Original subtitles

(explosion, people screaming)

>> NARRATOR: Political

dissidents armed to kill...

>> CLINT VAN ZANDT: Because you

put on a uniform in this

country doesn't mean you adopt

what this country stands for.

>> NARRATOR: ... sociopathic

outsiders harboring hatred...

>> MAN: Get them out!

>> MANCOW MULLER: Why would they

turn against America? Why?

We took care of them.

>> NARRATOR: ...religious

zealots plotting mass

destruction...

>> DARYL JOHNSON: They carried

out 17 firebombings and ten

political assassinations within

the United States.

>> NARRATOR: ...and all of them

hiding in plain sight.

>> LAURA SULLIVAN: If you can

blend in with American society

and keep your mouth shut,

there's a high probability that

your attack is gonna succeed.

>> NARRATOR: But just who are

these killers in our midst?

>> MICHAEL DOWNING: It's people

that look like you and I.

>> NARRATOR: And is there any

way to stop them?

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 alliances?

Secret agendas?

(gun cocks)

Secret threats?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

September 11, 2001.

(jet engines whooshing)

(shouting, screaming)

New York City...

Washington, DC...

Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

>> MAN: Jump!

>> NARRATOR: For most Americans,

the word "terrorism" conjures

images of the 9/11 attacks--

a devastating and deadly strike

against the United States

executed by Osama bin Laden's

foreign militant organization

known as Al-Qaeda.

(man speaking indistinctly)

>> NARRATOR: But perhaps even

more frightening than the

terrorists whose plots are

hatched from overseas... are

those who plot against America

from within its borders...

...terrorists who live, work and

play right beside us...

terrorists who will stop at

nothing to cause mass

destruction, even if it involves

killing their friends and

neighbors.

>> VAN ZANDT: When we look at

an American terrorist, this is

someone, by and large, is an

American who salutes the flag,

who stands up with the National

Anthem, who goes to baseball

games, and then goes home in his

basement and builds bombs.

>> JOHNSON: Domestic terrorism--

I can sum it up in three words:

ideologically motivated

violence.

Domestic terrorism's occurring

about every other month here

in this country.

>> NARRATOR: Although the FBI's

Terrorist Screening Center

has an official terrorist watch

list, authorities state that the

exact number of American

terrorists is unknown.

Some experts estimate they could

number in the tens of thousands.

Boston, Massachusetts.

April 15, 2013-- Patriots' Day.

(man speaking indistinctly over

P.A., people cheering)

As Boston Marathon runners cross

the finish line...

(people screaming)

...two consecutive explosions

send shrapnel flying into the

crowded streets.

(explosion)

(panicked shouts)

>> OFFICER: Watch out!

Watch out! Watch out!

>> NARRATOR: Three people are

mercilessly murdered, and more

than 260 are wounded.

Four days later, one suspected

terrorist is killed, and the

FBI launches an unprecedented

search for a second terrorist,

by locking down the entire city

of Boston.

Within hours, a resident of

nearby Watertown, Massachusetts,

discovers the suspect hiding in

a boat in his very own backyard.

>> SEAN MURPHY: When I came into

Watertown, there was absolutely

no one on the roads.

There were no vehicles around.

It was surreal.

It was like a ghost town.

I'd never seen anything like it

before in my life.

We had hundreds of federal,

state and local police officers

here.

When I got to about here, I

noticed to my left that there

was a boat in the driveway.

I knew that if there was someone

in the boat, they could see me.

So my first thought was to take

cover.

So I was in that house with all

the snipers.

And when the suspect first

showed his face and hands in the

boat, that's when I knew it was

absolutely real.

That's when I knew we had this

guy.

What happened here in Watertown

could have happened anywhere.

This could have been anyone's

backyard.

>> NARRATOR: With one of the

terrorists dead, and another

captured, Boston breathes a sigh

of relief.

But a nation is left

wondering-- just who were these

terrorists?

And what made them want to

commit mass murder in the very

country they called home?

>> SULLIVAN: The Boston bombers

are an interesting case of

American terrorism, because they

really did grow up here.

