Brought the worlds number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi is dead. He died after running into dead end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all of the way. He reached the end of the tunnel as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest killing himself and three children. But test results gave certain immediate and totally positive identification. It was him. And this is where it happened in northwest syria and close to the border of turkey, and standing by to kick off the coverage we have nbc White House Correspondent hans nichols, and Foreign Correspondent kim kube, and also our Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel. What did you hear about this, hans . It is a terrorist leader who menaced the west so far and the president wanted to paint him as someone who is cowardly and w m whimpering and treated like a dog and even though it is an american dog who saw the final moments of al baghdadi, and this is the visceral descriptions and comments of what happened from the president. We had him under surveillance for a couple of weeks. We knew a little bit about where he was going, and where he was heading. We landed with eight helicopters, a large crew of brilliant fighters who ran out of those helicopters and blew holes into the side of the building. There was something really amazing to see. I got to watch it along with general millie, Vice President pence, others in the situation room. And we watched it so clearly. With cameras or how did you watch it . I dont want to say how, but perfect as if you were watching a movie. He was screaming, crying and whimpering, and he was scared out of his mind. So that is the president s depiction of the final moments of al baghdadi, and what is clear from the president is that he wanted to couch it in a broader strategic argument talking about how where and how u. S. Forces are going to remain in syria and importantly to protect the oilfields. The president clearly articulating a policy and continuing the line of withdrawal from the middle east and he doesnt see any use for the u. S. Troops to be long of the syrian turkish border. And i will tell you that the level of detail takes weeks if not months to come out and comes out in a classified after action reviews and the kinds of the documents that courtney will get her hands on, but it is remarkable from what we heard from the president. Absolutely, hans. I am curious as you are listening to this, a sense that the president went off script at any point there . Is that what you are alluding to with the exception of the q a part, of course. I wouldnt say that, but i would say that generally, the entire, the script of the Trump Presidency is to go off script. The president calls the shots whether it is impeachment, and whether or not that is military operation, and he is trusting his own instincts, and throughout the administration, and regardless of the venue, and regardless of the subject, it is a president who likes to speak from the cuff. It appeared he did have prompter for that, and a lot of the details that we got came out in the q a which is four times as long as the official statement. Guys. Okay. Hans nichols, thank you so much from the white house. Appreciate that. And President Trump in the address discussing the dangers that the u. S. Special forces had faced in the mission as they targeted the leader of isis. Take a listen. We were flying over very, very dangerous territory. In fact, some of our leaders said it could be the most dangerous time flying in and out, and that is why last night we were so quiet about it. And nbc foreign chief correspondent Richard Engel joining us from syria, and once again on sunday, you are very familiar with the area there, and give me a sense of how dangerous this mission was. Well, theres different parts to the mission. And so one is the arrival, right. So the president more or less said that the troops came from iraq. He kind of laid that out accidentally or not when he was describing how they were flying over the russian positions, and how long it took, and he said over an hour, and the only place they could have been coming from that they were briefly going into turkey, and the only place they could have been coming from according to the president s own description is iraq. So if they were coming from iraq, they would have had to fly over quite dangerous territories and he is not wrong about that. They would have had to fly over an active war zone with russian troops, syrian troops, and government fighters, and kurdish fighters and so that is a degree of danger. And then the infiltration itself, because the houses can be booby trapped and you can be rushed by suicide bombers and things can go wrong, and a helicopter can breakdown, and he described it as a mission that was witnessed and witnessed by the people in the vision of the isis safehouse said that the helicopters came in, and started around 11 00 local time. In the cover of darkness. There were a lot of helicopters and they did not say eight, but the president did, and they said a lot of helicopters ap came in firing. They did not fire and circle overhead, and one witness said that the helicopters were so close that he could feel the wind from the chopper blades blowing into his home. They landed, they attacked several different targets in the village itself, and President Trump described how the special