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After masterminding the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden vanished. Over the course of the next decade, America discovered that its war with al Qaeda - a scattered group of individuals who were almost impossible to track – required a more innovative approach. Discovery Channel presents OSAMA BIN LADEN: THE FINISH on October 17 at 10 PM ET/PT, based on author Mark Bowden’s gripping new book, “The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012) which was released on October 16.

With access to key military and agency sources, OSAMA BIN LADEN: THE FINISH goes inside the rooms where decisions were made and on the ground where the action unfolded. The one-hour special begins by looking at the tragic 2009 suicide bombing by a Jordanian triple agent who killed 10, including Jennifer Matthews, a mother of three and the CIA operative leading the hunt for bin Laden. A new strategy is needed to find bin Laden.

Based off of Bowden’s meticulously researched book that included first hand reporting, exclusive access to the White House and an exclusive interview with President Obama, the special looks at the step-by-step development to finally track down bin Laden and how intelligence agencies and special ops gathered information to find al-Qaeda and Taliban targets. After thousands of Special Forces missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the right weapon to go after bin Laden had finally evolved. By spring 2011, intelligence pointed to a compound in Abbottabad; it was estimated that there was a fifty-fifty chance that bin laden was there.

OSAMA BIN LADEN: THE FINISH gives viewers a look at the top-secret strategies employed to finish the mission and President Obama’s campaign promise: to get bin Laden. David Keane of Wild Eyes Productions, Bowden’s cousin, worked closely with Bowden’s son, Aaron, and did a lot of the primary reporting for this special through an extensive set of trips through Afghanistan and Pakistan

Bowden has been investigating evolving special operations capabilities for more than 15 years. As the author of Black Hawk Down, Guests of the Ayatollah and Killing Pablo, he has reported more extensively on the evolution of U.S. Special Forces than any other journalist. From the disastrous mission to rescue the Iran hostages, to the misguided placement of men in the streets of Mogadishu to clandestine guerilla warfare against the non-governmental opposition of the drug cartels, the U.S. government has obviously learned how to put these men to good use.

OSAMA BIN LADEN: THE FINISH is produced for Discovery Channel by Wild Eyes Productions and David Keane and Arcadia Berjonneau serve as Executive Producer. For Discovery Channel, Executive Producer is Brooke Runnette.