best unsuccessfully, president bush did his best unsuccessfully, president obama was able to get the actual intelligence that none of his predecessors had. he gets the credit for it. he made the decision under his watch. >> the president should get the credit -- >> he could have taken credit for it without attacking mitt romney, that's where he messed up. if he wants to attack mitt romney in october, he would have been on higher ground. using the anniversary of the killing of bin ladin is a terrible mistake. president obama has made showing there really is nothing post-partisan about him. >> we have to leave it there, you guys have both made your positions clear. thanks, let us know what you you think. we're on facebook, google plus, follow me on twitter, let me know what you think about this @andersoncooper. al qaeda's plans to target cruise ships and how those plans came to light. it's really fascinating. secret al qaeda documents found in a memory stick on somebody inside a porn tape. it's fascinating stuff. we have that exclusive report. peter bergen is here, the access he got to osama bin ladin's compound. two stories you'll only see here on "360." (female announcer) most life insurance companies look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. we're bringing humanity back to life insurance. that's why only aviva rewards you with savings for getting a check-up. it's our wellness for life program, with online access to mayo clinic. see the difference at avivausa.com. yoyou u wawalklk i intna coconvnvenentitiononalal ms ststorore,e, i it't's s rert ababouout t yoyou.u. ththeyey s sayay, , "w"weleu wawantnteded a a f firirm m bebn lilie e onon o onene o of " wewe p prorovividede t thet inindidivividudualalizizatat yoyourur b bodody y neneede. ohoh, , wowow!w! ththatat f feeeelsls r reae. itit's's a aboboutut s supuppope yoyou u fifindnd i it t momost. toto c celelebebraratete 2 25 5f bebetttterer s sleleepep-f-forof yoyou u - - slsleeeep p nr inintrtrododucuceses t ther ededititioion n bebed d st inincrcrededibiblele s savf $1$1,0,00000 f foror a a l li. ononlyly a at t ththe e slsleeer ststorore,e, w wheherere n welcome back. a "360" exclusive right now. with osama bin ladin dead, what is al qaeda planning right now. it was exactly one year ago tomorrow that navy s.e.a.l.s started their mission to kill bin ladin. with him gone, al qaeda has not stopped their plans to kill. as you'll only see right here tonight, some of the answers about what they're up to can be found in what german authorities dug up inç coded files taken fm a would-be killer. exclusive details from nic robertson. >> reporter: as u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s were preparing to storm bin laden now infamous compound a year ago, two of his european recruits were sneaking out of the country on a mission to cause carnage. they were headed for vienna and berlin. not long after they returned to europe, one of them was being questioned at this police station. he was arrested and searched. and hidden in his underwear, police found memory recording devices like these buried deep in the devices was a pornographic video, and hidden in files inside that were what police believe were more than 100 secret al qaeda documents. inside a file marked sexy tanya protected by an almost invisible password, a treasure trove including al qaeda's road map for future operations. a document called future works. an investigative journalist who was the first to report on the documents -- >> it contains an idea that we haven't heard so much about, and that is to take jihad to the seas, is easier than -- i guess what they mean is to attack aviation. >> reporter: a plot to seize cruise ships set out in chilling detail. >> he says that we could hijack a passenger ship on the sea. and then use it to pressure, pressurize the public. what he most likely means is that this would then start executing passengers. >> reporter: they would dress passengers in orange jump suits, mimicking al qaeda members in gitmo. the executions would be quickly uploaded to an al qaeda website. hijacking a cruise ship would not be new territory for islamic radicals. they famously attacked a cruise ship in 1985, murdering a wheelchair bound jewish-american, leon klinghoffer, then throwing his body overboard. whether al qaeda used that incident as a model is unclear. the new al qaeda documents called future works appears to have been written in 2009 by al qaeda's senior leadership. u.s. intelligence sources tell cnn this information is pure gold. but it contains details of some of al qaeda's most dangerous attacks, including the attack on the london subway seven years ago. one source says that this is the most important haul of al qaeda documents this year, outside of what was found in bin ladin's compound. another plan revealed in these documents, more attacks by ç pakistani militants in mumbai india. ten gunmen on a shooting rampage, 164 innocents killed. german intelligent sources say these two men who came back to europe last year, may have been tasked with planning a similar attack. two men are now on trial at this berlin court. prosecutors allege that their job was to recruit a network of suicide attackers. >> we do not know what these two young men were actually up to. but there are certain information in those files that would make it plausible to assume they probably were thinking of a mumbai style attack. >> reporter: