but if i've learned anything from this experience, it is that i need to be more diligent and vigilant about reading those warnings because the consequences can be dire. ♪ may not have known who their neighbors were, but they knew something wasn't right. >> something illegal going on doesn't surprise me. when you mention the word terrorism, i'm going, lord, have mercy. >> hezbollah prior to 9/11 killed more americans than any terrorist organization. >> as soon as i saw that house, i knew something had to be going on. they're a strange lot. >> shouting death to america. >> their mission was to become a sleeper cell, to be activated if ordered to conduct an attack.

>> we were sitting on a ticking bomb. >> as former fbi agent and chairman of the house intelligence committee, i had oversight of all 16 of our nation's intelligence agencies. my name is mike rogers. i had access to classified information gathered by our operatives. people who risked everything for the united states and our families. you don't know their faces or their names. you don't know the real stories from the people who lived the fear and the pressure. until now. in 1928 in response to the israeli invasion of lebanon, special militia groups formed together with the support of iran to establish a legitimate political party called the party of god, hezbollah.

they were able to bring water to the communities to establish hospitals and maintain some semblance of education for the children during this war. in some way, they are viewed as the savior of lebanon. but their armed wing, ancer allah, disciplined, trained and equipped fighting force. >> we do first recognize hezbollah has a number of different dimensions to it. but the united states continues to be concerned about terrorist activities that go well beyond the borders of this country. >> so on one hand, hezbollah has a local identity as a legitimate political party in lebanon. on the other hand, they're a proxy for the iranian government. they're engaged in terrorist organizations and act as a militia at the behest of iran. >> iran's sponsorship of hezbollah is very comprehensive. it's providing weapons, training, intelligence, different types of covers.

they view the united states as being the primary supporter of israel, and by extension a legitimate, active target. prior to 9/11, no other terrorist group in the world killed more americans than hezbolh. >> the marine corps barracks bombing, 246 men killed. american embassy bombing in lebanon, horrific, horrific attack. to hijack a key flight 847 where a u.s. navy diver was singled out and tortured to death by hezbollah. and countless other attacks in the world. >> they have this global foote print. footprint. they have established themselves on virtually every continent in the world, in africa, in europe, in north america, in south america. in southeast asia. >> hezbollah not being a nation, not being a state, has the ability to travel throughout the

world to embed themselves in different communities. >> gaining all this combat experience and directed in many cases by a country who has aspirations of becoming a nuclear power, it makes them extremely drank russ. >> in 1992, the israeli embassy in buenos aires was bombed by hezbollah. followed by another attack on the argentine/israel association building. i was on assignment in latin america at the time. over 100 people had been killed by hezbollah. children in the grade school next to the embassy were shredded with glass and i saw that there had been sleeper agents in those locations. and so when i became chief of hezbollah unit in the fbi, i oversaw all counterhezbollah operations world wide. my primary objective was to find out, are there hezbollah sleeper cells in the united states?

>> sleeper cells are so dangerous because they're well concealed and they fly below law enforcement radar. >> a sleeper cell is when foreign operators, it could be a terrorist, it could be a spy, will embed themselves into a community. they will join clubs. they will go to school, get a driver's license, get a job. they take on all the appearances of being just another community member. >> they're sleepers because they're not committing the type of illegal activities that draw the attention of federal law enforcement. >> when actually they're establishing the capability to conduct espionage or conduct an attack if and when ordered to. in early 1995, an individual had run afoul of hezbollah and was afraid that he would be killed. so he walked into an american embassy and said, listen, i need some protection and he reported that a dangerous hezbollah operative was currently living in charlotte, north carolina.

and that operative was mohammed hammoud. >> who gave you the tip? >> we can't disclose that. at this time it's still classified. with this information, i contacted the charlotte office and they initiated an investigation on this individual. they started coming across more individuals in charlotte working together that seemed to have some kind of group. as we got more intelligence from overseas, we started seeing that this could be a hezbollah cell. no one would be looking for them here. this is not new york. this is not los angeles. this is charlotte, north carolina, the heart of america. when the vacancy for the terrorism supervisor in north carolina opened up, i applied for a position and was selected. there is skepticism on the part of our headquarters and everyone kind of chuckled because terrorism was so far from the minds of the fbi.

