Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Typically, I have no problem summarizing a book in a review, especially a non-fiction book. However, this is one of those books that tell several stories. This is a book on government bureaucracy, terrorism, a visionary to whom no one will listen, and a man who people love and despise at the same time.

"The Man Who Warned America" is an excellent book on the life of John O'Neill, who was probably one of the FBI's best counterterrorism agents. John O'Neill is a name that I had never heard before until this book.

O'Neill would probably be no more memorable than any other FBI agent, except for a man named Osama Bin Laden. O'Neill had partaken in the investigation of almost every America related terrorist event in recent history, including Oklahoma City, the USS Cole in Yemen, the embassy bombings in Africa, and the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Yet what made O'Neill noteworthy was the fact he fingered Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda as a terrorist threat to the United States in 1995, six years before the infamous attack on the World Trade Center. However, just like a painter without a canvas, O'Neill was a man with an answer to a question no one had the foresight to ask, and no one would listen until it was too late.

The book explores enigma and duality that is O'Neill's personal and professional life. As an FBI agent, O'Neill was second to no one. If it weren't for two indiscretions (one accidental, one the type of thing probably everyone does anyway), O'Neill might have made it to the top spot in the FBI. The book also tells a different side of O'Neill, a womanizer, a chronic liar, and a person who seemingly had no regard for his financial future. Yet, he was a caring father, an insecure mate, and a typical fun-loving American.

The book also explores the government's role (or lack of one) in the bin Laden attacks on American interests. While O'Neill tried to warn America about bin Laden, a scandal riddled Clinton administration seemingly did not want to put their reputation on the line over a terrorist unknown to the American public. O'Neill's issues and frustration with government bureaucracy climaxes in Yemen, with the introduction of Ambassador Bodine. Bodine is portrayed as a bully who symbolizes everything people hate in their government and in a person, whose actions could have cost further American casualties.

I found the book to be an excellent read on the life of an FBI agent, terrorism, and how government bureaucracy might one day cost many people's lives. Despite the complex and outrageous lifestyle of John O'Neill, I think he is a person who most can identify with on a personal level. I think with the way O'Neill is portrayed, some people will find his actions heroic and some people will find him a despicable person. I though the book was a little slow reading in the beginning, but overall it was excellent. However, I think some people will hate the book because they hate the person. I'd highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the life of an FBI agent or people interested in terrorism.

This is the third book that I have read on this subject and I would say it is probably the best yet it was more personal. The other books are "Why America Slept" and "Sleeping with the Devil". This book of the three seemed to be the most even tempered about pointing blame.

I was truly surprised to find out what all the responsibilities of the FBI were. I thought O'Neill was brilliant is his use of the RICO laws to get street gangs and try to use against the anti abortionists. I especially like the part about Chicago with all the night life that O'Neill had. I guess that's because I am from there and it's interesting people telling stories about places that you have been to.

Learning how the different fanatical groups showed how they were able to make so much money off of America to put to their own use. It was interesting to find out how the FBI got the information on the plan to destroy planes over the pacific from Ranzi Yousef's (the master mind of the first WTC bombing) lap top and that he had a trial run and exploded a bomb on a plane that I never heard about. He was very clever being an electrical engineer. The way that he smuggled all the parts for his timer and bomb on the plane was sagacious. After learning about this guy I was glad that O'Neill caught him, there is a picture of him in the book and it's pretty creepy.

I never realized the destruction of the bombings at the African Embassies was. It was total carnage. Why we never set troops over before seems to be beyond me, it seemed to be played down. I guess we were watching O.J. or something else trivial.

The USS Cole incident was much worse in the loss of life and damage than I seem to remember. Then the lack of cooperation that O'Neill got from the State department. I don't know if the explanation was one sided but since there were so many witnesses of the account I have to believe that most of the relationship stories were true. The FBI never got to talk to any witnesses there or later in Pakistan. These guys were fighting uphill from the start.

O'Neill personal life was unimaginable for me and I think the author might have taken a little literary freedom on this. He was a total scammer, who seemed to think he was a Goodfella with their rules about women.