the pair have denied being members of a terrorist organization. and their trial continues. and that would make sense. the documents reveal how al qaeda isn't just focused on the big catastrophic attack. >> the author seems to be convinced that al qaeda could be pursuing a two track strategy of low cost, low damage attacks, and large scale attacks. >> like the 9/11 attack? >> yes. the reason being, if al qaeda were to pursue only large scale attacks and those are foiled, then they have nothing. >> reporter: indeed a year after these documents were written, european intelligence agencies were scrambling to investigate a mumbai style plot, sparking an unprecedented state department travel warning for americans in europe. >> would i say that the euro plot is off the table? no, but i believe the general idea is still alive, as soon as al qaeda believes they have the capacity to realistically go after that sort of scenario, they will immediately do it. >> reporter: the trial is expected to last several more weeks, their case appears to be living proof that the blueprint laid out in the documents is still active for carnage in europe. al qaeda has not changed its ambitions. nic robertson, cnn, berlin germany. >> ambitions are one thing, capabilities are another. what german authorities found, though, doesn't begin to cover it all. when navy s.e.a.l.s raided bin ladin's compound they came away with thousands of documents and data. in 1997 peter bergen had the first interview with bin laden. in that interview, bin ladin declared war on the united states. peter's obtained access to the compound before it was demolished. these are national security analysts. he's out with a fascinating book "manhunt." it takes you into the ten-year search for osama bin ladin. the wish list of attacks, what are their capabilities? how capable are they of pulling off small and big attacks? >> i think their capabilities are pretty limited, anderson. i was given access to bin ladin's own writings ijthingwri. the picture that emerges from these documents, bin ladin's calling for big attacks, kill president obama, general petraeus. and his guys are pushing back saying, we're under pressure from the drones, the united states is not that easy. >> they're citing the drones in particular? >> well, it's interesting, bin ladin writes a 48-page document about how he is worried about the drones, how many of his people have been killed, he's urging his people to move to a remote part of afghanistan. his 20-year-old son, living in pakistan's tribal regions, he's urging him to move to gutar, it's the richest country in the world. it's not the front lines of the war. >> he wants him to move there for safety? >> yes, the drones are having a huge impact. they were very conscious internally that the drones were causing them problems. bin ladin was keenly aware that the al qaeda brand was tarnished. he was urging some groups not to use the al qaeda name because it would be bad for fund-raising and basically attract a lot of negative attention. if you tape together the picture from the documents, that i was able to look at from the compound, it's an organization in great disarray. they understand that themselves. >> they saw it. you actually got access to this compound. there was still blood on the ceiling, right? >> yeah, i looked up in the third floor bedroom, i thought it would be like being where bin ladin was killed. i thought it would be like going to hitler's bunker. it turned out to be visiting someone's not so nice suburban compound. you can see where they shot bin ladin in the face, there were patterns of blood on the ceiling, it's rather low. you could see where the bullets impacted. bin laden was 6'4". the ceilings were about 6 foot. i took a look at his toilet. it was a tiny little room, tiny little kitchen. the whole picture of the house was one of -- you know, it -- confining, not uncomfortable, but not a million dollar mansion. >> you also notice some just for men hair dye? >> yeah, we know he was dying his hair and beard, on the shelf in the bedroom -- and the whole thing, had been left as a crime scene. i was the only real outsider to get in. there was a pakistani version of just for men in his bedroom, along with some medicine and other vitamins and these kinds of things. >> i want to ask you briefly about the conversation we had before with paul begala and ari fleischer where they were squaring off over enhanced interrogation techniques and whether that led to the raid on the compound? >> wikileaks is a very good source on this. we have the actual summaries of the interrogations of some of the key people who gave up information. two al qaeda senior people gave information that indicated the courier was important. and the courier led to bin ladin. two senior al qaeda leaders said courier wasn't important after they had been coercively interrogated. in four cases there were coercive interrogations and they produced conflicting information. it's a gray picture.ç and in fact, a lot of the other -- the way that the courier was found, getting his real name from another country was absolutely vital. because he had a variety of aliases. getting his cell phone and being able to geolocate it, that was a national security agency. getting a human spy on the ground in the city where he was to follow him 2 1/2 hours drive back to the compound, all those things were vital. coercive interrogation is a small part