The Man who Warned America

1. The Man who Warned America Jeff Boettcher Anti-Americanism 10/26/04

2. About the author • This book was written by Murray Weiss, criminal justice editor for the NY Post. It is a biography of the life and career of John O’Neal, who was a close friend of Weiss.

3. John O’Neal: The Man who warned • John O’Neal was an FBI agent. From his early teen years he had only one dream, to join the FBI. • In 1988 he graduated from Quantico and became a special agent. In 1994 he gained notoriety for his investigation into the serial killings of abortion clinic doctors. In 1995 he was appointed chief of counterterrorism in Washington, D.C. In 1997 he became the chief of counterterrorism in New York.

4. The Al Qaeda Expert • O’Neal first began to study Al Qaeda after the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. At this point, Osama bin Laden, was not high on the lists of American intelligence. Yet in 94’ O’Neal said regarding bin Laden, “He’s building a worldwide terrorist network, the point of which is to go after the U.S. We have got to get this guy. Everything leads back to him.” Later in 95’ he said, “When you read what this guy is says he’s going to do, he’s serious. There are a lot of people who support him. What he says he is going to do is go to war with the U.S. It is inconceivable to think that they are not already here.” However O’Neal’s warnings about Al Qaeda went unheeded by the White House. • On the reasons that terrorism was not given great attention by the White House was because there was a strained relationship between the CIA and Clinton. Jack Caravelli, a former top CIA official and NSC member said, “The CIA under Clinton never wanted to look bad or wrong. Therefore, they were reluctant to provide intelligence to the White House unless it came from a unassailable source.” The reason for this timidity was because the NSA advisor, Sandy Berger, hated the CIA and did not trust their opinions.

5. In June of 96’ O’Neal organized the defection of Al Fadl, one of Al Qaeda’s top leaders. During his debriefing Al Fadl told the FBI of Al Qaeda’s sophisticated organization and bin Laden’s desire to attack America. As a result of this information, O’Neal, formed a taskforce called “ALEX” whose mission it was to accumulate information about Al Qaeda’s movement. However funding for this taskforce was pulled because the FBI felt that its resources could be used in better ways. • This frustrated O’Neal who said, “The number one threat for America is bin Laden’s terrorist network.

6. In 97’ O’Neal went before the NSC board and told them that dramatic policy change must take place in order to combat the growing threat of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism. He said, “It will be a tragic mistake if America is lulled into the assumption that the terrorist groups will never take action on U.S. soil.” While his speech moved many, no change in policy was made. The fact that Clinton would not agree with his assessment really grated on O’Neal. He confided in a colleague, “He just doesn’t get it!” • After the embassy bombings in Africa in 98’ O’Neal wanted America to respond with strong military action. He was enraged when there was little response by the government. Though a link between bin Laden and the bombings was established, little retaliatory act was taken by the U.S. government. Three bombs were dropped on outdated targets and no damage was done to the Al Qaeda terror network. O’Neal warned that this lack of response would only further embolden bin Laden.

7. In 2000 when terrorists attacked the U.S.S Cole, O’Neal immediately knew that it was Al Qaeda who launched the attack. He went to Yemen to investigate the link, but his efforts were blocked by the U.S. ambassador, because of politics. Thus, he returned to America again frustrated by bureaucrats. However, he was vindicated when on June 16th of 2001 bin Laden took responsibility for the attack on the Cole.

8. In July of 2001 O’Neal was asked to leave the FBI. They had two reasons for asking for his resignation. First, O’Neal allowed one of his lovers to use the secret underground garage beneath the FBI building. This was against regulations. Second, O’Neal was attending a conference in Florida when he left the lecture room to answer a phone call. He left behind his briefcase in which were many confidential files. These files were not supposed to leave the FBI building, but O’Neal had taken them with him to work while on the road. Even though these documents were later recovered, this breach of protocol could not be overlooked. Ironically, the job that he ended up taking was head of security for the World Trade Center

9. On September 10, 2001John O’Neal was talking to his successor at the FBI when he said, “You have to get them to see. It’s going to happen and it looks like it is going to be something big. • John O’Neal went up to his office on the 72 floor of the World Trade Center, on September 11, 2001. His last words were to his son as he felt the floor beneath begin to give way. • The attack that O’Neal had been predicting since 1993 had finally happened. And in a cruel twist of fate it cost him his life.

10. Conclusions • The point Mr. Weiss makes by telling the story of John O’Neal is simply this: 9/11 was avoidable. • Bin Laden was not some phantom. There was much accumulated information about both him and his terror network. The pieces to the Al Qaeda puzzle were all there. However, John O’Neal was one of the few who took seriously the picture that those puzzle pieces depicted. • Due to politics and in- house power struggles between intelligence agencies, the voice of John O’Neal was never heard. • The story of John O’Neal calls for reform in both the intelligence society and the government.

11. This book was very convincing. The amount of information that John O’Neal had should have been impossible for the government to ignore. • Mr. Weiss makes his point loud and clear. He could not have found a better way to do this than through writing the story of John O’Neal