They seemed just like any other

two brothers that were living in

an American city, living

American lives.

One was a boxer.

One was a wrestler.

They had friends.

And they seemed just like

everybody else.

>> MULLER: Dzhokhar and

Tamerlan, why would they turn

against America? Why?

We took care of 'em.

They were on welfare.

We fed them.

We gave 'em a college education.

Well, because they were never

for America to begin with.

>> NARRATOR: Friends of the

Tsarnaevs said the brothers

publicly voiced their disdain

for America, and even posted

what could be considered

numerous red flags by means of

social networks, like Facebook

and Twitter.

According to some reports, the

FBI even had files on Tamerlan

and Dzhokhar long before the

Boston attack.

>> VAN ZANDT: Russian security

services had come to the FBI and

said: these two guys, they've

got some very radical views.

At the time, they associated

with no one that would make them

significant enough to monitor

these guys 24 hours a day.

They weren't a big enough dot.

You know, we've got a lot of

dots out of 315 million

Americans to look at.

>> ALEX JONES: If you look at

the FBI statements, they claimed

they never heard of those

brothers.

They put them on TV for two days

and said: Who are they?

Three years before, they had

interviewed them.

They had them under

surveillance.

>> SULLIVAN: If you're plotting

a terrorist attack, and you

basically can blend in with

American society and keep your

mouth shut, there's a high

probability that your attack is

gonna succeed.

>> NARRATOR: Could the

authorities have missed an

opportunity to stop these

terrorists before they had a

chance to kill?

According to former boxing

partner Ibragim Todashev,

Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been

involved in a triple homicide in

September of 2011, over two

years before the Boston bombing.

While being questioned about the

murders, Todashev himself was

killed after allegedly attacking

an FBI agent.

>> MICHAEL RIVERO: The FBI was

looking at Todashev.

He was walking out and telling

everybody, "Hey, the FBI's

trying to get me to frame these

guys," and I think that's when

things got out of control, and

Todashev wound up being shot

multiple times, including one to

the crown of his head.

The FBI tried to claim he pulled

a knife.

That story was contradicted by

the Florida police who were

there.

Todashev's father said he had

just had knee surgery;

he was barely mobile.

It just looks like one of these

FBI situations that got out of

control and somebody died for

it.

>> NARRATOR: Did the FBI abandon

the triple-homicide case in

order to cover up their

involvement in the death of

their informer?

And by doing so, did they miss

an opportunity to arrest and

deport Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and

therefore prevent the Boston

Marathon bombings?

Perhaps.

But one thing remains certain:

the Boston bombings proved that

international terror can be

plotted and carried out within

America's borders.

And even after 9/11, it is

difficult to predict, and even

harder to prevent.

>> MURPHY: I think the bombings

of the Boston Marathon

definitely have changed our

country.

I think that we have to know

that this could happen anywhere.

>> SULLIVAN: I think most

Americans would be surprised to

learn that a domestic American

terrorist could be the person

living next-door to them, and

they wouldn't have any idea what

this person was capable

of doing until they did it.

>> NARRATOR: While some American

terrorists operate alone, others

find strength in numbers.

They prey upon the weak-minded,

and some even use faith...

as bait.

>> NARRATOR: September 24, 2009.

Springfield, Illinois.

29-year-old Michael Finton--

also known as Talib Islam--

drives a truck filled with

explosives to the Paul Findley

Federal Building...

...with the intent to blow up

the courthouse and everyone

inside.

But before he can strike,

authorities immediately

apprehend Finton on charges of

domestic terrorism.

>> DOWNING: The terrorist today

is-is... is not what the

stereotypical terrorist is,

that you see in movies or you

read in books.

It's people that look like

you and I.

>> NARRATOR: Years before the

attempted attack, Finton had

converted to Islam while in

prison.

It helped to fuel his desire to

become a fighter for jihad...

and wage war on the United

States government.

>> DOWNING: Prison

radicalization is a concern

for us.

We consider prisons to be

a community of some sort,

a community that could be

considered a community at risk.

We have people that are

converting to Islam in prison.

