Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Michael Scheuer, a 20 year veteran of the CIA, who in the 1990's headed the search for Osama Bin Laden and the rendition program to imprison jihadists. Scheuer discusses the career of Osama bin Laden, the origins of the rendition program, and the failure of the US foreign policy elite to understand the challenges posed by jihadist terrorism. Michael F. Scheuer (born 1952) is an American former intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, blogger, author, commentator and former adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies. One assignment during his 22-year career was serving as Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station (the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorism Center, known as "Alec Station") from 1996 to 1999. He also served as Special Advisor to the Chief of Alec Station from September 2001 to November 2004. Scheuer became a public figure after being outed as the anonymous author of the book Imperial Hubris (2004), in which he criticized many of the United States' assumptions about Islamist insurgencies and particularly Osama bin Laden. Later in 2004, shortly after the "outing" of Scheuer's harsh criticism of America's close alliance with Israel, Scheuer resigned from his position at the CIA.

Produced from 1997 to 2001, Secrets of War is a 65-hour documentary television series about military history and the secrets of war of the 20th century. It is edited as 65 episodes. The series premiered on the History Channel in September 1998 where it prevailed in the 8 o'clock Sunday evening slot for over two years. The series was co-created by Supervising Producers John Corry and Chip Proser. Alan Beattie and Chris Chesser served as Executive Producers. Original musical score composed and conducted by Ramón Balcázar. Narrated by Charlton Heston, the series details facts and information derived from rare archival footage, formerly classified documents and messages, coupled with interviews with experts, authors and eyewitnesses from all over the world. The series was originally conceived as a 26-hour production. The first 13 hours concentrated on World War II, and the vast amount of unknown history kept secret by the British Official Secrets Act and finally revealed from 1975 to the 1990s. The second 13 hours focused on other conflicts of the 20th century. After the success of the first season, Documedia proceeded to expand the series comprehensively to address other wars, battles and intrigues, including many colour present-day shows on topics as diverse as chemical weapons and spy planes, and theme-oriented episodes like prisoners of war and code breakers. The series interviewed key participants in all of the important conflicts of the 20th century, including prominent authors with unique perspectives of the clandestine aspects of war. The creators worked with the top spies of the era: former Directors of the CIA James Woolsey, Richard Helms and Dr. James Schlesinger; former Chairmen of the KGB Generals Vladimir Semichastny and Alexander Shelepin (Russia); as well as former directors of the MOSSAD Meir Amit and Isser Harel. Other commenters participated, including: Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara, Dan Quayle, John H. Sununu, James A. Baker III, Jack Valenti, Howard K. Smith, John K. Singlaub, David Eisenhower, Dr. Sergei Khrushchev, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Senator John McCain. Each one-hour episode tells a strong, specific and factual story, backed up by interviews, rare footage, 3D graphics, on-location shooting, historical retracing shots and extensive reenactments. It is used in the classrooms of the United States Naval Academy and United States Air Force Academy, and the only military series that American Forces Network (formerly the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) licenses for American Service men and women on military bases and ships worldwide.

News at Ten special programme covering the events of Black September. Also known as the Jordanian Civil War, the conflict was fought between King Hussein's Jordanian Armed Forces and the guerrilla movement of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). The programme features astounding frontline reporting, in particular by ITN reporters Keith Hatfield and Michael Nicholson who, along with 300 other journalists, became trapped in a hotel in the centre of Amman while the fighting raged around them. Hatfield managed to get the captured footage out of Jordan and back to London after he was medevacked out of the conflict zone as a dysentery patient. Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washington, D.C. ITN produces the daily news programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 in the UK.

In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. On the fifth anniversary of the invasion, Frontline correspondent Richard Reeves reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan, examining the stalemate in the Persian Gulf and the pressure placed on Pakistan to accept over one million Afghan refugees. Frontline (stylized as FRONTLINE) is an investigative documentary program distributed by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Episodes are produced at WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts. The series has covered a variety of domestic and international issues, including terrorism, elections, environmental disasters, and other sociopolitical issues. Since its debut in 1983, Frontline has won critical acclaim and awards in broadcast journalism. It has produced over 750 documentaries from both in-house and independent filmmakers. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programs to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as Frontline, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Arthur, Sesame Street, and This Old House.