Within three months of September 11, the War on Terror had succeeded in crushing the Taliban. But many of the operation’s primary targets–members of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network of international terrorists–managed to escape into neighboring Pakistan. FRONTLINE examines the quest to bring the terrorist group to justice in “In Search of Al Qaeda.” The one-hour documentary follows the trail of Al Qaeda from the Afghan border areas into Pakistan’s cities as U.S. and Pakistani authorities begin to track down some of the network’s leaders. The journey continues to other Middle Eastern countries, where local villagers, officials, and others are interviewed about what has happened to Al Qaeda and its efforts to regroup.
‘‘In Search of Al Qaeda,’’ the ‘‘Frontline’’ documentary film broadcast at 9 this evening on PBS, takes viewers to the places where Al Qaeda members sought refuge after dispersing from Afghanistan. Reporter-producer Martin Smith persistently - and lucidly - pursues the trail of Al Qaeda in the ungoverned tribal areas of Pakistan and in what is called the ‘‘empty quarter’’ of Yemen - 250,000 square miles of sand where Al Qaeda operatives are protected by sympathetic tribesmen.