John O'Neill – The tragic story of the man who warned of a terrorist attack and died in the Twin Towers
The story of John P. O'Neill, a senior FBI official and leading al-Qaeda expert, who warned of a major terrorist attack on US soil years before September 11. O'Neill investigated key attacks by the organization, but was forced to resign from the FBI in August 2001 amid organizational friction and a classified documents case. A day after his resignation, he began his role as head of security at the World Trade Center. On September 11, he was killed in the North Tower after going back inside to assist with evacuations. The article examines the intelligence failures leading up to the attack and the question of whether critical information held by various agencies was not connected in time.
The story of John P. O'Neill, a senior FBI official and leading terrorism expert on al-Qaeda, who warned for years of a major terrorist attack on US soil. O'Neill investigated the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000. As early as 1996, he warned of the rise of global terrorist organizations, and in 1997 he argued that Islamic terrorist cells had infrastructure within the US. However, O'Neill was a controversial figure: competitive, aggressive, sometimes breaking organizational rules and clashing with superiors. In August 2001, amid a case involving a classified document he left unattended and internal friction, he was forced to resign from the FBI. A day later, he began his role as head of security at the World Trade Center. On September 11, after the first plane hit the North Tower, O'Neill left the building and called his relatives, but went back inside to assist with evacuations. He was killed when the South Tower collapsed. The article examines the intelligence failures leading up to the attack: information scattered among the CIA, FBI, NSA, and immigration system, but not pieced together in time into a complete picture. It also considers the complex question of whether O'Neill could have prevented the attack had he remained in his position.