Original subtitles

>> NARRATOR: They study...

they stalk...

and they lie in wait...

for a chance to kill the

President of the United States.

But just who are the assassins?

Why do they kill?

>> BILL O'REILLY: He was going

to eliminate Lincoln and the

South would rise again.

>> JOHN KOERNER: This man is

just totally bizarre and off the

charts.

>> NARRATOR: And what are their

secret reasons for wanting to

change the world?

>> O'REILLY: This crazy idiot

carried it out, and he skated.

That is disturbing.

>> NARRATOR: There are those

who believe in the existence

of a book.

A book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America.

A book... whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secret profiles?

Secret connections?

Secret conspiracies?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

January 21, 2013.

Washington, D.C.

President Barack Obama makes his

way to the U.S. Capitol Building

to take the oath of office for

a second term.

The event draws a crowd of

approximately 800,000

well-wishers, all eager to get

a glimpse of the most powerful

person in the world.

But there-- placed strategically

among them-- are the president's

bodyguards, the men and women

of the Secret Service.

>> NORMAN JARVIS: At any

inauguration, there's an implied

threat that the president could

be targeted for assassination.

>> RONALD KESSLER: The Secret

Service check out all the

buildings, weld shut the manhole

covers on Pennsylvania Avenue so

that they can't put any

explosives down there.

They also remove any mailboxes

along the route where there

could be bombs planted.

>> NARRATOR: President Obama's

Secret Service code name is

Renegade.

He rides to his inauguration in

a heavily armored Cadillac-style

limousine, also known as "The

Beast."

It is engineered to withstand

everything from conventional

explosives and bullets to

radiation and even biological

attacks.

But just how safe is the

president if someone really

wants to harm him?

>> JARVIS: There's a 360-degree

umbrella of protection that's

provided to him-- overhead,

below him, to the sides-- that

even protects the crowd that's

attending the inauguration.

All of the resources available

to the Secret Service are

brought to bear to protect that

environment.

>> NARRATOR: As he steps to the

podium, the Commander in Chief

is further shielded by

bulletproof glass, a visible

reminder that the President of

the United States is the

ultimate target for political

radicals, both at home and

abroad.

Even at the White House, the

president is constantly shielded

by multiple levels of security.

>> AL CORBI: Typically, you

want to have a facility

that's-- we call it "hardened"--

a facility that's actually built

to withstand someone shooting

a rifle at the White House, um,

someone bringing any kind of

explosive or any kind of threat

to the building.

When you harden a building,

you need to do it invisibly.

Materials are put into the

walls.

They're not seen.

The exterior of the building

looks just as normal as it ever

did.

The interior of the building--

the drywall and all-- looks just

as normal.

>> KESSLER: The president has

the Seal of the President on his

desk, on various coffee tables,

and that actually, when turned

over, sounds an alarm that

brings Secret Service agents

running.

>> DAN EMMETT: There are so many

threats that come in on a daily

and weekly basis against all

presidents that have ever been

in the Oval Office that it would

fill The New York Times on a

daily basis.

>> ALLAN LICHTMAN: 43 men have

been president.

Four of them were assassinated.

That's almost a ten-percent

murder rate.

Four others had attempted

assassinations.

Some of them very near misses.

That's almost a 20% rate of

attempted assassinations.

No other job in the history of

the modern world has led to as

high a percentage of murders and

attempted murders as the

presidency of the United States.

>> NARRATOR: In the case of

President Barack Obama, the

number of threats on his life is

particularly high.

>> C. DANIEL SPRIGGS: Whenever

you're the first, it's very

historic.

In this particular case,

President Obama is the first

African-American, so therefore

anything that might come in the

way of harm to him also becomes

very historic.

>> MARK POTOK: When Obama was

nominated, initially, in the

summer of 2008 at the Denver

Democratic National Convention,

there was a skinhead plot to

murder him.

That October, before the

election occurred, there was

another skinhead plot in

Tennessee, uh, that aimed at

murdering Obama.

There was a plot by a particular

man in Maine to set off a dirty

bomb, uh, at the inaugural

festivities.

So there's a very real threat

of assassination or at least

attempted assassination.

>> NARRATOR: But just how does

the Secret Service deal with

such a large volume of threats

on the president's life?

