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A Bomb in the Statue of Liberty. The FBI Had to Dismantle a Network. · FBI Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Decades before 9-11, the United States is attacked by terrorists.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: American businesses are bombed. Innocent people are slaughtered. Symbols of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: liberty become targets for destruction. The terrorists are mobile, well-organized,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and deadly. As the violence escalates, their victims have but
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: one hope. The FBI. The FBI.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: In the 1970s, cities across the United States became a
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: battleground for vicious Croatian radicals. Their violent agenda targeted their own.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: People living in America.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Agents all over the country worked to unravel a complex
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: web of extortions, bombings, and assassinations. At stake were the
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: lives of innocent Croatian families trying to build a new
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: life in America.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: New York City, 1977. On the morning of June 14th,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: three men approach the Yugoslav diplomatic mission to the United Nations.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Outside the mission, a New York City police officer stands guard. Inside,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Yugoslav security agents protect the embassy. One of them asks
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: the visitors for identification. Upstairs, go, go! Hearing the shot,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: police officers rush into the building. Foreign missions are technically
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: outside the NYPD's jurisdiction. The officers are now in Yugoslav territory.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: As backup arrives, the officers inside the mission try to
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: negotiate with the three men, but they've barricaded themselves in
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: an upper office The intruders warn they have taken a
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: woman hostage. They will kill her if anyone tries to enter.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: One officer offers himself as a substitute hostage. Take me
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: for the hostage. The gunman refused. Agents from the FBI's
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: New York field office respond to the scene. According to
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: federal law, the FBI is responsible for investigating all attacks
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: on foreign missions. Special Agent Len Cross.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: As I arrived, we had police officers in the park.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: We had police officers on surrounding buildings with scoped rifles.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: And then we had the emergency service units making entry
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: into the building. What was going through my mind was,
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: you know, what was happening on the inside.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: The suspects appear in an upstairs window brandishing a Croatian flag.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: they toss propaganda leaflets into the street. The leaflets call
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: on the United Nations to force communist Yugoslavia to grant
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Croatia its independence.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: What they were trying to do was gain publicity for
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: their cause and showing the oppressive regime that existed in
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: Yugoslavia and how they were oppressing the Croatian people.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: A hostage negotiator talks to the suspects for nearly two hours.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: They finally agree to come out. but only if they
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: are taken into custody by U.S. authorities, not Yugoslav officials.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: They were just trying to protect themselves from the officials
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: because they knew if they got their hands on them,
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: they'd kill them. And then finally when they realized it
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: was the New York City police, the FBI on the
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: other side of the door and assured them that no
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: harm would come to them, they surrendered without incident.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: The suspects reveal that they never had a hostage. They
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: were only bluffing to prevent Yugoslav security agents from mounting
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: an armed assault. As the police officers escort the suspects
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: out of the building, mission security confronts them. They tell
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the officers to hand over the radicals.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: This is Yugoslavian mission. You have no right here. This
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: is territory of Yugoslavia.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Put the guns down. The NYPD officers refuse. Step aside.
