Tom Pickard (Ashcroft Critic) Confronted by FBI Terrorism Guru 3 Weeks Before His Death in 9/11

PBS Frontline ^ | Oct 3, 2002 | unknown

[Elvis van Foster]

A Chronology of John O'Neill's Life and FBI Career

PBS Frontline website October 3, 2002

Summer 2001 Intelligence Indicates Attack on U.S. Interests Likely

By now, O'Neill is more marginalized than ever at the FBI because of his deteriorating relationship with headquarters. He discusses the threats with his friend Chris Isham, who tells FRONTLINE: "He knew that there was a lot of noise out there and that there were a lot of warnings, a lot of red flags, and that it was a similar level that they were hearing before the millennium, which was an indication that there was something going on. Yet, he felt that he was frozen out, that he was not in a capacity to really do anything about it anymore because of his relationship with the FBI. So it was a source of real anguish for him."

June 21, 2001 Louis Freeh Resigns as FBI Director; Thomas Pickard Appointed Interim Director

July 2001 O'Neill Decides to Retire from FBI

He hears about a job opening as head of security at the World Trade Center. It would mean a significant salary increase, but also it would mean leaving the FBI. By this point, however, O'Neill realizes his chances for a promotion were severely hurt by the briefcase incident. In addition to career problems, entertaining foreign visitors and O'Neill's lifestyle had left him in debt. The job at the World Trade Center would give him a chance to pay off that debt.

July 10, 2001 Speech to Spanish Police Foundation

While vacationing in Spain with Valerie James and her son, O'Neill gives a speech to Spanish police on interagency cooperation. He asks the audience, "How much more successful could we all be if we really knew what our agencies really knew?"

July 10, 2001 Phoenix FBI Office Recommends Agency-Wide Investigation of Flight Schools

The memo makes its way to FBI headquarters but it is not passed on to O'Neill or Mawn in the New York office -- nor is the struggle the following month of the Minnesota FBI office to investigate the alleged 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui.

Aug. 19, 2001 The New York Times Reports on O'Neill's Briefcase Incident and Pending Retirement

The Times story quotes an anonymous source, whom O'Neill believes is Tom Pickard. O'Neill confronts Pickard who denies that he was the source of the leak.

Aug. 22, 2001 Last Day at the FBI

In his final hours on the job, O'Neill signs an authorization for the FBI to return to Yemen. Calling Fran Townsend at the Justice Department from his desk, O'Neill explains, "I wasn't leaving here until I did it, because I promised that we would send them back. When I pulled them out, I had to. But I was determined to be the one who signed the piece of paper to send them back."

O'Neill also e-mails Lou Gunn, whose son had died in the Cole attack, to tell him that he was retiring, but that the FBI was returning to Yemen.

Late August 2001 New Job: The World Trade Center

According to Chris Isham, O'Neill recognized the threat still posed to the World Trade Center. "When he had first gotten the job at the World Trade Center, he told me, 'I've got this great job. I'm head of security at the World Trade Center.' And I joked with him and said, 'Well, that will be an easy job. They're not going to bomb that place again.' And he said, 'Well actually -- he immediately came back and he said, 'actually they've always wanted to finish that job. I think they're going to try again."

Sept. 10, 2001 Intimations

On the eve of Sept. 11, O'Neill is with friends on the town. According to Jerry Hauer, O'Neill warns him that night: "We're due for something big." O'Neill explains, "I don't like the way things are lining up in Afghanistan." Still, O'Neill tells friends that he is happy about his new job. "[It] doesn't get better than this," he says.

Sept. 11, 2001 Two Hijacked Planes Hit World Trade Center Towers

O'Neill is in his 34th floor office in the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. when American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into it. Among others, O'Neill calls Valerie James once he is outside the building. He asks her what hit the building and tells her, "Val, it's horrible. There are body parts everywhere." A few seconds later he tells her, "Okay, I'll call you in a little bit." O'Neill also sends a text message to Fran Townsend to report that he is okay.

In the minutes after the attack, O'Neill makes his way to the command center that had been set up. There he sees FBI agent Wesley Wong. Wong would tell Esquire magazine later, "He was in FBI mode. Then he turned and kind of looked at me and went toward the interior of the complex. From the time John walked away to the time the building collapsed was certainly not more than a half hour or 20 minutes." Wong is the last person to see him alive.

[Elvis van Foster]

John O'Neill of the FBI (Ass't Special Agent in Charge of Counterterrorism and National Security) was passed over for promotions because of minor security breeches in the past. In the summer of 2001, he decided to leave the FBI and become the security chief for the World Trade Center. Before going, someone leaked to the NY Times information to dirty him as he was going out the door. O'Neill confronted then acting FBI chief Thomas Picard, next week's Ashcroft critic before the 9-11 commission.

