Terrifying 9/11 Details Emerge - Why John O'Neill Was Fired

Terrifying 9/11 details emerge - Why John O’Neill was fired

http://www.newcriminologist.co.uk/ne...id=-2128608848

(Gold9472: Admittedly, I've never heard of this website. However, the information they've posted from the timeline is accurate.)

Published on 22 February 2006 | Source: TNC US Counter Terrorism Expert

Over the coming days, TNC will be releasing shocking information concerning 9/11. Supplied by a close confidante; a former U.S. Government Investigator, who knew John O'Neill better than anyone, below is the first of a file which will heap shame on the current U.S. administration

One man knew that the 9/11 attack was imminent. One man, Special FBI agent John O’Neill – the Agency’s No.1 Counter Terrorism expert was forced to resign as he uncovered corruption deep within the U.S. administration, then, as head of security at the WTC, he died in the attack.

These shocking files tell the real story behind the brave man whose warnings went unheeded, and the government who permitted several thousand people to perish.

John O`Neill knew too much for his own good. (©AH)

TIMELINES

May 22, 1997: FBI: Terrorists Are Operating in US With Capability to Attack . Complete 911 Timeline

The Associated Press reports that senior FBI officials have determined that militant Islamic groups are operating in America. FBI agent John O'Neill is quoted as saying, “Almost every one of these groups has a presence in the United States today. A lot of these groups now have the capacity and the support infrastructure in the United States to attack us here if they choose to.” [PBS Frontline, 10/3/02 (C)]

People and organizations involved: John O'Neill, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Late 1998: Taliban Stall Pipeline Negotiations to Keep Western Powers at Bay

Complete 911 Timeline

During the investigation of the August 7, 1998 US embassy bombings (see August 7, 1998), FBI counterterrorism expert John O'Neill finds a memo by al-Qaeda leader Mohammed Atef on a computer. The memo shows that bin Laden's group has a keen interest in and detailed knowledge of negotiations between the Taliban and the US over an oil and gas pipeline through Afghanistan. Atef's analysis suggests that the Taliban are not sincere in wanting a pipeline, but are dragging out negotiations to keep Western powers at bay. [Salon, 6/5/02]

People and organizations involved: John O'Neill, Mohammed Atef, United States, al-Qaeda, Taliban

Late 1998: Key Embassy Bombing Witnesses Are Beheaded Before They Can Talk to FBI Complete 911 Timeline

FBI counterterrorism expert John O'Neill and his team investigating the 1998 US embassy bombings are repeatedly frustrated by the Saudi government. Guillaume Dasquié, one of the authors of The Forbidden Truth, later tells the Village Voice: “We uncovered incredible things. ... Investigators would arrive to find that key witnesses they were about to interrogate had been beheaded the day before.” [Village Voice, 1/2/02; Brisard, Dasquie and Madsen, 2002, pp xxix]

People and organizations involved: John O'Neill, Federal Bureau of Investigation

January 4-6, 2000: CIA Fails to Warn FBI About Terrorist's US Visa; Other CIA Agents Are Deliberately Misled About This

Complete 911 Timeline

The CIA has been tracking Khalid Almihdhar as he travels to Malaysia for the al-Qaeda summit that starts on January 5 (see January 5-8, 2000). The CIA has just received a photocopy of his passport that shows he has a valid visa to travel to the US (see January 2-5, 2000). But not only does the CIA fail to put his name on any terrorist watch list, they deliberately prevent the FBI from learning about this visa. On January 4, a CIA cable containing the photocopy is sent to CIA headquarters. An FBI agent assigned to the CIA's Bin Laden unit sees the cable and attempts to share the information about Almihdhar and his visa with colleagues at FBI headquarters. However, a CIA headquarters desk officer instructs him not to send a cable containing this information. Several hours later, this desk officer writes a cable that is distributed only within the CIA. It is sent the next day and claims that Almihdhar's visa documents were shared with the FBI (when she knows they were not). This officer will later admit she didn't personally share the information with the FBI either, and the 9/11 Commission will not be able to find anyone in the CIA who did share it with the FBI. [9/11 Commission Final Report, 7/22/04, pp 502; 9/11 Congressional Inquiry, 7/24/03] In 2002, CIA Director George Tenet will allude to e-mails he claims prove the information is passed to the FBI around this time. However, the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry and 9/11 Commission fail to find any evidence of these e-mails. The FBI claims it never received any such e-mails. [9/11 Commission Final Report, 7/22/04, pp 502; 9/11 Congressional Inquiry, 7/24/03; ABC News, 5/10/04] While the Malaysia meeting Almihdhar attends is still in progress, a CIA agent who had been assigned to the FBI's Strategic Information Operations Center to deal with problems “in communicating between the CIA and the FBI” briefs two FBI agents about Almihdhar's activities. This agent then sends an e-mail to another CIA agent describing “exactly” what he told the two FBI agents. One section reads, “This continues to be an [intelligence] operation. Thus far, a lot of suspicious activity has been observed but nothing that would indicate evidence of an impending attack or criminal enterprise.