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: No.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: Lower your weapon.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: They intend to leave the mission with the prisoners. We're
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: taking our prisoners out. Lower the guns. The security agents
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: finally back down. The invasion of a foreign mission on U.S.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: soil is unprecedented. One of their employees has been seriously wounded.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Cross now leads the investigation. He searches for
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: a possible motive for the attack. He starts by analyzing
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the long history of hatred and violence between Yugoslav Serbs
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and Croatians as they fought over the same Eastern European lands.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: The reasons and motives stretched centuries, where Serbians would go
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: into Croatian villages and kill every man, woman, and child,
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: and the Croatians would reciprocate.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: 1971. The violence spread outside Yugoslavia. Croatian radicals assassinated the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Yugoslav ambassador to Sweden. In 1972, they hijacked a Swedish
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: airliner and forced the government to release seven political prisoners
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: from jail. Later that same year, Croatian terrorists claimed responsibility
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: for planting a bomb on board a Yugoslav airliner. The
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: blast killed 26 innocent people.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: The hatred was so deep and it was hard to fathom.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: We were dealing also with trying to understand culture, cultural
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: and historical issues. And it was not just simple criminal matter.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: There was a lot of payback on both sides.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Now, that payback is spread from Europe to the United States.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: It's a terrifying trend. Cross contacts fellow FBI agents at U.S.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: embassies around the world. They confirm that there has been
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: a disturbing increase in Croatian attacks on Yugoslav embassies and
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: diplomats worldwide. Special Agent Cross works closely with police and prosecutors,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: providing background information on the men who attacked the Yugoslav mission.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Four months later, on October 13th, a New York jury
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: finds all three men guilty of conspiring to take hostage
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Yugoslavia's ambassador to the United Nations, The jury also affects
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the gunman who wounded the Yugoslav security agent of assault
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: with a deadly weapon. For Agent Cross, the case is
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: officially closed. But everything he has learned tells him that
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Croatian terrorism in the United States is on the rise
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: and about to explode. Nine months later, in Chicago, Cross's
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: fears become a grim reality. Croatian businessmen begin calling the
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: FBI in a panic. They have each received an anonymous
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: letter written in Serbo-Croatian. The letters demand a large sum
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of money and threatens horrific consequences if the recipient fails
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: to pay up. Special Agent Bjarn Borisen of the FBI's
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Chicago field office examines the letters. Borisen speaks fluent Serbo-Croatian
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and has a background in counterintelligence.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: They said, you are not doing your part and our
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: cause to overthrow the communist government. We've assessed your situation
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: and decided that you are capable of paying this amount
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: of money. And they would instruct them to send this
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: money to an address in Paraguay, and if you fail
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: to do that, you'll pay the consequences. It's absolute extortion.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: That's the way the FBI looked at it, was, yeah,
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: this was an extortion attempt, and they were threatening your
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: well-being if you didn't cooperate.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Agents are unsure whether the culprits are Serb spies or
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Croatian criminals. but they do know the extortionists have cast
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: a wide net. Nationwide, the FBI collects a total of
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: 52 extortion letters from Croatian businessmen. The letters are nearly identical,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: but with one key exception. The senders demand a different
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: amount of money from each victim.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Most of the people who received those extortion letters were well-off,
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: or at least comfortable individuals, and had the ability to
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: pay that money that was requested.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: In New York City, Special Agent Len Cross heads the
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: investigation into the extortion letters. Searching for leads, he contacts
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Pero Vucas, a prominent Croatian political rival. living in Queens.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: He was known to be against the violence, and we
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: felt that he might be an individual who could perhaps
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: assist us in terms of identifying who may be responsible
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: for these letters.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Agent Cross asks Vucas if he thinks the extortionists could
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: be fellow Croatians.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: He did not feel any good Croatian would have written
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: these letters and made the demands that were made in
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: these letters.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Instead, Vucas blames the Serb government of Yugoslavia.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: He told me that it was his belief that these
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: letters were generated by the Yugoslavian intelligence service to try
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: to disrupt the Croatian community.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: The majority were peaceful, and they wanted to overthrow the
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Yugoslav government, but by peaceful means. But there was always
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: those who wanted to use more violent means, and would
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: do anything to achieve that goal.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Buchas believes the letters are an attempt by Serbian spies
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to sabotage Croatian demands for freedom.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: I left them my card, told them if they could
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: think of anything else, please, just to give me a call, and.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: We would appreciate it. In Chicago, Agent Borison focuses on
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the letter's demand to send money to a post office
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: box in the South American country of Paraguay.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: The address in Paraguay was of key significance to us
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: because somebody had to collect that money, so they had
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: to zero in on who that might be.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: The FBI sends an agent from the U.S. Embassy in
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Argentina to Paraguay to investigate. The agent observes a man
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: receiving the money. He is later identified as a known
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Croatian terrorist who in 1972 had shot the Yugoslav ambassador
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: to Sweden. A month later, in New York City, the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: case takes a dramatic turn. A man calls local news
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: stations claiming two bombs have been planted in New York City.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: One at the United Nations. The other at Grand Central Station.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: In 1978, the FBI investigates a group of Croatian terrorists
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: who use extortion to fund their cause. In New York,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: two local television stations receive a call from a man
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: who claims two bombs have been planted in New York City.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: One is at the United Nations. outside a library at
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the UN compound. A police officer finds a suspicious looking bag.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: The officer immediately calls in the NYPD bomb squad. Investigators
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: find a note nearby written in Serbo-Croatian. It demands Croatian
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: independence and says, quote, this is the beginning, our decision,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: is kamikaze. Bomb technicians carefully dismantled the device. It's armed
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: with dynamite and a blasting cap. The timer is set
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: to explode within the hour.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: It was designed to go off. It's just that it malfunctioned.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: At Grand Central Station, police find the second bomb stashed
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: inside a locker. Again, the device is accompanied by a
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: letter demanding Croatian independence. If either of the devices had detonated,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the loss of life and property would have been disastrous.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: The writing was on the wall. Things were becoming more
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: and more violent, and they were happening more frequently.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: The FBI believes it's only a matter of time before
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: someone is killed. Agents from the New York field office
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: combine forces.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: We felt that it would be a good idea to
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: bring all the case agents together on one squad under
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: one supervisor where we could exchange and coordinate our activities.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Special Aid in Cross also proposes the coordination of a
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: nationwide effort.