Are they all treated with the

same degree of scrutiny?

Or are some easily dismissed as

idle threats or hoaxes?

>> JOE PETRO: When the Secret

Service receives a threat

against the president, it's

evaluated and it's evaluated

quickly.

>> SPRIGGS: The Secret Service

categorizes its levels of

threat, and so there's a

delineation, if you will,

between the levels of threat.

>> NARRATOR: Class 1 and Class 2

individuals are considered the

least likely or least able to

carry out their plans.

But a Class 3 is considered the

most dangerous.

>> JARVIS: A Class 3 person is

somebody that has the military

background, maybe familiarity

with weapons and the means to

execute on that threat.

They have the desire and they

have the ability to plan and

execute.

That person presents an extreme

danger to the president, and we

watch them very closely.

>> NARRATOR: Fort Stewart,

Georgia-- August 2012.

Four active and former U.S.

Army soldiers-- members of a

terrorist group called FEAR,

which stands for: Forever

Enduring Always Ready--

are apprehended.

>> TOM DURDEN: The objectives

and aims of FEAR was the

overthrow of the government,

including the assassination of

the President of the United

States.

And from what the evidence has

shown, it was not an idle

threat.

>> ISABEL PAULEY: They had

acquired and stockpiled $87,000

worth of military grade assault

rifles; thousands of rounds of

ammunition; Tannerite, which

is an explosive.

In addition to their military

training, they were practicing,

uh, at shooting ranges.

They had members in their

organization who were traine

snipers by the United States

government.

>> NARRATOR: The accused

mastermind behind the anarchist

group was an active duty U.S.

Army private by the name of

Isaac Aguigui.

>> PAULEY: He recruited members

from the military post of Fort

Stewart, Georgia.

They saw themselves as the true

patriots should they assassinate

the president.

>> ERIC HICKEY: Anarchists want

to, uh, get rid of governments

and-and take care of the masses,

and you feel that you're going

to be a hero, that you're doing,

uh, the will of the people

because everyone else is afraid

to do it.

>> NARRATOR: Since Aguigui's

arrest, five more members of the

secret militia group have been

apprehended.

But does this really mean that

FEAR no longer poses a threat?

>> PAULEY: There still could

be members of this group at

large.

The specifics of what we know

are not of public record yet.

History has shown us that one

person who has no training and

experience can carry out an

assault on the President of the

United States.

When you take United States

trained soldiers, who are

intelligent, who have combat

experience, clearly the-the

threat, uh, is a very real one.

>> NARRATOR: Is it really

possible to protect the

President of the United States?

Are the Secret Service's methods

so modern and so foolproof that

we can rest easy in the notion

that the Commander in Chief is

not at risk?

Or is it only a matter of time

before an assassin's bullet once

again changes the course of

history?

>> NARRATOR: Chemical weapons,

IEDs, dirty bombs...

in today's war-torn world,

weapons of mass destruction have

become more accessible to

political radicals than at any

time in human history.

But could the biggest threat to

the President of the United

States still be from a lone

gunman?

>> JARVIS: All the things that

the Secret Service addresses to

protect the president surround

the idea that somebody could

netrate a couple of layers of

protection and get to the

president, within handgun range,

and launch a fatal assault.

>> EMMETT: If you go all the

way back to presidential

assassinations, beginning with

the first one: President Abraham

Lincoln was assassinated by a

lone gunman.

(gunshot)

If you look at 22 November, '63,

President Kennedy-- Lee Harvey

Oswald, the lone gunman.

The men and the women who

directly surround the president

are the final defense between

the lone gunman and the

president.

>> NARRATOR: In September of

1975, President Gerald Ford came

close to becoming the fifth U.S.

president to fall victim to a

lone shooter...

(gunshot)

...not once, but twice, over a

two-week period.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and

Sarah Jane Moore became the

first two and, to date, only

women in history to try and

take the life of the President

of the United States.

>> LICHTMAN: Gerald Ford is

the only president to have

experienced two assassination

attempts.

Squeaky Fromme was a member of

the murderous Manson Family.

She decided she would try to

shoot President Ford.

However, she did not actually

get off a shot.

she was wrestled down by the

Secret Service.

