60 Minutes (1968) s46e06 Episode Script
Season 46, Episode 6
Brigadier General Mark Martins has one of the toughest missions there is in the war on terror -- not on the battlefield -- but in the courtroom of a special military commission.
It will hold what's being called "al Qaeda's Nuremberg," the first trial of those charged with plotting the attacks on 9/11, 12 years ago.
And as chief prosecutor, Martins will be asking for the death penalty.
Pre-trial proceedings have begun, and he's already taking fire because the five defendants were all subjected to widely-condemned interrogation techniques used by the CIA, among them waterboarding; and because of where the trial will be held -- at the notorious military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.
Since Congress passed a law banning the defendants from setting foot on U.
S.
soil, everyone involved in the case has to go there.
Every six weeks for the last year and a half, Gen.
Martins and his team of prosecutors, defense lawyers, bailiffs, interpreters -- about a government charter to the U.
S.
naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, at a cost of $90,000 a flight.
[Greeter: Hello everyone and welcome back to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, pearl of the Antilles.
.]
When the trial begins more than a year from now, it'll be the biggest war crimes tribunal since Nuremberg and much of the burden rests on Gen.
Martins' shoulders.
Lesley Stahl: So when it's a military tribunal or commission, how is it different from a civilian proceeding? Gen.
Martins: The similarities really swamp the differences.
I mean, the accused is presumed innocent, the prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Gen.
Martins knows a lot's at stake: the 9/11 defendants must be seen as getting a fair and legitimate hearing.
Gen.
Martins: We've got to ensure that what we do in these cases is justice and can't be accused of being vengeance.
And that's a great challenge.
Lesley Stahl: Now we have talked to some of the defense attorneys and they've told us it's a show trial.
Gen.
Martins: Uh-huh (affirm).
Lesley Stahl: It's a charade.
Gen.
Martins: Well, I mean, I don't think the test of any system is what the defense counsel say about it.
But hard as he tries to ensure that it's seen as a fair trial, he keeps running into one obstacle after the next --starting with the reputation of the venue itself -- Guantanamo Bay -- where 164 detainees sit in cells, most of them for nearly 12 years.
And, except for the 9/11 five, most have not been charged.
One of them cried out when he saw our cameras.
Detainee: Please, we are tired.
Either you leave us to die in peace, or either tell the world the truth.
Let the world hear what's happening.
Lesley Stahl: Twelve years.
With no charges.
Gen.
Martins: That's one of the reasons I have a sense of urgency to try everybody that we can try.
Lesley Stahl: Does it in any way taint what you're doing? Gen.
Martins: I wouldn't characterize it as taint.
I believe that it influences people's perceptions.
Another thing that influences perceptions is the elephant in the courtroom: the question of torture.
All five of the 9/11 defendants were held incommunicado for years at CIA black sites, where they were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques.
They were legal at the time, but have since been banned by the Obama administration.
Walid bin Attash's attorney, Cheryl Bormann, says she's not allowed to talk about the interrogations because they've been classified.
Lesley Stahl: Was your client waterboarded? Cheryl Bormann: I can't answer the question.
A proposed protective order bans me from telling you anything I know about what happened to my client, beginning from the moment of his capture in 2003 until the moment that he landed in Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
Lesley Stahl: So if you were to tell me that he was subjected to a specific, harsh interrogation technique, you would be breaking a law? You would be-- Cheryl Bormann: I would be.
Lesley Stahl: --convicted of something? Cheryl Bormann: I would be prosecuted.
And imprisoned for, I believe, up to 30 years.
David Nevin: This is not a system that is set up to deliver justice.
David Nevin represents Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - KSM, known as the architect of 9/11.
Considering that KSM has admitted to the worse terrorist attack on U.
S.
soil, you would think the case might be open and shut.
But part of the problem is that he was waterboarded 183 times in one month.
Nevin filed this declaration detailing the treatment of his client.
But after the censors got through with it, this is all that made it into the public record.
David Nevin: Think about this for a minute.
The government says they can't talk publicly about what happened to them because it's classified.
If the government didn't want to reveal its secrets to them, it shouldn't have tortured them.
And yet-- Lesley Stahl: Well, no, no.
The government said, "We were trying to stop the next terrorist attack.
" They were trying to stop the next attack.
They're not all totally evil, right? Cheryl Bormann: Good intentions-- of course not.
Good intentions pave the road to hell, though.
Right? What about statements KSM made during the waterboarding? The law says any evidence "obtained" through harsh interrogation techniques is inadmissible.
But there's a loophole.
Gen.
Martins: It is possible for a voluntary statement to be made after a passage of time at-- in a different location perhaps with different questioners.
And so, once the CIA's harsh interrogations of the five 9/11 defendants stopped, the FBI sent in a so-called "clean team" to question them all over again - but without coercion.
And those statements are admissible.
Cheryl Bormann: It's like Alice going down the rabbit hole, right? You torture him for three years.
You keep him in captivity after you stop torturing him in a place like Guantanamo Bay.
And then you send in agents from the same government that tortured him for three years to take statements.
And then if you're Gen.
Martins, you say, "Well, those are now clean.
" Guess what? They're not.
Gen.
Martins: I understand, I understand the argument.
The people do not forfeit their chance for accountability because someone may have crossed a line or have coerced or subjected to harsh measures somebody who is in custody.
Lesley Stahl: So you're saying that it's unfair to the justice system not to be able to question these guys later.
Gen.
Martins: The point that I reject and that the law rejects is that there can be no voluntary statements following an instance of coercion.
Justice requires that you look deeper, that you determine if the statement-- even though there had been a prior instance-- was nevertheless voluntary.
And there can be such statements.
Navy Commander Walter Ruiz is a military attorney representing Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
Cmdr.
Walter Ruiz: Gen.
Martins - I respect him.
I believe he is a patriot.
I believe that if our government asked him to sell ice to Eskimos he would try his best, if he believed it was in our nation's interest.
But ultimately, you have a system where we've classified evidence of war crimes, where you have loopholes for torture and coercion.
Every day we listen to the national anthem in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but yet the constitution has been kicked down the road and is persona non grata in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
David Nevin: At the end of the day I think we all have to look at each other and say, "Are we doing this?" Lesley Stahl: Your client KSM, he admits that he was the mastermind of 9/11.
He didn't wear a military uniform.
He wasn't on a real, traditional battlefield.
He hid among civilians.
This is a bad guy, by his own confession.
David Nevin: Yeah, you know Lesley-- Lesley Stahl: You're not saying -- he's not the mastermind? David Nevin: Here's what I'm saying.
I'm saying that in the United States, we have a process.
We follow it.
We've always followed it.
We apply it to everyone except not now.
There will be a lot of firsts in this trial by military commission - given the CIA's tactics, the unique nature of the crime, and unprecedented legal questions that are now being fought over in pre-trial motions at this high-security legal complex.
This is the first time cameras were allowed to videotape where the trial will take place.
Lesley Stahl: This is the courtroom where the first American war crimes trial is taking place since World War II.
These tables are for the defendants.
One each for the 9/11 five.
And this is for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of 9/11.
He's defendant number one, as you can clearly see.
And this is where he sits.
He has his own screen to read court documents.
If he wants to hear the Arabic translation, it comes out through that box.
While we were here, he appeared in court in a long henna-dyed red beard and a military camouflage jacket over a long white robe.
He sat here quietly and calmly.
If he had acted up, he could have been shackled.
When court is in session, the defendants are transported from a secret facility on the base, known as Camp 7, to these holding cells where they stay until they're escorted to the courtroom.
They're on the so-called "black mile corridor" beneath dark sniper meshing that camouflages the walkway.