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: If we did not, my prediction was that all hell
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: was going to break loose.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Two weeks later, in a wealthy suburb of New York,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: a successful businessman is gunned down outside his own home.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: His only crime, he's a Croatian immigrant who refused to
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: submit to extortion. The FBI's worst fears have been realized.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: An extortion target has been murdered and agents have no
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: viable leads. In Chicago, Special Agent Bjorn Borisen becomes concerned
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: that Croatian Americans in his area will also be targeted.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: It wasn't an empty threat they made in that extortion letter.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: They meant it. And we didn't know who they'd come after,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: so we had to contact all those individuals who'd received
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: those letters to warn them and advise them they could
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: be a possible target, and at the same time try
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: to identify who's responsible.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: The FBI also alerts other law enforcement agencies to watch
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: for anyone purchasing illegal weapons or bomb-making materials. A few
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: days later, the Chicago field office receives a call from
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. A known Croatian
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: radical is trying to buy dynamite.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: They had just got an individual in a sting operation
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: who had purchased two cases of dynamite from them. This
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: individual met with the ATF undercover agents, thinking he was
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: buying real dynamite, but they actually sold him dummy dynamite.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: The buyer's name is Ivo Afinic. He is a high-ranking
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: member of a Croatian independence group called Otpur.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Obviously, they have plans to do a lot more bombs,
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: and that's why they were buying this. The name of
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: the organization is Hrvatski-Nadani Otpor, which means Croatian National Resistance.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: So the word Otpor means resistance.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: While the majority of Otpor members are law-abiding citizens, the
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: FBI suspects that there may be a criminal faction operating
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: within the organization intent on extorting and murdering fellow Croatians.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: All right, guys, we're going to pop this door.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: We're going to go in.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Otpor meets at a Croatian social club on the south
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: side of Chicago. In a joint operation, FBI and ATF
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: agents raid the club, searching for bomb-making materials. Investigators find
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the two cases of fake dynamite, but there are no
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: live explosives anywhere in the club. A thorough search fails
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: to turn up enough evidence to press charges against Igor Finch.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: That same day, in a nearby Chicago neighborhood, Daniel Nikolic
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: opens up his shop. Nikolic is one of dozens of
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Croatian-American businessmen who have received an extortion letter. The cabinetmaker
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: refused to be bullied. Chicago police, the Chicago Fire Department,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: ATF agents, and the FBI investigate.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: We did a search of the premises, and we determined
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: that a bomb had been detonated on the roof of
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: the cabin shop.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Morrison interviews Daniel Nikolic.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: There was no doubt who he thought was responsible, and
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: that was the Opor leadership. As a result of his
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: failure to pay the extortion letter that he received.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: With Nikolic's help, the FBI talks to members of the
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Croatian community. Their top priority is to find a confidential
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: informant inside Otpor, familiar with the organization's violent activities.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: The key to almost any investigation is you have to
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: develop someone inside the organization who's willing to cooperate with you.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: But the Chicago FBI has trouble finding anyone who will
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: talk about Otpor.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: To get someone that was actually inside the group is
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: very hard, because it wasn't that big a group who
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: was actually responsible for the violence. It was a small group.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: and it's very difficult to find someone inside that small
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: group who's going to cooperate with you.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: While agents try to recruit an informant in Chicago, Pasadena, California,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: becomes the group's next target. On the morning of November 22nd,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: a Croatian businessman steps outside his home and into the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: gun sights of an assassin. The victim had received an
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: extortion letter five months earlier, but he refused to support
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the Oatpur cause. Local police and the FBI investigate, but
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: they find little evidence. In San Francisco, home to a
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: large Croatian-American population, agents mount an all-out effort to penetrate
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Oatpur before they kill again. the FBI assigned Special Agent
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Bob Gorth, who speaks fluent Serbo-Croatian, to the full-time task
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: of recruiting a confidential informant.
