Light a candle for John O'Neill

Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC program, Countdown, for September 8, 2006. This is part of the opening segment, addressing the serious inaccuracies of ABC's recent show, "The Path to 9/11". Specifically, the film's protagonist, John O'Neill.

I had written an e-mail to Keith's show at 7am, the morning before this broadcast, in a desperate attempt to shed light on the fact that one of my heroes was being depicted inaccurately. John was one of so many that died in the south tower of the World Trade Center, and could not defend himself in response to errors in this film.

The "retired agent" that Tom Nicoletti refers to at the opening as having "declined to participate" is Dan Coleman. His thorough knowledge made him their first choice to be the FBI consultant for the film. When Jesse McKinley of the New York Times asked him why he refused outright, he had this to say:

"They sent me the script, and I read it and told them they had to be kidding. I wanted my friends at the F.B.I. to still speak to me."

And in regards to John O'Neill's depiction: "I'm Irish and I believe in ghosts," adding, "I don't want to be haunted."

Harvey Keitel, portraying O'Neill, also had serious concerns with his script. He brought those concerns to the writer, Cyrus Nowrasteh, a good friend of Rush Limbaugh.

I had intended my first upload to be original material (that I'm still fine-tuning) but I'm honored to be able to make this my first upload instead. Because when I heard Tom Nicoletti say "inaccuracies in the portrayal of John O'Neill, who is not here to defend himself", with a picture of John... I will never forget how good that moment felt.

I have spent a great deal of time on the subject, since reading a USAToday article, exactly 5 years ago today:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/17/oneill.htm

The most accurate source for John O'Neill's story is PBS's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Frontline". PBS has graciously allowed the entire episode to be watched online. The episode that tells John's story was created by Mike Kirk, and aired in October 2002. Please, please watch it. It's title was...

"The Man Who Knew".

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/view/

There are also articles at MediaMatters.org, CrooksAndLiars.com, and many other resources. Also, Richard Clarke's book "Against All Enemies" and Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower". I'd be happy to share further information with anyone who contacts me.

Knowledge is power.

Thanks to MediaMatters.org and CrooksAndLiars.com for footage.

Thanks to YouTube, for providing the forum.

Thanks to Tom Nicoletti and Dan Coleman, for their commitment to John's memory.

Thanks to all of you for enduring my ridiculously long description. As you can see, it's something I care deeply about.

Thanks to Keith Olbermann and the staff at Countdown. I'll never forget it.

Thanks to John O'Neill. Your dedication and integrity are still my inspiration. May we earn your sacrifice.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• john
• o'neill
• olbermann
• path
• 9/11
• 9-11
• wtc
• wtc7
• bush
• cheney
• rumsfeld
• propaganda
• abc
• disney
• tom
• pickard
• stole
• briefcase

[eddybonz]

Anyone known what happened to Tom Pickard ?? Retired from FBI at about age 50 his Wiki is pretty thin Where did he land ??

[my15minutes]

Thomas J. Pickard became Head of Corporate Security at pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Meyers Squibb.

[madcyril]

Thanks for posting very interesting.

[my15minutes]

Thanks, cyril! For the comment, and for the scribe.

[ilikestuff712]

How dare these A-holes at ABC play into the hands of this administration and Misrepresent the facts?

Its a shame to men like O'neill...

Who knows if the facts will ever come to light

[my15minutes]

They will - if "We, the people" stop buying the bullsh#t, do our homework, pass the word, and get involved.

It's up to us.

[Oilwellian]

Little brother Marvin Bush, principal in a company called Securecom...a Kuwaiti/American company contracted to provide security for the WTCs until the day they fell. They also provided security to Dulles Airport and United Airlines. There are many other oddities regarding 911 & WTC security at whatreallyhappeneddotcom/911se­curity.html.

You've chosen a great hero.

[beckpod1]

Path To 9-11 is shit!

John O'Neil was forced out of the F.B.I. because he began to put the pieces together.

9-11 was let to happen...follow the huge amounts of money!

[bloomingdedalus]

John O'Neill couldn't have been any better of a "coincidence" for commercial production of a legend.

[viasly]

The long comment was well worth the read . Thank you for this video.

[chickenmcthug]

Watch "Ring of Power" if you want to know what's happening.

[historybuff911]

that was supposed to be a reply on tom pickard, sorry

[historybuff911]

he had nothing to do with this. he got thrown in 6 days before 9/11 and never wanted to be there. probably the only reason that he stayed there for as long as he did was just to have it not look like it was falling apart having everyone retire a week apart.

[Gwenlj]

trycoun I saw that too "The man who new" I agree my ? were his efforts in vain, He new more about Osama than anyone and yet things came to a halt Richard Clark has quite a bit to say in his book.

[trycoun]

just watched "the man who knew" on frontline. john o'neill was used to chase a threat that wasn't there in the way claimed.rather set up to not find anything but "traces" fed to him. so now we can believe in the "alarmbells" (he heard for sure) and be upset because he was so often that close. this is mean manipulation.