When the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001, among the thousands killed was the one man who may have known more about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda than any other person in America: JOHN O NEILL FRONTLINE kicks off its 20th anniversary season with "The Man Who Knew," a special 90-minute documentary chronicling John O'Neill's quest to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.
BEFORE YOU WATCH THE FILM TAKE SOME TIME TO ACCQUAINT YOURSELF WITH THESE PEOPLE.
DIRECTORY OF PEOPLE RAMZI YOUSEF PLOTTED TO BLOW UP THE WORLD TRADE CENTER, 1991. FAILED. NOW SERVING TIME IN NYC PRISON. VALARIE JAMES LONGTIME GRILFRIEND AND COMPANION OF JOHN O NEILL. UNDERSTOOD HIM PERSONALLY. KNEW OF BACK-STAGE DEALINGS AT THE FBI. FRAN TOWNSEND SERVED UNDER JANET RENO. ACTED AS A LIASON BETWEEN THE ATT. GEN. AND O NEILL. SHE WAS ALSO A TRUSTED FRIEND.
TOM PICKARD DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE FBI ( 93-01)UNDER LOUIS FREEH. SAW O NEILL AS A MAVARICK AND SOUGHT TO KEEP HIM DOWN. LOUIS FREEH DIRECTOR OF THE FBI ( 93-01). DISLIKED O NEIL PERSONALLY. THEY HAD DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES. SOUGHT TO KEEP O NEILL DOWN. RICHARD DICK CLARKE COUNTER-TERRORISM EXPERT FOR FBI UNDER FREEH. THOUGH O NEILL SHOULD BE LISTED TO. TESTIFIED AGAINST THE BUSH ADMIN. TO THE 9.11 COMISSION IN MARCH OF 2004.
ROBERT BEAR BRYANT SERVED AS DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF FBI UNDER FREEH. BELIEVED O NEILL SHOULD BE ADVANCED AND CONSULTED. BARBARA BRYANT SERVED AS THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO YEMEN. DISLIKED O NEILL INTENSELY AND SOUGHT TO PREVENT HIM FROM INVESTIGATING AL QAEDA IN YEMEN. HER PETTIENESS MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO 9.11.01. NAWAF AL HAZMI AND KHALID AL MIDHAR O NEILL NEARLY DISCOVERED THEM DURING HIS YEMIN INVESTIGATION OF THE COLE. THEY PILOTED THE PLANE INTO THE PENTAGON ON 9.11.01.
NOW VIEW THE PROGRAM. THE MAN WHO KNEW RUN FILM: THE MAN WHO KNEW.
TOUCH TO CONNECT: frontline: the man who knew: o'neill's life and career PBS
AFTER THE VIDEO... THE AFTERMATH THE MAN WHO KNEW NEW DISCOVERIES FROM THE 9-11 COMMISSION
AFTER THE VIDEO... A Letter to Lou Gunn On his last day at the FBI, O'Neill sent this e- mail to the father of one of the sailors killed in the USS Cole attack.
From: John O'Neill To: Lou Gunn Subject: retirement Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 10:03:05-0400 Dear Mr. Gunn: By now you may have heard that I am retiring from the FBI after 31 years of what I believe was loyal and dedicated service. Today is my last day. I want you and those USS Cole family members you are in contact with, [to know] that the FBI has and will continue to work hard on the investigation in Yemen and where ever else the case takes them. There has been an assessment team which was in Yemen in early August and an advance team is about to depart to Yemen within the next week. The FBI will be back in Yemen with full resources by early September if all goes well. In my 31 years of government service, my proudest moment was when I was selected to lead the investigation of the attack on the USS Cole. I have put my all into the investigation and truly believe that significant progress has been made. Unknown to you and the families is that I have cried with your loss. All Americans share your pain. I will keep you and all the families in my prayers and will continue to track the investigation as a civilian. Mr. Kenneth Maxwell of the New York office will be heading the investigation and he can be reached at [deleted]. My personal e-mail is [deleted] if you want to stay in touch. I thank you for all your support. God bless you, your loved ones, the families, and God bless America. John
IN APRIL 2004 THE FBI AND CIA ADMITTED THAT VITAL CLUES WERE MISSED IN THE COLE INVESTIGATION. READ MORE
SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2004 9:12 AM Inquiry Into Cole Attack in 2000 Missed 9/11 Clues WASHINGTON (April 10) -- The American investigators probing the October 2000 terrorist attack against the Navy destroyer Cole came tantalizingly close to detecting the Sept. 11 plot, F.B.I. and C.I.A. officials now say. But the government missed the significance of a series of clues because some investigators believed that the evidence fit narrowly into their case against the ship bombers and, others say, they did not have access to all the information. The lost opportunity, described by the officials for the first time in interviews this week, involved two of the eventual Sept. 11 hijackers, Khalid al-midhar and Nawaq Alhazmi, who fell under suspicion by the C.I.A. early in 2000 but were not put on a watch list of foreigners barred from entering the United States until August 2001, after they were already here. A reconstruction of events shows that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency failed to recognize the significance of the two men and to act in concert to intercept them because of internal miscommunications and legal restrictions on the sharing of C.I.A. intelligence information with criminal investigators at the F.B.I. Problems developed even though F.B.I. agents and C.I.A. officers were assigned to each other's operational and analytical units. The reconstruction also shows that the importance of the two men, who have figured centrally in examinations of the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, was misunderstood before the attacks because investigators thought the two were associated with only the Cole bombing. They were not linked with a plot to strike targets within the United States until after Sept. 11, 2001.
DEBRIEFING QUESTION WHAT CHANGES MUST BE MADE IN THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY (FBI/CIA) IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE UNITED STATES AGAINST FUTURE TERRORIST ATTACKS. HOW ARE SOME OF THESE CHANGES REQUIRE PEOPLE TO CHANGE THE WAY THEY THINK? END