Gps tough decisions starts right now. The great french writer albert cameau said life is a sum of all your choices. Were all defined by the decisions we make every day and we make hundreds of them, paper or plastic, chicken or fish. Most require little thought but others are as niesing and then the decisions made by leaders, some of which have changed the source of history, for better and some for worse. July 1776, the american Founding Fathers decision to declare independence. January 1863, abraham lincolns decision to emancipate all persons held as slaves. June 1941, adolf hitlers decision to invade the soviet union. August 1945, president trumans decision to use an atomic bomb against japan. Tonight, well examine the process of making a tough decisi decision. Well hear about major decisions on an international stage, about corporate decisions and personal ones. From taking down the most wanted man in the world the president turned to us and said i made my decision. Were going to go with a raid. Write up the orders. To giving up a dream career. It was this sense of almost unreality, of just im not sure i know who i am. To uprooting a company culture. Some people actually quit. To opening the door to a closed society. This is like a spy thriller. Absolutely. Each of my guests has wrestled with a difficult choice. They will take us through their deliberations, their fears, and how they made their tough decisions. At 11 00 p. M. On may 1st, 2011, two black hawk helicopters, 23 navy s. E. A. L. S, a translator and a dog named cairo took off from jalalabad, afghanistan. The mission, to kill the worlds most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden. Death of bin laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nations effort to defeat al qaeda. Most have heard the incredible details of the bin laden compound raid, but little has been revealed about the intense, months long deliberation that led to the final decision to act. So how was the decision made . Who was told . How did they weigh the options . Tonight we will ask the man tasked by the president to synthesize the intelligence, analyze the assessments, and run the decisionmaking process, to act in a sense as gatekeeper of this monumental decision. I sat down with National Security adviser tom donilon in the secretary of war suite of the Eisenhower Executive Office building. When you come into the white house, has the trail for Osama Bin Laden gone cold . When we came into office at the beginning of 2009, the trail had gone cold. We really hadnt had a good case as to his whereabouts since he was at tora bora in 2001. What did the president say at this point . He tells leon panetta get bin laden. In the spring he asked to see me and rahm emanuel and he said i want to reenergize the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. I want you to make this your top priority. I want to get reports every 30 days. August 2010, leon panetta comes back to the president with some information, correct . Thats correct. In the summer of 2010, the cia then led by leon panetta, came to us and indicated they had evidence that was interesting to them at that point, that led them to believe that there was a high value person of interest at abad bad pakistan at a compound there. At what point did it become tler there was a high likelihood that was Osama Bin Laden . You say high likelihood. Even at the last principals meeting on april 28th, 2011, where the principals sat with the president and gave them their view, even at that point it was a wholly circumstantial case. There was not direct evidence you could present to the president at that point saying we guarantee you we have direct evidence that Osama Bin Laden is at this compound. One of the things you decided to do and it must have been the president and you or very small number of people, to limit access to this information and Decision Making to a very tight circle. Yes. That excluded the secretary of state, the secretary of defense. Take us through that Decision Making. There was a decision made because of the extreme sensitivity about this to have at the first in the first instance have the analytical people be really the sole team working on this. At the cia. At the cia. And then it moved and we made decisions about going operational, that is needed to bring in the special forces, it expanded a bit but the president was insistent that it obviously be very closely held, that we have the people involved at every stage who were necessary to be involved, and why was that . Operational security on this obviously was incredibly important. And i think it was a testament, frankly, to the seriousness of purpose and frankly to the character of the individuals involved in this that not a thing leaked from august of 2010 until may of 2011. Thats the extraordinary thing, which is by keeping it that secret, you were able to in a sense slow down the clock so that you had time to accumulate evidence and make a decision. Yeah. I think thats an important aspect generally of hol si making in the National Security realm and thats the balance, obviously, between transparency and secrecy and confidentiality. For an operation like this where Operational Security is absolutely e sengts, keeping it small, keeping it to a group that is an absolute need to know does give the president and Decision Makers more space and more time to go through the options. And in this case, of course, we considered every