osama bin laden performs for the cameras. it's an explosive beginning to his first and only press conference. witnessed by pakistani journalist ismail khan. >> all of a sudden they were shooting and then boom, boom, rocket-propelled grenades and firing. and for once i thought we have come under attack or something. >> reporter: may 26th, 1998. this was bin laden's videotaped call for war against america. in this press conference bin laden goes public with al qaeda's plans to attack the united states. bin laden had turned a corner with his declaration of war. no longer would he just attack the u.s. military or u.s. leaders. now he was saying that the american people would be legitimate targets. >> my name is hamid mir. and i met osama bin laden first time in tora bora mountains. >> reporter: journalist hamid mir is writing an authorized biography of bin laden. he interviewed the al qaeda leader three times during the 1990s. how did he justify the killing of innocent americans? >> he said that, yes, the killing of innocent chil

. >>> more than a decade after the osama bin laden attacks ordered by osama bin laden there is pride at ground zero. the new world trade center reaches a milestone, becoming the tallest building . >> reporter: 21 feet taller than the empire state building. >> it's inspirational. and it's going to make a lot of people happy. >> reporter: it took a while after september 11th for construction to get started but eventually in a rate of a new floor every week, the tower started to become part of the new york skyline. >> you're not going to stop america. we're going to rebuild. we're going to keep going. >> sends chills up your spine when you think about what happened. >> reporter: this building is all glass, windows floor to sealing all the way around. the tower is one of many buildings under construction at the site which is also home to the september 11th museum. >> it's an act of passion and an act of patriotic beauty. >> reporter: when the needle is added the tower will top out at 1,776 feet. making it the tallest building in the united states. right now the tallest building in the u.

bin laden. >> of course i would have ordered taking out osama bin laden. add i been president of the united states, i would have made the same decision the president made which is to remove him. >> joining me now is alex wagner host of msnbc's now with alex wagner and three time golden globe winner oscar nominated star of nbc's "30 rock" and registered voter alec baldwin. alec, in 2007, the man runs for president. he hears president -- then senator barack obama say, if necessary, i will violate pakistan's sovereignty in order to get osama bin laden. romney says oh, can't do that, can't do that. today he stands there at a new york city fire station, says i would have done exactly the same thing. >> things for these guys aren't going that well. you know, the economy may stumble. it probably won't stumble that badly between now and the election. for those people who look at the handy benchmarks like the dow. the dow is still staying pretty well above 13,000. which that crowd of romneys really goes for. it is the anniversary of this president getting osama bin

bin laden. >> the death of osama bin laden. >> it was here where osama bin laden established a safe haven for his terrorist organization. >> let's not make the capture or killing of osama bin laden a politically divisive event. >> in new york city with rudy giuliani. >> the man dubbed america's mayor. >> good to be here with rudy giuliani. >> with rudy giuliani at a firehouse. >> this on the anniversary of the day that osama bin laden finally was taken out. >> is there a little bit of hypocrisy. >> trying to politicize this. >> disappointing. >> all i want to do is say thank you. >> he was decisive, he made the right decision. >> a very courageous call that made. >> look what the result was. >> and killed by a drone strike. >> president obama. >> troops out of iraq. >> president succeeded. >> president planning for withdraw from afghanistan. >> our commander-in-chief gave the order. >> these are, are they not, considerable achievements for this president? >> god bless you. god bless the united states of america. now i want to shake some hands. >> the breaking news at this hour is th

bush had been the president to get osama bin laden. that clip later in the show. >>> first, let's get to the news live at 5:30 a.m. here at 30 rock in new york city. >>> a new suicide attack by the taliban this morning underscores the long-term challenges that face afghanistan, challenges president obama addressed from kabul last night in the trip to the war zone to lay out what he called a new chapter in the u.s. mission there. at least seven people were killed by insurgents today, just hours after the president left the country. marking the one-year anniversary of the mission that killed osama bin laden, president obama met are u.s. troops on that unannounced visit and later with a national audience watching back home where the president outlined his vision for ending this nation's longest war. >> my fellow americans, we've traveled through more than a decade under the dark cloud of war, yet here in the predawn darkness of afghanistan we can see the light of a new day on the horizon. the iraq war is over. the number of our troops in

