George W. Bush Gives First Interview About Osama bin Laden: "I Felt a Sense of Closure"

George W. Bush will speak for the first time about the killing of Osama bin Laden in a National Geographic Channel special honoring the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the network announced Wednesday.
George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview premieres Sunday, Aug. 28 at 10/9c, and will anchor the network's weeklong tribute to 9/11. It features an in-depth, two-day interview with the former president by filmmaker Peter Schnall. The interview had been planned months in advance and coincidentally took place just a couple of days after Navy Seals killed bin Laden during a raid May 1 at the 9/11 mastermind's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

U.S. military operations kill Osama bin Laden
"President Obama called me [and] told me that Osama bin Laden had been killed," Bush said. "And my response was, I congratulated him, and the special operators that conducted a very dangerous mission ... And so I was grateful. I didn't feel any great sense of happiness or jubilation. I felt a sense of closure. And I felt a sense of gratitude that justice had been done."
Bush also spoke at length about 9/11 and relayed his personal reaction upon hearing of the attacks. "One of my concerns, like the concerns of other husbands and wives, was, 'Was my spouse OK? Was Laura OK?' And my second concern was 'Were our girls OK?'" he said. "Eventually, September the 11th will be a day on the calendar; it'll be like Pearl Harbor Day. For those of us who lived through it, it'll be a day that we'll never forget."

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Schnall said there were no politics and no agenda with the former president during the sit-down."What you hear is the personal story of a man who also happened to be our president," he said. "Listening to him describe how he grappled with a sense of anger and frustration coupled with his personal mandate to lead our country through this devastating attack was incredibly powerful."