About this season
Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast by serving as a catalyst for change.
Episodes (24)
1. Hunting Bin Laden
Aired 13 September 2001
For years this one man has taunted, threatened and frustrated the United States. But who is he? The U.S. government has tried to link him to nearly every act of Islamic terrorism against Americans in the 90s: from the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, to the bombings of U.S. military installations in Saudi Arabia, to the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa. [This is a post-9/11 update of an episode that originally aired on 4/13/1999.]
2. Target America
Aired 4 October 2001
3. Looking for Answers
Aired 9 October 2001
Sunday night, as U.S. bombers and cruise missiles attack targets in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden released a videotape calling on Muslims worldwide to join his war on America. Next to bin Laden was his close association, an Egyptian named Ayman al-Zawahiri, a man who is certainly as important to the terror network as bin Laden himself. Tonight on FRONTLINE, the full story of these two men, the story of how the seeds of their hatred for America were sown not in Afghanistan but in two of the U.S.'s greatest allies in the Islamic world, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the story of how they joined forces to pursue a common enemy.
4. Dangerous Straits
Aired 18 October 2001
5. Trail of a Terrorist
Aired 25 October 2001
6. Gunning for Saddam
Aired 8 November 2001
7. Saudi Time Bomb?
Aired 15 November 2001
8. The Monster That Ate Hollywood
Aired 22 November 2001
9. An Ordinary Crime
Aired 10 January 2002
10. Inside the Terror Network
Aired 17 January 2002
11. Dot Con
Aired 24 January 2002 • 57 min
In "Dot Con," award-winning FRONTLINE producer Martin Smith takes an inside look at the precipitous rise and fall of the Internet economy -- and examines the allegations that brokers at some of Wall Street's most prestigious firms manipulated the hot IPO market of the late 1990s. Wall Street, of course, would prefer to forget the past. But investors and investigators want to know: During the headiest days of the Internet bubble, did investment banks and venture capitalists betray the public's trust? Did "irrational exuberance" give way to fraud?
12. Inside the Teenage Brain
Aired 31 January 2002
13. American Porn
Aired 7 February 2002
Porn is one of the largest and fastest growing forms of media in the United States. The industry’s profits have skyrocketed as we become increasingly reliant on technology for our entertainment. Why has this happened, and will the trend continue?
14. Roll Over: the Hidden History of the SUV
Aired 21 February 2002
15. Testing Our Schools
Aired 28 March 2002
16. Battle for the Holy Land
Aired 4 April 2002
17. Requiem for Frank Lee Smith
Aired 11 April 2002
18. Modern Meat
Aired 18 April 2002
19. Did Daddy Do It?
Aired 25 April 2002
20. Terror and Tehran
Aired 2 May 2002
21. Muslims
Aired 9 May 2002 • 114 min
Muslims account for one-fifth of the world's population, but most Americans know little about their faith, Islam, which continues to be one of the fastest growing religions in the United States and around the world. What does it mean to be a Muslim today? Does Islam deserve its reputation as a patriarchal, authoritarian, and anti-Western religion? What is the role of Islam in movements for political and social change? FRONTLINE explores these and other questions in "Muslims," a special two-hour film examining the different faces of Islam's worldwide resurgence and the fundamental tenets of the faith. Reporting from Iran, Nigeria, Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey, and the United States, and drawing on the perspectives of leading scholars of Islam, this program tells the stories of Muslims struggling to define how Islam will shape their lives and societies.
22. The Siege of Bethlehem
Aired 13 June 2002
23. Bigger Than Enron
Aired 20 June 2002 • 57 min
In "Bigger Than Enron," FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith shines a spotlight on how the corporate watchdogs -- the bankers, lawyers, regulators, politicians, and above all, the accountants -- failed to prevent Enron and other scandals from happening. Through interviews with current and former SEC officials (including SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt and his predecessor, Arthur Levitt), Arthur Andersen executives (including former Andersen CEO Joseph Berardino), members of Congress (including Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut), investor advocates, and others, the report explores how the system of controls was eroded by conflicts of interest, as well as by congressional intervention that blocked efforts at protecting investors.
24. Shattered Dreams
Aired 27 June 2002 • 117 min
How the Israeli-Palestinian peace process begun at Oslo was derailed.