The other woman, Sara Jane

Moore, actually got a shot

off...

(gunshot)

...at President Ford and missed

him just by about six inches...

and was trying to get off

another shot when a former

Marine, Oliver Sipple, tackled

her and prevented her from

getting off the next shot.

>> NARRATOR: Washington, DC.

March 30, 1981.

After delivering a speech at the

Washington Hilton Hotel,

President Ronald Reagan is

escorted by the Secret Service

to his limousine.

>> SPRIGGS: I preceded the

President as he...

uh, exited the Washington

Hilton Hotel, which was the

VIP entrance and exit.

And as we exited onto the

street, there was a crowd off

to my left.

And as the president makes his

way to the right rear of the

door of the limousine, then the

shots rang out.

(rapid gunshots)

I turned immediately to my left

when I heard the gunshots, and I

drew my weapon, and actually

could see an individual firing

in my direction.

>> NARRATOR: The would-be

assassin is a 25-year-old white

male-- John Hinckley Jr.

>> EMMETT: Special Agent Tim

McCarthy moved between the gun

and the president and took a

bullet directly in the stomach

that could have easily struck

the president.

(gunshot)

>> KESSLER: That is what agents

swear to do.

They're very brave, they're very

patriotic, and they will

actually take a bullor the

president.

>> SPRIGGS: The special agent

in charge, Jerry Parr,

immediately moved to evacuate

the president from the line of

fire, and forced him into the

rear of the vehicle.

(rapid gunshots)

Six shots were fired, and the

round that actually wounded the

president came as a direct

result of a ricochet off of the

limo door.

>> PETRO: Jerry couldn't find

any bullet hole and there was

no blood, but a minute or so

after the car left the hotel,

Jerry noticed there was blood

coming out of the president's

mouth and made the decision to

send the cars to the hospital

and not to the White House.

>> NARRATOR: In addition to

Secret Service Agent Timothy

McCarthy, the other victims of

the attack were police officer

Thomas Delahanty and Reagan

press secretary James Brady,

who suffered a bullet wound to

his head which left him

permanently disabled.

But after the chaos subsided,

two questions remained: Who was

John Hinckley Jr.?

And why did he try to kill the

president?

>> LICHTMAN: John Hinckley was

the son of a Texas oilman, and

Hinckley apparently was obsessed

with the actress Jodie Foster...

and somehow believed that by

doing something that would make

him famous, like killing a

president, that somehow that

would bring him into a

relationship with this actress.

He was not in his right mind.

>> NARRATOR: On June 21, 1982,

John Hinkley Jr. was found

not guilty by reason of

insanity, a verdict that

confounded the prosecution and

angered the nation.

But was John Hinckley Jr.

really just another mentally

disturbed lone gunman?

Or might he have been-- as some

conspiracy theorists believe--

part of a larger and more

insidious secret plot?

>> WEBSTER TARPLEY: In order to

understand any kind of

terrorism, any kind of

assassination, even

destabilizations, you've got to

have a conceptual framework.

You've got patsies...

moles...

and technicians.

When we say "patsies," these are

typically deranged loners,

disturbed individuals.

Then we have the moles inside

the institutions of government.

And these moles are there to

make sure that, for example,

that patsies are not arrested.

And then you have the ones that

are ve seldom seen, and these

are the technicians.

These are most likely trained

professionals.

At the scene of the shooting of

Reagan, it's quite possible that

there was a patsy, John

Hinckley, who was a psychotic

who probably has very little

idea of what's going on.

>> NARRATOR: But is there

evidence that Hinckley was just

a patsy?

And if so, who else might have

been involved?

>> LICHTMAN: Judy Woodruff,

immediately afterwards, claimed

she heard a shot coming from

elsewhere, from a ledge

overhanging the presidential

limousine, which apparently gave

a better angle at President

Reagan.

But that story seemed to have

disappeared.

It faded away.

>> TARPLEY: The day after Reagan

was, uh, shot, the Houston Post

featured a headline which was:

Bush son was to have dined

with Hinckley's brother.

>> LICHTMAN: The Hinckley and

Bush families knew each other.

They were both involved in the

Texas oil business.

And Scott Hinckley and Neil

Bush, George H.W. Bush's son,

were friends.

