Retired agent Sam Smemo is interviewed about how witnessing the devastation of 9/11, compelled him to transition from fighting the war on drugs to joining the war on terror. After hunting dangerous fugitives during the early part of his career, once onboard with the FBI, Sam worked drug cases while assigned to the Philadelphia Division. He talks about working on a drug case that inadvertently resulted in the exoneration and release from jail of an innocent man wrongly accused of shooting a child during a drive by shooting. Identifying and bringing the real culprit to justice was a highlight of his career. But after 9/11, Sam requested to be transferred to work terrorism cases. He tells us about working on an extraterritorial case wherein the FBI and the American government desperately attempted to locate and rescue a U.S. citizen kidnapped in Saudi Arabia. Tragically, the businessman was executed by an Al Qaeda terrorist organization operating in the Arabian Peninsula.

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026: Sam Smemo - From War on Drugs to War on Terror