9/11 is one of the most opaque events in American history.

Repeated attempts by civilians and journalists to uncover the truth about how the U.S. government and intelligence agencies let it happen, why it made the decisions it did in the wake of the tragedy, and why it took so damn long to bring the perpetrators to justice, have been met with government stone walls.

Just Saturday, legendary journalist Catherine Herridge detailed her attempts to uncover the relationship between the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and American Muslim cleric Anwar Awlaki, who she called a “key player” in the 9/11 terror attack.

Those attempts, Herridge explained, went nowhere.

.@ChuckGrassley investigates “Prohibited Access” files at FBI.

Based on long standing FOIAs it goes well beyond the Mueller Russia probe.

Over a decade ago, our FOIAs about the American cleric Anwar Awlaki, an overlooked key player in 9/11 who had multiple, confirmed contacts… pic.twitter.com/o1b5I9O83W

— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) June 7, 2025

The information vacuum has opened the door for conspiracy theories of all sorts, ranging from “the Jews did it” to the classic “Bush knew and it was an inside job.” Proponents of these theories are, of course, unable to provide any proof for these claims. But the U.S. government’s tight lips have opened the door for wild speculation, nonetheless.

That vacuum also provided a prime opportunity for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to pepper the public discourse with a wildly glowing account of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden in the May release of Netflix’s “American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden.”

The three part docuseries covers the 10-year effort to hunt, capture and kill the man who planned and orchestrated the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. (RELATED: Secret Service Accidentally Honors 9/11 Terrorists)

While the doc does feature an interview from the Navy Seal who says he put the bullet in bin Laden, Senior Chief Petty Officer Robert J. O’Neill, the majority of witness accounts and interviews are from CIA operatives.

Unsurprisingly, these spokespeople gave the majority of the credit for the operations that led to bin Laden’s demise to their own agency, massively downplaying the impact of America’s military.

Three key players in the doc were CIA counterterrorism analysts Gina Bennett and Cindy Storer, and CIA counterterrorism operator Tracey Walder. 

In classic Netflixian fashion, girl power was a key theme. Netflix leaned heavily on the idea that women were so involved in hunting down the leader of a misogynist Islamist sect. 

WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 18: (L to R) Gina Bennett, Sr. Counterterrorism Analyst, CIA, Cofer Black, former CIA official, and Jose Rodriguez, former head of CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, attend the red carpet and private screening of Showtime’s documentary “The Spymasters – CIA In The Crosshairs” at The National Press Club on November 18, 2015 in Washington, DC. Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Showtime

The series also adds a major bit of dramatic flare to a Sept. 15, 2001 exchange between then-President George W. Bush and the precocious CIA counterrorism director at the time, Cofer Black.

Throwing some shade at then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the doc paints a picture of Bush’s demand for immediate action and juxtaposes it with Rumsfeld’s suggestion that he can have troops ready for a ground invasion of Afghanistan, where bin Laden was hiding, in six weeks.

The tale told by one of the many CIA operatives interviewed by Netflix was that Black, who was seated behind then-CIA director George Tenet, leaned forward and dramatically stared into Bush’s eyes before saying “If you let me do it, I’ll have flies walking eyes on their eyeballs in six weeks.”

Rumsfeld, so the former CIA spook recalled, “almost shit his pants.”

Thus kicked off the CIA’s “Operation Jawbreaker,” which, while lasting longer than six weeks, was undoubtedly disruptive to bin Laden’s al Qaeda and their Afghanistan benefactors the Taliban.

But the CIA, while touting the connections they built with Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance and the aerial supremacy they gained via their own CIA drone programs, decried the lack of support they received from U.S. Special Forces.

The doc, of course, made no mention of the U.S. military funded advancements in radio technology, the very technology that controlled the drones the CIA used to drop bombs on the Taliban.

Overall, the doc paints an extraordinarily rosy picture of the CIA’s involvement in the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden. While they couldn’t take the credit of actually putting the bullet in him, that honor of course goes to Seal Team Six, the agency’s seemingly well-coached flacks took credit for just about everything else.

Starring in other HBO and Showtime docs on the same subject, spooks like Black and Bennett had their stories well-rehearsed this time around. This is not to say the men and women of the CIA who contributed to the effort were not brave and heroic. Their efforts should no doubt be lauded, but in concert with the other heroes of the American military.