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t-mobile is with you. no signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected. in early 1995, an individual reported that a dangerous and trained hezbollah operative was currently living in charlotte, north carolina and that operative was mohammed hammoud. mohammed hammoud was young, handsome, charismatic. he had considerable combat experience. his father had been killed by the israeli defense force and he had familial connections with hasra nesrallah, the leader of hezbollah. the charlotte office started looking at this individual to

find out did hezbollah have sleeper cells in the united states? were they collected intelligence for an attack? did they pose a threat? for many years, mohammed hamoud attempted to get a visa to travel from lebanon to the united states. the consular officer that took his request smelled a rat. so hammoud and his two cousins traveled to venezuela and they spend about 40 days on margarita island and they obtain some really poor fake visas that they know when they get to jfk are going to be spotted. >> the three travel on separate planes and arrive in new york. their false visas are immediately detected. they caught mohammed hammoud red handed and he immediately claimed asylum from hezbollah, that he is being persecuted by hezbollah and they bought it, hook, line and sinker. so that gave him status. catch and release. he's out to do what he does as a hezbollah operative here in the united states.

there is another hezbollah member already in charlotte, north carolina, his name saed harb. he came to charlotte from lebanon in 1998. 1988. a wheeler, a dealer, astute with criminal activity. request harb can make a buck he would. he was engaged in such a broad range from criminality, everything from visa fraud, marriage fraud, identity theft. he can talk a tin ear off a brass monkey. se saed harb could. they wanted you to believe that they were here just looking for a better life and saed convinced each of them to pay american women to marry them so they can

obtain a green card. they went out and found exotic dancers in strip clubs and they're domino is co-workers. >> you think are you dealing with an immigrant seeking residency. you have no idea you are dealing with a terrorist. >> i come here to charlotte looking at this cell. who are they speaking with, what they are doing? and we start getting a picture of eight core hezbollah operatives. each one of these cell members was battle hardened, but engaging in low level criminal activity. and i knew that all it would take would be some action in the world against iran. it could be something that occurs in the middle east or asia, but in order to retaliate, hezbollah could order an attack in the united states. i bring it to my fellow supervisors in the office saying can you help me investigate these crimes? i want to be able to have some kind of leverage to arrest them to put pressure on them. >> i was initially skeptical that charlotte, north carolina would be tom hotbed for a

terrorist organization like hezbollah. i thought, well, maybe we're just trying to be relevant here. maybe we're trying too hard to be considered an important field office. they say, bob, the fbi does not investigate or pursue such a low level crime. we'd like to, bob, we just can't. >> before 9/11 and before the patriot act, there was a strict wall between criminal and intelligence investigators. >> back in the '70s, the fbi had its wings clipped. the legislature in the country said we don't want you to be spying on people in the united states. intelligence cases are entirely separate from criminal cases. >> the intelligence side was to gather information not to gather evidence, not to put people in jail. >> we were addressing terrorism like we did spies, identify them, monitor them, there was no policy to break these cells up. but we had to find some way to pursue them.

one night i was finishing up some work. very late in the office. probably everyone was gone. i went outside my office and saw an agent there doing some paperwork. i introduced myself and we started speaking. >> bob caught me at a good time. i had spent the first 11 years of my fbi career working criminal cases, despite the fact i had been an intelligence officer in the army, had travelled extensively throughout the middle east, had arabic language training, the bureau put me to work on criminal squads. >> rich had just come off a very successful cycle gang prosecution. this is exactly how i viewed this hezbollah cell. all the things we see in a terrorist cell you see in an outlaw motorcycle gang. that's why i needed an agency that understood both lives. >> right off the bat i'm like we got a rico case. >> there his expertise were cases involving influence

corrupt organizations, rico cases in which you group together individuals and prosecute them in that manner. >> these people were affiliated because of their membership in hezbollah. because they were engaged in criminality, they were vulnerable to the use of criminal statutes, to and including the racketeering statutes. >> that was their achilles heel, because in no other manner could we attack them except through criminal prosecution. >> by prosecuting them for racketeering, they'll no longer ever have the chance to set that bomb off in the united states. >> to investigate the breadth of their criminal activity, we put together what i call a defacto joint terrorism tack force. was it funded? no, was it official? no. but it was our task force. so we effectively developed this network to counter the hezbollah network. from the diplomatic security service from the immigration and naturalization service, from the charlotte police department, to all end their jurisdiction in a common effort. our goal was to not only penetrate the cell but to