a chance for the president maybe to mention this anniversary of osama bin laden but, also, talk about the broader context in terms of the american sacrifice on the ground in afghanistan. >>shepard: thank you, ed. behind and inside the white house we got word the briefing scheduled for the white house briefing room at this hour has been canceled. we believe that is a result, in deference to the president speaking tonight which we will have tonight. we could learn a lot. the critics will say this is about reminding people the president signed the order that took out osama bin laden. and that said it appears at least from the writing from the white house there are important matters on the table. according to the timeline from the white house the president is to meet with karzai and shortly after as the white house puts it, come to a podium at bagram abase and address the nation and osama bin laden will be mentioned but it will not be the focus. the focus, what the american vomit will be between the years 2014 and 2024. if you are one who has friends or loved ones or family members in aft

the minor issue was killing osama bin laden. it was the right thing to do, so i think that's a minor point. that's an unmitigated good to the administration. the bigger question is going to be the president says we're coming out by 2014, combat troops out by 2013. will it work or not, and by the way, will the romney campaign then say, i have a better idea. what would it be? to stand there and win 77% of america not supporting the win. >> i have to go back to what you just said. if i know what said, you said it is political theatre in the best way. you're saying that despite the fact that many people feel the president is politicizing the death of bin laden, and you've had mitt romney attacking the president for doing so, and yet you call it political theatre in the best possible way? >> there are 317 million of us. we ought to vote for the next administration based on how the foreign policy and defense strategy in the united states are being handled. tonight we're going to hear from the commander in chief on the battlefield sayi

raid that killed osama bin laden in neighboring pakistan. less than an hour or so ago we got the first word of his arr e arrival at the bagram air base. he is now in kabul meeting with the afghan president hamid karzai to sign a long-term strategic partnership agreement

so this happening on the one year death anniversary of osama bin laden. we have john king standing by in washington with a little bit more on the news here. john, clear this up for me. we know that he has just arrived in afghanistan. what more do we know and the purpose of the trip here? >> reporter: the white house is obviously being careful about the tick tock of the president's movements because of security concerns, but we can report that the president has landed safely in afghanistan, he flu there year night from the the united states. obviously he is there on the one year anniversary of the raid across the border in pakistan that led to the death of osama bin laden. we also know the president will address the nation tonight in the 7:00 hour, 7:30 p.m., he will address the nation from afghanistan. and we know while there he is scheduled to meet with the afghan president, hamid karzai and the two ledder leaders ared to sign a extstrategic agreemen between the two countries. this would create an alliance between the two countries essentially saying abo

well how do you figure that with osama bin laden is that well first off osama bin laden's death to signal our departure from afghanistan is like see it we're done frankly we've engaged the afghan taliban for no good reason they are now a resistance movement now and we're we're the ones in the middle of the karzai government was corrupt and the taliban who are not corrupt but clearly have visions of coming back in and being supported by the pakistanis with that said the key is always been pakistan we continue to pretend otherwise but the pakistanis are the key they have nuclear weapons are the ones who have been supporting the taliban they've given the quetta shura or the mole more. conny network these are all networks we used during the soviet occupation against the soviets so we're we're not actually addressing the real issues and frankly this drone strike stuff is just going to continue to create the next generation of terrorists because for every one you kill brennen finally admitted that yes we're killing civilians to we've known this germany has gone in there and found the sound from

how much of an impact does osama bin laden's death have on al qaeda? >> reporter: this inexperienced inner circle of new leaders has struggled to maintain al qaeda's profile. spectacular coordinated attacks in the west-- such as those on the world trade center-- have been replaced by smaller operations in this region. >> pelley: and clarissa ward joins us flow the pakistani capital, islamabad. clarissa, you were in abbottabad where osama bin laden was killed and i'm wondering what did do the folks there today say about the american raid? >> reporter: well, it's quite astonishing, scott. one year later many people still do not believe that osama bin laden was living in n that city. they certainly don't believe that he was killed by that u.s. navy seal raid there. short of seeing proof, they say, they simply can't fathom that it would be possible. obviously this is a part of the world that is big on conspiracy theories. and even those people who do believe that osama bin laden was living there and was killed there are more angered than anything else by t

to take out osama bin laden. what's wrong with that? >> nothing. but that's not the controversial part of the ad. the controversial part is what would mitt romney do? it's controversial because one of the cliches we hear is foreign policy is to stop at the water's edge. the football said we shouldn't gloat about it running campaign ads gloating about it. saying the other guy isn't tough enough to do what i did. and i think that's reprehensible? >> you do. >> i have no problem about him killing osama bin laden. >> what about mccain who said shame on president obama by turning it into a cheap political attack ad. the same president who criticized hillary clinton for invoking bin laden to score points. how do you feel about the speech when he used the capture of saddam hussein? he said george bush took the fight to our enemies and away from our shores destroying the regime. president obama made the difficult decision to liberate iraq. we need a leader with experience to make the tough decisions and the resolve to stick with it. what is the difference?