Some would say we call it

"Pris-lam."

So Pris-lam is actually a

cut-and-paste form of Islam that

is so far away from what the

moderate Muslims practice in

the world and in our country,

and it is a violent

interpretation of Islam.

And it's very dangerous, because

it's out of context.

These people that, uh, that

convert have about 30 seconds of

Islam and they call themselves

a Muslim.

>> NARRATOR: What is it about

doing time in American prisons

that makes former gang members

and common hoodlums such easy

prey for radicalization?

And is there any way to stop it?

>> DR. J. GORDON MELTON: For

people who have a certain

element of hostility in their

lives already, it's a fairly

simple step to fall into a

religious group, uh, which

offers them a sanction for

expressing that hostility.

That's something that many

extreme religions do, is they

sanction violence.

The ideology of the groups, the

religious beliefs of the groups,

uh, provide them solace, provide

them acceptance, provide them

with community.

>> DOWNING: Prisons created

really kind of an incubator,

where you could introduce this

radical Islamic ideology into

the prison system.

>> NARRATOR: One group that

reportedly recruits its members

from prison is known as Jamaat

al Fuqra-- Arabic for "Community

of the Impoverished."

>> JOHNSON: Jamaat al Fuqra was

formed in Brooklyn, New York, in

1980, and it's led by a man by

the name of Mubarak Ali Shah

Gilani.

And during the period of 1979 to

1990, it carried out 17

firebombings and ten political

assassinations within the United

States.

Sheikh Gilani recruited a lot of

convicted felons.

These convicted felons brought

with them criminal tradecraft,

violence.

He would take these new converts

and move them out to remote

areas of the country to his

jamaats.

>> NARRATOR: There are currently

at least 13 al Fuqra compounds

in operation across the United

States, all carrying out a quiet

and secluded existence...

out of the public eye.

>> JOHNSON: Jamaat al Fuqra

operates two front

organizations.

One is the Koranic Open

University, and the other is the

Muslims of the Americas,

which is a nonprofit,

tax-exempt, ethnic organization

that basically provides

fundraising to terrorists

overseas.

The Muslims of Americas'

recruitment strategy swelled the

ranks of that group to

approximately 3,000 to 5,000

individuals.

>> NARRATOR: In recent years,

reports of prison recruitment

for terrorism have declined.

But just because a terrorist

group seems inactive... it

doesn't necessarily mean it's

been disbanded.

It may only mean that it has

gone further underground.

>> DOWNING: Some reasons why

terrorist groups, individuals

go quiet is because they're

involved in some type of

strategic planning.

How are they raising money?

Do they deal in heavy weapons?

Are they researching weapons of

mass destruction?

So that's why the absence of

activity is not a measure of

success.

(siren wailing, indistinct

radio communication)

>> VAN ZANDT: Until they commit

a significant criminal act,

they're one more dot, they're

one more point on our radar,

but they're not a big point

right now.

And U.S. law enforcement is

stretched so thin...

that they have to respond to

what is the clear and present

danger today.

And tomorrow we'll deal with the

next one.

>> NARRATOR: But in addition to

terrorist groups who prey upon

the underprivileged and

disaffected...

there are those who secretly and

strategically recruit others in

our society.

And some of them are the very

people we most admire

and trust...

with our lives.

>> NARRATOR: According to the

Justice Department, there are

anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 gun

shows in the United States each

year.

Sales figures show that guns are

being bought in America now more

than at any time in our history.

But while the Constitution's 2nd

Amendment protects a citizen's

right to bear arms... there are

some who believe it may also be

making it easier for terrorists

to legally obtain weapons.

>> VAN ZANDT: America's greatest

strength is its greatest

weakness.

We're constantly trying to

strike that balance between our

freedoms and our safety and

security.

There are 285 million guns

in this country.

So does gun ownership flag

somebody as a terrorist?

Hopefully not.

>> NARRATOR: Could legally

obtained and Constitutionally

protected weapons be finding

their way into the hands of

terrorists...

terrorists who may seem the

least likely candidates for

radical recruitment?

