childhood, playing baseball, riding bikes. he is bryant neil venus and he is part of a frightening new trend, homegrown terrorists. >> radicalization is definitely on the rise in the united states. >> american citizens radicalizing, eager to kill their countrymen. venus is the terrorist next door. the "american al qaeda." al qaeda's target, the busiest commuter railroad in the united states. the long island railroad in new york. hundreds of thousands of passengers every weekday. helping plan the bomb attack as an american, a lifelong new yorker, ryan neil venus. he gives an al qaeda leader detailed information about the operation of the long island railroad system. bryant is not providing the information from long distance. he is in the mountains of pakistan living and training with al qaeda. but he is not only helping plan attacks inside the united states, he is also attacking u.s. troops in afghanistan. >> we've almost called venus the forrest gump of the jihad. he seems to find this way to get himself involved in operations or attacks that seem way beyond 20-some-odd convert from long island should be involved in. >> an american so radicalized, so dangerous he is willing to help al qaeda plot bombings that could kill his own friends and even his own family on long island. >> in a conventional war, you have companies, you have divisions, you have brigades, you have battalions. in this war, every single person counts. every single individual goes over there like him is somebody we can't miss. >> but the tables could be turning on al qaeda. their one-time secret weapon could be spilling their secrets. family, friends, and intelligence officials are left wondering, why and how did bryant turn into a terrorist? who convinced him to wage jihad against his neighbors? my search for answers begins about an hour's drive from new york city, where bryant neil venus was born, to the suburbs of long island, where his family still lives. i've spent the better part of a year here in the united states and in europe unraveling why and how bryant neil venus went from catholic to muslim, from u.s. army recruit to jihadist, from long island to lahore. this is where he grew up, the son of immigrants from south america. his sister met with me and was happy to talk about her brother, whom she described as a sociable, friendly young boy. but she didn't want to go on camera. our producer, cnn terrorist analyst, has met with her and bryant's parents several more times. >> bryant's mother used to call him my teddy bear. she said he was an extremely sweet kid. he'd even fix her breakfast in bed when she wasn't feeling well. bryant, she says, had a happy childhood. >> reporter: richa remembers those happier times. she lived down the street and says her family adored bryant. >> bryant was like family. >> reporter: like another son? >> yes. like another son. >> what are your first memories of bryant? >> when we were younger, we'd go in the pool a lot, he was respectful. he wouldn't -- we made sure he wouldn't break any sort of rules in the house. >> as he grew up, bryant developed a passion for baseball. >> he took it very seriously. seriously enough to bike ride to the high school, which from here would take on a bike rout half an hour. but those would be bryant's last carefree days. his world would be shattered by family turmoil, by his father leaving his mother when he was a young teenager. he was devastated by their separation and eventually divorce. bryant was filled with anger and started acting out at home. >> there were tears and temper tantrums. bryant started quarreling with his sister, being disrespectful towards his mother. he refused to accept his parents' separation. >> bryant's rebelling against his parents led him to start experimenting with a new church. >> she says that he seemed to be looking for something, seeking direction in his life. >> but attending the new church did nothing to quell his growing anger. his mother says bryant became too much for her to handle, so she went to court and gave up custody of him. at one point, the deroche family found bryant sleeping in his car. >> i guess it was one of those moments that no place to go and we offer him the house and he was more welcome to come and he did stay here for about a month or so. >> she says they lost touch with bryant when he moved into this house to live with his father and his father's soon-to-be wife. but it was an uneasy arrangement. his father says bryant couldn't come to terms with his plan to remarry. unhappy living with his father, no longer speaking to his mother, bryant was losing the stability of family, losing the sense of belonging. turning to new friends for emotional support, searching for a new identity. it was here that bryant would make a new friendship that would lead all the way to the al qaeda camps in pakistan. it was to be a long journey, and at the time, neither he nor his new buddy had any idea what the relationship would lead to. >> i just never thought he would have done something like this. >> it would begin with bryant's seemingly insatiable curiosity. and although his new friend wouldn't be part of it, would by quick steps lead bryant to turn his back on christianity and eventually turn against his own country. yea. 