48 Hours - 48 Hours: NCIS: The Terrorists, The Spies, the Hackers

Episode Date: May 31, 2017

Seventeen sailors killed in a terrorist attack.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Asymmetric threat, lone wolf actors, insider threats, terrorist activity in a cyber venue. These are all challenges that have emerged over the last few years that our organization must face. The attack on the coal was, really was a watershed event for both NCIS

and for the U.S. Navy. I seen a boat come up and get really close to us and wave at me and I seen the boat blow up. 17 sailors perched that day. There were many scores of injuries aboard the ship. I just remember being in the air and then down to the ground. My colleague from NCIS and I both said to each other, oh boy, we know what that is, terrorism.

An attack on a U.S. Navy vessel becomes a huge scene to investigate. Initially, we thought our crime scene was going to sink, and we didn't want to let it get away. We're there to respond. That's our job, is to respond to the Navy and the Marine Corps in their time of need. But what if the threat comes from inside the Navy? comes from inside the Navy. Mustafa Wad, a civilian for the Department of Navy, attempted to gather national defense information and provide that to a foreign government. We watched him download from the restricted

U.S. Navy computer system the schematics for the USS Gerald R. Ford. the schematics for the USS Gerald R. Ford. The USS Ford is the most powerful aircraft carrier in the world. He pointed to the computer screen and he said, Here, right here, you strike this ship with a missile right here, bye bye, that's it, sink it. The NCIS mission is global. We're on aircraft carriers. We're in foreign ports. We watch after each other. We take care of each other.

NCIS deal with every type of crime. Cyber, fraud, murder. It's counterintelligence, counterterrorism. Every crime is a tragedy. All sisters, brothers, husbands. I feel it very personally. We live in dangerous times and we're never going to get out. NCIS, the cases they can't forget. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project.

It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear, but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're gonna talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created.

Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. Peru and New Zealand lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice

that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. With the U.S. Navy and United States Marine Corps as worldwide presence, that represents a target for terrorists. We're not just worried about Al Qaeda. We're worried about Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. We're worried about ISIS. We're worried about worried about Al-Qaeda. We're worried about Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. We're worried about ISIS. We're worried about lone wolf terrorists.

We are an Islamic army. The threat is ever-present, and we have to remind ourselves that we are targets, that our flag is a target, that our ships are a target. Espionage has been around for many, many years. Those are core problems that we face on a daily basis. Good morning. I and Joe are pleased to be here this morning and recognize these outstanding counterintelligence agents and analysts for their work in the case of United States v. Mustafa Awad. these outstanding counterintelligence agents and analysts

for their work in the case of United States versus Mustafa Awad. Mustafa Awad was an espionage investigation. I was the primary case agent from NCIS. In the fall of 2014, I received a phone call from the FBI regarding investigation into Mustafa Awad. Mustafa Awad, a civilian for the Department of Navy, attempted to gather national defense information and provide that to a foreign government. NCIS was brought in within hours of us opening the investigation.

The FBI has its strengths and NCIS has its strengths, and so we combined those to fully and comprehensively investigate Awad. Staffa Awad was living in Yorktown, Virginia, not far from Portsmouth where he was working at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. He had two little kids. He had a family. The Norfolk, Tidewater, Newport News, Hampton Roads area combined equates to basically the largest naval base on the world. Something around the area of 20% of all people in this area work for the Navy, the military, or one of its clear defense contractors.

Mustafa Wad was born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Egypt, and then came over to the United States after he married his wife, who was a U.S. citizen. He realized that by marrying her, he would be able to quickly obtain U.S. citizenship. It was then his plan to obtain a degree in electrical engineering, which he did at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, and from there to seek employment either at local clear defense contractors or with the U.S. Navy, where he could steal secrets on behalf of Egypt. He came on board approximately February 2014 as a general engineer. His position in general engineering allowed him widespread access throughout the base. Just how this newly hired civilian engineer first caught the attention of the FBI Counterintelligence Division is a well-guarded secret. Well, the timing and the circumstances of us opening an investigation on Mustafa Water classified. As a result, I'm not presently disposed to discuss that.