John O`Neill (©FBI)

Told [the first FBI agent] that as soon as something concrete is developed leading us to the criminal arena or to known FBI cases, we will immediately bring FBI into the loop. Like [the first FBI agent] yesterday, [the second FBI agent] stated that this was a fine approach and thanked me for keeping him in the loop.” The two FBI agents are not told about Almihdhar's US visa. [9/11 Congressional Inquiry, 7/24/03] On January 5 and 6, FBI Director Louis Freeh and other top FBI officials are briefed about the ongoing Malaysia meeting as part of one of their regular daily updates. They are told the CIA is in the lead and that the CIA promises to let the FBI know if an FBI angle to the case develops. But they also are not told about Almihdhar's US visa. [9/11 Commission Report, 1/26/04] One FBI official familiar with the case will later complain, “[The CIA] purposely hid [Almihdhar] from the FBI, purposely refused to tell the bureau. ... The thing was, they didn't want John O'Neill and the FBI running over their case. And that's why September 11 happened. ... They have blood on their hands.” [Bamford, 2004, pp 224] Jack Cloonan, an FBI agent who has pursued al-Qaeda members, later says: “If that information [got] disseminated, would it have had an impact on the events of 9/11? I'm telling you that it would have.” [ABC News, 5/10/04]

People and organizations involved: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, Khalid Almihdhar, Louis J. Freeh, John O'Neill, Jack Cloonan October 14-November, 2000: Investigation Into USS Cole Bombing Is Thwarted Complete 911 Timeline

Barbara Bodine at a press conference days after the bombing of the USS Cole.

FBI agent John O'Neill and his team of 200 FBI investigators enter Yemen two days after the bombing of the USS Cole in an attempt to discover who was responsible. However, they are unable to accomplish much due to restrictions placed on them and due to tensions between O'Neill and US Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine. All but about 50 investigators are forced to leave by the end of October. Even though O'Neill's boss visits and finds that Bodine is O'Neill's “only detractor,” O'Neill and much of his team are forced to leave in November, and the investigation stalls without his personal relationships to top Yemeni officials. [New Yorker, 1/14/02; Miller, Stone, and Mitchell, 2002, pp 237; Sunday Times, 2/3/02] Increased security threats force the reduced FBI team still in Yemen to withdraw altogether in June 2001. [PBS Frontline, 10/3/02 (B)] The Prime Minister of Yemen at the time later claims that hijacker “Khalid Almihdhar was one of the Cole perpetrators, involved in preparations. He was in Yemen at the time and stayed after the Cole bombing for a while, then he left.” [Guardian, 10/15/01] The Sunday Times later notes, “The failure in Yemen may have blocked off lines of investigation that could have led directly to the terrorists preparing for September 11.” [Sunday Times, 2/3/02]

People and organizations involved: Khalid Almihdhar, John O'Neill, USS Cole, Barbara Bodine, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Early December 2000: USS Cole Plotter al-Quso Linked to Hijackers by CIA; Information Withheld from FBI Complete 911 Timeline

End Part I

Fahad al-Quso.