aspect of this and were able to do so because we had had we did have exceptional Operational Security. You also had to make a decision about when to act because, as you said, there was never a moment where you had overwhelming evidence, and so how did you make that decision . When did it seem that you had achieved a kind of critical balance of evidence . There was a point reached where the intelligence professionals came and made the determination and put it to the president that were not likely through whatever means we have available to us to gain any more information thats going to make this any more certain. So now you have to decide what to do. Were all options carefully considered . They were carefully considered, and there were really several options. Dont act because the evidence isnt Strong Enough and the risks are too high. We can go through that. Have a standoff attack. Work jointly with the pakistanis on a operation. Or have a unilateral raid. At the end of the day the reason i think that the president did the unilateral raid, the reasons were several fold. Number one, it allowed certainty. That there wouldnt be a debate after the operation as to whether or not, in fact, Osama Bin Laden had really been taken out. We would have proof, and we just wouldnt have bought the United States a propaganda war around this. Second, it also allowed us to limit the potential for casualties of noncombatants and we discovered, obviously, during the course of the raid that there were close to two dozen noncombatants at the compound. Three, it allowed us to limit casualties with respect to people around the compound, completely innocent. And the president had a lot of confidence in that option for this reason. Although it was 50 50, lets say, there was only a circumstantial case, he had 100 confidence in the special forces that would do this. In fact, they would have the ability to get to the target, do the operation, and get back because he had tremendous amount of experience with them. And this obviously is you a nek American Asset and a team of people who have been doing this for years in afghanistan and iraq and around the world. Coming up, inside the situation room. The moments leading up to the final call. The president said thank you and you will have my decision tomorrow and he got up and walked out. 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Unlike other diapers, pampers has 3 absorbent layers, for up to 12 hours of protection overnight, and more beautiful mornings. Pampers. Peaceful nights. Playful days. [ male announcer ] when diarrhea hits, kaopectate stops it fast. Powerful liquid relief speeds to the source. Fast. [ male announcer ] stop the uhoh fast with kaopectate. For nearly a year only a handful of people closest to the president knew that he was weighing a decision to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden. The risk of a leak was deemed so great not even the secretaries of state or defense were in the loop until the final weeks. Worries about the huge potential downside loomed large. No one wanted a repeat of the iran hostage crisis, desert one debacle. The high Stakes Missions one of the delta forces first that turned into a deadly inferno when a helicopter and plane collided. Here now, more of my interview with the man tasked to run the decisionmaking process, president obamas National Security adviser tom donilon. Did people worry this was going to be desert two . Yeah. F farid, this is why it was a difficult decision. What were the risks . There were risks to the forces carrying out the operation. There was a risk of failure and its impact on the United States and its face to the world. There was risk to the pakistani relationship. We were undertaking a unilateral action inside pakistan to go after Osama Bin Laden. So all those risks were on the table and had to be considered by the president and the principals who made their recommendation. There was a lot of history present in the room, secretary gates. There was a National Security aide during desert one. I was a young aid to president carter. Vice President Biden was in the senate. It was clearly on peoples minds. Also what was in the room, its interesting, was one of the aspects that came out of desert one and that was the formation of a unified special Operation Forces command, the very troops, the forces here that would carry out this operation that had become such a unique asset of the United States. The president made one decision informed it seems to me like that history, which is he asked for two backup helicopters. The president asked for enough assets to ensure that the United States on its own could get in and could get out of the abbottabad compound. So now take uso that moment or was it a series of meetings what we now know is that vice President Biden voiced reservations about an actual raid as opposed to a missile strike. Secretary gates did. Some key military leaders did. What was that like . Was it a situation where the majority of the president s advisers were urging him not to do this . To get to this point, there were two dozen interagency meetings leading up to this point but on the thursday before the raid, it was the final Principals Committee meeting, a National SecurityCouncil Meeting with the president in the chair having a discussion about and receiving the final briefing on the various operations, the various alternatives. And he did ask each of the members, senior