[Elvis van Foster]

More:

"But the US government would not let O'Neill do his job. O'Neill was known throughout the FBI as the go-to guy on bin Laden, but he was not made aware of the Arizona flight school FBI memos or the custody of the alleged '20th hijacker' Zacharias Moussaoui. Barbara K. Bodine, US ambassador to Yemen, denied his visa to return to investigate the Cole bombing. Tom Pickard, at one point interim director for the FBI, did everything in his power to silence and frustrate O'Neill. The compartmentalized bureaucrats simply could not tolerate a maverick investigator whose only motivation was protecting the country from terrorism. He was forced out of the FBI in the late summer of 2001."

http://skimble.blogspot.com/2002_09_29_skimble_archive.html

[jocon307]

The whole story of this man is very strange. Maybe he isn't dead, is it confirmed? Maybe he just went deep under cover or something.

[TwoStep]

This Frontline show will be shown again. April 15th. Please try to watch or record it!

[Elvis van Foster]

Read this puff piece about Pickard. The main source seem to be Pickard. Toward the end of it, he tells Ashcroft that he's burnt out (this is happening at the same time that the FBI terrorism guru is leaving his job). No wonder that the FBI was a mess during the summer of 2001.

Read the last paragraphs. It gives insight into Pickard's PC mentality toward handling immigrants -- even the dangerous ones.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A25733-2002Feb17&notFound=true

[Lancey Howard]

The "briefcase incident":

July 2000
A Costly Slip Up

During a FBI retirement conference in Orlando, Florida, O'Neill leaves a briefcase with documents from work in a room with other agents while he goes outside to take a cell phone call. The bag is missing when he returns, and he immediately alerts local police. O'Neill is relieved when he learns the bag had been recovered and only a Mont Blanc pen and a lighter had been taken; however, he is concerned when he learns he is carrying more sensitive documents than he had realized. O'Neill's friend Jerry Hauer tells FRONTLINE, "I think he felt that some people were going to use it -- as they did -- as a wedge, as a way of painting him in a bad light."

O'Neill decides to return directly to New York and reports the incident. A fingerprint dusting reveals no documents were touched, but the Justice Department opens an investigation. While he would be cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, the incident shadows the rest of his FBI career.

[HateBill]

Having read the piece you linked, it is obvious that Pickard has no stomach for a war on terrorism and that his problem with Ashcroft is that Ashcroft did not pursue the Clinton strategy of "terrorism as a law enforcement issue."

Maybe there were some good points to Mao's Cultural Revolution. Forcing arrogant pasty faced bureaucrats like Pickard and Clarke to work in the fields might have knocked a little sense in them.

[IrishRainy]

Wasn't that Pickard sitting at the desk next to Maddy Not-So-Bright when she testified at the 9-11 hearings? I heard him pipe up a few times during questioning but didn't watch the whole thing so I don't know what he said.

I wonder why the looney left isn't saying anything about them testifying in tandem like Bush and Cheney.

Oh, wait, I forgot about the double standard there for a sec!

[adam_az]

On the eve of Sept. 11, O'Neill is with friends on the town. According to Jerry Hauer, O'Neill warns him that night: "We're due for something big." O'Neill explains, "I don't like the way things are lining up in Afghanistan." Still, O'Neill tells friends that he is happy about his new job. "[It] doesn't get better than this," he says.

Observant man. I became very suspicious also, AQ and the Taliban had stepped up an offensive against the Northern Alliance and assasinated their most charismatic commande.

[MNJohnnie]

And the point of all this hear say and rumor would be what?

That mistakes were make prior to 9-11? AH DUH, that is why 9-11 happened! How about they address the fact that the Patriot Act, Bush's doctrine of Preemtion and the Department of Homelands Secutiry were all created BECAUSE of the failures that lead to 9-11? Instead of hyperventalting about what happened BEFORE 9-11 how about PBS, and all the other hysteric Bush haters, look at what has happened SINCE 9-11?

[Elvis van Foster]

The 9-11 commission is plowing old ground. It's been clear for two years what the problems in the CIA and FBI were.

What hasn't been clear has been the disarray in the counter-terrorism ranks due to 1. personnel changeover in the spring/summer of 2001. 2. the burnout of Clarke, O'Neill, Pickard, etc.

Clarke was switching to cyber-terrorism in March. O'Neill, in debt and marriage trouble, was sniffing at Clarke's job at Clarke's urging. And Pickard told Ashcroft straight up when taking over for Freeh in the summer that he was there for only a few months. So much for those three's now-professed bulldog attitude toward Al Qaeda and their convictions that America was going to be attacked at home. Yes, maybe before, but not in August and September.