This is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's holding cell, an 8x12-foot steel, air-conditioned room with an arrow pointing toward Mecca for when he prays.
The defendants are under constant surveillance - even, their lawyers claim when they're not supposed to be.
Another complication.
Cheryl Bormann: I'm meeting with my client in a room.
And up on the ceiling, like you would normally find in a jail with a client, there's a smoke detector.
And one day I'm sitting in there and my client stops one of the correctional guards and says, "That's-- what is that? You're listening, aren't you?" And-- and the guard says, "Of course we're not listening.
That's a smoke detector.
" She believed the guard, but decided to look up the manufacturer of the smoke detector - on Google.
Cheryl Bormann: And it turns out that they only make listening devices that are intended to look like smoke detectors and other surreptitious listening devices.
We find this out while we're in Guantanamo.
I go, "What?" Motions were filed, witnesses were called and while it was confirmed that the smoke detector actually was a listening device, the judge determined that Gen.
Martins and his team were not eavesdropping.
But the defense lawyers suspect it was the CIA and they base that on something that happened this past January.
David Nevin: I was speaking one day in the courtroom and making innocuous, unclassified remarks and suddenly the red hockey light goes off.
When the red hockey light went off, everything stopped.
That's only supposed to happen when classified information is disclosed and the only ones authorized to activate the light are the judge or the court's security officer.
David Nevin: I looked at the judge and I looked at his court security officer.
And both of them looked at each other as if to say, "I didn't do it.
Did you?" Lesley Stahl: So who did it? Gen.
Martins: I don't know.
Lesley Stahl: You actually don't know to this day who did it? Were you horrified? Gen.
Martins: I don't get horrified or not.
I stay in that band between grim determination and tempered optimism.
The judge found out who did it: the CIA.
Lesley Stahl: Wait a minute, are they in the courtroom? David Nevin: No, they're not in the courtroom.
Lesley Stahl: Where are they? David Nevin: I don't know.
I'd like to know.
Lesley Stahl: So wait, they're-- David Nevin: I've demanded to know.
But the government won't tell me.
Lesley Stahl: Do you think that the CIA has any kind of right to keep listening because these were terrorists or they're charging that they were terrorists.
They believe that these guys were bad guys, who did a dastardly deed.
David Nevin: The constitution guarantees everybody certain rights.
And one of them is that you don't listen in on the lawyers in a serious capital case.
You just don't do it.
Lesley Stahl: The defense teams say that the CIA has a completely different agenda from yours.
Gen.
Martins: We are going to do these trials fairly.
All these allegations they can raise and we have a process to sort that out.
Lesley Stahl: I've heard people say, "Look, he's trying KSM.
Why are we contorting ourselves?" These guys slaughtered 3,000 innocent people.
This was not the battlefield; these were people going to work.
Gen.
Martins: Well, I understand the point of the view and the criticism.
The law requires, and justice requires, the prosecution must present proof beyond a reasonable doubt before we hold someone guilty.
And we aim to dispense justice that we can be proud of.
Imagine paying six figures for a car and being told you had to stand in line a year to get it.
Oh, and by the way, it has two seats, no trunk to speak of, and it gets 14 miles to the gallon.
You might think a company like that wouldn't last.
But Lamborghini of Italy, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Fifty years of creating the world's most exotic supercars.
And fifty years of dodging bankruptcy.
No, a car company like that wouldn't last [Scott Pelley: Ready to go.
.]
but then, Lamborghini never was a car company.
It's a builder of fantasies.
You don't realize how overused the word "breathtaking" is until something actually takes your breath away.
[Scott Pelley: Wow! Mario Fasanetto: If you open aggressive the throttle you have 570 horsepower.
Scott Pelley: Oh, magnificent.
.]
Lamborghini test driver Mario Fasanetto finds the limits in the cars.
Though this time on Bologna's Imola race track, the limits belonged to the driver, not to the 200 mile-an-hour, $200,000 Lamborghini Gallardo.
[Mario Fasanetto: Brake, brake, brake, brake, more, brake, brake more, more, more Scott Pelley: I'm not making you nervous am I? Mario Fasanetto: Nahh.
.]
Maybe he's calm because this is the least expensive Lamborghini.
There's a $400,000 car and a $4 million car, but before we see those have a look at how much road Lamborghini has put between the cars of today and it's humble beginnings.
The creator, the late Ferruccio Lamborghini, was a wealthy builder of tractors --the John Deere of Italy.
Morley Safer met him in our first story on Lamborghini in 1987.
Mr.
Lamborghini collected Ferraris but he found the clutches weak.
The story goes he complained to Enzo Ferrari who said, "stick to tractors, I'll build the cars.
" In Italy, insult is the mother of invention.
Lamborghini sought to teach Ferrari a lesson with lavish interiors, brawling V12 engines and style like nothing else.
The namesake loved Spain's traditional sport so each model is named for famous bulls.
The latest beast to bolt into the ring is the Aventador.
[Scott Pelley: The transmission has three settings it has 'road,' 'sport' and 'race.
' Mario Fasanetto: Race, you have to set race! Scott Pelley: I'm not sure everyone should select race on this car.
.]
We didn't "race" through Northern Italy because of traffic and because our jet helicopter with our camera can fly only 170 miles an hour.
The Aventador will do 217.
Zero to 60 in under three seconds.
While 700 horsepower propels you forward the Aventador will set you back between $400-500,000.
[Scott Pelley: Are we still on the right road for Lamborghini? Mario Fasanetto: Next roundabout on the left.
.]
We're coming into the town of Sant'Agata in what Italians call "Motor Valley.
" [Scott Pelley: This is the original factory? Mario Fasanetto: Yes, there is just one Lamborghini, the original.
.]
The original factory floor is thoroughly modern now.
It's spotless, which seems to be a point of pride in that, even the floors are squeaky clean.
But it's also an old fashioned place where hands know the feel of a bolt properly torqued and eyes judge each pane perfectly placed.
Ranieri Niccoli is their industrial director.
Scott Pelley: You know what I didn't see on your assembly line that I see on every automotive assembly line-- Ranieri Niccoli: Tell me.
Scott Pelley: Robots.
Ranieri Niccoli: No way.
Clear, no way.
No, all the Lamborghini are done by people, Italian people from Sant'Agata.
This is-- this is our value.
No way for robots.
Ford builds about 23,000 vehicles a day.
Lamborghini builds 11.
Each purchased a year in advance.
Each unique.
Scott Pelley: How many colors do you offer? Ranieri Niccoli: Whatever you want.
Scott Pelley: Any color I want? Ranieri Niccoli: Yeah, basically we try to fill out the requests of our customers.
Scott Pelley: I can walk in with my favorite tie Ranieri Niccoli: Or with the-- or your-- or-- or with the bag of your wife, yes.
Scott Pelley: Has any woman ever matched the car to her handbag? Ranieri Niccoli: Yes.
It happens.
Scott Pelley: No, really? Ranieri Niccoli: Yeah, really.
It's funny.
We see here pink cars or strange colors, really.
Scott Pelley: The customer is king? Ranieri Niccoli: Yes, of course.
As we walked the plant with Niccoli, we were struck by a sharp division of labor.
Scott Pelley: Nearly everyone on this assembly line is a man.
But, if you go over to where the interior is done, nearly everyone is a woman.
Why is that? Ranieri Niccoli: I can tell you this.
We really need women on the-- on the interior.
Because the precision that the women has, unfortunately we as men, we don't have that.
Scott Pelley: We don't have the precision? Ranieri Niccoli: Not the precision and the manuality to really-- to create a masterpiece like our interior.
