Al Qaeda In America: The Enemy Within

The FBI cannot hope to find every Qaeda operative, and certainly not every Islamic fanatic who wishes to conduct a jihad against America. Curiously, the best protection may be the soft power of daily life in the land of the free. One intelligence official, wondering aloud why America has not been attacked since 9-11 despite the clear intentions of bin Laden's terror network, speculated that the sleeper agents just plain fall asleep. "A lot of these guys lose the jihadi, desert spirit," said the official. "They get families, they get jobs, and they lose the fire in the belly. Welcome to America."

REPORTED BY DANIEL KLAIDMAN, MARK HOSENBALL, MICHAEL ISIKOFF, KEVIN PERAINO, STEVE TUTTLE, HOLLY BAILEY, SUZANNE SMALLEY AND SARAH DOWNEY

© 2003