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the charlotte hezbollah case began in earnest in nicaragua, march of 1997. the charlotte cell was made up

of eight operatives, sent here to support hezbollah and if activated to carry out a terrorist attack. so we had assembled our de facto joint task force. everyone had expertise working together to further develop this terrorism investigation. and the case was called operation smoke screen. >> it's a manpower intensive effort to conduct a physical surveillance of a terrorism target. a number of people doing different things in order to stay on a target and not get exposed. >> one of the things we did was to rent the house across the street from mohammed hammoud. we needed fbi agents portraying themselves as a young married couple to monitor that residence 24 hours a day to find out who is coming in there, at what time, what's happening there? >> mohammed hammoud was sort of

the spiritual leader. he knew the players. >> every thursday night, he would have a gathering at his home. >> these thursday night meetings were not just core cell members, like biker gangs that hang arounds. they would come and mohammed hammoud would appreciate to them. >> he was almost a dr. jekyll and mr. hyde personality. >> he was a low-key polite on one hand. at the meetings he would get fired up he would be the motivational speaker. >> he would show speeches by hezbollah leadership, videos of hezbollah operations overseas. >> and they would cheer as these attacks were depicted on their propaganda videos killing americans, killing people. >> and he'd solicit donations for the cause. >> did you have someone on the inside of the cell? >> i can never discuss sources or methods. >> after this hour had passed, a lot of people would leave, but there was a core group there. then they would start talking about their activities.

>> with hezbollah, the marquee activities are bombing buildings and airplanes and high-profile attacks. where we don't pay much attention to is how do they fund themselves? how does isis fund itself? how does al qaeda fund itself? >> they are generating income, operating businesses, blending in, and they use that money to finance terrorism against us. >> mohammed hamoud was the cell leader but the brains behind this entire conspiracy, this entire operation is saed harb. >> so saed harb, one of the things that he really got good at is adopting people's identities. he would make friends with people in the community in charlotte. they would go back to their country of origin, before he'd go back, he'd say, can i get your driver's license and basically adopt that identity and get a north carolina driver's license in that name. he had seven or eight identities like that. his phone would ring different ways depending on which identity

he was being called on so he could keep his identities straight. almost all of them had an alternate identity. mohammed hammoud did it with the same methodology. >> they would apply credit card and charge each one of these to its maximum amount purchasing cigarettes at one of the warehouses here. north carolina is a tobacco-producing state. cigarettes are taxed at a very low rate. i think it was 50 cents. a carton. whereas in the northern states, they were taxed up to $13 a carton. they would drive these cigarettes, a complete truckload and sell them to small mom and pop shops. >> they would resell them and undercut their competition because they weren't paying the taxes. so there were a number of traffic stops where police officers in different state would stop these people with a van load of cigarettes.

the cell members thought they were profiled as arab males. >> so what did they do? they hired females to drive the cigarettes up to michigan or new york. >> saed harb was very good recruiting families to drive for the group because he's just a charismatic guy. they all met and worked together at dominos. that was the public facade. that's how a lot of women got sucked into making the smuggling runs. >> we estimate every truckload of cigarettes netted about $30,000. and making four or five trips a week. >> how long do they do that? >> for several years. >> so how much did they make? >> over $8 million. and this was just one of their criminal schemes. >> they then used this money to purchase a pizza franchise, a house painting business. a used car lot. a gas station, where they can launder these funds, not only that, if they need more money, they commit insurance fraud. we know that they intentionally set fire to a pizza business they had for more money.