On more small tidbit. When O'Neill was looking into the NSC terrorism job, the C-T community began hearing about it. O'Neill, still worried about being spanked bureaucratically for it, asked Clarke to lie and deny it. Clarke readily did so:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?020114fa_FACT1

- excerpt - O'Neill had always harbored two aspirations—to become a deputy director of the bureau in Washington or to take over the New York office. Freeh was retiring in June, so there were likely to be some vacancies at the top, but the investigation into the briefcase incident would likely block any promotion in the bureau. O'Neill viewed Clarke's job as, in many ways, a perfect fit for him. But he was financially pressed, and Clarke's job paid no more than he was making at the F.B.I. Throughout the summer, O'Neill refused to commit himself to Clarke's offer. He talked about it with a number of friends but became alarmed when he thought that headquarters might hear of it. "He called me in a worked-up state," Clarke recalled. "He said that people in the C.I.A. and elsewhere know you are considering recommending me for your job. You have to tell them it's not true." Clarke dutifully called a friend in the agency, even though O'Neill still wanted to be a candidate for the position.

In July, O'Neill heard of a job opening in the private sector which would pay more than twice his government salary—that of chief of security for the World Trade Center. Although the Justice Department dropped its inquiry into the briefcase incident, the bureau was conducting an internal investigation of its own. O'Neill was aware that the Times was preparing a story about the affair, and he learned that the reporters also knew about the incident in New Jersey involving James and had classified information that probably came from the bureau's investigative files.The leak seemed to be timed to destroy O'Neill's chance of being confirmed for the N.S.C. job. He decided to retire.

[Howlin]

Ping to an interesting and relevant read.

[prairiebreeze]

bookmarking for later

[Mo1]

O'Neill is relieved when he learns the bag had been recovered and only a Mont Blanc pen and a lighter had been taken; however, he is concerned when he learns he is carrying more sensitive documents than he had realized. O'Neill's friend Jerry Hauer tells FRONTLINE, "I think he felt that some people were going to use it -- as they did -- as a wedge, as a way of painting him in a bad light."

OK .. as I put on my tin hat .. I ask

Is it possible the extra documents were put into the brief case by someone else?

And wasn't O'Neil invovled in investigating the OKC bombing??

[OldFriend]

One look at Pickard and it was clear he was a lying bastard.

[ladyinred]

Thanks for the ping Howlin. Very interesting.

[piasa]

Hmm.

with other agents

He left it with other agents in the room? I think the other stories I have seen on this conveniently left outthat tidbit, implying he left it in an empty room.

Also, how does a 'fingerprint dusting' reveal 'no documents were touched' ? All it implies is that no one without gloves touched it, and that only if the entire pack of docs and other items were tested over 100% of their surface area.

Of course, if the deed was done just to discredit the guy- in a way like a minor version of the security breaches Deutch really did commit (but not by leaving something in a theoretically 'safe' area where other agents were present), then I suppose there was no need to go through the docs. It was sufficient to simply swipe the briefcase.

So how was it recovered? The recovery is suspicious, is it not?

[mass55th]

Thanks Howlin. This is definitely an interesting piece.

[piasa]

Here is a snippet of the New York Times' version- which notably leaves OUT the mention that he left his briefcase with other agents. And as someone pointed out, there is no way to tell what was put INTO the briefcase while it was missing.

Mr. O'Neill left his briefcase in a hotel conference room while he attended an F.B.I. meeting in Tampa, Fla., last summer. The briefcase was stolen, but the local authorities recovered it and returned it to him within hours with the contents. Jill Stillman, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said that department officials would not comment on the matter. Requests to discuss the matter with Mr. O'Neill were made to bureau officials in New York and Washington. In both cases, they said that he declined to comment on the case. After the criminal inquiry, the bureau's internal affairs unit began its own investigation to determine whether Mr. O'Neill had violated F.B.I. rules against mishandling classified information. Officials identified one document in the briefcase as a draft of what is known in the bureau as the Annual Field Office Report for national security operations in New York. The closely guarded report contained a description of every counterespionage and counterterrorism program in New York and detailed the budget and manpower for each operation. The document, submitted to bureau headquarters, is used as a central planning tool each year. F.B.I. agents are prohibited from removing classified documents from their offices without authorization. Violations are punishable by censure, suspension or even dismissal, depending on the seriousness. ... - "F.B.I. Is Investigating a Senior Counterterrorism Agent," by DAVID JOHNSTON and JAMES RISEN, New York Times, Published: 8/19/01

Nor is there much info on just how the case was recovered. (Surely that is an uncommon thing to recover... at least without it having been rifled through for potential valuables like cellphones and laptops, as would be done if it were a simple theft. )

[mass55th]

You know what's interesting, in today's testimony, Pickard states that the head of the New York Office (I'm assuming O'Neill) and the head of counterterrorism (Richard Clark?) recommended that the FBI pull out their agents from Yemen.