But I can tell you when we did open on him, we brought to bear the full weight of the FBI and NCIS down on him. During September 2014, Mustafa Wada engaged an undercover agent that worked for the FBI. We decided to launch what's called a false flag operation. A false flag is essentially an undercover operation in which the FBI poses as a foreign adversaries intelligence service. In this case the Egyptian intelligence service. The first meeting occurred in the sandy bottom nature park in Hampton, Virginia. So this is the park bench that Awad first met with an individual he knew as

Yousef. Now in reality Yousef was an FBI undercover agent but Awad first met with an individual he knew as Yousef. Now in reality, Yousef was an FBI undercover agent, but Awad believed he was an Egyptian intelligence officer. They introduced each other, and per custom, for Arab males, they hugged each other. And the first thing our undercover noticed was that Awad was armed. And he was carrying his.45 caliber handgun, as well as four magazines of ammunition.

They sat for a period of about 45 minutes, at which point Awad outlined his plans to conduct espionage against the United States. It was at that moment that we realized that Mustafa Awad's intention was to gather national defense information and provide that to a foreign entity. Awad promised he could deliver valuable secrets, but no one imagined that what he had in mind was possibly the Navy's biggest, most valuable secret of all. Behind me is the USS Gerald R. Ford,

which is the lead ship in the Navy's newest class of nuclear supercarriers. Under construction for the past seven years at nearby Newport News Shipbuilding, the USS Gerald R. Ford is the most complicated and sophisticated piece of military hardware in the world. When that ship puts to sea, she'll have between 4,000 and 4,500 American sailors on board. It's 1,100 feet long, about 250 feet tall, and at $17.5 billion, it's the largest, most expensive, and most powerful warship ever built. Mustafa Watt had access to a closed-circuit network called Navy Nuclear Propulsion Information. The layout of the USS Ford resided on this server.

They showed the design of every level, every deck of the USS Ford. It was very critical information that a foreign government could utilize that information to identify its vulnerabilities to a potential attack. Revealing the schematics and in particular the vulnerabilities of the ship would have been exceptionally dangerous to the individuals on board because it would have given that advantage to an adversary who intended to damage or sink the vessel. With this much at stake, the success of the FBI NCIS undercover operation was critical. Some of our adversaries would have paid a lot of money to get their hands on those design schematics.

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world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. now. SPIENTAGE Espionage is a very serious threat to the United States. As long as there's two different nations on the planet, there will always be espionage. In this case, Mustafa Wad had access to the USS Ford design schematics. He offered that information up to who he believed to be an individual from a foreign government,

in this case, the Egyptian Intelligence Service. That individual, Awad believed to be an Egyptian agent named Yousef, was in fact an undercover agent for the FBI. On October 9th, he and Yousef agreed to meet in a hotel room near the Norfolk airport. Prior to departing work that day, we saw him download illegally the schematics of the Ford off the Navy's restricted computer system. He put them on a disc and he left with them

in his coat pocket. It was here, at this meeting, that Awad delivered a sample of the Ford schematics and then revealed his true intentions. He pointed to the computer screen and he said, here, right here, you strike this ship with a missile right here. Bye bye. That's it. Sink it. Well, I think those of us sitting in the room down the hall, you probably could have heard a pin drop when he said that. Mustafa Awad, in my eyes, was a dangerous person.

He proactively, willfully intended to do U.S. harm. So he clearly wanted to provide these plans to the Egyptian government, knowing that at some point that ship was going to go through the Suez and they could sink it with 4,000 American souls on board. Awad offered to deliver more of the plans, but this time for a price. Mustafa Awad requested money

in order to purchase hidden cameras, in order to better penetrate the fence line of the base. On October 23, 2014, down the Wood Duck Trail, Mustafa Awad filled a dead drop. A dead drop is a form of tradecraft in which two individuals can communicate material and information in a location where neither of them actually have to meet. This is the actual concealment device we used for the dead drop. So we placed it in the hole down here. He came down, unscrewed it. Inside he found $3,000. Inside of it he placed an external hard drive containing schematics

for the USS Ford and two passport photos which he intended to be used to produce a fraudulent passport and an escape plan this was a significant moment in the investigation because it showed that he was knowledgeable and willing to commit espionage six weeks later awad made arrangements for one final delivery he woke up to his last sunrise as a free man. He kissed his wife and left her for the last time as he went to work. Only on the way to work, he stopped at a local hotel room to meet with Youssef one more time. Mustafa Wad provided the last schematics of the USS Ford to the undercover agent in exchange for money.

