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FRONTLINE: The Interrogator

FBI agent Ali H. Soufan, left, interrogated some of the highest ranking Al Qaeda operatives around the world. This picture was taken in Kabul in 2002, outside a presumed hideout for Osama bin Laden.
Courtesy Ali Soufan
FBI agent Ali H. Soufan, left, interrogated some of the highest ranking Al Qaeda operatives around the world. This picture was taken in Kabul in 2002, outside a presumed hideout for Osama bin Laden.

Airs Friday, September 16, 2011 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV

In a rare interview with Ali Soufan, the FBI agent who was at the center of the 9/11 investigations, FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith uncovers an insider’s view of the “war on terror.” One of only eight Arabic-speaking FBI agents, Soufan explains why he believes the attacks on the World Trade Center could have been prevented and how the use of torture failed to produce actionable intelligence.

Also in this hour: Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Dana Priest investigates the terrorism-industrial complex that grew up in the wake of 9/11. In “Are We Safer?,” Priest explores the growing reach of homeland security, fusion centers, battlefield technologies and data-collecting into the lives of ordinary Americans.

FRONTLINE is on Facebook, and follow @frontlinepbs on Twitter.

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Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

In "Are We Safer?" Washington Post's Dana Priest reports on the sprawling post-9/11 terrorism-industrial complex — and its growing reach into the lives of ordinary Americans.