The trivial things that were used against him to get him to leave the FBI which seemed like his best vocation, reminded me of the petty things that happen at work everyday.

His explanation about why President Clinton didn't take swifter and more direct action seem to emphasize that the President was fighting off his other scandals with Whitewater or Monica Lewinsky and that he was frighten of US troops being killed and how it would affect him in the polls. He never told the FBI director that he was bombing Bin Laden and so the President didn't know the data for his location was old. The President did it to draw attention away from the scandals. President Clinton didn't even include the FBI Director in his security briefings in the later years because he was fighting with him. O'Neill seemed amazed how President Clinton let his private life invade his public life because he though all the trivial matters hurt the President's ability to do his job.

The book does not talk much about Bush's actions during his first year of his Presidency. It describes mostly that it was a transition period so nobody was moving too quickly.

The last part of the book is a real tear jerker and you have to be ready for some of it. I had forgotten that the two planes hit the Towers only 15 minutes apart, I seem to remember it being longer.

The nice thing about this book is that there is the epilogue, a concluding section that rounds out the design of a literary work. Most of these types of books do not utilize this properly but you decide for yourself. The index was helpful too after completing the book.

I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in the FBI, History of the last 20 years, Counterterrorist history or would like an interesting read.

On the 2nd anniversary of the 9/11 disaster, I was watching NOW on PBS. I was struck by the remark of a widow who commented on the irony of how her husband died at the hands of terrorists, the very news she skipped over [pre 9/11] when reading the NY Times. How ironic that John O'Neill, who spent his adult life seeking that knowledge, would find the same fate. For this book's readability and essential overview of recent terrorist history, I recommend that everyone in America who can read, get this book out of their libraries. Clearly Murray Weiss seeks a wide audience by sticking to an easy reportorial style of writing that won't put people off, which combines the dry stuff of international politics and investigation with a never sensationalist view of O'Neill's personal life. We get the essence of the man, the world he inhabits and the details of his life's work at the FBI, all in one easy read. Good job. Where I might quibble or question is when Weiss clearly can't resist giving jabs to the Clinton administration and Hillary specifically, and in the section on the investigation of the Cole disaster. Weiss can't seem to help hiding his [and perhaps O'Neill's] feelings in those sections. While I don't necessarily disagree with him on Clinton's reaction to terrorist threats, these sections are in contrast to what otherwise seems to be a balanced view of the terrorist danger to our country, one which for this reader, opened up my eyes to want to make further inquiries and read more. And for that, this book gets 5 stars--and would get 10 if that were an available option. Thanks to Murrary Weiss for doing his share, not only as a reporter, but as the author of this book, to try to engage the American public in the real stuff that impacts our lives.

Books on terrorism are too often dry or pedantic, on the one hand, or sensational or hysterical on the other, but Murray Weiss' new book on FBI super-agent John O'Neill is the rare exception: It's a highly readable page-turner, loaded with telling detail, that will alter the way any reader sees world terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. Recent events in Iraq - especially the attack against U.N. headquarters there - remind us how intractable both problems are, and the riveting, complex story that Weiss tells equips us to look beyond current headlines to take a longer view. O'Neill was in many ways a strange character (with an inability to be honest with the women in his life), but he was also a visionary. He was among the first to identify the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and understood, as too few White House officials do now, that any successful effort to defeat this enemy had to start with a serious attempt to understand his world and the impulses that fueled his extremism.

I've read this book, reread it and reread it yet again. This is a fantastic read. Murray Weiss' obvious affection for O'Neill shines through. It is a sympathetic portrait of John O'neill whose hard-charging style earned friends and foes in all aspects of government. He clashed in particular with Barbara Bodine, the US ambasador to Yeman, over her hampering of the FBI's Cole investigation and her arabist mind set. Sounds like she almost went native! The tragedy of this clash, and, ultimately, her refusal to allow him back into Yeman is that much later linkage was made between some of the Cole attackers and linked individuals and Yeman safe houses and the 911 plot. O'Neill was head of the FBI's counter terror division and the resident expert on Bin Laden. The great irony as we all know is that his first post-FBI job was the head of security at the World Trade Centers--he died on 911 at his new post.