And at a pre-arranged time and with a signal to our undercover officers, FBI SWAT agents came through the door. We arrested Mustafa Watt and he was processed. When I first spoke with him, he was very stoic. He was surprised. He was shocked. He couldn't believe what had happened. But once in custody, it didn't take long for Awad to accept that he had been caught red-handed. We were fortunate enough to identify Mustafa Awad

and kind of get in front of him before potentially he would have caused grave damage to the United States. Well, ultimately he was charged with two counts of export violations but pled to the espionage charge once he and his attorney understood the weight of the evidence against him. Part of the plea agreement was to receive a sentence somewhere between 8 and 11 years. The only thing left then was to actually be sentenced by the judge. Well, unbeknownst to all of us in the courtroom, Judge Jackson was also the same judge who swore him in as a U.S. citizen.

I was shocked to hear that. Just two years earlier, he swore allegiance to the United States government. Judge Jackson was outraged, and he said to Awad, You stood before me two years ago, and now you stand before me in the same courtroom as I sentenced you for espionage. He's currently serving 11 years in the federal correctional facility in Latuna, Texas. His family moved from the area and are trying to rebuild their lives. With Awad now behind bars, one question still remains. Was he acting alone or as an agent for a foreign government? He maintained a dual citizenship with Egypt.

One of the Navy's policies is that you cannot have a secret security clearance and be a dual citizen. Records would show that he drove to the Egyptian embassy in Washington, D.C. Then later by his own admission, he admitted that it would help falsify documents on his behalf saying that he renounced his citizenship when in fact he had not in order to gain that secret security clearance. And it was soon after that that he began spying. It looked like he was trying to start a career collecting information and providing that information to the Egyptian intelligence service.

These agents who work in counterintelligence, much of their work is done deterring threats that the public may never know about. One of the takeaways from this case is that inside a threat is real and it's close to us. None of us are as smart as all of us. And so the ability of NCIS and FBI to combine resources dramatically increased our efficiency and effectiveness in conducting this investigation.

And as a result of their efforts, this country is made safer every day, and our freedoms secured. It's very rewarding that we thwarted someone who attempted to do the US harm. At the same time, we realize that there's folks out there that are intended to do us harm. Both of these individuals identified themselves as self-proclaimed black hat hackers.

We didn't know if this was a terrorist group, we didn't know if these were foreign adversaries, we just didn't know. What's the name of your group? Do you guys have a name? Team Digital. How do you spell Team Digital? Team D-I-G-I 7-8. 7. The Department of Navy and the Department of Defense at whole is always a target for

cyber attacks in some way. When I first started with NCIS, there was six of us really doing cyber crime. And now I run an office of about 130 people. It's a constant game of a chess match between law enforcement and adversaries who want to access and damage our Navy systems. Michael DeBold is pretty much our expert on cyber crime. He started one of our earliest operations on criminal activity in cyberspace.

In June 2012, we were going out to openly available sites where hackers normally post their activities. A group posted and claimed that they had hacked into a Navy database called the Smart Web Move. The Smart Web Move database, used to relocate military personnel around the world, contains the personal and private records of every member of the United States Armed Forces and their families. The group stole 220,000 records. the United States Armed Forces and their families.

The group stole 220,000 records. They then went on to post 30 of those records publicly for everyone to see. Names, birthdates, social security. The information also had some national security implications because now we have personal information of active duty members and their families. This was quite alarming to us. We didn't know at this point if this was a terrorist group. We didn't know if these were foreign adversaries. We just didn't know.