so when you look at this case, in its pieces, it's cigarette smuggling. so what? the credit card fraud and identity fraud, yawn. and that's by design. it allows this organization to fly below the radar. but when you realize that you are dealing with terrorists. that they're going to export this innocuous criminal activity with lethal effectiveness, it changes the entire perspective of this. >> they're taking the proceeds of these crimes and sending it to a terrorist organization that prior to 9/11 killed more americans than any terrorist organization. >> we continued to watch them for a long period of time without moving against them. to ensure that this case was successful. my concern was sleeper cells can be activated to conduct an activated attack based on something totally unrelated to where they are. >> when are you trained to think in terms of worst case. worst case is an attack on the homeland. >> we few that this cell had weapons and they were conducting firearms practice with handguns

and long rifles on the outskirts of charlotte. >> these people had military training. they had been to camps, they had been trained by the iranian revolutionary guard core. they had served in militias were they got combat experience. they didn't leave all that behind. they were keeping their skills sharp. in any criminal investigation, you are investigating a biker gang. they can kill somebody tomorrow, in federal investigations, you have to be patient. if you step in and you don't dig it up by the roots, the weeds just come right back. when we investigated this case, we started talking to other agencies and i found out that atf had this ready to go cigarette smuggling case. alcohol, tobacco and firearms has expended several years doing traffic stops and gathering evidence. >> this is much bigger than a cigarette smuggling case. this was a terrorism case. and they didn't understand what they had. >> i find out that the atf is about to make arrests, which would completely destroy what we had been doing for over a year.

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i found out about the atf case. i went to bob and said, hey, they're getting ready to indict this. we need to go to the u.s. attorney's office. >> the atf had a cigarette smuggling investigation in our office, and it had been a year or two.

>> and they see me come in the door. right away, here comes the fbi swooping in to take our case. say stop, before you say more, everyone in this room will sign a non-disclosure agreement. they're like, what? >> i think that's the first time in my then 15 years as a prosecutor i had to do that. >> it was very dramatic. bob had to sign non-disclosure agreements. we were going to brief him on the intelligence case and ties to hezbollah. >> so they started walking us through essentially the case the atf had been working on with the cigarette smuggling. several slides and surveillance gathered and we were both where is this going? >> i'd say this is not a tobacco tax evasion scheme. >> they put a slide up on the screen of eight men and said there is a hezbollah cell in charlotte. >> and the room goes quiet. >> bob's a really good briefer. so when he gave that presentation to ken and u.s. state attorney attorney, it was compelling. it was compelling.

>> we leaned over to the u.s. attorney, i said i think i'll take this one. >> ken bell was the chief of prosecutor criminal investigations in the western district north carolina. >> i met with the atf agents. said we have to slow down indictments in this case. and i can't tell you why right now. but they were unaware the people they were investigating were hezbollah. >> ken as the led prosecutor immediately established liaison with the department of justice. >> we established in d.c. an investigation and i think someone said to me the canadian security intelligence service has an investigation related to this and they have information that would be of great interest to you. i said, well, what would that be? they said, we can't tell you. i said, well, i guess we should go to ottawa and meet with them and ask them what they have that would be of interest to me. so several of us, including rick took that trip to ottawa to meet with csis, canadian intelligence

service. which is sort of their cia. >> that began a very long dance with canadian authorities at very high levels. it was like, yeah, we're willing to listen to you. we don't want to give up our sources and methods. they had a head legal guy, his name is mike. he's a big burley canadian guy. >> former royal canadian mounted police. a bear of a man. >> so we're sitting at this big conference table. we had been at it all day. i'm tired. yeah, i'm not going to lie to you. i was tired. mike out of nowhere goes, i'm going to get a smoke. anybody want to go? >> i think it was january or february in ottawa. it was cold as hell. >> probably 20 below out. i mean it's freaking cold. ken bell was sitting across the table from me. i kicked him under the table, i said, ken, go smoke with him. >> i wasn't much of a smoker. i said, okay, i'll go. >> i don't know what they said. you'll have to ask ken. they had a rooftop conversation, things changed right after that he said, ken, what do you really [ bleep ] want?