Now, these connections have

produced conspiracy theories

that the Bush family was behind

the attempted assassination of

Ronald Reagan.

>> NARRATOR: Was the Hinckley

and Bush family connection

simply a strange coincidence?

Perhaps.

Although George H.W. Bush's

prior involvement as the

Director of the CIA has placed

him-- and his family-- under

greater scrutiny and greater

suspicion than any other U.S.

president.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme...

Sara Jane Moore...

John Hinckley Jr.--

all judged to be mentally

unstable, and yet each were

capable of penetrating layers of

Secret Service protection.

But how?

Could the notion of a political

conspiracy really be so

farfetched?

Or does the truth lie in the

examination of four previous

assassination attempts...

that didn't fail?

>> NARRATOR: May 30, 2009.

President Barack Obama and his

wife Michelle hop aboard a small

military plane and head to New

York City for what the First

Couple describes as a "date

night."

They dine in Manhattan and then

quietly attend a public

performance of the Broadway

play Joe Turner's Come And

Gone.

A normal evening for most

Americans, but when you're the

President of the United States

it can become a matter of life

and death.

>> EMMETT: Anytime you leave

the White House with the

president, you are vulnerable.

The most vulnerable sites are

the ones that we consider to be

off the record.

In other words, no one knows the

president's going there.

There might be just that one

person in that venue that

doesn't know the president's

coming, yet they're armed,

and now they see their

opportunity.

>> NARRATOR: Modern history

shows that political figures

across the globe are at the

greatest risk of assassination

before the very people they are

sworn to represent.

And such was the case more than

100 years ago.

Virginia, April 9, 1865.

Confederate General Robert E.

Lee surrenders to Union

officers.

After four years of bloodshed,

and an estimated 750,000

casualties, the American Civil

War is officially over.

But hundreds of Confederate

soldiers and sympathizers

continue to fight on, bitterly

holding on to the idea that the

South will rise again.

And the chief target of their

wrath?

President Abraham Lincoln.

>> O'REILLY: All throughout the

Civil War there were plots to

kill Lincoln.

It was, like, every day there

was another plot.

And so Lincoln did not take it

seriously enough to provide

himself with security;

he didn't have any security.

>> KESSLER: Military people kept

saying, you know, you need

protection, you need at least

police protection.

The Civil War was going on.

No, he didn't want it.

>> SPRIGGS: The idea of one...

person or persons wanting to

assassinate the President of the

United States would just be such

a horrific crime that... the

reity of it just didn't seem

as realistic as it does today.

>> NARRATOR: Despite the

heightened threat, and the fact

that the former Confederate

border is less than three miles

away in Virginia, on April 14,

President Lincoln and his wife

decide to attend a performance

of Our American Cousin a comedy

at the nearby Ford's Theatre.

They are unaware that actor and

Confederate sympathizer John

Wilkes Booth is lying in wait,

plotting the president's demise.

>> LICHTMAN: John Wilkes Booth

hated Lincoln, hated the Union,

hated African-Americans, and had

about, uh, nine or ten other

conspirators assisting him.

And the idea was not only to

kill Lincoln, but also to kill

Vice President Johnson...

(gunshot)

...and Secretary of State

Seward.

(gunshot)

>> KOERNER: The line of

succession-- the president,

the vice president,

and the secretary of state--

kill all of them.

If those three people are dead,

it could revive the war effort.

>> O'REILLY: Booth and his merry

men, they all had their

assignments.

They got to Seward, Secretary

of State, they stabbed him.

It was amazing that he didn't

die.

They didn't get to Johnson.

They blew that entirely.

But then Booth himself got into

the theater.

>> NARRATOR: Lincoln's only

protection outside the

presidential booth is bodyguard

John Parker.

>> LICHTMAN: John Parker was

considered fairly incompetent,

yet somehow he was assigned to

the small detail responsible for

guarding President Abraham

Lincoln.

>> O'REILLY: Lincoln was sitting

up above the stage in a private

booth, and there was a guard

supposed to be outside; he left

his post.

Booth was able to go in with

a little gun, right behind him,

popped him right in the back of

the ear.

(gunshot)

(panicked shouts, screams)

It was so crazy, and that's the

shame of it.