NCIS investigators scoured the internet and found their answer in, of all places, Twitter. And their answer in, of all places, Twitter. Discovering that a hacking group, Team Digital, had executed the break-in as well as 50 other intrusions into corporate and government data sites. Team Digital members were quite vocal about their activities, and sometimes even taunting police and federal law enforcement, saying, come and get me. Which is exactly what the NCIS investigators did,

following a trail of clues scattered around the Internet. One online interview identified the Team Digital leader as Inertia. We ultimately found Inertia, the username, in a hacking forum. It listed out Inertia's former usernames that he used. And the very first one that he used was Nicholas Knight. That was really the break in the case. That was really the break in the case. And we found very quickly a Facebook page and a Twitter page.

Knight's social media revealed a stunning fact. The perpetrator of one of the most damaging cyber attacks on the U.S. Navy was one of their own. He had pictures, some selfies that he had taken of himself in his Navy uniform. Nick Knight was a 27 year old Navy enlisted member. He was a system administrator on a nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Truman, in the nuclear propulsion plant. And not only was he a part of the Navy, but he was about two miles away from my office at that time of the discovery. And now we had to figure out, how far would Mr. Knight go? Is he really a terrorist? Is he after all of our secrets? DeBolt flew out to the USS Truman, now in the Atlantic on exercises, and set up a fake server on the ship's network to tempt Knight into repeating his hack.

The intent for this reverse cyber staying, as I called it, was to see how far Knight would go. In the middle of the night, when he went off of his watch, he went to his computer, he saw that this database existed, and he went ahead and conducted an attack. And it succeeded, or so he thought. When the Truman returned to port two weeks later, NCIS was on the dock waiting and took Knight into custody. What's the name of your group? Do you guys have a name? Team Digital.

I took Knight to an interview room on that day. Team DIGI7A. Who came up with that? I did. He divulged to me that he was doing most of his activities based on the joy and the excitement. He wanted to be a top-notch hacker, and he wanted everybody to know it. Who would be like the leader?

Me, I guess. I don't know. I started it. NCIS agents suspected Knight wasn't working alone, and when asked, he didn't hesitate to give up his partner. His response was Daniel Kruger. This other individual that we identified as Thor. Daniel Kruger, a civilian,

was a 19-year-old computer science student at a community college in Illinois who had met Knight online. You mentioned Navy Move site and Kruger being involved in that. Yeah, he was the only person. He does pretty much 90% of the stuff. Knight and Krueger had both co-founded Team Digital together, primarily with a bunch of juveniles that were listening to Knight and Krueger, basically list out targets of who they wanted to attack next. Krueger was arrested at his home. Everything that we're seeing on the Team Digital Twitter stuff suggests that it's either you or one other person. And using a federally issued search warrant, NCIS recovered the stolen data from his computer. This type of case where it looks like it's a couple kids that are just hacking in for fun really had much greater ramifications. In fact, the Navy spent close to a half million dollars to recover from the cyber break-in.

to recover from the cyber break-in. In the end, Knight and Kruger were charged with several counts of computer fraud and abuse, as well as obstruction of justice, and they took a plea of conspiracy. They were sentenced to two years' confinement and $500,000 restitution back to the Navy. and $500,000 restitution back to the Navy. NCIS continues to bolster their cyber program. Because we rely so much on computers to do our basic daily needs, that just provides another venue where we're vulnerable. So evolving along with the times and technologies is going to be vital to our ability to protect

the nation and protect our Department of Navy assets. The attack against the USS Cole really was unprecedented. NCIS and the Navy were both redefined by this event. The mission was to figure out who did this. We knew in our hearts this was an al-Qaeda operation. For NCIS, the critical mission of defending against the growing threat of terrorism was redefined by this ship the united states navy's guided missile destroyer uss cole cole is a unique ship the legacy of what her sailors did what had happened to her and how the impact on the entire navy means you can't look at uss cole like any other destroyer in the navy this is the hall of Heroes. We call it the Hall of Heroes because we have 17 stars

inlaid in the deck to represent the 17 sailors that were lost on October 12, 2000. A surge of violence in the Middle East today, including the apparent suicide bomb attack on a U.S. Navy warship. The bombing of the USS Cole was the first successful terrorist attack on a U.S. naval ship in modern history. For NCIS, it would be their greatest challenge. The attack against the USS Cole really was unprecedented. The investigation itself, myself, colleagues, we'd never been involved in an investigation quite like this. It was a major, major event.

