Our jab was ob was to stop it. I had oversight of all 16 are our nations intelligence agencies. My name is mike rogers. I had access to classified information gathered by our operatives, people who risked everything for the United States and our families. You dont know their faces or their names. You dont know the real stories from the people who live the fear and the pressure until now. 9 11 was a wakeup call to the United States that were vulnerable to terrorist attacks. It was also a wakeup call that our Law EnforcementIntelligence Community had to Work Together in the future. Pre9 11 what you didnt have is the connective tissue of information between Law Enforcement and Intelligence Community assets. And the consequence is youre not seeing what is going on inside the country and its not easy to connect that to outside the country. And that was noted in the 9 11 commission report. Theres a lot of Lessons Learned after 9 11. A lot better sharing of information and intelligence, communication lines being more open, walls coming down. Were going to do whatever we can to stop terrorism. That is our goal. The Metadata Program were enacted to protect this country from the attacks we saw on 9 11. Today im pleased to sign landmark legislation is that is vital to the security of our people. We can respect the liberties of americans here at home. So 702 authorizes the nsa to go after certain forms of communications, terrorist communications that, are coming from outside the country to inside the country. And the Metadata Collection Program is information about information. This is the phone up in, two and from, date, time and duration of the call. That is all that is in the data base. There is no conversations. There is nothing about your communication or mine. Once a number is confirmed to be associated with a terrorist group, nsa can look and see who is that individual communicating with inside the u. S. People assume the meta data program has the content of phone calls. It doesnt. Why is everyone so scared of this . Because dhoent understand. Its sensationalized and enflamed, not informed. Theyre not reading random emails or listening to random phone calls of normal citizens going about their business. There is no such thing. Do you think the programs will prevent a 9 11 . Yes. I think post 702 and the Metadata Program would have stopped it. In 2009, nsa was tracking an email address in pakistan that belonged to a man at yahoo. Com. This individual was associated with a known al qaeda operative. He was one of the conspirators in the attack on the aircraft coming out of Great Britain in 2006. So he and this communication is happening. And then 6 september 2009, nsa intercepted a message from paktana communicates with someone inside the United States. Under the 702 certification process, we were authorized to get the content of that email. And when we read it, it had code words in it. Theyre indicative of a terrorist act. And it had a phone number. What it didnt say is who is the guy inside the United States . Where does he live and whats he up to . So we would take that and say this is important. So we gave that email to the fbi. The first email that came across was from that address to a yahoo account. And then there were three emails from njbazaz yahoo. Com saying get in touch with me right away. I need the formula, the marriage is ready for flower and oil. The term marriage is a term that we all know and understand to mean attack. The other problem is that these emails are occurring just days before the anniversary of 9 11. Everybody is concerned that we had a major problem on our hands. The fbi takes that email and goes to the Internet Service provider to find out who is this person . Whats his name . Gets the information back that says this is his name and the phone number is his. And we were able to identify an address through the carrier to an apartment in aurora, colorado. Once he was identified through the emails, we were trying to scramble to figure out everything that we could possibly find out about him. We had our joint Terrorism Task force working together as a team. The joint Terrorism Task force involved agencies from the area, state, federal, local Law Enforcement, agencies working under one roof. And so almost immediately we were able to set up 24 7 surveillance on that apartment. On september 9th, 6 00 a. M. He leaves the apartment. He goes over to a Car Rental Company and rents a vehicle that was a red chevy impala. And then we see him getting into the car and driving in an eastbound drek out of the city of denver. He was on the move going at a very, very high rate of speed. This thing is a day to a day and a half old. And there was a lot of pressure. Nobody knew what was going on. I mean, is this a person that is fleeing the scene . He is attempting to get out of town before this thing occurs . Is he going to an area where the attack is going to take place . We just didnt know. We utilize our partnership with the patrol. They have them pull him over for speeding. And the trooper goes up. Looks in the car. Talks to him. The trooper is asking about questions and hes on the way to new york city. I own a coffee cart business and there is a problem with the individual