This crazy idiot carried it out

because there was no security,

and that's the bottom line.

>> NARRATOR: Abraham Lincoln

dies from the bullet wound

at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865,

the first President of the

United States to be

assassinated.

Ten days later, John Wilkes

Booth would meet his own death

at the end of a pistol, after

being hunted down and trapped in

a barn in Virginia.

(gunshot)

But with the assassin dead,

serious questions remained.

Were Booth and his fellow

conspirators really just

Confederate sympathizers?

Or were they part of a bigger

plot?

>> LICHTMAN: The bigger

question in the plot

involving Lincoln is whether

there was a bigger conspiracy

involving the Confederate

Government, the Confederate

Secret Service, and perhaps even

President Jefferson Davis of the

Confederacy.

>> KOERNER: John Wilkes Booth

has a number of connections to

the Confederacy that are just

undeniable.

He visits the St. Lawrence Hotel

in Montreal, Quebec, a known

hangout for the Confederate

Secret Service.

When the shooting takes place,

he leaves by the back door,

goes on to Virginia, escapes,

he meets with members of the

Confederate Secret Service, like

Samuel Mudd and other people.

>> NARRATOR: But if there was

a Confederate conspiracy to

overthrow the government, why,

then, was Secretary of War

Edwin Stanton, the second most

powerful man in Washington,

not targeted?

>> KOERNER: Stanton does a

number of unusual things that

point to his complicity in the

assassination.

Lincoln asks for two different

people to help guard him that

night, and Stanton denies both

of them access to the president.

>> O'REILLY: The thing that's

disturbing in the Stanton story,

Booth had a diary.

That diary was given to Stanton.

17 pages were removed from the

diary.

Now maybe... maybe Booth did it.

I would love to know... what

happened to those 17 pages

and what they said,

in John Wilkes Booth's diary.

If there were an American Book

of Secrets, why didn't Parker,

the guy who left his post, who

was supposed to guard Abraham

Lincoln, who went down to the

bar to drink...

why was he not prosecuted?

Why?

He skated.

That is disturbing.

>> NARRATOR: Might the

assassination of Abraham Lincoln

have been more than a plot by

disgruntled Confederate

sympathizers?

Could it have been an attempted

coup engineered by a prominent

member of his own cabinet...

one that would ensure that the

South would be harshly punished

during the years after the war?

If so, does that mean John

Wilkes Booth was little more

than a patsy...

a pawn in a much larger

political game?

Such was the claim by another

alleged presidential assassin

nearly 100 years later--

a man named Lee Harvey Oswald.

(gunshot)

>> NARRATOR: Originally founded

three months after the

assassination of Abraham Lincoln

to fight the looming threat

posed by counterfeit currency,

the Secret Service operated as

part of the U.S. Department of

the easury.

That is, until July 2, 1881.

>> KOERNER: James Garfield, the

president, is at the Baltimore &

Potomac railroad station in

Washington, and he's waiting for

the car to take him to New

England, and in approaches this

man, Charles Guiteau, who has

been stalking the president for

weeks.

And he shoots the president

twice-- once in the back...

(gunshot)

...once in the shoulder.

(gunshot)

>> NARRATOR: Unlike John Wilkes

Booth before him, the assassin

Charles Guiteau supposedly acted

alone in killing the president.

But while Booth may have had

delusions of grandeur, Guiteau

was criminally insane.

>> KOERNER: Even when Guiteau

was on trial for the

assassination, he was joking

with the media, he dances

to his own hangman's noose,

singing and trying to perform

for the crowd.

I mean, this man is just totally

bizarre and off the charts.

>> NARRATOR: Following the

assassination of President

Garfield, the Secret Service was

officially ordered to protect

the life of the commander

in chief, but only part-time.

That is, until two decades

later, in 1901, when another

U.S. president would become

the target of a secret plot.

On September 6, President

William McKinley traveled to

Buffalo, New York, to attend the

Pan-American Exposition,

a World's Fair that attracted

tens of thousands of Americans.

At a gathering inside the Temple

of Music, McKinley greeted the

public as three Secret Service

agents stood by his side.

>> LICHTMAN: A man named Leon

Czolgosz approached the

president with his hand wrapped

in a handkerchief, concealing

a pistol.

