Growing Threat of Domestic Terror: In Focus

With the holidays here, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser tried to reassure the public today it's safe to travel. John Brennan said law enforcement and intelligence agencies are doing all they can to prevent a terror attack.

But the threat of terror does not come only from overseas. More and more often, it is starting right here. CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric presents Homegrown Terrorism "In Focus."

"It's the day after Thanksgiving in Portland, Ore., you have upwards of 10,000 people packed into the city's main square - you have families. You have little kids. People are singing Christmas carols. What they don't know is that someone is actually planning to blow the event up," CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy said. "His goal is to either kill or injure every single person there."

A covert FBI sting operation may have foiled the plot to bomb downtown Portland.But the fallout from last month's attempt reveals an emerging terrorist threat - homegrown in the U.S.

"This is a 19-year-old American teenager," Tracy said. "And at some point, he basically became radicalized enough to want to blow up tens of thousands of people in what was essentially his hometown."

Terror in the U.S.

Since the attacks of September 11th, 58 Americans and foreigners living here legally have been implicated in plots against the U.S. They have tried to carry out 11 acts this year alone.

"Individuals prepared to carry out terrorist acts are in this country," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Dec. 6, 2010.

"Al Qaeda today is more sophisticated than what the general American thinks," CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian said. "They think about al Qaeda in Afghanistan with turbans and AK47's on their shoulders."

Nothing has spread al Qaeda's reach like the Internet, with its vast network of websites targeting disaffected Muslims. What was once taught at a training camp can now be learned online.

"It's very hard to find someone working in Kansas or Missouri self-radicalizing," CBS News investigative producer Pat Milton said.

"It wasn't that long ago that when there was a the terrorist attack, we were talking about something hatched by someone in a cave overseas," CBS News senior investigative producer Keith Summa said. "Now, we're talking about people from Connecticut."

While earlier plots relied on sleeper cells, American terrorists are increasingly acting as lone wolves, who can easily blend in.

"You talk to counterterrorism people, and the one thing they fear most is terrorists with what they call the 'golden passport' - a U.S. passport," CBS News Homeland Security producer Andy Triay said. "Someone who can travel freely."

A perfect example is Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.

"What makes it difficult in tracking Shahzad is he was just an average guy with a family in Connecticut," CBS News chief investigative producer Len Tepper said. "What makes it more difficult for a guy like him is - he is free to go around looking for targets."

"With 9/11, the goal was massive casualties," Keteyian said. "What we are seeing now are these smaller attacks on so-called soft targets: theatres, restaurants, stadiums. 'Death by a thousand cuts' is what they are looking for."

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"When you look at the picture of Shahzad in Times Square with his friends,it's a photo that a lot of Americans have in their own homes," Summa said. It's a photo of them as a tourist with their friends. How did that person, who looks like anyone I know - How did they end up putting a bomb in a car in Times Square?"

In 2001, there were just over 3,000 federal, state and local organizations working in counterterrorism. Today, there are more than 4,000 across the country. Most agree they have been successful in keeping terrorists from coming into the country. But recent plots have exposed weakness in the system.

"The luck that we've had so far is that some of these homegrown terrorists are not very professional," Tepper said. "Whether it's leaving the key in the car, whether the car starts smoking, or not building a functioning bomb - that's basically luck."

"People talk about homegrown terror as something that might happen someday," CBS News Justice correspondent Bob Orr said. "It wasn't called a terror attack at the time, but the attack on Ft. Hoodwas a terrorist attack carried out by an American."

The ability to identifying homegrown terrorists before they strike relies on tips from the public, monitored internet chatter and the use of government informants.

"They are not always the most savory characters," said CBS News Justice Department producer Stephanie Lambidakis. "And in many cases they are paid. But they are sounding the part of a terrorist, they have the language skills, and the subjects are buying it hook, line and sinker."

Sting operations have become one of the most effective tools in thwarting these plots.

Lambidakis added, "In these wiretap conversations, you hear the undercover operative or the agent say, 'are you sure you want to go through with this? You know you don't have to do that. You can back out.'"

U.S. intelligence has spent the last 10 years trying to protect Americans from an external threat. But in the next decade they will spend as much effort combating terrorists within our own borders.

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