Scott Pelley: The car is male on the outside and female on the inside? Ranieri Niccoli: Let's say it like this.
Yeah, it could be.
Scott Pelley: These don't look like any other car on the road.
Something that makes you smile.
The guy with the proud father look is Filippo Perini, the chief designer, in charge of the look of Lamborghini.
Scott Pelley: When we were driving the Aventador today on the road there was a truck and the passenger in the truck turned around to take a picture of the car.
Why does that happen? Filippo Perini: Because we are in Italy, people love beautiful cars.
Perini runs this shop where designers who love beautiful cars take their inspiration, we're told, from the contours of insects and fighter planes.
Scott Pelley: Do you ever design something and show it to the engineers and the engineers say, "We can't build that"? Filippo Perini: Yeah, yeah, it's all-- it happened always like this.
When we asked Perini for Lamborghini's DNA, he drew a single arc.
Scott Pelley: That, is a Lamborghini line.
Filippo Perini: This is a really a Lamborghini line, this is our own way to produce cars.
An uninterrupted line from front to rear.
Scott Pelley: It's very beautiful and it is completely impractical.
There is no trunk.
Filippo Perini: No, we have a good trunk in front.
Scott Pelley: Uh, alright.
Yeah.
But if you want your golf clubs you're going to have to have another car.
Filippo Perini: I think with a car like this you won't have time to do golf.
Scott Pelley: You won't want to play golf because you'll be driving your car.
Filippo Perini: Yes, yes.
One thing that could fit in there are Lamborghini's profits.
In the $400,000 car business any recession slams on the brakes.
Mr.
Lamborghini and a series of owners have lost fortunes.
That began to change in 1998 Volkswagen bought the company under its Audi brand.
At a race in England, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann told us the company has been making money now since 2006.
One of the selling points in addition to style and speed is the sound.
Engineers labor over the growl.
You can tell that a Lamborghini's coming before you ever see it.
In a New York showroom, we asked Chief Operating Officer Michael Lock the most important question a buyer can ask.
Scott Pelley: What's wrong with it? Michael Lock: What's wrong with it? I think, if I were to be critical, I would say that we need to do a very good job of managing the perception of our brand.
Want to make sure that Lamborghini is seen as a friendly brand.
Scott Pelley: After the Great Recession, especially this soon after the great recession, you want to make sure your driver's not scorned.
Michael Lock: No, indeed.
I think that's very important.
Lock told us that even though the company is profitable thanks to German discipline the car still has to be sold the Italian way.
Scott Pelley: You're trying to seduce people Michael Lock: Indeed.
Scott Pelley: with this car or because that's the only way you can get somebody to write a $400,000 check? Michael Lock: Seduction is certainly an important part of that process.
Yes.
Scott Pelley: They have to be just a little bit irrational about this purchase.
Michael Lock: They have to be a little bit romantic, certainly.
Scott Pelley: What's the difference? You'd have to be hopelessly romantic and maybe embarrassingly rich to join Lamborghini's hundred and fifty owners shipped their raging bulls from all around the world for a 10-city, five-day, sprint through Italy.
It looks like we sped these pictures up, but of course we didn't.
An Italian road can really look like this when the steering is as precise as Leonardo da Vinci and the brakes have the stopping power of Sophia Loren.
How do you get this past the highway patrol? Build them a Lamborghini.
Nearly every model from every era filled the piazzas to be blessed, fussed over, photographed and admired as part of the national heritage.
No two alike, each crafted as a matter of taste.
Even this was an offer Lamborghini couldn't refuse.
The rally ended with a coming out party for a new car named for a bull that murdered a matador.
Lamborghini built only four Venenos, one for itself and three that sold for $4 million each.
Scott Pelley: Who buys that? Michael Lock: Very few people.
And, the most difficult thing to manage in the process of selling those cars was having a palatable story for the six or seven who we couldn't get a car for.
Scott Pelley: You had to tell them why they couldn't buy a $4 million car? Michael Lock: I had to explain that we had a very limited production available on these cars.
Scott Pelley: How many of the three Veneno buyers bought the car sight unseen? Michael Lock: All three of them.
The golden anniversary party ended with opera and fireworks as all Italian celebrations must.
With five decades in the rear view mirror, Lamborghini is still exploring the limits of the science of engineering and art of irrational romance.
Nick Saban is the most dominant head coach today in college football -- and maybe all of American sports.
With the regular season in its home stretch, Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide is once again undefeated and ranked No.
record third straight national title and fourth championship in five years.
He is worshipped by his rabid fan basefeared by his rivals, who see Saban as an intense, tightly wound control freak who takes little or no pleasure in all of his success.
For the last eight months, Saban granted 60 Minutes rare access inside his program.
What we learned is while the rest of college football may be chasing Nick Saban, Nick Saban's chasing something else: perfection.
[Players: Get your mind right!.]
The chant is get your mind right.
It's the mantra of the man out front, the heartbeat of the Alabama Crimson Tide, head coach Nick Saban.
His program has become the gold standard of college football.
To get a sense of how Saban has driven Alabama to the top we begin with an afternoon in early August.
An energized Saban couldn't wait to get to his favorite part of the day.
[Nick Saban: Okay, blow the horn.
Let's go.]
To practiceA thunderstorm had forced his team indoors, but it didn't dampen Saban's passion to teach his players the finer points of football.
[Nick Saban: I want you to step, step, step.
I'm In demanding his players be as exacting as he is, Saban can be volcanic.
[Nick Saban: I've already told you three times!!.]
Armen Keteyian: Why are you so tough on people? Nick Saban: Well, I don't know if it's fair that I'm really tough on people.
We create a standard for how we want to do things, and everybody's got to buy into that standard or you really can't have any team chemistry.
You know, mediocre people don't like high achievers and high achievers don't like mediocre people.
Saban doesn't miss anything.
On this afternoon, a freshman caught Saban's eye [Nick Saban: Hey Eddie!.]
No.
4, Eddie Jackson, who seemed lost [Nick Saban: You an offensive lineman or what?.]
Jackson, a defensive back, was stretching with the offensive linemen.
Trying to master Alabama's complex schemes was too much, too soon for Jackson.
[Nick Saban: Hey Eddie! It's kick support!!! It's Cover Two, why you backing up!!! You're supposed to come and force the edge!!!.]
Jackson looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole.
[Nick Saban: Come on Eddie!.]
All of Alabama's players have been there.
Safety Vinnie Sunseri remembers the day he and a fellow defensive back forgot a play.
Vinnie Sunseri: And he throws his hat.
It's a straw hat and it's not really heavy.
He's able to throw it like Zorro at us.
I thought it was going to hit us and knock us out.
And just starts yelling at us.
And we were like, "We just got Sabaned.
" Armen Keteyian: Got Sabaned? Vinnie Sunseri: Yeah.
[Nick Saban: You messed up my hat .]
But Saban's players have faith in their coach largely because of a revolutionary approach he designed years ago called The Process.
Ignore the scoreboard, Saban preached to his players.
Don't worry about winning, just focus on doing your job at the highest level, every single play, and the wins will follow.
Nick Saban: The approach was to challenge the players to play every play in the game like it had a history and a life of its own and tried to take the other team out of the game and make it all about us in terms of what we did.
Armen Keteyian: It's like jumping out of a plane without a chute.
I mean in your business, what? We're not going to focus on winning? Nick Saban: Right.
But it really is the simple way to do it and it's the best way to do it.
AJ McCarron: It's a way of life around here.
It's the way we play the game.
It's the thought process behind everything.
Star quarterback AJ McCarron was involved in the one play that epitomizes just how deeply The Process has been programmed into Alabama's players.