this was a year after osama bin laden was killed in pakistan. after the president left, there was a car bomb in kabul which killed seven people including children. let's get the latest now. >> air force one touched down in afghanistan in the middle of the night on the anniversary of the killing of bin laden. the president only briefly illuminated by the flash of camera said he wanted to spend the day with troops in harm's way. >> a year ago we were finally able to bring osama bin laden to justice. that could have only happened because each and every one of you, in your own way, were doing your jobs. >> he will also stining new -- also sign a new document marking the end of the war and there will be money and training and no permanent military bases. it was 4:00 a.m. in afghanistan but primetime in america. the president had a message for his countrymen. the goal of defeating al qaeda was in reach and the war coming to an end. >> my fellow americans, we traveled more than a decade under the dark cloud of war. but here, in the predawn hours of afg

the intelligence points it's osama bin laden. it's our one shot to take him out. the president can make that call. i have to believe i don't know whether every single president in the united states would have done it but it seems like just about every president given the stakes and the significance would have made that call. to me it's not a political issue. the president deserves tremendous credit for making the call. democrats and republicans praised barack obama a year ago when he made this decision including mitt romney. it's not a political issue. it's sad that it has become a political issue. >> i think what sort of sparked the debate of going back to 2007 and the back and forth was governor romney's sort of shot at former president carter. do you think that was a fair way of sort of responding that even jimmy carter when jimmy carter did order a raid like this that didn't work? >> i think what governor romney was saying even president carter who is known not to have been very decisive on issues of war and peace and has failed in some respects in war and pea

how much of an impact does osama bin laden's death have on al qaeda? how much of an impact does osama bin laden's death have on al qaeda? >> reporter: this inexperienced inner circle of new leaders has struggled to maintain al qaeda's profile. spectacular coordinated attacks in the west, such as those on the world trade center, have been replaced by smaller operations in this region. >> pelley: and clarissa ward joins us now from the pakistani capital, islamabad. clarissa, you were in abbottabad where osama bin laden was killed, and i'm wondering what do the folks there today say about the american raid? >> reporter: well, it's quite astonishing, scott. one year later, many people still do not believe that osama bin laden was living in that city. they certainly don't believe that he was killed by that u.s. navy seal raid there. short of seeing proof, they say they simply can't fathom that it would be possible. obviously, this is a part of the world that is big on conspiracy theories. and even those people who do believe that osama bin laden was living

one year after osama bin laden was killed by u.s. special forces, the mission has become a campaign issue. president obama says the anniversary should be a time of reflection. while his campaign touts the raid as a new ad. it's a move that's drawing criticism from mitt romney. meanwhile soon to be declassified documents are revealing new information about al qaeda and its leader. tara mergener has more now from washington. good morning, tara. >> reporter: good morning to you, michelle. that's right. a task force has sorted through these documents, which will be available online later this week. this as the political war of words continues over bin laden's death. the u.s. government says osama bin laden's death was a crippling blow to al qaeda that is still being felt today. >> they're struggling to attract new recruits. morale is low. in short, al qaeda is losing badly. >> reporter: on the evening of may 1st, the navy s.e.a.l.s launched a daring raid on osama bin laden's compound. they stuffed a big bag full of documents and provide

that is the killing of osama bin laden. jimmy carter had a bad economy. >> let me go quickly to peter alexander. he is standing by. he is with the romney campaign. we know he talked about an array of things. what is next? i think we lost -- >> reporter: the world trade tower stood. he was here with the firefighters in the fire house. 11 firefighters were killed on 9/11, standing beside the man often referred to as america's mayor. rudolph giuliani. to pay tribute to the lives that were lost on american soil on the day of 9/11. and as they were articulating, he did return to the same language he tried to use over the last 24 hours saying in his words, of course i would have ordered taking out osama bin laden. he said as he tried to explain it, that he agreed with what joe biden has said four years ago. chuck todd referred to that archive of information because both president obama and mitt romney ran for president four years ago. back then in 2007. he essentially said he thought it was naive of the president, or ill timed an