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where did you meet him? >> well, i met him in high school, longwood high school. he was lonely, you could tell. so as times went on i eventually tapped him on his shoulders. >> it was the beginning of a friendship that would last well beyond high school and eventually put bryant on his path to islam. alex liked partying, but he also liked bryant's clean-cut serious lifestyle. >> never had a beer with him, nothing, he was just a straight edge. he was passionate about school. he did his homework on time. he wanted to finish school and go to college. >> he sounds like a regular middle-class kid. >> oh, yeah, he is. yes, he's just dedicated. he's very dedicated, and he's focused. very focused. to me he's very goal oriented. >> alex takes me to one of their favorite haunts, this nearby harbor where they would eat ice cream, kick back, and watch the boats. what was special about this place to him? >> just the water, feeling free, knowing that the boats come in and leave. knowing that he can jump in a boat and just decide to go anywhere he decided to go. >> got a little bit of the travel bug in him? >> yeah, he wanted to travel. he always wanted to get away, always. >> on the well-kept streets of patchogue, long island, where bryant is living with his father, he is surrounded by the symbols of patriotism. it's 2001, after the al qaeda attack on september 11th, one of bryant's friends joins the marines. one joins the army, and another to the coast guard. what was he talking to you about what he wanted to do with his life? >> he just said he wanted to go to the military, you know, and then just come out and just live happy. >> in march 2002 bryant himself makes the commitment to his nation and enlists in the u.s. army. his military records, obtained by cnn, show he signs up for the infantry and goes to ft. jackson, south carolina. but after three weeks, he's discharged. his records don't elaborate due to privacy laws. bryant's family says he was discharged due to his asthma. we also ask his friends. what did he tell you about his experiences in the army? >> he said it was -- it was good at one point but boot camp sucked. he said it was too difficult on him. >> by now, bryant is in his early 20s, drifting. he doesn't have much money. and is eating breakfast cereal for lunch and dinner, trying to save money to go to cuba. and he does go, twice. >> in long island, bryant's getting into boxing. cuba's the perfect place to pursue that. over there, according to friends, he trains with a boxing instructor and for a while dates the trainer's daughter, a relationship that ended when bryant couldn't get back into cuba a third time. >> yeah, it hurt him. >> it's illegal for bryant to go to cuba but he gets away with it, both times. by re-entering the u.s. without revealing where he's been, claiming he lost his passport. for mitch silber at the nypd, who would later become intricately involved in bryant's case, cuba is a glimpse of a new side of bryant. >> it's almost a challenge for him, sort of extreme travel. and that had some sort of appeal to him, being almost, you know, a counter-culture type of approach. so, yeah, sure, he went to cuba even though he knew that was against the rules. >> back home on long island, bryant's friends say he seems to be searching for a sense of belonging, a family. he finds that connection in alex acevedo's brother, victor, an aspiring boxer and a muslim convert. bryant has sparred with him. now he wants the camaraderie victor shares with his muslim buddies. >> he asks, what is the koran? and my brother, he explained to him what it was. and he handed him the koran. >> and how long did it take him to read it? >> not long because he took every minute, every second reading that book. he didn't sleep. he just sat there and read that whole book. >> bryant has been searching for his sense of purpose and identity. first, it was evangelical christianity, then the army, now it's an entirely new religion. within weeks of reading the koran that victor gave him, bryant travels from long island to new york city, to this mosque in queens. he's decided to become a muslim. his conversion was fast. the mosque he'd come to was ran by -- the members are like jehovah's witnesses. they avoid politics. and although the leader is not considered a radical movement, counterterrorism officials point out that its members zealousness can make some of them vulnerable to radical recruiters. >> several former members have become implicated in terrorism. for example, john walker lindh, the so-called american taliban, another the ringleader of the london 2005 bombing attacks. >> unwittingly, bryant neal vinas has taken another step on his path to al qaeda. a journey to jihad, that soon would be inspired -- >> to hell with america! >> -- by new radical friends. >> to hell with barack obama. you should get some custom fit orthotics. dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic center. it recommends the custom fit orthotic that's best for your feet. and footcare scientists are behind it. you'll get immediate comfort... ... and, you could save a couple hundred bucks. for locations see drscholls.com [ laughter ] [ slamming ] [ engines revving ] [ tires screech ] [ engine revving ] [ male announcer ] before you take it on your road trip... we take it on ours. 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[ car door closing ] [ male announcer ] time tot! check your air conditioning? come to meineke now and get a free ac system check. meineke. we have the coolest customers. bryant neal vinas, age 20, has a new religion, a new muslim name. ibrahim. and according to his new best friend, new priorities. >> you can see it in his face and in his eyes that he was more focused, more happy, you know, there was no more playing softball, doing this and that. there was more praying. >> vinas comes to pray here at the pod rat selden mosque on long island, where qureshi is a prominent member. >> his name is going to be ibrahim and i said very good. welcome to the mosque and he seemed like a very quiet, nice guy. >> he's making new friends, becoming devout, but not get radical. this member of the mosque knew him well. he's afraid to show his face to the camera. >> yeah, he's serious but he's quiet you know, but i don't see no violence in him, nothing you