members of the National Security team, for their views. And it was a room with divided counsel. And at the end of the day, the president said thank you, and youll have my decision tomorrow and he got up and he walked out of the situation room, up the stairs, and across the famous colon aid and went back to his residence and the decision rested with him. One person on behalf of over 300 million americans making that decision. Were you nervous grappling with this issue . How much did it way on you . How much did you take it back with you home . How much was it sort of an allconsuming issue . You know, we were doing the rest of our business as well. It was part of the Operational Security. As is the style of this president , it was very methodical, very organized, moving through the issues one by one, and, of course, we thought about it a lot, and obviously he thought about it a lot having to make the final decision and he did that night and again the next morning at around 8 00 i heard from him and he said meet me in the diplomatic room, and myself and john brennan and Dennis Mcdonough and chief of staff bill daley met him and he turned to us and said i made mi decision, were going to go with a raid. Write up the orders. What do you do . I returned to my office and drafted the orders and signed them. And then how was it operationalized . We had developed prior to that literally a playbook of every step that would have to be taken from the point that the president made the decision and we began to implement that. We came into the office on sunday morning and we began a 10 1 2 hour Principals Committee meeting. 1012 hours continue us with i olympic . Yes. And you were watching that . Yes. When it began, how nervous were you . Focused is a better way to describe it. Were there any drops in mood when that helicopter malfunctioned . Yes, of course. Yeah, a helicopter did malfunction and a tail hit the wall and it had a hard landing. But contingencies had been planned for including that and the operation went forward without missing a beat. When did you breathe a sigh of relief. At what point did you know that the mission was completely successful . Nobody breathed a sigh of relief including the president until we heard that all the forces were back across into afghan air space and they were out of pakistan air space. The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al qaeda, and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. When you think about why the president made this decision, why this focus, why take this risk for this operation, its because it is important for the United States to do what it says its going to do. And id like to think that if there had been a c span covering the activities of the American Government leading up to and through the successful completion of the raid against Osama Bin Laden, that the American People would have been proud. Up next, a very different set of parameters leading to a tough decision. Its a choice that millions of women face in the course of their lives. The stress was just overwhelming. I couldnt live up to that responsibility. Lets say you want to get ahead in your career. How do you get from here. To here . At university of phoenix were moving Career Planning forward so you can start figuring that out sooner. Ln fact, by thinking about where want your education to lead, while youre still in school, you might find the best route. Leads somewhere you werent even looking. Lets get to work. Time for citi price rewind. Because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. And you really dont want to pay more than you have to. Only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. And if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. Just use your citi card and register your purchase online. Have a super sparkly day ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. Citi price rewind. Start saving at citi. Com pricerewind. I have a cold, and i took nyquil, but im still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesnt unstuff your nose. What . [ male announcer ] it doesnt have a decongestant. No way. [ male announcer ] sorry. Alkaseltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast acting decongestant to relieve your stuffy nose. [ sighs ] thanks [ male announcer ] youre welcome. Thats the cold truth [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus. Oh what a relief it is [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save 1 visit alkaseltzer on facebook. Decision. For a little over two years ann marie slaughter held one of americas most important jobs. Im going to let ann marie start. Well, the first things as director of policy planning at the state department, she worked extremely closely with secretary of state Hillary Clinton traveling the world and providing strategic analysis and advice on the days most complex and Urgent International issues. She was the first ever woman policy planning director. It was, she said, the job she had always wanted. No one is happier than i am that this day is here. But then slaughter just gave it up, quit, turned in her Resignation Letter to secretary clinton and left washington. She resumed her princeton professorship and life in new jersey with her husband and two teenage sons. In the wake of her departure, slaughter wrote a cover story for the atlantic magazine, why women still cant have it all. Within days the piece became the most read in the atlant