Late in last year's blowout win over Notre Dame in the championship game, McCarron and his center Barrett Jones called different plays at the line of scrimmage, both insisting they were right.
A bizarre shoving match ensued on national TV.
Saban loved it.
Nick Saban: The game's probably won, and they're Armen Keteyian: Well, it's 42-14 Nick Saban:still trying to get, yeah, they're still trying to get it right, all right, which to me is the kind of pride and performance that you want in the players.
Armen Keteyian: Can you see the critics saying, 'Come on, coach, just take a breath.
Relax.
Enjoy the moment.
' Nick Saban: Right.
I, I can, I can see the people saying that.
But we're still coaching.
We're trying to get 'em to do it right.
I don't ever want the players to relax in a game.
Saban urges his team to do things the right way, all the time.
So when this player arrived late for a meeting because he was busy taking out his earrings, it didn't go over well, [Nick Saban: Number one thing: Be on time.
'Cause it shows you care.
All you're telling me is your earrings are more important than your damn football.
.]
Saban never lets up.
No matter the stage.
On a sweltering June day when he could have taken the afternoon off, Saban was instructing young campers as if he was preparing to play LSU.
Even the simple act of handing out camp certificates turned into a life lesson.
[Nick Saban: Shake my handshake my hand.]
Why is Saban such a perfectionist? The answer lies on another football field, in a small, West Virginia mining town.
Saban's father, Nick Sr.
, started a Pop Warner team called the Black Diamond.
Today, the Black Diamonds are still playing, on the same field, only it's now named for Nick Sr.
, a local legend.
Nick remembers how his dad's long, demanding practices always ended on a hill in the back of the end zone.
Nick Saban: And it was like a three-level hill.
And it's almost straight up.
And we, we would line up at the bottom of that hill.
And that was our conditioning.
We'd have to sprint up that hill.
And it was so dark he couldn't tell whether you made it to the top.
So there was a row of trees up there.
You had to bring a leaf back to him, prove that you made it to the top.
Nick grew up in a coal camp, with just nine streets.
His dad owned this service station down the road.
Nick started working for him at age 11.
Nick Saban: If we washed a car when I worked for him at the service station and it was not done exactly perfectly correctly, he would say, "Wash it again.
" Armen Keteyian: And you had a fear, as I understand, of certain cars? Nick Saban: The navy blue ones and black ones were really hard to keep the streaks out of.
A single streak.
You had to do the whole car over again.
Armen Keteyian: Well, now we know where the attention to detail comes from.
Nick Saban: That's where it comes from.
Nick thought he wanted to run a car dealership after playing football at Kent State.
But while serving there as a graduate assistant coach in 1973, he told his dad that coaching was in his blood.
Nick Saban: And I said, "I think this is really what I want to do.
" That was the last conversation we had, 'cause he passed away the next weekend.
His dad was only 46.
Saban began a nomadic coaching career, never staying in one place more than five years.
After he won the 2003 national championship at LSU, Saban was lured to the NFL to coach the Miami Dolphins.
As Miami struggled late in the 2006 season, the University of Alabama, a fading football power still living off the days of the great Bear Bryant was searching for a new coach.
Alabama made Saban its No.
1 target.
Saban uttered these words.
Nick Saban: Well, I guess I'll have to say it then, "I'm not going to Alabama" Armen Keteyian: Do you regret that, Nick? Saying Nick Saban: Oh absolutely.
I mean I Armen Keteyian: You said, flat out, "I'm not going to Alabama.
" Nick Saban: Right.
I really in the end, you know, it affected my integrity as a person by saying one thing and doing something else.
Today in Alabama, Saban is treated like a god.
Saban now has his own statue outside the stadium, a tribute to his national titles.
Alabama has made him the highest paid coach in the game.
Dr.
Robert Witt, Alabama's chancellor, approved the contract.
Armen Keteyian: Nick Saban, Dr.
Witt, makes north of $5.
5 million a year.
Very simply, is he worth it to the University of Alabama? Robert Witt: Nick Saban's the best financial investment this university has ever made.
We have made an investment that's been returned many-fold.
Armen Keteyian: The best investment the University of Alabama has ever made? Dr.
Robert Witt: I believe Three national championships in four years has translated into a 112 percent increase in revenue for Alabama's athletic department.
Last year, $4 million was returned to the university in the form of academic scholarships.
[Nick Saban: Good morning guys.]
At 62, Saban continues to coach as if his next paycheck is in doubt.
[Nick Saban: We can't go to the line on offense and stand there until the shot clock runs out trying to figure out what the defense is going to do so we can call a play.]
Saban's idea of relaxation during the season? Watch more film -- and no one is more relentless at evaluating recruits.
Armen Keteyian: Is it true that if you really like a high school player you will have every single play of his career put on tape? Nick Saban: And I watch that guy.
Armen Keteyian: Every single play? Nick Saban: Every single play.
If you think Saban needs to get a life, well, you're not alone.
But in a profession that is a minefield for couples, he's been married to his grade-school sweetheart Terry for 42 years.
Armen Keteyian: What's the secret of you two staying together? Terry Saban: Besides winning? Armen Keteyian: Yeah.
That helps.
Terry Saban: That does help.
Together, they've been a powerful team, never more so than in April 2011, when a monstrous tornado ripped through Tuscaloosa.
This was the view from Saban's office.
Sixty-five people were killed.
Terry Saban: It's the first time in 42 years I've ever seen him totally put football aside.
Nick Saban: I immediately called a team meeting and I said, "Look guys, you know, we have to go serve the people who have always supported us.
" [Terry Saban: This family has two little girls.]
Terry and Nick's fund, Nick's Kids, has helped rebuild 15 homes destroyed by the tornado.
It's another sign that Saban seems to have found the right fit in Tuscaloosa.
This is his seventh season at Alabama, the longest he's ever coached at one place.
Nick Saban: There's not the University of Mars, which is a better place.
You know, there's not that.
So now it's easy to be comfortable here.
Armen Keteyian: He appears more content.
Is that a fair assessment? Terry Saban: I think that's true and I think I've heard the assistant coaches who have been with him for years say that he's mellowing a little bit.
And yet, outsiders will see him on the field or in, at practice and say, "Mellowing relative to what?" Remember No.
4, Eddie Jackson, the poor freshman who couldn't do anything right back in August? Well, he stuck with it and by late September, here he was starting in an important game against Mississippi.
He intercepted a pass and helped the Crimson Tide shut out Ole Miss.
Armen Keteyian: How gratifying is that for you Nick to see that kind of growth? Nick Saban: That's really what I enjoy about all this, you know, is to see guys, you know, do that.
But sometimes you invest the same time in another guy and they don't make the progress.
And that can be just as frustrating.
Saban and his players were tested in September in front of one of the most intimidating crowds in the country: a showdown at Texas A&M, the only school to beat Alabama last year, against a magician named Johnny Manziel.
[Announcer: Manziel magical playOh my gosh!!!.]
When Manziel and A&M raced to a 14-0 lead in a matter of minutes, Alabama didn't fold.
The Tide methodically regrouped, did what they were taught, played the play and, ultimately, prevailed in its biggest game of this season to date.
[Announcer: Touchdown Alabama!.]
In the locker room afterward, the players' reward was not only victory, but something just as treasured: praise from the perfectionist.
Nick Saban: This is a great win.
It's a great win for our program.
It's important and we did a great job of competing in the game today.
To get behind, 14-0, on the road and show the resilience to come back like we did.
I'm so happy, happy, happy.
I can't tell ya.
And I'm so proud, proud, proud! There's a lot more to what makes the Alabama football program so strong, and part of it is strength itself.