know, just a quiet kid. >> this mosque became bryant's focus, an obsession even. he would spend a lot of his spare time here, he got to know the caretaker well. would ask him questions. they would chat. >> they were, like, together every single day, because, you know, i think ibrahim didn't have a good relationship with his family, so he was with this caretaker you know all day long. they were like really good friends. >> the caretaker was reluctant to speak to us on camera. but told us their close relationship began to sour when bryant began spending more and more time with this man -- >> these people are liars! >> ahmed zarrini, a young man turned down by members of the mosque when he offered to run classes for the children. >> i have that feeling that he might not follow a guideline over books. >> ahmed zarrini was not a moderate muslim. our investigations have shown that he was a leading figure in a radical islamist group. the islamic thinkers society. counterterrorism officials say they've come to the same conclusion. >> show disgust and disappointment! >> zarrini is front and center at demonstrations held by the islamic thinkers society in new york city. it has a radical anti-american message. >> you see this flag here? >> one that doesn't fit at the selden mosque, but the group is entirely legal. >> as much as islamic thinkers society might put out an extremist message it seems they go right up to the line with the first amendment. >> freedom of expression, yeah. >> in this country. >> i got the message out there of what i have to do so there's really nothing that they can do to me. i happen to understand united states law and constitution and these things and i exercise my rights. >> counterterrorism officials say that it is through the islamic thinkers society that bryant begins to develop his ideas about jihad and wanting to fight u.s. troops. >> in a sense they're almost bug lights for aspiring jihadists, they've got an anti-western, anti-democratic, anti-u.s., pro-al qaeda message. >> to hell with america! >> the leading light of the group, according to counterterrorism officials, was this man, yousef al kahtab. >> i love osama bin laden. i love him -- whoa, like i can't begin to tell you. >> he recently told cnn's drew griffin that he met bryant. >> how closely did you know bryant neal vinas? >> i met him one time. >> one time? >> that's it. i just knew that he was a good muslim brother and that was it. >> and you are an enemy of islam! >> you are an enemy of islam. >> but law enforcement officials tell us that kahtab met bryant on several occasions. khattab has since left the united states. so we tried to locate ahmed zarrini, the islamic thinkers society member, who we've been told first introduced bryant to the radical group. khattab has told us that ahmed zarrini was considered an extremist even within the islamic thinkers society. i come here to zarrini's parent's house near the selden mosque in long island. if ahmed is in there, then behind those windows could be the secret to bryant's radicalization. i don't see ahmed, but i do meet his father. >> thank you. >> you have a very good day. >> you too. thank you. >> good luck. >> mr. zarrini tells me, ahmed is not home. he's out of the country. but we get a tip that ahmed is not abroad. so we wait and within a few hours, a car goes by. >> that's him. that's him! that's ahmed. >> in it, ahmed and his father. later that day, i return to the house. >> well, ahmed zarrini's father just admitted to me that he lied to me earlier in the day when he told me that ahmed wasn't around. he admits now that his son was in fact inside the house. i am told ahmed refuses to meet me or answer any of my questions. but while i'm searching for him, i stumble across someone who will talk. he is ahmed kaiyum, one-time duo devotee of the islamic thinkers society. i first reach him by phone. i'm from cnn, yes. his number was given to me by someone who believes that kaiyum is important to my investigation. i understand that you may know something about bryant neal vinas. >> are you on his side or are you against him just because he accepted islam? >> he admits that he knows bryant and ahmed zarrini but he's reluctant to go to camera. he's scared we may be fbi agents. >> you can be fbi agent as well, right? trying to pose as an investigative reporter. >> the fbi, we're later told, is trying to track kaiyum down for questioning but cnn gets there first. he eventually agrees to an on-camera interview in pakistan where he is living. >> i don't think that american evil empire's going to last too long now. >> kaiyum was an acting student in new york. >> and lead the muslims to victory! >> before he drifted into radical circles with the islamic thinkers society. >> i mean, i like what they did, you know, and i joined them on a lot of occasions, spreading the word. you know, trying to get the truth out. >> and kaiyum is about to play a very significant role in setting bryant neal vinas on his path to al qaeda. zarrini, khattab, kaiyum, all belong to the islamic thinkers society. bryant begins to emulate his new friends, dress like them, flowing arabic-style robes. but his friends at the moderate selden mosque worry he is falling under the influence of these radical friends and that they are preying on his vulnerability. >> i think he is depressed you know, because the relationship with his family. plus he get laid off, no job, you know, no money. that would lead you to be depressed. >> they took advantage of that. >> yes, of course, they took advantage of that. >> and set him on the wrong path. >> yeah, which is easy to do with someone who is depressed. >> but it is bryant's next step that really begins to shock his old friends at the selden mosque. he tells them that he wants to join muslims fighting u.s. tr