(birds chirping, cawing)

December 5, 2011.

40 miles southwest of Savannah,

in Long County, Georgia.

In a forest near the Fort

Stewart Army base, two fishermen

discover the bodies of

19-year-old former private

Michael Roark and his

17-year-old girlfriend Tiffany

York.

Evidence leads authorities to

believe that they had been

violently murdered.

Five days later, the Georgia

Bureau of Investigation arrests

Army Private Isaac Aguigui,

Sergeant Anthony Peden, Private

Christopher Salmon, and Private

First Class Michael Burnett...

later charging them with the

double homicide.

Their motive?

To ensure that Michael Roark and

his girlfriend could not expose

the activities of a domestic

terror group, one in which

Roark was a former member--

a secret militia group called

F.E.A.R.

>> JOHNSON: The acronym F.E.A.R.

stands for "Forever Enduring,

Always Ready."

F.E.A.R. is a paramilitary

militia organization that has an

antigovernment conspiracy belief

system.

>> NARRATOR: At his arraignment,

Private First Class Michael

Burnett further outlined the

group's insidious and twisted

ideology.

>> BURNETT: To give the

government back to the people.

Yeah. Patriotism.

>> PAULEY: The express purpose

of F.E.A.R., as a whole, was to

overthrow the United States

Government, uh, and to

assassinate the president.

>> NARRATOR: But political

assassination was not the only

goal of this renegade group of

American terrorists.

>> PAULEY: They had planned to

take out the ammunition control

point on Fort Stewart.

If you have soldiers but you

don't have ammunition, they are

useless.

>> POTOK: They had a very

bizarre set of goals.

They talked about doing things

like poisoning the apple

orchards of the state of

Washington.

>> PAULEY: This would kill

civilians, create chaos,

interfere with the economy of

Washington State in a tremendous

fashion.

And, also, they planned on

taking out a hydroelectric dam

by way of a bomb.

The resulting flooding would

strike nearby nuclear power

plants, resulting, then,

in a nuclear catastrophe.

(explosion thunders)

>> POTOK: F.E.A.R. was a scary

group, as was shown by the fact

that they actually murdered one

of their own.

They had acquired an awful lot

of weapons and other

paraphernalia.

This group ultimately spent

$87,000 on bomb components and

other weaponry.

>> NARRATOR: In September of

2011-- just three months before

the double homicide-- Aguigui

reportedly purchased 15 assault

weapons from a gun supply store

in Wenatchee, Washington State.

A relative of Aguigui's raised

suspicion about the bulk

purchase to local authorities,

but since no laws were broken,

no action could be

taken against him.

>> DOWNING: I think we have

enough freedom to secure the

country, and to hunt

terrorists, to exploit

intelligence, but I think we

need to also respect the

Constitutional rights that we

have because that keeps us in a

position of legitimacy.

>> NARRATOR: In July of 2013,

F.E.A.R.'s leader, Private Isaac

Aguigui, pleaded guilty to

murder and criminal gang

activity.

He was sentenced to life

without parole.

Private First Class Michael

Burnett pled guilty to

manslaughter, while other

members of the F.E.A.R. group

were arrested on charges ranging

from theft and drug dealing to

violating Georgia's

anti-terrorism and street gang

laws.

>> VAN ZANDT: Because you put

on a uniform in this country,

doesn't mean you adopt what

this country necessarily stands

for, and doesn't mean you can't

turn around and use all that

training and education

against us.

>> NARRATOR: Are United States

armed forces unwittingly

recruiting and training a new

and highly armed generation of

American terrorists?

Perhaps.

But there are those who believe

that the greatest danger we face

is not at the hands of a

terrorist group,

but from individuals--

lone wolves who will stop at

nothing to cause chaos...

>> MAN: Get-get the camera

out of here!

>> NARRATOR: ...and mass

destruction.

>> NARRATOR: November 1, 2013.

Los Angeles, California.

While passengers make their way

to ticket counters and security

lines...

(gunshots, screaming)

...shots are fired from a

semiautomatic weapon, sending

hundreds into hysteria.

