Obama interviewed for TV special on Bin Laden hunt

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about a clean extension of the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization which expires in mid-September in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, August 31, 2011.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. effort to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden will be featured in a two-hour television program, including interviews with President Barack Obama and senior counter-terrorism officials, the History channel said on Wednesday.

"Targeting Bin Laden" will be broadcast on Sept. 6, and use dramatic reenactments and news footage to look at the behind-the-scenes work over several U.S. administrations to find the al Qaeda leader.

History said the programme marked the first time that senior officials in the White House situation room had spoken at length on television about the bin Laden operation.

National Security advisor Tom Donilon, former CIA director Michael Vincent Hayden, and White House Chief Counter-Terrorism advisor John O. Brennan were among those who have been interviewed for the program.

Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept.11 2001 attacks on New York and Washington D.C, was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan on May 1.

Obama spoke in a "60 Minutes" TV interview in May about the bin Laden operation, but the upcoming History program is one of the first in-depth TV treatments of the effort to capture him.

Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow is also working on a feature film about the hunt for the al Qaeda leader for release in late 2012.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)