ACPlayer
03-27-2004, 07:52 AM
A couple of links passed by me today that I thought I would share, given all the interest surrounding Mr Clarke.
The Misleader page (a blatantly anti-admin site). (http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df03262004.html)
Life and death of O'Neill. (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC27Aa01.html)
Extract from the first:
A previously forgotten report from April 2001 (four months before 9/11) shows that the Bush Administration officially declared it "a mistake" to focus "so much energy on Osama bin Laden." The report directly contradicts the White House's continued assertion that fighting terrorism was its "top priority" before the 9/11 attacks1.
Extract from the second:
There were some obstacles that O'Neill's charismatic persona couldn't overcome, however. That first became clear after the Khobar Towers bombings in Saudi Arabia in 1996, which killed 19 American soldiers.
According to his friend Chris Isham, O'Neill "felt the Saudis were definitely playing games and that the senior officials in the US government just didn't get it".
Similar problems dogged O'Neill's investigation of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, when he clashed so severely with US ambassador Barbara Bodine that he was refused clearance to enter the country.
The level of opposition he faced within the US government may have contributed to O'Neill's decision to leave the FBI in July 2001, even though there were signs of increasing al-Qaeda activity. He took up a new post as head of security at the World Trade Center.
The Misleader page (a blatantly anti-admin site). (http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df03262004.html)
Life and death of O'Neill. (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC27Aa01.html)
Extract from the first:
A previously forgotten report from April 2001 (four months before 9/11) shows that the Bush Administration officially declared it "a mistake" to focus "so much energy on Osama bin Laden." The report directly contradicts the White House's continued assertion that fighting terrorism was its "top priority" before the 9/11 attacks1.
Extract from the second:
There were some obstacles that O'Neill's charismatic persona couldn't overcome, however. That first became clear after the Khobar Towers bombings in Saudi Arabia in 1996, which killed 19 American soldiers.
According to his friend Chris Isham, O'Neill "felt the Saudis were definitely playing games and that the senior officials in the US government just didn't get it".
Similar problems dogged O'Neill's investigation of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, when he clashed so severely with US ambassador Barbara Bodine that he was refused clearance to enter the country.
The level of opposition he faced within the US government may have contributed to O'Neill's decision to leave the FBI in July 2001, even though there were signs of increasing al-Qaeda activity. He took up a new post as head of security at the World Trade Center.