running it and i need to get there and figure it out and make it right. At that point hes allowed to leave because what do we have under which to arrest him. Youre at a point that you have to allow things to play out. You have to figure out exactly what is going on. But cart moving at a high rate of speed toward new york city near the anniversary of the 9 11 attacks that does not sit well with anyone. But particularly the new york field office. So its september 9th, 2009. Im sitting at my desk reading email ands looking through papers. I get a call from one of my counterparts at fbi. And he says do you noi the name naji bulazazi . I said, no, never heard of him. He said literally hes coming at you at 90 miles an hour potentially to detonate a bomb. Till he signed up for attention to his health, Unitedhealthcare Medicare complete. bold music now, its like he has his own health entourage. He gets medicares largest healthcare network, a free gym membership, vision, dental and more. Theres so much to take advantage of. Cant wait till im 65. A few more chairs, please. Unitedhealthcare medicare complete plans, including the only plans with the aarp name. Free dental care and eye exams, and free designer eyewear. Go ahead, take advantage. [ song johnny cash, th sthese are my people these are the ones who will reach for the stars these are my people by the light of the earth, you can tell they are ours a new step to take and a new day will break yes, these are my people for barcelona . We did promise wed go. 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Theyre offering a new 100 total satisfaction guarantee. I mean i think Sprints Network and savings are great, but dont just take my word for it. Try it out and decide for yourself. Switch to sprint and get both an unlimited plan and one of the newest phones included for just 35 a month. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. On september 8th, 2009, i had never heard his name. By september 9th, 2009, i knew he was a terrorist on the way to new york. Likely to detonate a bomb. I was actually an assistant special agent in charge with the new york Terrorism Joint Task force. Don was the other special agent in charge. And don comes up to me and he says nsa got information through their technical means that this individual zazi was communicating with a known al qaeda email address about making a bomb and was basically coming at us at a fast rate of speed to commit an act of terrorism on the anniversary of 9 11. Im like, what . You no hknow . Wasnt expecting that. There is a huge response biment that it cannot happen to new york. It cannot happen again. My role in new york was to try to take that information coming from the nsa and eric and his team in denver and then come up with a plan to deal with the threat to new york. For me, it was a Pressure Cooker situation. By the time he started driving to new york, it was about 48 hours since he initially came to our attention. So this was a breakneck pace that we were operating under. Especially given the fact that we were two days away from the an verse ri anniversary of 9 11. We also have our surveillance vehicles following him the entire way. So from denver across the country, we have surveillance in the sky. Were doing everything we can to make sure we know where this guy is. While he is on the road trip, we continue our investigation. We still knew very little about him. But we started to accumulate information. We started to look at his immigration records. We learned that he was born in the northwest frontier region of pakistan. Then he and his family came to the United States in 1999 when he was 11. And lived in flushing queens. From there you build on what you know about these people. Anybody that touched zazi, we assumed was radioactive. They were potential threat. Essentially the nsa part was to use the Metadata Program and determine who else in if the u. S. Zazi is communicating with to help the fbi understand who are the key terrorists they have to go after . Two of the key figures in this investigation were these gentlemen. Two of his very Close Friends that he met in high school. They went to the mosque together. And they got jobs in new york. Zazi had had the coffee cart. Zarine was driving a cab. And adis was a doorman. They continued to hang out. They remain frindz. Looking at the flight manifest, we concluded that in august of 2008, before he came to colorado, zazi traveled with adis to the fatah region of pakistan. The federally administered areas of pakistan. We thought at the time he had gone to a terrorist Training Camp. To receive terrorist training, bomb making. These are all the real critical pieces of information that we needed to know the magnitude of this threat. And this has gone from a highly probable to an emergency case. You join the fbi because you want to get in the fight. You want to take bad guys off the street. I never had anything like. This this seemed to be a real full blown tier one trained bomb making guy with potentially a bomb in the trunk of his car coming into my territory with dangerous counterparts here in new york to kill people. The adrenaline just starts going through the roof. Now its the day before 9 11. We start trying