In 2001, as the ball drops in Times Square to mark the arrival of the new year, U.S. troops enter Afghanistan from their forward bases along that country's border with Pakistan.

The CIA's operative in-country have provided them with the locations of several possible Al Qaeda bases. Their orders are to destroy those bases and take Osama bin Laden alive if possible, along with as many of his top lieutenants as they can, to be tried for mass murder.