Fahad al-Quso is arrested by the government of Yemen. [PBS Frontline, 10/3/02; PBS Frontline, 10/3/02] In addition to being involved in the USS Cole bombing (see October 12, 2000), al-Quso was at the January 2000 Malaysian meeting (see January 5-8, 2000) with al-Qaeda agents Khallad bin Attash and hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar. Al-Quso tells Yemeni investigators that he flew from Yemen to Bangkok in January 2000 for a secret meeting where he turned over $36,000 in cash to bin Attash. The FBI asks the CIA for more information about bin Attash and the Malaysian meeting, but later the FBI claims that the CIA does not provide the requested information that could have led them to Alhazmi and Almihdhar as well. [New York Times, 4/11/04 (B)] For instance, there are pictures from the Malaysian meeting of al-Quso next to hijacker Khalid Almihdhar, but the CIA does not share the pictures with the FBI before 9/11. [Newsweek, 9/20/01] Meanwhile, FBI head investigator John O'Neill believes that al-Quso is holding back important information from his Yemeni captors and wants him interrogated by the FBI. However, O'Neill had been kicked out of Yemen by his superiors a week or two before, and without his influential presence, the Yemeni government will not allow an interrogation. Al-Quso is finally interrogated days after 9/11, and he admits to meeting with Alhazmi and Almihdhar in January 2000. One investigator calls the missed opportunity of exposing the 9/11 plot through al-Quso's connections “mind-boggling.” [PBS Frontline, 10/3/02] In April 2003, al-Quso will escape from a Yemeni prison and apparently remains free. [Associated Press 4/11/03]

People and organizations involved: John O'Neill, Fahad al-Quso, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Khalid Almihdhar, Nawaf Alhazmi, Central Intelligence Agency July 8-19, 2001: Atta, Bin Al-Shibh, Alshehhi, and Others Meet in Spain to Finalize Attack Plans Complete 911 Timeline

Killers on the Web

“ Evil roams the Internet just as it does even the most quiet of streets in the real world. An unflinching look into the darkest recesses of the web.”
Mohamed Atta travels to Spain again (his first trip was in January). Three others cross the Atlantic with him but their names are not known, as they apparently use false identities. [El Mundo, 9/30/01] Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, a member of his Hamburg terrorist cell, arrives in Spain on July 9, and stays until July 16. [New York Times, 5/1/02] Hijacker Marwan Alshehhi also comes to Spain at about the same time and leaves on July 17. [Associated Press, 6/30/02] Alshehhi must have traveled under another name, because US immigration has no records of his departure or return. [Department of Justice, 5/20/02] Investigators believe Atta, Alshehhi, and bin al-Shibh meet with at least three Unknown others in a secret safe house near Tarragona. [Los Angeles Times, 9/1/02; Associated Press, 6/30/02] It is theorized that the final details of the 9/11 attacks are set at this meeting. [Los Angeles Times, 9/1/02] Atta probably meets with, and is hosted by, Barakat Yarkas and other Spanish al-Qaeda members. [International Herald Tribune, 11/21/01] One of the unknowns at the meeting could be Yarkas's friend Mamoun Darkazanli, a German with connections to the Hamburg al-Qaeda cell. Darkazanli travels to Spain and meets with Yarkas during the time Atta is there. He travels with an unnamed Syrian Spanish suspect, who lived in Afghanistan and had access there to al-Qaeda leaders. [Los Angeles Times, 1/14/03] The Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia later reports that Atta also meets with fellow hijackers Waleed Alshehri and Wail Alshehri on July 16. [Associated Press, 9/27/01] Strangely enough, on July 16, Atta stayed in the same hotel in the town of Salou that had hosted FBI counterterrorist expert John O'Neill a few days earlier, when he made a speech to other counterterrorism experts on the need for greater international cooperation by police agencies to combat terrorism. Bin al-Shibh arrived in Salou on July 9, which means he would have been there when the counter-terrorist meeting took place. [Miller, Stone, and Mitchell, 2002, pp 135]

People and organizations involved: Mohamed Atta, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Barakat Yarkas, Wail Alshehri, John O'Neill, Mamoun Darkazanli, Marwan Alshehhi, International Herald Tribune