And Czolgosz fired two shots at

the president...

(gunshots)

...one of which penetrated his

abdomen.

>> NARRATOR: Some historians

claim the plot to kill McKinley

involved a mysterious accomplice

known only as "the Italian."

>> KOERNER: Once the Italian

reaches the president, he takes

the president's hand and just

does not let go of it.

The agents evacuate him from the

scene, and it leaves the

president completely open to be

shot without any protection from

the Secret Service.

(gunshots, panicked shouts)

>> NARRATOR: According to the

anarchist theory, "the Italian"

fled the scene, but not before

being accidentally photographed

by an Edison motion picture

camera that had been set up to

film the president.

>> KOERNER: Very strangely,

this one man looks right into

the lens.

He's got this mustache, the hat,

dark appearance.

It fits the description the

Secret Service gave.

So it may have been him...

that looked into the camera

with this knowing smile...

that just got away with

murder.

>> NARRATOR: Could this smiling

man really be one of the

president's secret assassins?

And does that indicate that

McKinley's death was part of a

larger political conspiracy?

As the country mourned the loss

of its third martyred president

in just over three decades,

Congress finally took decisive

action.

The Secret Service would now

guard all future American

presidents 24 hours a day,

seven days a week.

But would even that degree of

full-time protection be enough?

November 22, 1963.

Dallas, Texas.

President John F. Kennedy

arrives at Love Field to a crowd

of enthusiastic supporters.

He climbs into the presidential

limousine, headed for a luncheon

with local leaders.

The motorcade route, published

in the morning papers, will

take the president through

Dealey Plaza.

(gunshot)

(gunshot)

(gunshot, panicked shouts)

>> WALTER CRONKITE: We just have

a report from our correspondent

Dan Rather in Dallas that he has

confirmed that President

Kennedy is dead.

>> NARRATOR: Within hours, the

killer is identified as Lee

Harvey Oswald, an employee at

the Texas School Book

Depository, from where the fatal

shots were fired.

He is 24 years old, married to a

young Soviet citizen, and

thought to be a pro-Soviet and

pro-Castro sympathizer.

>> LICHTMAN: The official story

says Oswald was the lone gunman.

A very disturbed individual,

kind of a loner, who had been

influenced by Communism in

Russia and decided that he would

assassinate the great capitalist

leader John F. Kennedy,

the President of the

United States.

He did so by firing three shots

from a window at the Texas Book

Depository overlooking the

presidential motorcade.

As a result, one shot shattered

the president's skull and killed

him.

>> EMMETT: It was insane, taking

an open-top limo, putting the

sitting President of the United

States in it and driving him

through a major metropolitan

city with high-rise buildings

and open windows on all sides.

If you were to speak with any

agent today, who was there that

day, they'll tell you they

failed, and failed miserably.

>> PETRO: We learned a lot of

things from the assassination of

President Kennedy.

I think we lost our innocence as

a country.

I became an agent eight years

after the assassination of

President Kennedy.

It was still very fresh in

everybody's minds.

I think we all recognized the

importance of what we were doing

and never let that happen again.

The lessons learned in Dallas

were that the perimeters were

not just arm's reach

or a handgun away-- that the

perimeters were wider.

>> NARRATOR: Of America's four

presidential assassins, three

are believed to have acted

alone.

But in the months and years

following the death of President

John F. Kennedy, literally

dozens of conspiracy theories

have found sympathetic

audiences.

Many are farfetched, some are

disturbingly credible, but none

have been able to prove

decisively that the official

report, as issued by the Warren

Commission in 1964, does not

provide an accurate account of

events.

>> LICHTMAN: People have

proposed all kinds of

conspiracies.

The military killed him because

they didn't want to wind down

the war in Vietnam.

Castro killed him because this

was revenge for attempts to kill

Castro.

The Russians killed him because

of his victory in the Cuban

Missile Crisis.

Lyndon Johnson killed him so

that he could become President

of the United States.

>> O'REILLY: The assassination

of JFK-- Oswald drove that.

Oswald was just a low-life

creep.

You don't hire guys like that.

>> NARRATOR: But if that is the

case, then why do the conspiracy

theories persist?