It was the biggest crime scene I'd ever been to. The Cole was transiting from Norfolk, Virginia, which she was based at, through the Mediterranean, down through the Suez Canal. She was on her way to the northern Arabian Gulf to enforce the sanctions against Iraq. And then stopped for fuel in Aden, Yemen, before it was scheduled to be on station as part of the Iraqi containment operations. Supposed to be no more than three hours. Pull in, top off the tanks, and go. No liberty, nobody going ashore. deemed to be the most efficient, as well as affording the most standoff distance for force protection, because there was actually a facility built called a refueling dolphin that was hundreds of meters away from any land point. The dolphin was there, so for a counterterrorism measure. It's like an island out in the middle of the harbor. It's a gas station, basically.

That fuel dock was the safest spot in the harbor for the coal. Because in October of 2000, Americans were not exactly welcome in Yemen. The whole political situation in the Middle East was very tense. There were largest demonstrations I had ever seen. And a large part of the sentiment by the crowds was against the U.S. Our operating in Yemen was kicking the hornet's nest. At approximately 11.17, a small boat with two individuals aboard approached the USS Cole.

And it was kind of lost, if you will, amongst the white noise of all the other service vessels there would be small ships coming to take off garbage there would be people bringing fresh fruits and vegetables there was no indication that this boat was any different than any other boat in the harbor the crew had just gone to have lunch. It was pretty much ops normal aboard the ship at that time. What was different about this boat is that it was lined with approximately 2,000 pounds of high explosive. This was a bomb with a boat around it. A very, very big bomb. According to some of the sailors aboard the Cole,

as the ship with the two individuals approached, at least one of them waved and then detonated the explosives that were aboard that boat. At 5.15 this morning, Washington time, a large explosion blew a hole in the hull of the USS Cole as she was mooring in Aden, Yemen, to refuel. The minute that explosion happened, they had 17 dead and 42 wounded.

The damage was profound. The damage was profound. Approximately a 40-foot by 40-foot hole in the port side of the ship. Within a couple of seconds, the ship went from a sound warship to a casualty that was in danger of sinking. The ship was in mortal danger at times of actually going under. They were performing rescues. They were doing triage. They were doing damage control.

The ship was sinking. They had smoke and fire to deal with. And they dealt with it. That's the amazing thing about this whole story, is that they dealt with it and the way they dealt with it. If, as it now appears, this was an act of terrorism, it was a despicable and cowardly act. I have directed the Department of Defense, the FBI, and the State Department to send officials to Yemen to begin the investigation.

We were the first people to actually go on board the ship the next morning and it was evident after the first five minutes on board that this was something that we'd never faced before. NCIS's team was about seven people. My specific mission was to help do body recovery of the individuals that they had not removed from the ship yet. So I teamed with three FBI agents and we began going through the ship looking for the remains of those sailors. The ship had no power, so it was dark when you went underneath. Everything was done by flashlight. It was filthy from fuel oil being blown all over the ship.

All the decks were covered with diesel fuel and then various other debris that we had to figure out if it was part of the device or something that belonged to the ship. I was placed in charge of the sifting operation. To look for pieces of the device, biologic material, which is parts of the bombers, anything that looked out of place, things that weren't part of the ship. From our sifting, we found parts of the device itself wiring we found obviously parts of the boats we found parts of the bombers themselves which we could use for dna evidence and we also found tape electrical tape electrical tape was fingerprint evidence the morale of the crew they were devastated

The morale of the crew, they were devastated. They were quiet, and that's very unnatural for a Navy ship. The only thing you really heard was the one generator that was keeping the ship afloat. The crew was silent. They were on the aft end or the back end of the ship under some tarps to keep them out of the sun. It was about 125 degrees in the shade. But there was a dichotomy, though, because there was an enthusiasm and a spirit of camaraderie that we must continue to carry on our duties. And carry on for the sake of our fellow sailors that died in the attack.