Mid-July 2001: John O'Neill Rails Against White House and Saudi Obstructionism Complete 911 Timeline

FBI counterterrorism expert John O'Neill privately discusses White House obstruction in his bin Laden investigation. O'Neill says, “The main obstacles to investigate Islamic terrorism were US oil corporate interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it.” He adds, “All the answers, everything needed to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization, can be found in Saudi Arabia.” O'Neill also believes the White House is obstructing his investigation of bin Laden because they are still keeping the idea of a pipeline deal with the Taliban open (see July 21, 2001). [Irish Times, 11/19/01; Brisard, Dasquie and Madsen, 2002, pp xxix; CNN, 1/9/02; CNN, 1/8/02]

People and organizations involved: John O'Neill, Bush administration, Osama bin Laden, Taliban

August 19, 2001: FBI's Best al-Qaeda Expert Under Investigation for Trivial Issue, His Resignation Soon Follows Complete 911 Timeline

John O'Neill.

The New York Times reports that counterterrorism expert John O'Neill is under investigation for an incident involving a missing briefcase. [New York Times, 8/19/01] In July 2000, he misplaced a briefcase containing important classified information, but it was found a couple of hours later still locked and untouched. Why such a trivial issue would come up over a year later and be published in the New York Times seems entirely due to politics. Says The New Yorker, “The leak seemed to be timed to destroy O'Neill's chance of being confirmed for [a National Security Council] job,” and force him into retirement. A high-ranking colleague says the leak was “somebody being pretty vicious to John.” [New Yorker, 1/14/02] John O'Neill suspects his enemy Tom Pickard, then interim director of the FBI, orchestrated the article. [PBS Frontline, 10/3/02 (B)] The New Yorker later speculates that with the retirement of FBI Director Freeh in June, it appears O'Neill lost his friends in high places, and the new FBI director wanted him replaced with a Bush ally. [New Yorker, 1/14/02] O'Neill resigns a few days later.

People and organizations involved: Louis J. Freeh, Thomas Pickard, John O'Neill

August 22, 2001: O'Neill Quits FBI in Frustration; Misses important Warnings Complete 911 Timeline

Counterterrorism expert John O'Neill resigns from the FBI. He says it is partly because of the recent power play against him, but also because of repeated obstruction of his investigations into al-Qaeda. [New Yorker, 1/14/02] In his last act, he signs papers ordering FBI investigators back to Yemen to resume the USS Cole investigation, now that Barbara Bodine is leaving as ambassador (they arrive a couple days before 9/11). He never hears the CIA warning about hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar sent out just one day later. Because he fell out of favor a few months earlier, he also is never told about Ken Williams' flight school memo from July 10, 2001, or the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui on August 15, 2001 [PBS Frontline, 10/3/02 (D)] ; nor does he attend a June meeting when the CIA reveals some of what it knows about Alhazmi and Almihdhar. [PBS Frontline, 10/3/02] The FBI New York office eventually hears of Walid Arkeh's warning that the WTC would be attacked, but presumably not in time for O'Neill to hear it.

People and organizations involved: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Nawaf Alhazmi, al-Qaeda, Khalid Almihdhar, Walid Arkeh, Central Intelligence Agency, John O'Neill, Barbara Bodine, Ken Williams, USS Cole, Zacarias Moussaoui

August 23, 2001: O'Neill Begins Job as Head of Security at the WTC Complete 911 Timeline

John O'Neill begins his new job as head of security at the WTC. [New Yorker, 1/14/02] A friend says to him, “Well, that will be an easy job. They're not going to bomb that place again.” O'Neill replies, “Well actually they've always wanted to finish that job. I think they're going to try again.” On September 10, he moves into his new office on the 34th floor of the North Tower. That night, he tells colleague Jerry Hauer, “We're due for something big. I don't like the way things are lining up in Afghanistan” (a probable reference to the assassination of Afghan leader Ahmed Shah Massoud the day before). O'Neill will be killed in the 9/11 attack. [PBS Frontline, 10/3/02 (D)]

People and organizations involved: John O'Neill, Jerry Hauer, Ahmed Shah Massoud, World Trade Center

End