>>>Brisard and his associate Guillaume Dasquié, an intelligence analyst and the editor of Intelligence Online, dedicated their book "Bin Laden: the Forbidden Truth" (released in France in November 2001) to O'Neill. The book has been vigorously avoided by U.S. publishers and everyone in the mainstream U.S. press except Paula Zahn, who has presented excerpts of it.
July: Francesc Vendrell and Tom Simmons (former ambassador to Pakistan)meet with Taliban in Berlin on Bush administration's behalf. A deal that offers a coalition government and a pipeline is proposed to the Taliban. When Tom Simmons threatens the Taliban with military action as an alternative to not accepting the deal, the Taliban reps storm out of the meetings.
July: Possibly as a way to mollify the Taliban, Bush directs FBI to back off Osama Bin Laden
July 6: In response to public pressure, the FBI is sent back to Yemen, but O'Neill is told he is barred from entering the country.
July 10: 'An FBI agent named Kenneth Williams who is based in Phoenix AZ sends a memo to John O'Neill that he suspected an OBL hijacker in training was taking flight lessons at a local flight school. The memo never gets further than whoever O'Neill transmitted it to. And, knowing O'Neill's history, there is no doubt the info was transmitted.
July: 12: Osama Bin Laden receives treatment at an American hospital in Dubai and is visited by CIA agent Larry Mitchell
Mid July: O'Neill meets with again with French intelligence analyst Brisard, this time in NYC. He again expresses frustration at Bush's refusal to pursue OBL or Saudi terrorist ties seriously. It is absolutely certain that O'Neill by now realized that even the memo from Williams would not be followed up on.
August 2. Christina Rocca director of Asian affairs at the State Department, meets the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad to reopen negotiations. Her message from Bush according to intelligence reports repeated in Brisard and Dasquie's book. "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs." This medieval offer is refused.
August 6: The most serious terrorist attack warning is delivered to Bush. At this point, it should have been clear to the Bush that, having just four days before threatened the Taliban with military action, there would be a very good chance that something serious might happen, perhaps in the nature of a preemptive strike. Yet it is at this point that Bush decides against taking serious action on the threats.
WHY?
The answer seems painfully clear. As of August 6, we have a president who has delivered an ultimatum to the Taliban, threatening to bomb them. However, there is at this point no pretext to justify "carpeting" Afghanistan with bombs. We also have a president whose ratings have tanked to below 50% and thus needs the sort of infusion of public support a war would provide.
With the warning on his desk, Bush must have seen an opportunity. All he needed to do was... nothing. Time will tell whether or not he realized the scope of the resulting disaster.
Early August: Dick Clarke, the president's terrorism czar at the National Security Council, tells O'Neill he would like to put his name is as his successor. "It would be a powerful position," fellow agent Barry Mawn says. "That person would have direct contact with the FBI and turn around and influence top Cabinet people, and possibly even the president."
Mid-August: A flight school in Minnesota flight reports Zaccarias Moussouai to the local FBI office after Moussouai requested training in how to fly a jet, but not in how to land or take off. Although Moussaoui is arrested, agents did not search his computer and thus missed vital clues.
August 19: New York Times reports that O'Neill is suddently under investigation for the "brief case incident." Tom Pickard, second in command at FBI tells O'Neill he can pretty much kiss the promotion chance goodbye. It is clear O'Neill, like Freeh, is being squeezed out. Friends of O'Neill have said that Pickard, who was very cozy with Ashcroft and the Bush team, acted as the number one road block to O'Neill's efforts to progress in the agency. After Sept. 11, Pickard, who, unlike O'Neill and Freeh, had NO experience invetsigating terrorism (his speciality was white collar crime) was placed in charge of the Sept. 11 investigation and also the anthrax investigation. In November, Pickard retired.
Late August: O'Neill quits the FBI
Early Sept.: O'Neill takes a job as head of security for the WTC. He mentions to friends in New York that he fully expects the building to be targeted by terrorists in the future. nymag.com
September 7: The CIA's Promis program begins picking up unusual trading activity for United and American Airlines.
September 11: On O'Neill's second day of work on the 34th floor, the WTC is hit by the first plane. O'Neill makes it out of the building safely, calls his son to say he is OK,. then goes into the other tower to help guide those still inside to safety. Minutes later, O'Neill, along with hundreds of others, is dead, killed by the terrorist the Bush administration refused to allow him to pursue to the best of his ability.
History will be kind to John O’Neill… It will not be kind to George W. Bush.<<<
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