NCIS spent 10 days on the USS Cole, combing every deck for the smallest piece of forensic evidence. But their work was far from over. The mission was to figure out who did this. And their investigation would trigger a manhunt far beyond the Yemen border. The crime scene was just the beginning because the investigation really turned in from a localized one to a global one.

We knew that it was Osama bin Laden. This is the flag that was flying on the ship October 12, 2000, still charred from the smoke and the debris from the explosion on the side of the ship. Sixteen years have passed since terrorists attacked the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen. But those memories are still fresh. The USS Cole is not one of those investigations or one of those scenes that you ever really truly forget about. I think that the scene is indelibly marked on you regardless of how long you're removed from it. By the time I arrived in Yemen, the FBI team and NCIS teams had been working for a number of days around the clock, helping secure the scene aboard the ship, conducting forensic examinations,

and doing as much investigative activity as possible. This crime scene was like we were in somebody's home. Those sailors lived on that ship. Those people who were killed were close to them. They were shipmates. So we not only had the forensic responsibility to recover those bodies, but to do it with as much dignity as we could under the circumstances. It was very important to us as NCIS

to make sure that we recovered everyone. Because I think the families would have, and they did, expect that of us. As NCIS agents continued their onboard investigation, there was more work to be done on shore as well. I was assigned the co-leadership of one of the investigative teams that actually conducted the scene examination of the safe house

that the two bombers were living in. The location where the cell actually worked on the boat, as well as a lookout location, another safe house that had a panoramic view of Tawahi Harbor they used an observation post to time how long the US Navy ships were coming in for their brief stops for fuel so the terrorists realized by doing that after a period of time they had a three-hour window from the time the ship came in to the time the ship left.

Ultimately, the results of the investigation, we determined who the two suicide attackers were. As well as the support element for the conspiracy. We knew in our hearts this was an al-Qaeda operation. The work on board the Cole lasted 10 days before all American personnel, including NCIS, were sent home. And the Cole, down but not out, was sent home as well. The U.S. Navy contracted with a special ship hauling vessel that was able to actually lift the coal up and sail all the way back to the repair facility in Mississippi. The investigation shifted to who was responsible for it, who planned it, who financed it, who organized it.

As the investigation developed, it led to the maritime chief for Al-Qaeda, Nashiri, who was based out of the United Arab Emirates. It led to Ben-Atash, who was one of the main organizers of the attack. Bin Laden trusted him very, very much when he sent him to Yemen to set this operation up. Ben-Atash is in Guantanamo Bay. Nashiri is in Gitmo as well. As for the coal, it was repaired,

and in 2002, returned to its home port at the Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia, and restored to active duty. You don't go a day without remembering that this ship is a little bit more special than every other destroyer in the Navy. So there's a resonance there that inspires all of us. Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter.

Richard Costolo. Lakina Monique Francis. Timothy Lee Guana. NCIS and the Navy were both redefined by this event. All the force protection limitations changed. Everything from NCIS being in every port prior to a ship coming in to standoff and how close you could get to a Navy ship. So yes, this was very much a defining moment for us as an agency as well as the Navy.

Sharon Lewis Gunn. James Roderick Daniels. Mark Ian Neaton. Ronald Scott Owens. My crew and I are preparing to take Cole out later this year, back into harm's way, back near the waters where she was tested 16 years ago, and to do our nation's business, to show the American flag and be prepared to conduct war at sea.

Lakeba Nicole Palmer. Joshua Langdon Parlous. Patrick Howard Roy. Kevin Sean Rooks. As long as there exists a violent extremism, terrorism is going to be with us. That remains one of the major planks of the NCIS investigation.

Ronchester Monaghan Santiago, Timothy Lamont Saunders, Gary Graham Swenchonis Jr., Andrew Triplett, Craig Bryan, Wiberly. The threat has expanded. And the vigilance that goes along with that increasing threat is going to have to expand as well. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.