>> i said, well, mike, we want to take csis' holdings and take them into a federal courtroom and use them to convict a bunch of terrorists. and he said, i think we can help. >> the canadian security intelligence service had been conducting surveillance on saed harb and watched him cross into canada. because the canadians had this other cell in vancouver. saed's best friend mohammed dbouk was the leader of the canadian cell. they'd grown up together. dbouk had volunteered to be a suicide bomber several times. he had produced all these combat videos of martyrdom operations. the canadians had surveilled harb in canada and he had provided dbouk with alias identifications and counterfeit credit card. they had him with a cigarette pack. that was to certify the dual use of equipment they couldn't get access to or weren't being given access to in lebanon or iran. the equipment is not illegal to

possess, night vision goggles can be used for benign purposes. they can be used for military purposes to kill people. you can possess a stun gun. you can possess gps. you know what they use that for mortar rounds to create fields of fire. stun guns? what are you going to do with stun guns? you're going to use it to torture somebody. some of the stuff they were getting looked like they were looking to build a vehicle or drone. ultimately we know in 2006, hezbollah successfully used drones against the israels. once the canadians agreed to share their information, it completely changed the dynamic of the case. the reason for that is it paints the global reach of hezbollah. >> the cell in north carolina would send money to canada. the hezbollah cell there would purchase these items and transship them to lebanon and throughout the world. >> canadian surveillance picked up the head of hezbollah's procurement operation globally, directing dbouk to obtain this

equipment. >> you have a cell in north carolina, a cell in canada, key players in hezbollah and lebanon directing these activities. it's a global operation. so you had this statute that was on the books that gave you a tool to go after these organizations. >> nobody had really used yet. >> this statute called a material support statute, makes it illegal to assist a designated terrorist group with something of a material nature, of money, weapons, dual use equipment. >> providing support to a terrorist organization is the same as being a terrorist and in this case in particular, this eight-member terrorism financing cell could become a bomb-throwing terrorist cell with the flip of a switch. >> so one of the things that became very apparent was a desire by the united states government to test the statute, to make a material support case against a terrorist organization. >> and headquarters wanted the material support statute to be used as a vital tool in our fight against terrorism, but

they had to show it could work. >> the case progresses and i was constantly getting communications from the highest levels of the fbi. bob, when we going to take this do un? when are we going to make it? there was a concern even if a small attack took place, are you telling me that the fbi knew a hezbollah cell was operating for four years and you did nothing? >> and i felt just like any other criminal enterprise case, that you had to have an insider. we needed somebody that could talk about the dynamics within the group and we needed somebody that could definitively say that money was going to hezbollah. i found out that the core group got together on sunday afternoons and played soccer in the park in charlotte. so i went to the park and they were some players short, and i managed to get an invitation to play. i spent the afternoon kicking a soccer ball playing in a pick-up game with the people we had under investigation with the

core hezbollah cell. and it was interesting, because you can tell a lot about somebody on a soccer pitch. hammoud was quiet and harb was one of these bigger than life guys, very skilled player, very selfish player. the game ended and the core group the cousins and the brothers went off to eat together. harb didn't go with them. he went to a bar, watched a football game, ordered some alcohol and i thought, you know what, this is somebody that's going to become our insider down the road. >> you thought you could flip him? >> i thought i could flip him. me ♪ ♪ these are the ones ♪ ♪ who will reach for the stars ♪ ♪ these are my people ♪ by the light of the earth, ♪ ♪ you can tell they are ours ♪ ♪ a new step to take ♪ and a new day will break ♪

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any time you are dealing with a terrorist organization, which we considered the charlotte hezbollah cell to be, you run the risk they're going to commit some violent act. so you hold the safety of the american people in your hands. >> it was my decision and at a very specific time, i thought we had enough criminal information to dismantle this hezbollah cell. at that time i said, let's take it down. >> so rick begins preparing an affidavit for searches. we drafted a 100-page affidavit. it was one of the longer

affidavits i've ever written. we were biker gangs, we were killing with the rico statute. one of the things before we indicted a rico case is go hit their clubhouse and find indicia of an organization doing things together to commit criminal acts. >> so we fashioned the search warrant so that we can seize evidence that would support a rico prosecution and support a materials support prosecution. >> rick assured me that, bob, we can make this rico case. >> we're not sure about the material support. but this was is very best opportunity that the fbi, that the united states had to successfully prosecute them in that manner, with a law that's never been tried before. >> and there was a lot of pressure not to fail. >> and there were a lot of people who questioned whether it could be done. >> i called together a team of 250 officers. >> so hundreds of agents from

