Al Qaeda

East coast fans of 'Celebrity Apprentice' were probably quite surprised when NBC pre-empted the ending of the episode, before the elimination, with an unplanned 'NBC News Special Report' (Sun. 10:50PM ET on NBC) for a speech by President Obama.

Earlier in the night, word had come out that Obama was going to speak to the American people at 10:30 PM ET, but it was later than that by almost an hour. All the major broadcast networks carried the speech, pre-empting regularly scheduled programming on the East Coast and delaying start times on the West Coast.

By the time the president's speech began, CNN and all the other major news outlets were reporting that the president would be revealing that Osama bin Laden had been killed by American forces and that his body was in US custody.

Former Army Ranger captain Nate Self is a highly-decorated war hero. He has served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo. But even the knowledge of his own heroism wasn't enough to prevent Nate from wanting to kill himself. On 'The Huckabee Show' (weekends, 8PM ET on Fox News), Self described a mission in Afghanistan which traumatized him such an extent that he wanted to die.

Captain Self was sent to rescue a missing-in-action Navy SEAL. In the course of this operation, Nate ended up fighting against enemy soldiers from before dawn until after dusk. Eventually, he located the SEAL -- but the man was already dead. Still, Ranger Self brought the SEAL's body back. However, Nate lost six of his own men in the course of the operation.

The updated version of Inside 9/11, the National Geographic Channel's Emmy-nominated documentary, is being re-broadcast on March 25 at 7:00 p.m. Since the original four-hour miniseries first aired, new details about the tragedy have sprung up, including the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui; information on Able Danger, the intelligence team assigned to track al Qaeda; new video of the attack on the Pentagon; audio from Flight 93; the CIA's dismantling of the bin Laden unit; the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; and new video from bin Laden himself.

It's been over five years since the events of September 11, 2001, and I can understand how some might be sick of hearing about it, but it's not surprising that the aftershocks of an event of this magnitude would still be felt even today. I'd like to think my ongoing curiosity is natural and not morbid, but I still want to learn as much as I can about everything that happened that day, and the people and events it connects to.