We'll show you how and why Alabama may be the most-fit team in the country Wednesday on 60 Minutes Sports on SHOWTIME.
It will hold what's being called "al Qaeda's Nuremberg," the first trial of those charged with plotting the attacks on 9/11, 12 years ago.
And as chief prosecutor, Martins will be asking for the death penalty.
Pre-trial proceedings have begun, and he's already taking fire because the five defendants were all subjected to widely-condemned interrogation techniques used by the CIA, among them waterboarding; and because of where the trial will be held -- at the notorious military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.
Since Congress passed a law banning the defendants from setting foot on U.
S.
soil, everyone involved in the case has to go there.
Every six weeks for the last year and a half, Gen.
Martins and his team of prosecutors, defense lawyers, bailiffs, interpreters -- about a government charter to the U.
S.
naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, at a cost of $90,000 a flight.
[Greeter: Hello everyone and welcome back to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, pearl of the Antilles.
.]
When the trial begins more than a year from now, it'll be the biggest war crimes tribunal since Nuremberg and much of the burden rests on Gen.
Martins' shoulders.
Lesley Stahl: So when it's a military tribunal or commission, how is it different from a civilian proceeding? Gen.
Martins: The similarities really swamp the differences.
I mean, the accused is presumed innocent, the prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Gen.
Martins knows a lot's at stake: the 9/11 defendants must be seen as getting a fair and legitimate hearing.
Gen.
Martins: We've got to ensure that what we do in these cases is justice and can't be accused of being vengeance.
And that's a great challenge.
Lesley Stahl: Now we have talked to some of the defense attorneys and they've told us it's a show trial.
Gen.
Martins: Uh-huh (affirm).
Lesley Stahl: It's a charade.
Gen.
Martins: Well, I mean, I don't think the test of any system is what the defense counsel say about it.
But hard as he tries to ensure that it's seen as a fair trial, he keeps running into one obstacle after the next --starting with the reputation of the venue itself -- Guantanamo Bay -- where 164 detainees sit in cells, most of them for nearly 12 years.
And, except for the 9/11 five, most have not been charged.
One of them cried out when he saw our cameras.
Detainee: Please, we are tired.
Either you leave us to die in peace, or either tell the world the truth.
Let the world hear what's happening.
Lesley Stahl: Twelve years.
With no charges.
Gen.
Martins: That's one of the reasons I have a sense of urgency to try everybody that we can try.
Lesley Stahl: Does it in any way taint what you're doing? Gen.
Martins: I wouldn't characterize it as taint.
I believe that it influences people's perceptions.
Another thing that influences perceptions is the elephant in the courtroom: the question of torture.
All five of the 9/11 defendants were held incommunicado for years at CIA black sites, where they were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques.
They were legal at the time, but have since been banned by the Obama administration.
Walid bin Attash's attorney, Cheryl Bormann, says she's not allowed to talk about the interrogations because they've been classified.
Lesley Stahl: Was your client waterboarded? Cheryl Bormann: I can't answer the question.
A proposed protective order bans me from telling you anything I know about what happened to my client, beginning from the moment of his capture in 2003 until the moment that he landed in Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
Lesley Stahl: So if you were to tell me that he was subjected to a specific, harsh interrogation technique, you would be breaking a law? You would be-- Cheryl Bormann: I would be.
Lesley Stahl: --convicted of something? Cheryl Bormann: I would be prosecuted.
And imprisoned for, I believe, up to 30 years.
David Nevin: This is not a system that is set up to deliver justice.
David Nevin represents Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - KSM, known as the architect of 9/11.
Considering that KSM has admitted to the worse terrorist attack on U.
S.
soil, you would think the case might be open and shut.
But part of the problem is that he was waterboarded 183 times in one month.
Nevin filed this declaration detailing the treatment of his client.
But after the censors got through with it, this is all that made it into the public record.
David Nevin: Think about this for a minute.
The government says they can't talk publicly about what happened to them because it's classified.
If the government didn't want to reveal its secrets to them, it shouldn't have tortured them.
And yet-- Lesley Stahl: Well, no, no.
The government said, "We were trying to stop the next terrorist attack.
" They were trying to stop the next attack.
They're not all totally evil, right? Cheryl Bormann: Good intentions-- of course not.
Good intentions pave the road to hell, though.
Right? What about statements KSM made during the waterboarding? The law says any evidence "obtained" through harsh interrogation techniques is inadmissible.
But there's a loophole.
Gen.
Martins: It is possible for a voluntary statement to be made after a passage of time at-- in a different location perhaps with different questioners.
And so, once the CIA's harsh interrogations of the five 9/11 defendants stopped, the FBI sent in a so-called "clean team" to question them all over again - but without coercion.
And those statements are admissible.
Cheryl Bormann: It's like Alice going down the rabbit hole, right? You torture him for three years.
You keep him in captivity after you stop torturing him in a place like Guantanamo Bay.
And then you send in agents from the same government that tortured him for three years to take statements.
And then if you're Gen.
Martins, you say, "Well, those are now clean.
" Guess what? They're not.
Gen.
Martins: I understand, I understand the argument.
The people do not forfeit their chance for accountability because someone may have crossed a line or have coerced or subjected to harsh measures somebody who is in custody.
Lesley Stahl: So you're saying that it's unfair to the justice system not to be able to question these guys later.
Gen.
Martins: The point that I reject and that the law rejects is that there can be no voluntary statements following an instance of coercion.
Justice requires that you look deeper, that you determine if the statement-- even though there had been a prior instance-- was nevertheless voluntary.
And there can be such statements.
Navy Commander Walter Ruiz is a military attorney representing Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
Cmdr.
Walter Ruiz: Gen.
Martins - I respect him.
I believe he is a patriot.
I believe that if our government asked him to sell ice to Eskimos he would try his best, if he believed it was in our nation's interest.
But ultimately, you have a system where we've classified evidence of war crimes, where you have loopholes for torture and coercion.
Every day we listen to the national anthem in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but yet the constitution has been kicked down the road and is persona non grata in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
David Nevin: At the end of the day I think we all have to look at each other and say, "Are we doing this?" Lesley Stahl: Your client KSM, he admits that he was the mastermind of 9/11.
He didn't wear a military uniform.
He wasn't on a real, traditional battlefield.
He hid among civilians.
This is a bad guy, by his own confession.
David Nevin: Yeah, you know Lesley-- Lesley Stahl: You're not saying -- he's not the mastermind? David Nevin: Here's what I'm saying.
I'm saying that in the United States, we have a process.
We follow it.
We've always followed it.
We apply it to everyone except not now.
There will be a lot of firsts in this trial by military commission - given the CIA's tactics, the unique nature of the crime, and unprecedented legal questions that are now being fought over in pre-trial motions at this high-security legal complex.
This is the first time cameras were allowed to videotape where the trial will take place.
Lesley Stahl: This is the courtroom where the first American war crimes trial is taking place since World War II.
These tables are for the defendants.
One each for the 9/11 five.
And this is for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of 9/11.
He's defendant number one, as you can clearly see.
And this is where he sits.
He has his own screen to read court documents.
If he wants to hear the Arabic translation, it comes out through that box.
While we were here, he appeared in court in a long henna-dyed red beard and a military camouflage jacket over a long white robe.
He sat here quietly and calmly.
If he had acted up, he could have been shackled.
When court is in session, the defendants are transported from a secret facility on the base, known as Camp 7, to these holding cells where they stay until they're escorted to the courtroom.
They're on the so-called "black mile corridor" beneath dark sniper meshing that camouflages the walkway.
This is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's holding cell, an 8x12-foot steel, air-conditioned room with an arrow pointing toward Mecca for when he prays.