• 19:47
  Speaker 6: The FBI was having a problem with penetrating the Croatians.
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: community for the same reason that you have trouble in
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: any ethnic terrorist field. The criminal act is a result
• 19:56
  Speaker 6: of their nationalism. Whether or not they're involved, they will
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: stand together as a community against law enforcement.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: With a background in Yugoslavian counterintelligence, Special Agent Gorth understands
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: the bitter conflict between the Croatians and the Serbs.
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: Yugoslavia was an artificial country. It was born after World
• 20:19
  Speaker 6: War I. The Croatians fundamentally were constantly fighting to get
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: out from under what they considered Serb domination.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: His understanding of the culture helps him enter San Francisco's
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Croatian community.
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: I was very unbureled in a way. No suit and tie, no...
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: A lot of times conversations were over a beer, over
• 20:43
  Speaker 6: a bar table. We had to find a way to
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: break down the wall and to convince someone on the
• 20:49
  Speaker 6: inside who had information that what they were doing was
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: morally wrong. It had to be a matter of conscience
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: and a matter of actual conversion of thought.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: From San Francisco to Chicago to New York, FBI agents
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: compare notes trying to find an insider who can give
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: them any information on the mysterious tight-knit terror group. The
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: FBI's lead case agent in New York is Len Cross.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: It was around 6 o'clock at night, and we were
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: going over our leads and trying to get an idea
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: of what do we need to do next, and I
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: received a phone call.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: After four months of silence.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Pero Vucas, the Croatian activist writer, is desperate to talk
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: to Cross.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: You got a what?
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: He says, I need to talk to you, and I
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: need to talk to you now. I got a threatening letter,
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: and he says, I'm going to tell you everything.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I know who's all responsible. The call may be the
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: break the FBI needs.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: So I says, okay, I'm coming right over. I says,
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: I'll meet you right at your house. I'll meet you
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: at your house as soon as I can.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: All right, all right, you see me, thank you. Okay,
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: all right.
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: Got a threatening letter.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Other agents from the New York field office accompany Cross
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: to the meeting.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: They said, no, we're going to go with you, because
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: this could be a setup. They could be trying to
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: get you.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Nationwide, FBI agents try to infiltrate a deadly terrorist organization
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: that extorts and murders their fellow Croatian immigrants. Hero Vucas,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: a Croatian political writer, asks Special Agent Len Cross to
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: come to his house. He's finally willing to talk.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: He was very concerned, very scared, and he proceeded to
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: show me this letter. It was essentially telling him that
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: if he didn't shut up and didn't get his act together,
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: that something very bad was going to happen to him.
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: He realized at this point that these guys meant business
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: and that he was in their crosshairs, and that his
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: only alternative was to reach out to the FBI, put
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: his trust in them, that they can get the job done.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: The writer tells Agent Cross that he believes members of
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Oatpur are behind the letters and the violence.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: And this is their criminals, just a bunch of criminals
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: that have infiltrated the Croatian organizations. At that point, he
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: laid it out who all the king players were throughout
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: the country. He couldn't tell us who wrote their letters,
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: but what he did tell us is these are the
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: guys that are running the whole operations.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: According to Vucas, Otpor's North American headquarters is in Chicago.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Some of the key terrorists live in the Midwestern United States.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: It was really good information and definitely kind of was
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: starting to fill in the puzzle.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, agents contact a Croatian priest who the
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: FBI learns is influential throughout the Midwestern Croatian community.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Sit down.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Father Bradish is an outspoken opponent of violence. Agents believe
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: he may provide valuable leads. An FBI agent from the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Milwaukee field office interviews him at the Catholic elementary school
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: where he works. As they talk, Father Bradish opens his mail.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: One package contains a book. The agent spots a wire.
