The Man Who Warned America : The Life and Death of John O'Neill, the FBI's Embattled Counterterror Warrior

Rating:
Summary: lapses into partisanship here and there
Review: This is a good quick read about an important subject and an important person. It is a tragedy that the 9/11 Commission could not interview John O'Neill, even just to put the lie to the comforting but false claims that "nobody knew" how bad the danger from Bin Laden really was before 9/11. One limitation of the book is that partisanship and a focus on the FBI occasionally narrows the author's vision and blinds him to the bigger picture and the facts.

For example, the 9/11 Commission report debunks some of the myths propagated by this book about Clinton's response to the embassy bombings in August 1998, e.g., that the strikes were symbolic and based on old intelligence, and designed to distract attention from the unfolding Monica-gate: in fact, the strikes were prompted by fresh CIA intelligence of an 8/20 meeting of Bin Laden and his top lieutenants. Other debunked myths: that Clinton tipped off the Pakistanis just to "be nice" (in fact he feared a nuclear response on India), that Clinton was distracted by Monica in not addressing his response in his 8/17 public appearance (in fact the strike plans had already been set but were kept secret until 8/20), that the strikes were planned by political advisors rather than national security advisors (some targets were chosen weeks in advance by Shelton and Zinni at DoD), and that Clinton had little focus on Bin Laden problem prior to the bombings (in fact his ongoing efforts went through CIA and DoD rather than FBI, in part because of Vincent Freeh's obsession with the Whitewater nonsense at FBI....the same Vincent Freeh who obstructed O'Neill and ultimately pushed him out of FBI). (Clinton's biography also explains the clever way his administration notified the Pakistanis of the strikes in a way that left them little time to tip off Bin Laden, although the 9/11 report does not corroborate that.)

Despite some drifting into a right-wing never never land, this is still a good book, and all should hail O'Neill as a true American hero. The messenger may be flawed, but the basic message of this book rings true and clear and compelling. Read it and weep, Lest We Forget.


Rating:
Summary: Every so often someone has vision that transcends their time
Review: Today's books seem to be on one side of the fence or the other, liberal or conservative. Although this book takes an occasional stab at the Clinton admin and the FBI seniors of the time it focuses on a man with a torn personal life and an obsession for his job. One aspect of his life was meticulous the other a mess.

John O'Neil was one of the people that was able to connect the dots unfortunatley he wasn't high enough on the chain of command to get somewhere. He is another cog in the FBI and CIA that knew something was not right and it was coming. That ironically killed him.

The most important fact that John O'Neil harped on was the fact that the towers WOULD be attacked again! The way people speak it is like the 93 attack never happened... If only we would have really listened to him and others back then; the past 10 years would be different. If only the Administration at the time took that attack more seriously...

This was a great book that gave alot of insight into many of the terrorist investigations over the past 20 years. The successes, failures and roadblocks are all defined making this a great read.