mission to get osama bin laden, and suddenly the dead osama bin laden has become issue one in the presidential campaign. >> president obama is not convinced. >> i just recommend that everybody take a look at people's previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into pack -- pakistan and take out bin laden. i assume that people meant what they said when they said it. that's been at least my practice. i said that i'd go after bin laden if we had a clear shot at him, and i did. if there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they do something else, then i'd go ahead and let them explain. >> here is what senator barack obama said during his first presidential campaign in 2007 about being willing to violate if necessary pakistan's sovereignty to get osama bin laden. >> if we had actionable intelligence about high-valued targets and president musharraf won't act, we will. >> just four days after that, the 2007 version of presidential candidate mitt romney said, i do not concur in the words of barack obama in a plan to enter an ally of ours. tonight on fox

mission to get osama bin laden, and suddenly the dead osama bin laden has become issue one in the presidential campaign. >> president obama is not convinced. >> i just recommend that everybody take a look at people's previous statements in terms of whether they thought it was appropriate to go into pack sfan a -- pakistan and take out bin laden. i assume that people meant what they said when they said it. that's been at least my practice. i said that i'd go after bin laden if we had a clear shot at him, and i didn't. if there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they do something else, then i'd go ahead and let them explain. >> here is what senator barack obama said during his first presidential campaign in 2007 about being willing to violate if necessary pakistan's sovereignty to get osama bin laden. >> if we had actionable intelligence about high-valued targets and president musharraf won't act shgts we wi, we will. >> just four days after that, the 2007 version of presidential candidate mitt romney said, i do not concur in the words of barack obama in a plan to enter an ally o

many conclusions have been drawn from the osama bin laden files. in his last days in charge, the world's most feared terrorist was paranoid and bureaucratic. hospitals ordering -- lamenting the end, the moscow times looks back at the much ridiculed car. >> the chinese dissident at the center of a diplomatic standoff between beijing and washington has made an unexpected live appeal to the u.s. congress. " said don says it is fully committed to ending hostilities with its neighbor, but it warned that it would defend itself against aggression. chinese get more on the dissident at the center of a diplomatic standoff between beijing and washington. the managing director of china knowledge shares his view on how relations between the two countries have been affected. >> every year, you see some achievements. over two years, you see the chinese yuan rise. every year, it achieves something. the most crucial thing, they cautious about the transition and october. there is a change of leadership, there will be a new president, new leaders. i think americans -

one year after osama bin laden was killed by u.s. special forces the issue has become a campaign issue. president obama says the anniversary should be a time of reflection. it's a move that's drawing criticism from mitt romney. meanwhile soon to be declassified documents are revealing new information about al qaeda and its leader. tara mergener has more now from washington. good morning, tara. >> reporter: good morning to you, michelle. a task force is going through the documents which will be avaltable later this week. this is a continuing war over bin laden's death. the u.s. government says osama bin laden's death was a crippling blow to al qaeda that is still being held today. >> they're struggling to attract recruits. al qaeda is losing badly. >> reporter: on the evening of may 1st, the navy s.e.a.l.s launched a. they stuffed the bagful of documents and videos. it provided insight into bin laden's operations. he was particularly worried about drone strikes. >> in documents we seized he confessed to december aster after disaster.

the president killed osama bin laden. he's over there in afghanistan, he's got a substantive mission. why attack the president who leaves the -- who goes to foreign shores? what's your take on this. who's right and who's wrong? >> the reason you attack -- obama was already accused in the commercial of so-called spiking the ball. >> i disagree -- i don't like any part of that commercial. i'm with you on that. >> okay. >> why go on to day three if you're mitt romney? what's the point? >> this isn't spiking the ball. this is running through the end zone, running home and putting it in a trophy case. setting an agreement with afghanistan makes sense. >> right. >> setting an agreement on the day that bin laden was killed, the anniversary of that is blatant politics. everybody knows it. but to use something that even the s.e.a.l.s are complaining about now -- >> as a wedge issue, i don't like it one bit. and i think the white house has done that. whatever the president's view. they're making it into a wedge issue. but regarding

papers seized from osama bin laden's lair reveal his final thoughts. >>> super moon, why this full moon this weekend will be bigger and brighter than any other day this year. >>> and cinderella story. the nation's tallest man finally finds a shoe that fits. >>> this is "early today" for friday, may 4th, 2012. >>> hello, good morning i'm lynn berry. welcome to our viewers across the nation. today we begin with bin laden's words. one year after u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s killed osama bin laden, some documents seized from his compound in pakistan have been released.