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: He observed batteries. wires and explosives. The agent, being concerned
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: for the location that it was in an elementary school
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: with young kids, grabbed the book and he ran outside.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: The Milwaukee police sends a bomb technician to disable the device. Tragically,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: the blasting cap explodes, taking off part of the technician's hand.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: The FBI issues a warning to the 52 extortion victims
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: that they've identified across the country. Beware of book-sized packages
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: wrapped in brown paper. The next day, in Queens, New York,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Pero Vuchas picks up his mail. Inside his post office box,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: he finds a note telling him that he has a package.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: The postal worker can't find it.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: No, please, will you look one more time?
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: It has to be here.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Okay, all right, I'll look. Thank you.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: The package has been stored on a shelf near the counter.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Which package right there?
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: It looks like a book. I don't want it.
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: I'll come back for it later.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Luchas contacts Special Agent Len Cross.
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: I received a call telling me, I've got a bomb.
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: It's at the post office. He says, you want me
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: to go get it? I says, no, leave it there.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: I says, if we're going to get the bombs, what?
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: We'll take it from there.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: At the FBI lab, a bomb expert studies the package.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: It is nearly identical to a device sent to Milwaukee.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: This book bomb was very similar in construction. The cutout
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: looked the same. The firing system was the same. It
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: was the same type of dynamite, same type of blasting cap.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: The postmarks on the packaging revealed that both bombs were
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: mailed from Akron, Ohio, on the same day. Agents alert
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Ohio authorities of the likelihood that the bomb maker lives
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: in their area. In Cleveland, police search the home of
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Pavel Chotoras. The Croatian radical is their chief suspect in
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the bombing of a Croatian bookstore five days earlier. Special
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Agent Bjarn Boreson.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: During the search, they found a book that was hollowed
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: out and was obviously a book bomb.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: The bomb is a prototype. Once again, there are no
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: live explosives on the premises. Without further evidence, no arrests
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: can be made. Investigators try to link the prototype to
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: the book bombs mailed to Milwaukee and Queens.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Every bomb maker has his own unique style. And of course,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: one of the reasons for doing that is safety. You
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: want to do it the same way every time because
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: if you change anything, it's very dangerous to wire a
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: book bomb.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: In the lab, Special Agent Denny Klein compares all three devices.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Each book is hollowed out to the same depth. The
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: glue and solder used to construct the devices each have
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: the same chemical composition. Even minute tool marks on the
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: bombs' wiring match.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: The belief of the laboratory was that this was a
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: prototype that was used to make the two earlier bombs.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: There is no way to know how many more bombs
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: have been constructed from the prototype. March 17th, 1980. New
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Yorkers and tourists pack Fifth Avenue to watch the city's
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: annual St. Patrick's Day parade. 1055 a.m. A bomb explodes
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: at the 30th floor office of a Yugoslav bank. FBI
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: agents respond, including Special Agent Ken Maxwell.
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: We were doing interviews of the employees of the bank,
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: the employees of the neighboring offices. the maintenance people in
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: the building, delivery people, anybody who would even come remotely
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: close to 505th Avenue that day.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: The only significant evidence agents find is another note in
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: which Oatport claims responsibility. The terrorists issue a chilling threat.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: The bomb attacks will continue until Croatia is free. On
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: June 3, 1980, the terrorists target one of America's most
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: cherished symbols of freedom... the Statue of Liberty. On June 3, 1980,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Croatian terrorists target one of America's most cherished symbols of freedom,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the Statue of Liberty. Special Agent Ken Maxwell helps investigate
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the bombing.
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: Someone had gotten into what they call the museum story
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: room at the base of the statue that tells you
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: the whole history of how the statue was built and
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: all of the wonderful history in the pictures, plus the
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: souvenir shop. All of that had been blown to smithereens.
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: A considerable amount of damage had been done throughout the
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: base of the statue.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: A number of violent groups claim responsibility for the bombing,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: including the Palestinian Liberation Organization, anti-Castro Cubans, and even neo-Nazis.
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: Multiple claims of credit back in the early 80s was
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: not an unusual phenomenon.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Investigators painstakingly search for pieces of the bomb, expecting that
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the evidence will help them determine which group is responsible.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: Hey guys, looks like I got a wire over here.
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: We spent all night there, sifting through all of the
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: rubble and debris, and came up with quite a few components.
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: The components of the improvised explosive device were strikingly similar
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: to previous Croatian-related bombings.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: But began as an attempt to extort dozens of Croatian
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Americans has escalated into a campaign of violence.