Before targeting his victims,

the lone gunman walks calmly

through the screaming crowd and

asks them if they are part of

the TSA, the airport's

Transportation Security

Administration.

Before he can be apprehended,

one person is dead, two are

wounded, and one of the world's

major transportation centers is

brought to its knees.

>> DOWNING: His focus was he was

angry with the government,

and the most symbolic form of

government for him was a TSA

agent in a TSA uniform.

>> NARRATOR: The shooter-- later

identified as Paul Ciancia-- is

one of an increasing number of

American terrorists who prefer

to act alone.

>> JOHNSON: One particularly

secretive nature of domestic

terrorism is their adoption of

leaderless resistance and lone

wolf tactics.

This emphasizes self-training,

surveillancing targets on your

own, and not relying on a group

identity.

>> NARRATOR: But not all lone

wolves are self-radicalized

American men, as proved in a

case that began on

October 16, 2009,

in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

At the Philadelphia

International Airport, the FBI

arrests Colleen LaRose,

a petite blonde-haired,

blue-eyed American woman.

Her crime?

Providing material support

to terrorists and plotting

an assassination.

>> VAN ZANDT: Colleen LaRose is

a very interesting person.

Obviously, because she's a

terrorist and she's a female,

which is rather unique in the

United States.

>> NARRATOR: According to

reports, in 2007, while

vacationing in Amsterdam with

her boyfriend, LaRose had a

one-night affair with a Muslim

man.

She kept the tryst a secret,

but a fascination with the man

and his religion grew.

After returning to the States,

she started to scour Islamic

literature, message boards and

videos, all while keeping her

self-radicalization hidden from

her live-in boyfriend.

She soon became drawn to the

concept of jihad--

martyrdom for a cause.

LaRose's radicalism eventually

went from advocacy to action

when a Swedish cartoonist named

Lars Vilks published what she

believed to be a blasphemous

cartoon.

>> VAN ZANDT: There's this

cartoonist who sketched out

this cartoon of the

prophet Mohammed,

and there's a death warrant,

basically, on him for having

done that.

So she's on the Internet.

She's recruiting people

to help her.

She's trying to come up with

money.

>> NARRATOR: LaRose gave herself

the alias "Jihad Jane" and

eventually raised enough

cash online to finance her

plot to kill Vilks.

>> VAN ZANDT: She travels to

Europe with the idea she's

going to commit this terrible

crime, this murder.

She doesn't do it, fortunately.

Comes back to the United States,

where the FBI and other

intelligence agencies have

picked up on her.

>> NARRATOR: Surprised to learn

of his girlfriend's secret

identity, LaRose's boyfriend

cooperated with the FBI, even

making the phone call that

convinced LaRose to return

to the United States.

But how could Jihad Jane's

boyfriend have shared a home

with her for years and truly

have no knowledge of

of her alternate life?

>> VAN ZANDT: Can you be this

close to another human being

and still not understand what

they're doing?

I think the answer is yes,

but usually it takes a little

work not to see everything.

>> NARRATOR: Colleen LaRose was

arrested on October 16, 2009,

but her capture remained secret

for five months while

intelligence agencies built

a case against seven other

people with the same covert

mission, brought together

by the Internet.

>> VAN ZANDT: The worst type of

terrorist to go against is the

intelligent lone wolf--

a man or a woman with the

ability to keep their mouth shut

and tell nobody else.

That's a tremendous threat

to us today.

>> NARRATOR: According to law

enforcement officials, lone wolf

terrorists are the hardest to

track and catch.

There is usually no one close

enough to them who suspect their

plans, and thus alert

authorities of their activities.

They also tend to keep a lower

profile and do little that

might attract attention or

arouse suspicion.

>> POTOK: People like Eric

Rudolph, the Olympic bomber;

Tim McVeigh, uh, the Federal

Building Oklahoma City bomber,

who looked very much like the

quote unquote "all-American

boy," and essentially are

indistinguishable from the

crowd.

>> VAN ZANDT: Whenever we go

back and do a psychological

autopsy on a terrorist, there

is usually something there that,

if we would have been looking

for it, it might have flagged

that person.