The defendants are under constant surveillance - even, their lawyers claim when they're not supposed to be.
Another complication.
Cheryl Bormann: I'm meeting with my client in a room.
And up on the ceiling, like you would normally find in a jail with a client, there's a smoke detector.
And one day I'm sitting in there and my client stops one of the correctional guards and says, "That's-- what is that? You're listening, aren't you?" And-- and the guard says, "Of course we're not listening.
That's a smoke detector.
" She believed the guard, but decided to look up the manufacturer of the smoke detector - on Google.
Cheryl Bormann: And it turns out that they only make listening devices that are intended to look like smoke detectors and other surreptitious listening devices.
We find this out while we're in Guantanamo.
I go, "What?" Motions were filed, witnesses were called and while it was confirmed that the smoke detector actually was a listening device, the judge determined that Gen.
Martins and his team were not eavesdropping.
But the defense lawyers suspect it was the CIA and they base that on something that happened this past January.
David Nevin: I was speaking one day in the courtroom and making innocuous, unclassified remarks and suddenly the red hockey light goes off.
When the red hockey light went off, everything stopped.
That's only supposed to happen when classified information is disclosed and the only ones authorized to activate the light are the judge or the court's security officer.
David Nevin: I looked at the judge and I looked at his court security officer.
And both of them looked at each other as if to say, "I didn't do it.
Did you?" Lesley Stahl: So who did it? Gen.
Martins: I don't know.
Lesley Stahl: You actually don't know to this day who did it? Were you horrified? Gen.
Martins: I don't get horrified or not.
I stay in that band between grim determination and tempered optimism.
The judge found out who did it: the CIA.
Lesley Stahl: Wait a minute, are they in the courtroom? David Nevin: No, they're not in the courtroom.
Lesley Stahl: Where are they? David Nevin: I don't know.
I'd like to know.
Lesley Stahl: So wait, they're-- David Nevin: I've demanded to know.
But the government won't tell me.
Lesley Stahl: Do you think that the CIA has any kind of right to keep listening because these were terrorists or they're charging that they were terrorists.
They believe that these guys were bad guys, who did a dastardly deed.
David Nevin: The constitution guarantees everybody certain rights.
And one of them is that you don't listen in on the lawyers in a serious capital case.
You just don't do it.
Lesley Stahl: The defense teams say that the CIA has a completely different agenda from yours.
Gen.
Martins: We are going to do these trials fairly.
All these allegations they can raise and we have a process to sort that out.
Lesley Stahl: I've heard people say, "Look, he's trying KSM.
Why are we contorting ourselves?" These guys slaughtered 3,000 innocent people.
This was not the battlefield; these were people going to work.
Gen.
Martins: Well, I understand the point of the view and the criticism.
The law requires, and justice requires, the prosecution must present proof beyond a reasonable doubt before we hold someone guilty.
And we aim to dispense justice that we can be proud of.
Imagine paying six figures for a car and being told you had to stand in line a year to get it.
Oh, and by the way, it has two seats, no trunk to speak of, and it gets 14 miles to the gallon.
You might think a company like that wouldn't last.
But Lamborghini of Italy, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Fifty years of creating the world's most exotic supercars.
And fifty years of dodging bankruptcy.
No, a car company like that wouldn't last [Scott Pelley: Ready to go.
.]
but then, Lamborghini never was a car company.
It's a builder of fantasies.
You don't realize how overused the word "breathtaking" is until something actually takes your breath away.
[Scott Pelley: Wow! Mario Fasanetto: If you open aggressive the throttle you have 570 horsepower.
Scott Pelley: Oh, magnificent.
.]
Lamborghini test driver Mario Fasanetto finds the limits in the cars.
Though this time on Bologna's Imola race track, the limits belonged to the driver, not to the 200 mile-an-hour, $200,000 Lamborghini Gallardo.
[Mario Fasanetto: Brake, brake, brake, brake, more, brake, brake more, more, more Scott Pelley: I'm not making you nervous am I? Mario Fasanetto: Nahh.
.]
Maybe he's calm because this is the least expensive Lamborghini.
There's a $400,000 car and a $4 million car, but before we see those have a look at how much road Lamborghini has put between the cars of today and it's humble beginnings.
The creator, the late Ferruccio Lamborghini, was a wealthy builder of tractors --the John Deere of Italy.
Morley Safer met him in our first story on Lamborghini in 1987.
Mr.
Lamborghini collected Ferraris but he found the clutches weak.
The story goes he complained to Enzo Ferrari who said, "stick to tractors, I'll build the cars.
" In Italy, insult is the mother of invention.
Lamborghini sought to teach Ferrari a lesson with lavish interiors, brawling V12 engines and style like nothing else.
The namesake loved Spain's traditional sport so each model is named for famous bulls.
The latest beast to bolt into the ring is the Aventador.
[Scott Pelley: The transmission has three settings it has 'road,' 'sport' and 'race.
' Mario Fasanetto: Race, you have to set race! Scott Pelley: I'm not sure everyone should select race on this car.
.]
We didn't "race" through Northern Italy because of traffic and because our jet helicopter with our camera can fly only 170 miles an hour.
The Aventador will do 217.
Zero to 60 in under three seconds.
While 700 horsepower propels you forward the Aventador will set you back between $400-500,000.
[Scott Pelley: Are we still on the right road for Lamborghini? Mario Fasanetto: Next roundabout on the left.
.]
We're coming into the town of Sant'Agata in what Italians call "Motor Valley.
" [Scott Pelley: This is the original factory? Mario Fasanetto: Yes, there is just one Lamborghini, the original.
.]
The original factory floor is thoroughly modern now.
It's spotless, which seems to be a point of pride in that, even the floors are squeaky clean.
But it's also an old fashioned place where hands know the feel of a bolt properly torqued and eyes judge each pane perfectly placed.
Ranieri Niccoli is their industrial director.
Scott Pelley: You know what I didn't see on your assembly line that I see on every automotive assembly line-- Ranieri Niccoli: Tell me.
Scott Pelley: Robots.
Ranieri Niccoli: No way.
Clear, no way.
No, all the Lamborghini are done by people, Italian people from Sant'Agata.
This is-- this is our value.
No way for robots.
Ford builds about 23,000 vehicles a day.
Lamborghini builds 11.
Each purchased a year in advance.
Each unique.
Scott Pelley: How many colors do you offer? Ranieri Niccoli: Whatever you want.
Scott Pelley: Any color I want? Ranieri Niccoli: Yeah, basically we try to fill out the requests of our customers.
Scott Pelley: I can walk in with my favorite tie Ranieri Niccoli: Or with the-- or your-- or-- or with the bag of your wife, yes.
Scott Pelley: Has any woman ever matched the car to her handbag? Ranieri Niccoli: Yes.
It happens.
Scott Pelley: No, really? Ranieri Niccoli: Yeah, really.
It's funny.
We see here pink cars or strange colors, really.
Scott Pelley: The customer is king? Ranieri Niccoli: Yes, of course.
As we walked the plant with Niccoli, we were struck by a sharp division of labor.
Scott Pelley: Nearly everyone on this assembly line is a man.
But, if you go over to where the interior is done, nearly everyone is a woman.
Why is that? Ranieri Niccoli: I can tell you this.
We really need women on the-- on the interior.
Because the precision that the women has, unfortunately we as men, we don't have that.
Scott Pelley: We don't have the precision? Ranieri Niccoli: Not the precision and the manuality to really-- to create a masterpiece like our interior.
Scott Pelley: The car is male on the outside and female on the inside? Ranieri Niccoli: Let's say it like this.
Yeah, it could be.