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: The Statue of Liberty was the greatest symbol of attraction
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: for potential terrorists because of.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: What it stood for.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: In their mind, the United States was not listening to
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: their cause, so let's bring the cause to their attention
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: and let's show them, the United States, that this is
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: a real issue to us and almost trying to extort
• 31:29
  Speaker 5: the United States of America to help them achieve independence.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: But the terrorists' logic is flawed. The attack only fuels
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: authorities to intensify their investigation. Nice.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: Bombing our Statue of Liberty, it's a slap in the face.
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: So what we did, we started to focus our resources,
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: our investigative attention, on several individuals who we strongly suspected
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: were involved in this kind of activity.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: In New York, the FBI sets up intensive surveillance on
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: several key terror suspects. In San Francisco, FBI Special Agent
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Bob Gorth continues his efforts to recruit an informant inside
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: the terrorist ring.
• 32:15
  Speaker 6: I spent over a year doing nothing but contacting Croatians.
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: It's very important to understand the people, to speak their language,
• 32:25
  Speaker 6: to understand where they come from, even to a degree,
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: to empathize with them so that you can talk to
• 32:31
  Speaker 6: them in terms that they understand and appreciate. I interviewed
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: over 300, I think, of all stripes and persuasions and types,
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: trying to find the right source. I finally found a
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: man who indicated he'd like to talk again. Hadn't told
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: me anything, but he'd like to talk again. After talking
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: to him, I don't know how many times, we began
• 32:56
  Speaker 6: to build a rapport. And finally he said, I think
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: I'll help.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Finding a source of information inside Otpor is a major
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: break for the FBI. After thoroughly debriefing the informant in
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: San Francisco, the FBI sends him to New York to
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: gather intelligence on the most recent Croatian bombings.
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: He originally had lived in New York and he was
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: well acquainted with the people.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: The informant renews old friendships with Croatian radicals.
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: He would have been killed if members of Otpor Command
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: had found out that he was a man.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Despite the risk, he probes for details about their plans.
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: If you could obtain inside information on what's going on
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: in a criminal enterprise, it means a tremendous amount in
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: terms of achieving success in an investigation.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: The informant learns that the group intends to assassinate an
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: outspoken critic of Otpor. The target is Pero Vucas, the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: prominent Croatian political writer.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: They were going to kill him with a rifle as
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: he was walking his daughter, his six-year-old daughter, to school
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: in the morning. If they missed, they could have hit
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: his six-year-old daughter. They had no concern for her, and
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: most of the agents and the detectives working this case,
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: they all had kids. So, you know, they were thinking
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: in terms of a father. How could they do such
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: a thing like this?
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: According to the informant, the ruthless plot is already in motion.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Ken Maxwell watches as two suspected terrorists park
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: a van near the target's home.
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: What was very unusual is that they get out of
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: the front of the van and went in the back
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: of the van and removed one of the rear windows
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: and substituted one of the windows with a cardboard panel.
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: And although we could not see totally inside the van,
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: we did know They weren't having a bagel and coffee
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: in the back of that van. They were looking to
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: assassinate him.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: In New York, agents believe Croatian assassins intend to shoot
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Pero Vucas as he walks his six-year-old daughter to school.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Vucas has been working with the FBI to identify the terrorists.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Len Cross warns Vucas to stay inside his apartment.
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: If they had made an attempt to get out of
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: the car and proceed to his residence, then we saw
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: what appeared to be a weapon. There was no ifs, ands,
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: or buts. They were going to be taken down, period.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Fortunately, Vuchas and his daughter remain hidden, forcing the snipers
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: to abandon their deadly plot. The FBI decides to set
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: up electronic surveillance on a man they believe to be
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the mastermind behind the East Coast bombings, the president of Oatpur,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: Stepan Sajic.
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: He was directing the operations here in New York and
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: naturally would be the place to put the wiretap, especially
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: in view of the fact that the individuals came to him,
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: and that's where they had their meetings.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Bjorn Borisson.
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: It's very difficult to go into a building and place
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: a wire without leaving any trace that you were there,
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: and the FBI is quite good at that.
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: What are they talking about?