We learn from it,

but many times, people die.

>> NARRATOR: But as law

enforcement agencies work

harder and smarter in their

efforts to stop future attacks,

a new breed of American

terrorist has emerged,

one whose deadly acts are not

committed with guns

or bombs...

but with the stroke

of a keyboard.

>> NARRATOR: January 19, 2012.

(protesters chanting)

Individuals from the activist

group known as Anonymous shut

down Web sites across the

nation...

...including those belonging to

the Department of Justice,

the Motion Picture

Association of America, and the

U.S. Copyright Office.

The cyber attack raises

questions about the security of

America's national

infrastructure.

>> VAN ZANDT: You can sit home

in your pajamas and you can

hack into the Pentagon, the CIA.

To be a member of Anonymous, all

you have to do is say you are.

So, you've got this group of

maybe hundreds of thousands of

people from all over the world.

They will attack organizations

or the government for doing

things that they, as individuals

or groups, may be doing the very

same thing.

>> GREGG HOUSH: At any given

moment, Anonymous could be used

for good or bad.

It just really depends on who's

decided to use the name that

day.

The big power of Anonymous is

that it's everybody.

Anyone from your younger

brother to your grandmother.

It's everyone in between.

>> SOLDIER: Fire in the hole!

>> NARRATOR: But could there be

even more secretive members of

Anonymous?

Members so secret that their

participation could be a

matter of national security?

>> HOUSH: There are members of

Anonymous coming out of Fort

Huachuca, the center of

intelligence in the military

and all these other places

where you wouldn't expect,

um, Anonymous to exist.

>> NARRATOR: Fort Huachuca, in

Arizona, is home to the United

States Army Network Enterprise

Technology Command,

known as NETCOM.

Is it possible that some of the

people entrusted to keep

government Web sites and

classified information secure,

are the very terrorists who are

violating that security?

>> VAN ZANDT: We saw, for

example, a young American

serviceman in the WikiLeaks

case who gave up thousands and

thousands of pages of

classified material.

The challenge for law

enforcement dealing with

Anonymous is that many times we

don't know who they are, why

they're doing it or what they're

going to do next.

>> NARRATOR: But outside of

threats to national

intelligence, could these cyber

terrorists also use their skills

to commit acts of murder?

>> IADONISI: If somebody's

heart device is controlled

online, and somebody's able to

get into where that device is

controlled from, you literally

are no different than somebody

that's a sniper overseas.

I mean, you can control a

person's pacemaker.

(flatline tone)

>> NARRATOR: But while the fact

that a terrorist could remotely

stop someone's heart with the

stroke of a few keys is

frightening, might there be even

greater cyber threats that could

impact Americans in even

larger numbers?

>> IADONISI: The areas where

people in this industry are

really concerned about, are the

attacks against our SCADA

systems-- Supervisory Control

and Data Access systems.

That includes natural gas,

electricity,

railways,

etcetera.

You apply a potential cyber

threat to those industries,

the game completely changes.

Somebody that was an individual

now effectively can wield

national power from wherever

there's an Internet connection.

>> DOWNING: What it does to the

mass population is what we're

very concerned about.

Transportation, the ability to

communicate, the ability to buy

food, to eat, to fuel your cars,

that's what we most worry about.

>> IADONISI: In this cyber

world, the real threat is not:

are they gonna hack into

a nuclear launch code

and launch a missile?

The real threat is hacking into

every single GPS transponder in

the United States on every

aircraft in real time and

shutting it down.

It's about hacking a hundred

million areas that each cause a

little bit of damage but added

up, bring down a nation.

>> NARRATOR: As the threat of

domestic cyber terror continues

to grow, there are those who are

tracking still more threats to

our national security,

and these threats involve

weapons that are even more

deadly than the largest bomb,

one that's nearly impossible

to detect.

>> NARRATOR: September, 2011.

At a restaurant in Georgia, four

gray-haired men are overheard

grumbling about the United

States government,

but although most of their

fellow patrons dismiss them as

just a group of grumpy old men,

there is one who is convinced

they are not just complaining,

they're plotting.