Scott Pelley: These don't look like any other car on the road.
Something that makes you smile.
The guy with the proud father look is Filippo Perini, the chief designer, in charge of the look of Lamborghini.
Scott Pelley: When we were driving the Aventador today on the road there was a truck and the passenger in the truck turned around to take a picture of the car.
Why does that happen? Filippo Perini: Because we are in Italy, people love beautiful cars.
Perini runs this shop where designers who love beautiful cars take their inspiration, we're told, from the contours of insects and fighter planes.
Scott Pelley: Do you ever design something and show it to the engineers and the engineers say, "We can't build that"? Filippo Perini: Yeah, yeah, it's all-- it happened always like this.
When we asked Perini for Lamborghini's DNA, he drew a single arc.
Scott Pelley: That, is a Lamborghini line.
Filippo Perini: This is a really a Lamborghini line, this is our own way to produce cars.
An uninterrupted line from front to rear.
Scott Pelley: It's very beautiful and it is completely impractical.
There is no trunk.
Filippo Perini: No, we have a good trunk in front.
Scott Pelley: Uh, alright.
Yeah.
But if you want your golf clubs you're going to have to have another car.
Filippo Perini: I think with a car like this you won't have time to do golf.
Scott Pelley: You won't want to play golf because you'll be driving your car.
Filippo Perini: Yes, yes.
One thing that could fit in there are Lamborghini's profits.
In the $400,000 car business any recession slams on the brakes.
Mr.
Lamborghini and a series of owners have lost fortunes.
That began to change in 1998 Volkswagen bought the company under its Audi brand.
At a race in England, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann told us the company has been making money now since 2006.
One of the selling points in addition to style and speed is the sound.
Engineers labor over the growl.
You can tell that a Lamborghini's coming before you ever see it.
In a New York showroom, we asked Chief Operating Officer Michael Lock the most important question a buyer can ask.
Scott Pelley: What's wrong with it? Michael Lock: What's wrong with it? I think, if I were to be critical, I would say that we need to do a very good job of managing the perception of our brand.
Want to make sure that Lamborghini is seen as a friendly brand.
Scott Pelley: After the Great Recession, especially this soon after the great recession, you want to make sure your driver's not scorned.
Michael Lock: No, indeed.
I think that's very important.
Lock told us that even though the company is profitable thanks to German discipline the car still has to be sold the Italian way.
Scott Pelley: You're trying to seduce people Michael Lock: Indeed.
Scott Pelley: with this car or because that's the only way you can get somebody to write a $400,000 check? Michael Lock: Seduction is certainly an important part of that process.
Yes.
Scott Pelley: They have to be just a little bit irrational about this purchase.
Michael Lock: They have to be a little bit romantic, certainly.
Scott Pelley: What's the difference? You'd have to be hopelessly romantic and maybe embarrassingly rich to join Lamborghini's hundred and fifty owners shipped their raging bulls from all around the world for a 10-city, five-day, sprint through Italy.
It looks like we sped these pictures up, but of course we didn't.
An Italian road can really look like this when the steering is as precise as Leonardo da Vinci and the brakes have the stopping power of Sophia Loren.
How do you get this past the highway patrol? Build them a Lamborghini.
Nearly every model from every era filled the piazzas to be blessed, fussed over, photographed and admired as part of the national heritage.
No two alike, each crafted as a matter of taste.
Even this was an offer Lamborghini couldn't refuse.
The rally ended with a coming out party for a new car named for a bull that murdered a matador.
Lamborghini built only four Venenos, one for itself and three that sold for $4 million each.
Scott Pelley: Who buys that? Michael Lock: Very few people.
And, the most difficult thing to manage in the process of selling those cars was having a palatable story for the six or seven who we couldn't get a car for.
Scott Pelley: You had to tell them why they couldn't buy a $4 million car? Michael Lock: I had to explain that we had a very limited production available on these cars.
Scott Pelley: How many of the three Veneno buyers bought the car sight unseen? Michael Lock: All three of them.
The golden anniversary party ended with opera and fireworks as all Italian celebrations must.
With five decades in the rear view mirror, Lamborghini is still exploring the limits of the science of engineering and art of irrational romance.
Nick Saban is the most dominant head coach today in college football -- and maybe all of American sports.
With the regular season in its home stretch, Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide is once again undefeated and ranked No.
record third straight national title and fourth championship in five years.
He is worshipped by his rabid fan basefeared by his rivals, who see Saban as an intense, tightly wound control freak who takes little or no pleasure in all of his success.
For the last eight months, Saban granted 60 Minutes rare access inside his program.
What we learned is while the rest of college football may be chasing Nick Saban, Nick Saban's chasing something else: perfection.
[Players: Get your mind right!.]
The chant is get your mind right.
It's the mantra of the man out front, the heartbeat of the Alabama Crimson Tide, head coach Nick Saban.
His program has become the gold standard of college football.
To get a sense of how Saban has driven Alabama to the top we begin with an afternoon in early August.
An energized Saban couldn't wait to get to his favorite part of the day.
[Nick Saban: Okay, blow the horn.
Let's go.]
To practiceA thunderstorm had forced his team indoors, but it didn't dampen Saban's passion to teach his players the finer points of football.
[Nick Saban: I want you to step, step, step.
I'm In demanding his players be as exacting as he is, Saban can be volcanic.
[Nick Saban: I've already told you three times!!.]
Armen Keteyian: Why are you so tough on people? Nick Saban: Well, I don't know if it's fair that I'm really tough on people.
We create a standard for how we want to do things, and everybody's got to buy into that standard or you really can't have any team chemistry.
You know, mediocre people don't like high achievers and high achievers don't like mediocre people.
Saban doesn't miss anything.
On this afternoon, a freshman caught Saban's eye [Nick Saban: Hey Eddie!.]
No.
4, Eddie Jackson, who seemed lost [Nick Saban: You an offensive lineman or what?.]
Jackson, a defensive back, was stretching with the offensive linemen.
Trying to master Alabama's complex schemes was too much, too soon for Jackson.
[Nick Saban: Hey Eddie! It's kick support!!! It's Cover Two, why you backing up!!! You're supposed to come and force the edge!!!.]
Jackson looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole.
[Nick Saban: Come on Eddie!.]
All of Alabama's players have been there.
Safety Vinnie Sunseri remembers the day he and a fellow defensive back forgot a play.
Vinnie Sunseri: And he throws his hat.
It's a straw hat and it's not really heavy.
He's able to throw it like Zorro at us.
I thought it was going to hit us and knock us out.
And just starts yelling at us.
And we were like, "We just got Sabaned.
" Armen Keteyian: Got Sabaned? Vinnie Sunseri: Yeah.
[Nick Saban: You messed up my hat .]
But Saban's players have faith in their coach largely because of a revolutionary approach he designed years ago called The Process.
Ignore the scoreboard, Saban preached to his players.
Don't worry about winning, just focus on doing your job at the highest level, every single play, and the wins will follow.
Nick Saban: The approach was to challenge the players to play every play in the game like it had a history and a life of its own and tried to take the other team out of the game and make it all about us in terms of what we did.
Armen Keteyian: It's like jumping out of a plane without a chute.
I mean in your business, what? We're not going to focus on winning? Nick Saban: Right.
But it really is the simple way to do it and it's the best way to do it.
AJ McCarron: It's a way of life around here.
It's the way we play the game.
It's the thought process behind everything.
Star quarterback AJ McCarron was involved in the one play that epitomizes just how deeply The Process has been programmed into Alabama's players.
Late in last year's blowout win over Notre Dame in the championship game, McCarron and his center Barrett Jones called different plays at the line of scrimmage, both insisting they were right.