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: Very nearby, we set up a listening post, and we'd
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: have at least one translator there at all times.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Their job is to translate Croatian to English, as well
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: as identify each voice on the tape. They must also
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: decipher any code words used by the terrorists.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: They won't come out and say words like dynamite. They
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: may say things or pieces. The drop-off, which is the
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: device delivery, and the package is the bomb. It took
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: a while for us to get a grasp as to
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: what are they talking about, and get the significance of
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: the phraseology they use.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: The conspirators meet often, usually in the rec room in
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Sacic's basement. Jaco Dreven, one of the men who tried
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: to assassinate Pero Vuchas, is Sacic's lieutenant. Translators work day
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: and night analyzing their conversations.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: The wiretap would run 24 hours a day, and we
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: had to constantly monitor the conversations because they're talking about bombing,
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: assassinating people.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Agents are still trying to pin down specifics, places, dates,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: the identities of the co-conspirators.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: It was all part of the puzzle. They had all
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: the pieces to be pulled together in order to form
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: enough evidence to start the prosecution.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Under federal racketeering laws, the FBI needs hard evidence of
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: a conspiracy to take down the entire organization. Special Agent
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Ken Maxwell.
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: One particular night, The shaking of the pinball machine shook
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: loose a wire that was used in the installation of
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: the microphone.
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: It looked like a plain wire. It didn't look like
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: it had a head that a normal microphone would have.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: So if you saw it, you might even know what
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: it is.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: On the other end, the translators can hear the conspirators
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: talking about the wire.
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: What they were saying was, what is that? And one
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: of them realized rather quickly, because he had done all
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: of the electrical work for the house, I didn't put
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: that wire there.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: They knew there was something there that did belong there.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: The next question is, do they know what it is?
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: The conspirators begin following the wire.
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: And they trace that wire out of the basement to
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: the power source out on the street and rip the
• 39:44
  Speaker 5: wire out.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: For the FBI, The tap is critical.
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: To the great credit of our special operations folks, they reinstalled,
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: and they reinstalled within 24 hours. I think the bad
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: guys thought they had won in that instance, not realizing
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: our persistence. And this time, we avoided the pinball machine.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Agents hear Stepan Sachic and Yakov Drevin planning an upcoming operation.
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: They were talking about, let's get ready, I want you
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: to do this, I want you to smash this. And
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: we knew they were getting ready to bomb something.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Agents learn that OPPOR intends to bomb a Yugoslav dance
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: studio scheduled to host a gala attended by the Yugoslav
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: ambassador to the United Nations, Special Agent Len Cross.
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: They were going to have over 300 people there At
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: this point, this really raised our concerns because now they're
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: going after groups and not concerned about who gets hurt.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Agent's tail driven. He drives to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: visits the home of a man named Vuka Ulich.
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: When he went into the residence, he went in empty handed.
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: When he came out, he had a good sized brown
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: bag and there seemed to be some bulky stuff inside
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: the bag.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Agents follow Dreven back to New York City, where he
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: picks up another old poor foot soldier. The men drive
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: on toward their target.
• 41:35
  Speaker 5: And they circled a block he'd been had and kept
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: circling it and circling it.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Agents watch as Dreven cases the building. He leaves the
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: suspicious bag behind in the van.
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: It was decided that if they remove the bag, then
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: we were going to arrest them. Certainly we were not
• 41:59
  Speaker 5: going to take the chance of potential bombing in midtown Manhattan.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: As the suspect returns to the van, the agents watch
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: his every move, ready to take the terrorists down. In
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: New York, agents tail two suspected Croatian terrorists, An FBI
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: surveillance operation has revealed that a radical faction of Otpur
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: is planning to place a bomb at a reception for
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: 300 people. The terrorists case the building and then leave
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: the area. Agents suspect that they have a bomb in
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: their van. The FBI cannot risk a terror attack on
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: hundreds of innocent people. Agents obtain search warrants to raid
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the homes of Stepan Sacic and Yako Drevin. In Drevin's home,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Ken Maxwell finds a familiar-looking bag in a closet.
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: When I looked into the shopping bag, I saw a
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: woman's pocketbook that was open. And inside the pocketbook were
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: sticks of dynamite wrapped up in tape, a timing device,
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: an alarm clock, an electric blasting cap, and wire. It's
• 43:40
  Speaker 5: not every day that you find a bomb at your feet.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: Authorities take Dreven into custody. Across town. Special Agent Len
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: Cross and his team search the home of Stepan Sochich,
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: the president of Otpor.