Operations Forces breached through the walls so they would not go through doors. We have pictures from the ground sent by a cameraman that we know and trust who took pictures of holes in walls. So that description does seem consistent. We dont know exactly what happened inside of the compound. The president described it in some detail. Very few people obviously were inside of that compound. The isis leader, and some of his closeassociates and bodyguards and family members. And then the president described a dead end tunnel underneath the building and that abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was inside of the tunnel and then detonated his vest, and we are not able to confirm that, because the location afterwards was destroyed. After the u. S. Forces took body parts from the site, it was destroyed from the air, and so that is a very large hole in the ground is all that is left. We know that operation took place, and we have video of it, and the president says no American Forces were killed, and we have the same confirmation of that from the villagers, and so the account of the operation in broad terms does match the account that we are hearing from people who live in that town. But what we are still trying to figure out and everyone is trying to piece together is how did they find him . How did that elite unit of special Operations Forces aided by american intelligence and aided by lots of different people including the kurds here in Northern Syria and how did they track him down. And the kurd ish Officials Say they played a significant role and they have been tracking abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in the same province for several months, and he had 50 different safehouse, and this is the first time that he had been at this particular safehouse, and the safehouses would be prepared in advance for him, and that he would move from one to the other to the other in the pocket of sea area which is right on the turkish border, and he went to this house however, and that is the last safehouse that he was able to use, because in the cover of darkness, u. S. Special Operations Forces dropped out of helicopters and found him and chased him down into the tunnel according to the president and he killed himself, but he met his end. Thank you, richard. And a couple of questions about the description of the tunnels under the safehouses, and is that the norm of the safehouses that you know about or have seen in the aftermath, and also the significance of this very tumultuous region of Northern Syria, and the fact that he had made his way there, what does that signify to you . So, we were told by a kurdish official that the majority if not all of the safehouses that abu Bakr Al Baghdadi had been prepared for in case he needed to fall back to them did have tunnel complexes and some of the tunnels were like the one that President Trump described a dead end tunnel and hiding space, and some of them had two ends to go into it, and come out another location and try to escape. It is not uncommon, and if you are remembering that ha dSaddam Hussein was also found hiding in a tunnel. And so for the hideouts, that is not the first time that we would hear about a wanted leader and whether it is the president of iraq Saddam Hussein or abu Bakr Al Baghdadi hiding in a bunker underneath. So thank you very much from syria, Richard Engel. One serious question, what does this do to isis moving forward. Joining us is the white house senior director for Counter Terrorism, and i would say that you are quoted in the Washington Post saying that the death of al baghdadi would be a huge blow, but the killing of someone like Osama Bin Laden, it will not lead to strategic defeat, and what do you mean by that and categorize the distinction here. Yes. First, alex, thank you for having me, and with respect to the clout, this is from the experience from the field, and the academic research, and what that has shown is that for decades in the annals of the modern Counter Terrorism and what we would call decapitation strikes against the terrorist leadership, when they have happened in the past, they almost never lead to the strategic defeat of an organization or the organizational collapse and even going back to the bin laden raid a decade ago to see the impact on al qaeda. It is not meaning that they are not important, and that we should not do them, but it means that they dont necessarily lead to the final resolution or final end state that some people hope that they could achieve. So i think that is what i was trying to convey in the particular report. And so maybe here is a point about that. Look, we know that american president has said that they have defeated 100 of the caliphate, but that is a physical loss, right . Because it is different than the defeat of the isis ideology. Absolutely. So the defeat of the physical caliphate in iraq and syria and isis is no longer controlling the territory the way they had from 2014 to 2017, and 2018. So as you mentioned, alex, the ideology still exists, and it is something to keep track of with the death of baghdadi, there are eight groups in the world who have officially used the isis name in their organizational sort of the title and a number of other loosely affiliated networks. So even with the death of baghdadi who is the sort of the avowed leader of this Global Enterprise at least up until today, there are