all different agencies, state, local, and federal, gathered together at the command post to get their briefing, to fan out and conduct searches and arrests across charlotte. >> this is a massive operation. >> it all had to happen at exactly the same time or would would get around and you'd lose everyday or people. evidence. >> i'm talking to them giving them a complete view and chris taps me on the shoulder and says this has been put on hold, i have to go up to washington. >> there was a huge backlash from the justice department starting with janet reno so the operation was halted in its tracks. 200 officers. 18 search sites. massive operation by one person, the attorney general. i felt like, oh, no, we could lose this case. >> i mean, i had all these people standing by ready to go. the op orders had been written, you know, i'm the criminal case agent. this is why i exist, to go kick doors down, put people in handcuffs and gather evidence.

>> rick swine being passionate and emotional, we had to peel him off the ceiling. >> i had no idea if we were going to execute tomorrow or never. >> ken and i decided we had to get to d.c. and we needed to convince her in a very compelling way that this needed to go forward. so a lot was riding on that from into d.c. so we went and had a meeting with the attorney general sitting at the head of a long conference table. >> you know, it was a stressful setting. because, all right, we spent years now doing this. we're ready to go. and attorney general reno started asking questions about in the search warrant affidavit it says hezbollah terrorists. >> the attorney general was very hypersensitive about calling people terrorists when you're not arresting them for terrorism itself. and said you are arresting them for racketeering, credit card fraud, cigarette smuggling, money laundering, and you are calling them terrorists in this affidavit. that needs to come out.

the attorney general looked over at one of her subordinates and said you and ken and chris go in the other room and work through this long story short, we had to rewrite the search warrant affidavit and take out every word the justice department found offensive. 102 pages. we went through it line-by-line with a ruler so we fixed the affidavit to their satisfaction. we caught the next plane out. we called bob clifford. we said verbally over the phone, get ready to go. and so on july 21st, 2000, at 6:00 in the morning with 250 agents, three s.w.a.t. teams spread out in various locations. i give the order, "execute." >> a 3 1/2-year investigation of cigarette smuggling and terrorism came to a blaring climax today. >> atf made the entry and hammoud grabbed a handgun and he dropped it as the entry team was coming up the hallway. he gave up peacefully.

>> nearly 20 people arrested and stunned residents amazed to discover their neighbors are actually suspected of supporting a middle eastern terrorist organization. >> the arrest of 17 individuals and the searches of 19 locations happened at the same time. >> i was on the team that was going to saed harb's house. they bring saed and his family out. i had been focused on harb because i really felt we needed that inside view. i introduced myself, with the fbi, obviously, wearing the raid jacket. the first thing he says to me is, hey, why the s.w.a.t. team? it's not like i'm a terrorist or anything. and i just said, well, we're going to talk about that so he says, you look familiar. i said, well, i played soccer with you one sunday. i guess he figured out if i was playing soccer with him, i really knew everything i needed to know about his life. he had this recognition on his face that he was in big trouble.

we had a staging area at the national guard armory, we processed and fingerprinted all these guys. we took them to a room, we mirandized him and interviewed him. we talked about the cigarette smuggling and the credit card fraud and the alias identifications. he really just talked and talked and talked. after several hours, we got him something to eat, he finally looked at me and said, put your pen down, stop writing. and i said, okay. i put my pen aside. he said, i know why you are doing this to me. you want dbouk. you want hezbollah. (bold music) unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans have a lot to take advantage of like medicare's largest health care network. hey, that's my dermatologist!

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what are you doing back there, junior? since we're obviously lost, i'm rescheduling my xfinity customer service appointment. ah, relax. i got this. which gps are you using anyway? a little something called instinct. been using it for years. yeah, that's what i'm afraid of. he knows exactly where we're going. my whole body is a compass. oh boy...