A bizarre shoving match ensued on national TV.
Saban loved it.
Nick Saban: The game's probably won, and they're Armen Keteyian: Well, it's 42-14 Nick Saban:still trying to get, yeah, they're still trying to get it right, all right, which to me is the kind of pride and performance that you want in the players.
Armen Keteyian: Can you see the critics saying, 'Come on, coach, just take a breath.
Relax.
Enjoy the moment.
' Nick Saban: Right.
I, I can, I can see the people saying that.
But we're still coaching.
We're trying to get 'em to do it right.
I don't ever want the players to relax in a game.
Saban urges his team to do things the right way, all the time.
So when this player arrived late for a meeting because he was busy taking out his earrings, it didn't go over well, [Nick Saban: Number one thing: Be on time.
'Cause it shows you care.
All you're telling me is your earrings are more important than your damn football.
.]
Saban never lets up.
No matter the stage.
On a sweltering June day when he could have taken the afternoon off, Saban was instructing young campers as if he was preparing to play LSU.
Even the simple act of handing out camp certificates turned into a life lesson.
[Nick Saban: Shake my handshake my hand.]
Why is Saban such a perfectionist? The answer lies on another football field, in a small, West Virginia mining town.
Saban's father, Nick Sr.
, started a Pop Warner team called the Black Diamond.
Today, the Black Diamonds are still playing, on the same field, only it's now named for Nick Sr.
, a local legend.
Nick remembers how his dad's long, demanding practices always ended on a hill in the back of the end zone.
Nick Saban: And it was like a three-level hill.
And it's almost straight up.
And we, we would line up at the bottom of that hill.
And that was our conditioning.
We'd have to sprint up that hill.
And it was so dark he couldn't tell whether you made it to the top.
So there was a row of trees up there.
You had to bring a leaf back to him, prove that you made it to the top.
Nick grew up in a coal camp, with just nine streets.
His dad owned this service station down the road.
Nick started working for him at age 11.
Nick Saban: If we washed a car when I worked for him at the service station and it was not done exactly perfectly correctly, he would say, "Wash it again.
" Armen Keteyian: And you had a fear, as I understand, of certain cars? Nick Saban: The navy blue ones and black ones were really hard to keep the streaks out of.
A single streak.
You had to do the whole car over again.
Armen Keteyian: Well, now we know where the attention to detail comes from.
Nick Saban: That's where it comes from.
Nick thought he wanted to run a car dealership after playing football at Kent State.
But while serving there as a graduate assistant coach in 1973, he told his dad that coaching was in his blood.
Nick Saban: And I said, "I think this is really what I want to do.
" That was the last conversation we had, 'cause he passed away the next weekend.
His dad was only 46.
Saban began a nomadic coaching career, never staying in one place more than five years.
After he won the 2003 national championship at LSU, Saban was lured to the NFL to coach the Miami Dolphins.
As Miami struggled late in the 2006 season, the University of Alabama, a fading football power still living off the days of the great Bear Bryant was searching for a new coach.
Alabama made Saban its No.
1 target.
Saban uttered these words.
Nick Saban: Well, I guess I'll have to say it then, "I'm not going to Alabama" Armen Keteyian: Do you regret that, Nick? Saying Nick Saban: Oh absolutely.
I mean I Armen Keteyian: You said, flat out, "I'm not going to Alabama.
" Nick Saban: Right.
I really in the end, you know, it affected my integrity as a person by saying one thing and doing something else.
Today in Alabama, Saban is treated like a god.
Saban now has his own statue outside the stadium, a tribute to his national titles.
Alabama has made him the highest paid coach in the game.
Dr.
Robert Witt, Alabama's chancellor, approved the contract.
Armen Keteyian: Nick Saban, Dr.
Witt, makes north of $5.
5 million a year.
Very simply, is he worth it to the University of Alabama? Robert Witt: Nick Saban's the best financial investment this university has ever made.
We have made an investment that's been returned many-fold.
Armen Keteyian: The best investment the University of Alabama has ever made? Dr.
Robert Witt: I believe Three national championships in four years has translated into a 112 percent increase in revenue for Alabama's athletic department.
Last year, $4 million was returned to the university in the form of academic scholarships.
[Nick Saban: Good morning guys.]
At 62, Saban continues to coach as if his next paycheck is in doubt.
[Nick Saban: We can't go to the line on offense and stand there until the shot clock runs out trying to figure out what the defense is going to do so we can call a play.]
Saban's idea of relaxation during the season? Watch more film -- and no one is more relentless at evaluating recruits.
Armen Keteyian: Is it true that if you really like a high school player you will have every single play of his career put on tape? Nick Saban: And I watch that guy.
Armen Keteyian: Every single play? Nick Saban: Every single play.
If you think Saban needs to get a life, well, you're not alone.
But in a profession that is a minefield for couples, he's been married to his grade-school sweetheart Terry for 42 years.
Armen Keteyian: What's the secret of you two staying together? Terry Saban: Besides winning? Armen Keteyian: Yeah.
That helps.
Terry Saban: That does help.
Together, they've been a powerful team, never more so than in April 2011, when a monstrous tornado ripped through Tuscaloosa.
This was the view from Saban's office.
Sixty-five people were killed.
Terry Saban: It's the first time in 42 years I've ever seen him totally put football aside.
Nick Saban: I immediately called a team meeting and I said, "Look guys, you know, we have to go serve the people who have always supported us.
" [Terry Saban: This family has two little girls.]
Terry and Nick's fund, Nick's Kids, has helped rebuild 15 homes destroyed by the tornado.
It's another sign that Saban seems to have found the right fit in Tuscaloosa.
This is his seventh season at Alabama, the longest he's ever coached at one place.
Nick Saban: There's not the University of Mars, which is a better place.
You know, there's not that.
So now it's easy to be comfortable here.
Armen Keteyian: He appears more content.
Is that a fair assessment? Terry Saban: I think that's true and I think I've heard the assistant coaches who have been with him for years say that he's mellowing a little bit.
And yet, outsiders will see him on the field or in, at practice and say, "Mellowing relative to what?" Remember No.
4, Eddie Jackson, the poor freshman who couldn't do anything right back in August? Well, he stuck with it and by late September, here he was starting in an important game against Mississippi.
He intercepted a pass and helped the Crimson Tide shut out Ole Miss.
Armen Keteyian: How gratifying is that for you Nick to see that kind of growth? Nick Saban: That's really what I enjoy about all this, you know, is to see guys, you know, do that.
But sometimes you invest the same time in another guy and they don't make the progress.
And that can be just as frustrating.
Saban and his players were tested in September in front of one of the most intimidating crowds in the country: a showdown at Texas A&M, the only school to beat Alabama last year, against a magician named Johnny Manziel.
[Announcer: Manziel magical playOh my gosh!!!.]
When Manziel and A&M raced to a 14-0 lead in a matter of minutes, Alabama didn't fold.
The Tide methodically regrouped, did what they were taught, played the play and, ultimately, prevailed in its biggest game of this season to date.
[Announcer: Touchdown Alabama!.]
In the locker room afterward, the players' reward was not only victory, but something just as treasured: praise from the perfectionist.
Nick Saban: This is a great win.
It's a great win for our program.
It's important and we did a great job of competing in the game today.
To get behind, 14-0, on the road and show the resilience to come back like we did.
I'm so happy, happy, happy.
I can't tell ya.
And I'm so proud, proud, proud! There's a lot more to what makes the Alabama football program so strong, and part of it is strength itself.
We'll show you how and why Alabama may be the most-fit team in the country Wednesday on 60 Minutes Sports on SHOWTIME.