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: One of my team members was going through a pile
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: of paint drop cloths, and he found the scoped rifle,
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: and he found the ammunition.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: Investigators suspect Sochich's co-conspirators used the rifle weeks earlier in
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: a plot to murder political writer and FBI cooperator, Pero Vuchas.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Agents arrest Sacic for conspiracy under RICO, the Federal Racketeering Statute.
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: He was advised of his rights, and he refused. He
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: wasn't being very cooperative.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: No, I don't think so. Four days later, FBI agents
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: and police raid the Bridgeport, Connecticut home of Vuka Ulich.
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: Face the window.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Ulich provided Drevin with the bomb earmarked for the dance studio.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: We have a warrant to search the premises.
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: The bomb tech, as he moved some clothes, observed there
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: on the floor, in a bag, a considerable amount of dynamite,
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: and sitting on top of the dynamite were electric blasting caps,
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: live electric blasting caps.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Agents arrest Vukajulic. Don't worry about it.
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: We'll take care of it.
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: From here.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: Special Agent Frost.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: They call Special Agent Cross in New York to inform
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: him they have found one of Oat Poor's primary bomb makers.
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: Special Agent Cross.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: Cross again questions Stepan Sacic, asking him if he knows
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: a man by the name of Vukajulic.
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: He says, yeah, little I do. I says, you're going
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: to have, you got some problems. And we've just arrested him.
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: I says, he had a large quantity of explosives and
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: caps and weapons.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: In his house. Satchich still refuses to talk. New York
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: investigators call in Special Agent Bob Gorth from San Francisco
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: to question Ulich. The former Oat Poor member turned confidential
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: informant accompanies him. Late in the afternoon, with the moral
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: support of the Croatian cooperator, Juleč finally begins to open up.
• 46:36
  Speaker 6: He wanted the feeling that a fellow Croatian believed in him,
• 46:40
  Speaker 6: trusted him, and he wouldn't be entirely alone. And when
• 46:46
  Speaker 6: he finally got the courage up, he said, yeah, I
• 46:48
  Speaker 6: want to talk to him.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: And, of course, that was the linchpin of the whole case.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Vuka Julic tells investigators how other Oat Poor members convinced
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: him to kill a Croatian community leader in California two
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: years earlier.
• 47:04
  Speaker 6: After drinking all one evening and into the morning, he
• 47:07
  Speaker 6: decided he'd strike a blow for Croatian freedom and go
• 47:10
  Speaker 6: kill this enemy of the people.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: So he did.
• 47:13
  Speaker 6: And later on, he realized that what he'd done was
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: not advancing the Croatian cause, but really was harming it.
• 47:21
  Speaker 6: He was one of the few people that I firmly
• 47:23
  Speaker 6: believe regretted what he did.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Ulich agrees to testify against Sačić, Drevin, and the other
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Croatian terrorists. This is the key testimony prosecutors need to
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: take down the entire terrorist ring.
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: His cooperation in his case was instrumental in breaking the
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: back of an organized crime organization wherein in four cities
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: we literally took out the godfathers of four families.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: The RICO statute, originally enacted to stop organized crime, is
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: used for the first time to fight terrorism. Within two years,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: 11 members of the Otpor organization are convicted and sentenced
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: to up to 40 years in prison.
• 48:10
  Speaker 5: If you're going to achieve any kind of success in terrorism,
• 48:13
  Speaker 5: you have to be able to bring to the playing
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: field the right kind of players, the right kind of knowledge,
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: and the right kind of resource, if you even hope
• 48:23
  Speaker 5: to put a dent into it.
• 48:25
  Speaker 6: The Rambo approach is not going to win over terrorists.
• 48:29
  Speaker 6: Terrorists are motivated by the extreme sense of nationality. And
• 48:32
  Speaker 6: if you're going to.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Deal with them, you've got to get into their hearts
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: and minds.
• 48:36
  Speaker 6: Otherwise, you may stop them on a particular incident, but
• 48:40
  Speaker 6: you haven't changed their minds.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: If you don't change their minds, they'll do it again.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: For the FBI and law enforcement nationwide, dismantling Otpur was
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: a vital achievement. Terrorists operating inside US borders were stopped
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: dead in their tracks.