the my account app makes today's xfinity customer service simple, easy, awesome. not my thing. i remember rick and bob coming to me and saying we need a live witness to testify about material support or we won't be able to make the case. >> we mirandized him and we talked to him for several hours. he finally looked at me and said you want the buk, you want hezbollah. >> one of the great moments you live for as an investigator, right? >> he knows i know what this is

about and that's the opening. he said i can't talk to you about that right now, i need to think about this. that's when the canadian information became critical. >> that canadian evidence showed that he had direct contact with mohamed debuque in vancouver. we had surveillance photographs of them together. with fraudulent credit cards. meeting at times and places with military equipment. >> once he knew he was going to be charged with material support to terrorism, that's when he knew he had to strike a deal. the negotiation turned to i will cooperate with you but i've got concerns about my family in lebanon. >> his view was that if it came to be known we were cooperating in his prosecution, his family would be dead. >> so ken was the guy that was taking the point on moving the family to the u.s. >> that wasn't my first idea of

how to get his cooperation but ffs a necessary thing. we wanted his cooperation and tell the story fully and to do that, that was his condition. >> the full power of the united states government was put into play to make that happen. >> they were fully vetted. these were like children, grandparents. >> we flew them out in mass to washington in a hotel. >> that happened over easter weekend of 2002 i think. >> reporter: was it in secret? >> it's pretty difficult to smuggle people out of the country if they know you're going to smuggle them out of the country. we didn't want hezbollah to know about it. >> as soon as his family was here, he agreed to testify. >> extraordinary measures today as they led 17 men and women with alleged links to a terrorist group into the federal courthouse in charlotte. >> we went to trial in june of 2002. there was a lot of security in

place. there was countersnipers on rooftops and helicopter patrols and a lot of security with the 0 movement of the defendants in the case. the courthouse in charlotte, north carolina, became just a big circus. >> hart testified completely. out of canada with the equipment. he confirmed he was raising money for criminal contact. >> one by one pled guilty. 24 individuals pled guilty. to fraud. only two left standing were hammoud and his brother. they went to trial. >> did you cross-examine him? >> i did. it's nerve racking. you get the defendant on the stand and he admits he's guilty. he admitted he supported.

they engage in violent acts and sponsor violent acts all over the world. hezbollah paid very close attention to this. they followed the trial closely. >> how do you know? >> i just know. >> the fbi had an informant in the county jail where mohamed hammoud was being held. they told us that hammoud had put out a contract to get rid of the evidence in the courthouse and to put two bullets in the head of that arrogant prosecutors. >> reporter: that was you? >> yeah. >> we acted on that quickly. we protected him and his family. >> there was law enforcement. >> they wanted my wife and sons to leave the error. -- area. and go into protective custody. the fbi put a remote starter on my car and started carrying a weapon. i started thinking if they want me dead, i will be dead. >> we confronted him about it. he denied it.

we learned that hamoud was open to the idea of the prosecutor being killed but it wasn't his idea. but he was quite willing to go along with it. no doubt about that. >> my wife thought when it came out, arrogant bastard prosecutor. what wife gets to see confirmation right in the newspaper, that her husband's an arrogant bastard. >> the jury went out and came back in three days and came back with the verdict of guilty. we note need headquarter, we got the first material support conviction in the country. >> he was sentenced to 165 years in prison. originally. an appeal went up to the supreme court. he was sentenced to 30 years. >> reporter: what happened to saayeed? >> he's sentenced and has been out of prison for some time. he's out now. and has been for some time. >> smoke screen still is the

most important terrorism case talking about terrorist organizations and how they fund themselves. >> it was a benchmark case for the first use of the material support statute. it was the first conviction at trial in american history. and the proof now is the fact that it been used over a hundred times since this case came about. it is the primary tool to address isis and al qaeda. every single indictment of an isis or al qaeda has included material support. >> reporter: are there sleeper cells in the united states today? >> absolutely. they do low-level criminal activity that makes a lot of money. it's hard to picture them as a thoroughly dangerous organization they will. >> it's not elite that this cell could have been operational if it was in the best interest of hezbollah or iran. >> i would represent hezbollah represents a clear and present threat to the united states right now.

with all the attention paid, just in the corners of the radar is hezbollah. as a matter of fact, hezbollah is stronger than ever. we are about to enter a world that no one gets into without permission. so i have to show i.d. to get into this gate. we can't film that process so let's put the camera down while we do that. inside are 200 square miles of mountains, winding roads and oceanside property, with housing for tens of thousands, supermarkets, schools and stores, you never have to leave. >> i have driven past this place many, many times but never been inside.