Y2K Cults Worry FBI

Sometimes authorities are able to round up suspicious cults before they turn to violence -- as Israel did in January when they deported a group of Americans calling themselves "Concerned Christians," who Israeli authorities suspected of planning violent acts to fulfill prophecies about the millenium.

But the FBI warns that groups like the Concerned Christians could be on the rise as the year 2000 approaches, reports CBS News Correspondent Stephanie Lambidakis.

FBI Director Louis Freeh says, "We don't have the ability, unfortunately, to guarantee the avoidance of problems."

The FBI is keeping close watch on right-wing hate groups, religious extremists and new age cults. The bureau wants to know why such cults so often turn violent.

They are turning for advice to religious scholars like Eugene Gallagher, who says "Eternal perdition tends to get described in lots of texts as fairly violent, being thrown into a lake of fire."

This is a turnaround for the FBI, which came under harsh criticism after events turned sour at Waco, Texas.

When cult leader David Koresh preached, FBI agents ridiculed it as "Bible babble," which the bureau didn't understand. But now they're studying religious writings and examining tragedies like the mass suicides by the Cult of the Solar Temple in Switzerland and the Heaven's Gate cult in California. And they're tracking groups like a Taiwanese cult in Texas that waited in vain for God to appear on television.

Adding to the FBI's frustration is the fact that it is forbidden from spying on religious groups.

Gallagher says, "The FBI is then poised between being damned if they do too much ahead of time and damned if they don't when things happen -- and that's a very difficult position for them."

There are hundreds, if not thousands of groups that plan to mark the millenium in some way. Just one violent act could set off a chain reaction. And the odds are, the FBI won't be able to stop it.