groups to use isis in the name, and the Loose Networks and one thing that is very hard to quantify is the sort of the embracing of the ideology with no for mamal affiliation to the group could be hundreds if not thousands around the world. And now, his death creates a void, but it is a void that can be filled. I mean, certainly the groups, they have one leader, but they have others who are coming right up behind, right . Sure. That is one thing that we saw as isis was evolving over the past few years that it was a highly complex bureaucratic structured organization and part of it is because of the people who were in Senior Management positions, one or two levels below baghdadi were for the most part, they had decades or years of experience either in the iraq insurgency or in the former Iraqi Military or Intelligence Service or the military Intelligence Services, and so these are people who know how the run large organizations, and sort of in the Corporate Planning in the business phrase, they would have developed a Succession Plan if any of the Senior Leaders were to die or were to be killed or captured. So my suspicion is that, that person has been picked and soon we may know who that person is, or some kind of the executive committee is meeting right now to basically choose that person. All of this comes amid the growing concerns and the potential resurgence of the president s decision to pull the troops from the syrian border, and so after baghdadis death, do you believe there is still the concern that the resurgence in part because of the pullout of the u. S. Troops still exists . Sure. And again, the Baghdadi Death is hugely important, but when it comes from the longterm threat from isis, this is why having the u. S. Troops on the ground with the Syrian Democratic force forces as troops are pulling back and the sdf has already said they will not be able to continue Counter Terrorism missions when they are facing violence in that counter attacking area. So to keep the pressure on, is that the Syrian Government or the russian government and those are all with the potential for isis to resurge as a strong possibility. Thank you very much, and much appreciated. And so what should we know about the what and the when about the raid and one of my guests will speak about the Osama Bin Laden raid ahead. I am the twisting thundercloud. I am royalty of racing, i am alfa romeo. Here at. Snowfest. For your worst sore throat pain try Vicks Vapocool drops. Its not candy, its powerful relief. Ahhhhhh vaporize sore throat pain with Vicks Vapocool drops. Hendless shrimp even hotter . S you bring back Nashville Hot oh yeah its back. Crispy shrimp. Tossed in a spicy rub. And drizzled with sweet amber honey. More shrimp more ways. Endless shrimps just fifteen ninety nine. Hurry in. Through the at t network, edgetoedge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. From finding out whats selling best. To managing your fleet. To collaborating remotely with your teams. Giving you a nice big edge over your competition. Thats the power of edgetoedge intelligence. That could allow hackers devices into your home. 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President trump saying that he notified some of the leaders on capitol hill, and the baghdadi operation, but among those not briefed is house intel chair adam schiff, and Chuck Schumer and House Speaker nancy pelosi. And joining me is ken delaney and gee, what is in common of the three names out there, and three of the most prominent democrats and if not the three most prominent democrats, and they are all part of the gang of eight, and how common that the gang of eight members would not be given a heads up about this major operation . It is extraordinarily uncommon, alex. There is a long history of the executive branch briefing the gang of eight, and in fact, the law requires that the gang of eight be currently and fully informed of significant intelligence activities of the United States, including anticipated intelligence, and the legal loophole is that it is a military operation, and so technically and leelly, it is believed that trump was not required to inform them in advance, and that said, it is very common as a matter of courtesy, because this is a close and enduring relationship on the Intelligence Matters for the president to inform the leaders of congress about a significant operation about this, and in advance of the 2011 raid to capture, kill, Osama Bin Laden, the then cia director leon panetta looped them in, and that was not leaked. While there is leaking, this group is usually able to keep things secret. And i wondered if it is a loophole or just a fit of not informing the democrats, and a can you explain the time line of how it went down . Yes, we are learning more from the trump comments and the other comments in that the cia had baghdadi under surveillance for week, and they were tracking the movements and two or three attempted launches that were then aborted because baghdadi changed the plans at the last minute according to trump. So ample opportunity to loop in members of congress here. It is a sign of to increasing mistrust and the partisan rancor in washington. This used to be a nonpartisan thing, and even after when the cia was accused of torturing the detainees the gang of eight were briefed on it and they did not leak it. They wrote memos to file, and they were deeply opposed and con