(crowd cheering)

>> PRESIDENT REAGAN: God bless

America.

>> LICHTMAN: The president has

this special mystical bond with

the American people, and it's

very difficult to believe a lone

assassin, particularly ordinary

people, could bring down the

most powerful person in the

country.

It makes us feel very vulnerable

if presidents, with all their

power, all their prestige, all

the people responsible for

guarding them, could be brought

down so easily.

>> NARRATOR: In the nearly 50

years since the assassination of

President Kennedy, the Secret

Service has successfully

protected each of the nine

succeeding presidents.

But could emerging technologies

pose new threats?

And is it possible that even the

Secret Service could be

infiltrated by someone looking

to kill...

the most powerful person in the

world?

(gunshot)

>> NARRATOR: Ironically, among

the most valuable tools in

protecting the current as well

as future presidents of the

United States are the lessons

learned from the past four

presidential assassinations...

and the nearly two dozen failed

attempts.

>> EMMETT: With all

assassinations or attempts, the

Secret Service goes back and

then completely dissects the

situation, looks at every

possible angle and tries to

determine what went wrong and

how can we fix it so that it

never happens again.

>> JARVIS: A number of things

have been instituted that you

can actually see: more

magnetometers in use,

the press pool being escorted.

>> NARRATOR: But while these new

measures will hopefully keep

past mistakes from being

repeated, can the Secret Service

ever be fully prepared for new

and emerging dangers?

November 1, 2012.

One week before President Barack

Obama's reelection, Florida

resident Christopher Castillo

posts a chilling message on

Facebook.

It reads: "If he gets reelected

I'm going to hunt him down and

kill him-- watch the life

disappear from his eyes."

Seven days after his post,

Castillo is arrested.

Three months later, on February

6, 2013, he is convicted of

threatening to kill the

president.

>> EMMETT: The social media

absolutely presents a threat to

the President of the United

States.

Any assassination attempt begins

with intelligence gathering, and

where that is going to generally

start is open-source

information.

In today's world, the lone

gunman can simply go online and

they can review a number of

programs which outline, in very

great detail, how the Secret

Service operates and how it

protects the president.

Social networking has made it

much more difficult to keep the

president safe.

>> NARRATOR: But of all the

plots against the president's

life, the most dangerous are

those that remain unknown...

until they are carried out.

(gunshot)

>> HICKEY: We've never had

anyone ever openly threaten a

President of the United States

and then go out and try to kill

him... because it's too much

of a challenge, it's too

difficult.

They don't want to draw

attention to themselves

beforehand.

>> NARRATOR: Of course, there is

always one other-- perhaps the

most frightening-- scenario.

What if the president were

attacked not from the outside

but from within?

What if his assassin was

standing close to him every day

as a member of the Secret

Service?

>> KESSLER: I think the Secret

Service definitely is vulnerable

to someone becoming an agent and

then engaging in assassination.

The Secret Service does not

polygraph its own agents.

They polygraph applicants before

they're hired, but after that,

no more polygraphing.

That is a big problem,

because you could have someone

who joins the Secret Service as

a mole in order to assassinate

the president.

>> TARPLEY: We have the moles

inside the institutions of

government.

Essentially it's a network of

people who are not following law

or constitution or policies of a

government, but they're marching

to the tune of a different

drummer.

Double agents, criminal

elements-- these are people

that can be maneuvered from

behind the scenes in order to

accomplish certain goals.

>> NARRATOR: Is it simply a

matter of time before another

American president is caught in

the crosshairs of an assassin's

political-- or even personal--

objectives?

Can they ever be 100% safe?

>> KESSLER: Protecting the

president is an impossible job,

because presidents, in the end,

decide what protection they

want, and if an agent says don't

go out in this crowd, the

president can just ignore that,

of course.

>> NARRATOR: Does the

president's need to campaign,

give speeches, shake hands,

and perform public duties

really pose the greatest threat

to the highest office?

And if so, does that mean that

the ultimate secret concerning

presidential assassinations is

that those constitutional

freedoms which guarantee

speech...

privacy...

and the right to bear arms...

are equally dangerous?

Perhaps.

Or perhaps the greatest threat

to the president is the

misconception that ending the

life of one person could change

the course of a nation...

or its destiny.

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