to game plan how is this guy going to make it into new york . And so what they did was they set up individuals at all entry points into new york city. Great thing about working with the joint Terrorism Task force is you have nypd. You have the Port Authority. So were talking with the Port Authority cops. We cannot let this guy get into manhattan with a bomb in his car. So we need to do a vehicle stop and we need to try to do it in such a manner to not overly raise his suspicion. Hes coming up the jersey turnpike. And we got the Surveillance Team calling it out. Where is he . We start at the outer bridge crossing. He doesnt take that. And then he goes up to the other bridge. He doesnt get off. Then he goes to the holland tunnel. Then he goes to the lincoln tunnel. He doesnt get off. The only place we go now if hes coming to new york and s. The George Washington bridge. I think its 15 minutes from the last tunnel to when you get to the gw bridge. So in 15 minutes we set up a gam plai game plan. Were going to set up a roadblock. It can be for drugs or dui. Theyre done all the time. You always worry about the bad guy knowing that youre watching them. But in this situation, threat to life was paramount. And while we werent loving the idea of a car stop, we had had really no choice. We cant let him just druf inivo manhattan and potentially blow something up. You dont want to be responsible for another smoking crater in had your city. You. Ot the end for i already put on my comfy pants. Im so. Cozy. Here. Old spice swagger. Listen, there is a place, full of sports, people, people watching sports, the guys are waiting. Come on ahhh. So we reward every purchase. Lets see what kate sent. For you. For all of us. Thats for me. Navy federal credit union our members, are the mission. Son, i need to tell you something. What is it, dad . If you ever have any questions, you call 18775225001. Dad, ive, ive always wanted to hear you say that. I wish my dad would have said that to me. Make father son time truly special with dos equis. Keep it interesante. You can stream and scroll through other peoples vacations, or you can be the kind of person that books their own vacation. A booker. 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Travel records had indicated that he had been to pakistan in 2008. Potentially that he attended terrorist Training Camps with adis and his two new york counterparts. But we just didnt know what they were up to. So were going to set up a roadblock. We were going to have the oufr that had a canine search the car to try to figure out if zazi had had a bomb or anything else dangerous in the car. So he is in one lane of traffic. You have resources following him. Calling out what hes doing. Finally somebody made the call to essentially shut the bridge down. And as zazi is coming up, hes pulled over. But, remember, were doing this to other cars in the line. So were doing this to make it look like he is just another car in the line. The Port Authority officer with the canine did a sweep of the car including the dog smelling around the various places and nooks and crannies of the car. We let the dog go around. The dog does not sit. He did not detect a bomb. Even though he didnt have a bomb in the trunk of his car, with he knew he was dangerous. And knowing that you can build a bomb with things that are available in the open market, we thought it likely he could get to new york and then build the bomb. Remember, the connection was zazi was ralph. And their communication is going back and forth. So he was talking to people who had made bombs. And so we firmly believe that the plot was still an imminent threat. There was a discussion at that time about whether or not we would allow him in new york city at all. New york just did not want to take the risk of something going wrong where we would have a very, very bad situation on our hands. Ultimately, the decision was made to allow him into the city to learn more about what his plan was, what he was up to, who he was going to go meet. In this case, we took risks. I mean, there was no way around it. If we went to zazi and said, mr. Zazi, we know that youre going to commit an act of terrorism and he goes home, we still you have to follow him and do everything that we are doing anyway. Probably for the rest of his life. Because with he know that he is somebody that wants to commit an act of terrorism. So we cant let him be operational. But we can let him do operational things so that we can arrest him for those. So the show goes on. The surveillance continues with traffic and taxis and subways and Everything Else that goes into try to follow somebody in the burr owe orough of manhatta easy on a good day and even much more difficult when you think that the guy youre following is a terrorist. So theyre following him through manhattan through the bronx and we follow him into queens. Zazi drives to the apartment of one of the other coconspirators, amadzay. Then they go to the Muslim Center of new york. We didnt know what they were up to and if they were meeting with people, if this was all part of the plot. Surveillance is watching to see if anybody else comes and goes. And by the way, we got surveillance going on adis at another