Actual News | September 11, 2011 | 21 comments

Frontline: John O'Neill: The Man who Knew

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1KBR_T8yYE&feature=related

JanforGore
PBS Frontline details FBI Special Agent John O'Neill's efforts to sound the alarms about al Qaeda's growing reach and threat to the U.S., only to be branded a maverick and roundly ignored. O'Neill left the FBI in the summer of 2001 and took a new job as head of security at the World Trade Center, where he died on September 11th.

The 9/11 Commission's investigation revealed that America's $30 billion intelligence community, spread over more than a dozen agencies, was disorganized, fractured and impaired by organizational and legal restrictions on the sharing of information.
These disclosures directly relate to John O'Neill's story. He came tantalizingly close to possibly uncovering the 9/11 plot. But his investigations into the USS Cole terrorist attack and into Al Qaeda's presence in the United States were both undermined by the CIA and FBI's failure to share information with each other.
____________
And if I may add to that by Mr. O'Neill's own admission, the thwarting of him doing anymore work on this in pursuing Bin Laden by the Bush administration. The Millennium Plot that was thwarted by the work of O'Neill led to the total ignoring of this threat under Bush. I suspect due to their ties to the Saudis. I wonder exactly how much Mr. O'Neill may well have uncovered about the money behind this and how far it actually went up the ladder in his own government. There is so much more to this that we may never know, but one thing we do know is that there was at least one man with the tenacity to do what was necessary to pursue the truth, and he paid for it ironically in the WTC with his life today ten years ago.
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21 comments // Frontline: John O'Neill: The Man who Knew // Video

  • Leen61
    • 0
      Leen61  

    • Thanks for posting this, Jan. My husband and I just watched it. I think John O'Neil could've prevented 9/11 but as usual petty vendettas and jealousy came before national security. Pickard and Bodine should be tried for treason along with Bush/Cheney and Co. This was so sad.

    • 1 year ago
  • Bmad
    • +1
      Bmad  

    • Frontline continues to provide amazing things. This is yet another example of how television can be used for more than selling guns, drugs and sugarrrrrrry things.

      The first time that I watched this piece was when it aired. Thanks for posting this item. So many what ifs......

    • 1 year ago
  • kennymotown
    • +1
      kennymotown  
    • Image

    • Ex-Senator Bob Graham of Florida had this too say:

      After the 9/11 Commission Report, Senator Graham dropped a bomb shell during an interview with PBS Gwen Ifill:

      http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/july-dec02/intelligence_12-11.html

      GWEN IFILL: Senator Graham, are there elements in this report, which are classified that Americans should know about but can't?

      SEN. BOB GRAHAM: Yes, going back to your question about what was the greatest surprise. I agree with what Senator Shelby said the degree to which agencies were not communicating was certainly a surprise but also I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.

      I am stunned that we have not done a better job of pursuing that to determine if other terrorists received similar support and, even more important, if the infrastructure of a foreign government assisting terrorists still exists for the current generation of terrorists who are here planning the next plots.

      To me that is an extremely significant issue and most of that information is classified, I think overly-classified. I believe the American people should know the extent of the challenge that we face in terms of foreign government involvement. That would motivate the government to take action.

      GWEN IFILL: Are you suggesting that you are convinced that there was a state sponsor behind 9/11?

      SEN. BOB GRAHAM: I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government and that we have been derelict in our duty to track that down, make the further case, or find the evidence that would indicate that that is not true and we can look for other reasons why the terrorists were able to function so effectively in the United States.

      After the 9/11 Commission Report, Senator Graham dropped a bomb shell during an interview with PBS Gwen Ifill:

      http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/july-dec02/intelligence_12-11.html

      GWEN IFILL: Senator Graham, are there elements in this report, which are classified that Americans should know about but can't?

      SEN. BOB GRAHAM: Yes, going back to your question about what was the greatest surprise. I agree with what Senator Shelby said the degree to which agencies were not communicating was certainly a surprise but also I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.

      I am stunned that we have not done a better job of pursuing that to determine if other terrorists received similar support and, even more important, if the infrastructure of a foreign government assisting terrorists still exists for the current generation of terrorists who are here planning the next plots.

      To me that is an extremely significant issue and most of that information is classified, I think overly-classified. I believe the American people should know the extent of the challenge that we face in terms of foreign government involvement. That would motivate the government to take action.

      GWEN IFILL: Are you suggesting that you are convinced that there was a state sponsor behind 9/11?

      SEN. BOB GRAHAM: I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government and that we have been derelict in our duty to track that down, make the further case, or find the evidence that would indicate that that is not true and we can look for other reasons why the terrorists were able to function so effectively in the United States.

      GWEN IFILL: Do you think that will ever become public, which countries you're talking about?

      SEN. BOB GRAHAM: It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now. And, we need to have this information now because it's relevant to the threat that the people of the United States are facing today.
      _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

      Imagine if in 1941, that the government reported the attack on Pearl Harbor but refused to divulge who the attackers were as a "classified" matter. Oh wait, they lied about that too!

      Note that Graham says in the interview "there were foreign governments involved" - plural...who else?
      It it any wonder Americans don't buy the official story!

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • kennymotown:

      "SEN. BOB GRAHAM: I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government and that we have been derelict in our duty to track that down,"
      ___
      Saudis (within the royal family) laundering money thorugh Amercian banks that went to pay the hijackers. That was what I had read about this. Perhaps that was what John O'Neill tracked and that couldn't be divulged because well, the Bushes are their friends afterall. To think this criminal actually was part of the anniversary yesterday and was the one selected to toss the coin at the Jets game is an absolute INSULT to first responders who were the real heroes.

    • 1 year ago
  • kennymotown
  • Schnookums
  • artemis6
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  
    • artemis6:

      Yes, especially regarding the events that took place after it. Considering the lackluster attention given to this matter by the Bush administration which I think was criminal under the circumstances and the warnings it is not hard to come to the conclusion that they wanted this to happen to get their war in Iraq. I would even go so far as to state this could have been one motivation for what happened in the 2000 election. They knew they wouldn't get that war unless Bush was in place and they were determined to do anything to make sure Bush was sitting in the true president's desk. I keep wondering what it would have been like had Mr. O'Neill been allowed to go to Yemen the second time. I think it might well have brought us closer to stopping 9.11 from happening.

    • 1 year ago
  • GavinTheMother
    • +1
      GavinTheMother  

    • One of the unfortunate facts being ignored, even by this article, is that the lack of communication problematic for O'neill was unusual. The Rand corporation conducted a study (previous to 9/11) that showed that the major intelligence services in the US communicated quite effectively. It was very rare when a lack of adequate communication occurred. If it was truly an incidental lack of communication between intelligence services in this case, it was an anomaly.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • GavinTheMother:

      I tend to agree that these agencies were not as ineffective on the whole as relayed. So I can then only come to the conclusion that there was pressure exerted from a higher office to keep him from doing his job for a specific reason.

    • 1 year ago
  • KB723
  • JanforGore
  • DanCastro
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  
    • DanCastro:

      It's easy when you have a media and government in collusion with each other. Except for PBS of course which actually gives you quality reporting. And according to this report, there were people in the FBI who didn't like his style because he was so about his job. But that is what saves lives. It truly makes you wonder about who all the players in this were and who they were getting their orders from.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
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