His was a warm engaging personality. People obviously loved him. Some of his personal relationships with woman were exposed in this book. He kept his life compartmentalized to an extreme degree. To this I would only ask how many of us would like a journlistic sleuth like Mr. Weiss pouring over every personal/financial detail of our lives??? No thanks!

His life will soon be made into a movie and his life has all the attributes that could make a great film . . . courage, lots of girls, smart as hell and driven. To me John O'Neill represents the best in America . . . the very best. He is a hero in the full sense of the word(not just the positive traits, but with tragic flaws as well). For more information check out the PBS Frontline website where they have a free archived program on his life and times. Five Stars. A great read.

The Man Who Warned America by Murray Weiss is a riveting, powerful book. Well-documented, tightly written and smartly paced, we come along for the ride of John O'Neill's life - celebrating his achievements, suffering his trials, and marveling as he juggles a self-complicated private life that is chaotic at best. Thanks to Weiss, we get to know an American patriot who "saw" the coming conflict and anticipated attacks against the United States. Resolved and tireless - even in the face of bureaucratic arrogance, pettiness and foolishness - O'Neill led by example and succeeded in building alliances, inspiring his colleagues, and working with them to protect us long before most Americans were even aware of the threat. In the end, we mourn a friend most of us only ever met through Weiss' 400 pages. I find myself missing John O'Neill's presence in our world.

Weiss' book is a "must read". In addition to O'Neill, the book cites many men and women who continue to remain vigilant on our behalf as we go about our daily lives oblivious to the majority of threats facing us. They constantly put their lives - and careers - on the line in defense of us. Thanks to Weiss, more people will know of their strength of character.

I'd love to read a follow-up book from Weiss about the legacy of John O'Neill.....I'd sleep better knowing that the lessons O'Neil taught so many people were taken to heart and applied in our defense.

John O'Neill was the most dedicated member of the FBI who committed his life to fighting crime and, ultimately, terrorism. His efforts were discouraged by bureaucracy, ignorance, and the Clinton administration. Read firsthand in this book how he was so close to saving much anguish, sorrow and death in the United States but was stopped in his tracks by others too inept to acknowledge the vision he had for stopping the unfortunate acts of terrorism in New York and Yemen. The cruelest irony is that he died in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in charge of security after he retired from the FBI due to frustration.

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend and was skeptical at first as to whether I would find the story about John O'Neill, the FBI counterterrorism expert, interesting. I found I could not put the book down! Mr. Weiss has done an incredible job of researching and presenting information that has never been told before in an interesting and clear manner. His portrayal of John O'Neill's devotion to his career and complicated personal life are fascinating. The book is so important and revelatory I think it is a must read for everyone. If only our government would have listened to Mr. O'Neill......

The American public needs to know more about John O'Neill. Unfortunately, what this book adds to the magnificent FRONTLINE report THE MAN WHO KNEW is a bunch of gossip about O'Neill's private life. There is only one interesting thing to consider about that. Bernard Kerik's nomination to head Homeland Security was torpedoed when the public learned about his multiple mistresses. Apparently, we must go on repeating the same mistakes. Why does all this personal garbage even figure in the assessment of a person's professional competence? Do you think Kerik would have made the same mistakes Chertoff made during Katrina?

Read this book and compare it to the FRONTLINE report. Note the handling of Louis Freeh in each. Weiss gives Freeh a pass, omitting the story of O'Neill's disgust with the FBI's handling of the Khobar investigation. Keep that in mind when you read some of the pot shots at President Clinton.

This is a sneaky smear job. Very deceptive. Useless unless read in tandem with the FRONTLINE report.

Murray Weiss's page-turning chronicle of the exploits of John O'Neill--both on and off the field--is a must read for anyone wanting to understand how the attacks on Washington and the World Trade Center could have occurred. The book should be sent to every member of the 9/11 Commission.