bin laden, and obviously that obama had on osama bin laden. are they just trying to say, hey, barack obama is the better decisionmaker here, he was decisive, made the right decisi decision, and look at the result? >> absolutely. that's probably fair game. it's going to be tricky for romney to back away from past statements but he did say them. in subsequent weeks at the time he said that in 2008 and what romney did say is it was a problem that was bigger than just one person, just one man, that he would go after the whole apparatus. but he down played the importance of bin laden at that time. he did make those remarks and later said, of course, he, too, would go after bin laden. but it seems to me he said those comments. they're obviously fair game. in the moment, you have to remember president bush had spent at that point seven years himself trying to go after bin laden and failed to do so. and by that time, president bush was saying, yes, it's bigger than any one person himself. so i think now, again, it's something that romney is going to h

romney said, of course we get osama bin laden. we track him wherever he going and makes sure he pace for the outrage america. we'll move everything to get him but it's more than bin laden but he is going to pained he will die. that is what he said. this is what the president with a smirk on the face is taking out of context. >> you know, i believe that obama is digging himself into a gigantic hole here. for the last four or five or six weeks, maybe for the last two months. this class warfare, such an obvious distortion of the negative as this. he is trying to divide the country along ethnic lines, as well. i think i know she paying a price for it. in the polling i have seen, obama's personal positives was about 20 points higher than his job approval. in the polling i've seen lately they are even. in other words, his approval has been in the mid or low 40s. now his favorability has dropped to that. i think that the hope and change bin laden in the public's mind has been replaced with the nasly surly visceral figure. >> bill: did yo

the intelligence points it's osama bin laden. it's our one shot to take him out. the president can make that call. i have to believe i don't know whether every single president in the united states would have done it but it seems like just about every president given the stakes and the significance would have made that call. to me it's not a political issue. the president deserves tremendous credit for making the call. democrats and republicans praised barack obama a year ago when he made this decision including mitt romney. it's not a political issue. it's sad that it has become a political issue. >> i think what sort of sparked the debate of going back to 2007 and the back and forth was governor romney's sort of shot at former president carter. do you think that was a fair way of sort of responding that even jimmy carter when jimmy carter did order a raid like this that didn't work? >> i think what governor romney was saying even president carter who isnown not to have been very decisive on issues of war and peace and has failed in some respects in war and peace

we always reserve the right to go anywhere to get osama bin laden. i said that very clearly in the response that i made. but that i thought and many people believed as i did that it was naive on the part of the president at that time, the candidate, to say he would go in into pakistan. it was a, if you will, fragile and flammable time in pakistan and i thought it was a mistake of him as a canned ddidate to announce that he would go this. rather to say rewe reserve the right to where we feel appropriate and to track osama bin laden anywhere he can be found. i'm sorry, i can't quite hear you. [ inaudible question ] i think it's totally appropriate for the president to express to the american people the view that he has, that he had an important role in taking out osama bin laden. i think politicizing it and trying to draw a distinction between himself and myself was an inappropriate use of the very important event that brought america together. which was elimination of osama bin laden. [ inaudible question ] the mayor and i had a very nice chat this mo

he was referring to the hunt for osama bin laden. what did he mean by that because it has generated a little controversy given osama bin laden's role in killing 3,000 americans on 9-11. >> bill: not worth spending millions of dollars. in fact, mitt romney, at the time said the mission to get osama bin laden, he called it ill-timed and ill-considered. mitt romney. so, if you take a look at their statement at the time, i think you can legitimately raise a question as the obama campaign did in that spot with bill clinton in it. would mitt romney have done the same thing? would he have had the could hewn hewn -- kahunas to go after osama bin laden? based on his statements last year, based on his statements four years ago, the answer is no way would he have done so. 866-55-press. you know what really bugged me is that ariana huffington said it was despicable for president obama to show that ad. it is not despicable for president obama to show that ad. again, he did it. he can take credit for it. mitt romney would never have done the same

first answer, at least one of the bonuses involved the death of osama bin laden. >> computer geeks in a top secret operation were building models of osama bin laden's compound long before navy seals moved in shooting and killing the master mind of al-qaeda. >> astonishing. >> that's how this spokeswoman describes bonus winners and the man behind what's called intelligence. he was one of the 54 federal workers awarded a 5% pay bonus for service. >> that enabled us to pinpoint, find, and conduct the radon of osama bin laden. which is rather amazing. >> other federal workers who received the top bonus argued the case before the supreme court developed nuclear and biological sensors for backpacks and mattresses safer from fire. >> these winners have included nobel prize winners. >> tonight, we have a list of all 54 of the nation's top bonus winners and line by line, what extraordinary service they did to earn it. we have been asking for this information for a week from the administration, no one will tell us this on the record. but a white house official has confirmed the osama bin laden