>> POTOK: They talked about

their plans, plans which

included assassinating

government officials and

kidnapping others.

The leader was taped saying

quote, "When it comes to saving

the Constitution, some people

got to die."

>> NARRATOR: Part of their plot

also involved releasing ricin,

a deadly toxin, from highways

in Newark, New Jersey;

Washington, DC; Atlanta,

Georgia; Jacksonville, Florida;

and New Orleans, Louisiana.

>> COLE: What ricin does, once

it gets into the system, is it

blocks the activities of cells.

So you actually have a death of

cells, meaning a death of organ

systems throughout the body,

whether it's the lungs, the

heart, uh, the liver, the entire

system, the body system breaks

down.

A person who inhales tiny

amounts of this can die.

>> NARRATOR: After their trial,

Ray H. Adams, age 57, and Samuel

J. Crump, age 71, were found

guilty of conspiracy to possess

and produce a biological toxin

for use as a weapon.

Frederick Thomas, age 73, and

Dan Roberts, age 67, pled

guilty to lesser charges.

Luckily, this would-be terrorist

plot was thwarted before it

could be carried out, but

could it really have posed a

serious danger to the American

public?

>> VAN ZANDT: We know that

these biological agents are out

there and not only that they

can kill, but they scare the

hell out of us.

>> ALI KHAN: You can find,

on the Internet, all sorts of

information about how to

manipulate biologic agents.

So, as that technology becomes

more pervasive in our society,

it's obviously easier for

somebody to think about how to

divert that for purposes against

society.

>> COLE: There are far more, um,

agents in different categories

that could cause widespread

damage in worst-case scenarios.

Could be anthrax.

Could be plague bacteria.

The potentially lethal list of

biological agents is amazingly

large... possibly couple

of hundred.

>> NARRATOR: January 9, 2014.

A chemical leak from a coal

company in West Virginia makes

its way into the Elk River,

affecting a reported 300,000

people.

>> MAN: Do not use any of

the water with the exception of

using it to flush the commodes

or for fire protection.

>> NARRATOR: Although the leak

was found to be an accident,

it exposed what could very well

happen if a terrorist

purposely poisoned any of the

77,000 dams and reservoirs or

the 168,000 public drinking

water facilities in the United

States.

>> KHAN: You can contaminate

large sources of water or

food with chemical agents.

You can, obviously, cause severe

death and disability due to

chemical agents, and we saw

that with previous wars.

>> NARRATOR: As more American

terrorists continue to

experiment with biological and

chemical weapons, can the United

States ever really be protected?

And what other even more

insidious methods of mass

destruction are out there,

just waiting to be discovered?

>> COLE: We have to think of

what anybody who has an evil

purpose in mind might consider.

Whatever may be fashionable or

real or likely today may not be

so when the next terrorist

attack occurs.

>> NARRATOR: With an estimated

tens of thousands of terrorists

operating in the United States,

is there any safe place for

Americans to hide?

>> SULLIVAN: There's a high

probability that there are

other people like the Boston

bombers, right now, in this

country, planning an attack.

>> IADONISI: They are the guy

that you got your coffee from

this morning at Starbucks.

They're the guy sitting in a

toll booth on Route 95.

They're an engineer at MIT, and

there might be, um, the waitress

at Denny's.

>> VAN ZANDT: Nobody catches

every terrorist before he

or she attacks.

It's the ones that slip through,

the blips on the radar, that we

don't pay attention to, those

are the ones that are

eventually going to come around

and hurt us, and we can't

stop every one of them.

>> NARRATOR: Points where

potential domestic terrorists

dwell litter the map of the

United States.

Considering the events that

have already happened and the

inevitable attacks to come,

is there any chance of winning

the so-called "War on Terror"?

Or will vigilant citizens

and law enforcement agencies

be able to restore the peace

and security that was

once taken for granted?

A peace that was shattered

by those who plot in the

shadows and could be living

right next door.

Captioning sponsored by

A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS

Captioned by

Media Access Group at WGBH

access.wgbh.org