Recently, the infamous Naudet footage has been released on YouTube and Internet Archives at a high quality. And thanks to Reddit (never thought I’d say that in a positive light) sleuths, one fascinating victim of the terrorist attacks has been identified in the footage, performing an unbelievable task — who had long been rumoured to have been captured on camera during the event, but up until now had seldom been identified in the footage, if at all. But before we get to the footage itself, let’s look at the backstory of this man…
Who was John P. O’Neill?
John P. O’Neill was a former counter-terrorist expert who, before working in the World Trade Centre (WTC) worked as a special agent for the FBI.
After the heavily-overshadowed 1993 WTC bombing terrorists attack, O’Neill was one of the agents who helped to apprehend and capture the terrorist responsible, a man called Ramzi Yousef, nephew of Khalid Mohammed (a chief architect of the attack that later became known as 9/11, would you believe it).
After his role in this apprehension, O’Neill became fascinated and continued to study terrorists play, methods etc. It was in this research that he first became aware of Osama Bin Laden (or Usama as he was known to some FBI operatives, not sure why). Despite warning for many years of growing threats of terrorism, both domestic and foreign, his warnings went largely ignored (or at least overlooked).
On August 23, 2001, O’Neill, having risen through the ranks of the FBI before retiring, became head of security of the World Trade Centre. For years, O’Neill had anticipated a second terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre. A grim foreshadowing of events to come…
O’Neill on 9/11
On the morning of September 11 2001 at 8:46 A.M, O’Neill was in his office on the 34th floor of the south tower when the first plane struck. Immediately realising that his worst nightmare (and prediction) was coming true, O’Neill immediately evacuated his staff and made his way down and out to the Plaza outside. He immediately called his wife and his son to assure them that he was OK. Then, as he made his way across the plaza to the burning North Tower, the South Tower was struck, and now having his suspicions confirmed as a terrorist attack, and despite being retired from the job, O’Neill sprang into ‘FBI mode’, calmly making his way to the North Tower lobby.
The North Tower Lobby/Naudet Footage
By now, the North Tower lobby was being used as the main ‘hub’ by the army of firemen. It’s believed that O’Neill’s first actions may have been to relay critical information to the firemen such as the layout of the complex, mechanical issues, and tower security operations.
At the same time, filmmaker Jules Naudet captured O’Neill on camera. Recently, the full, unedited Naudet footage has been released on YouTube and, thanks to internet sleuths, O’Neill has been identified as the man on the phone starting at the 1:13:10 mark, as seen in the above link. Here is a short clip of the recording:
(On a side note: I love how the cameraman is doing his best to document the day as best he can whilst trying his hardest to keep out the way of people doing critical jobs.)
It’s widely believed that during this phone call, O’Neill is relaying critical information to the FBI about the attack.
Tragically…
O’Neill was last seen heading towards the south tower again, likely to help in the evacuation, only for the tower to collapse shortly after. His body was later recovered from the wreckage.
John P O’Neill was a leading expert on Bin Laden and terrorism, and in fact anticipated another attack on the trade centre. It’s tragic in the sense that the man who was at one point considered one of Bin Laden’s leading counter-terrorist operative was unable to escape that which he predicted.
Thanks for reading (if you did)!
This is a high effort and high quality post. Thank you for the edification, friend.
No, thank you for reading :)
I would argue this is far more than just “mildly” interesting, but great read. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks (hope I don’t get banned for making it too interesting!!! lol)
I actually do think this fits perfectly as mildly interesting.
It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not earth shattering… It’s a niche bit of lore that’s surfaced after 25 years and basically just confirms what people already “knew”.
Fantastic write up though. I was mildly interested from start to finish 😚👌
Ah you’ve made me feel better
Thanks! I’ll have to find more interesting (mildly) things
Wow, this was quite a read. Thanks! :)
No problem. it’s a fascinating story, and I’ve tried to condense it as best I can that it’s a relatively comfortable read without missing out too much
Well done!
Thank you for the insight.
This is Very interesting, way more than mildly.
You’re welcome! Thanks for reading
This is a good post. Thank you for putting this up.
No no, thank you for reading :D
This is a fantastic post and all but… Did you have to use that photo of the poor guy?
Yes
My personal fave
It’s a good one ngl
Not irony at all. He died doing exactly what he was attempting to do before. That’s not irony.
True. But I meant more ironic in terms of his connection to Bin Laden (he was thoroughly invested in Bin Laden and even had the foresight of another attack, yet it still got him). That’s not, in any way me trying to minimise his contribution or his death. Fully agree with you though in that he was doing what he was, well, was destined to do, ig.
He died doing what he loved
Very interesting. Thanks for the story.
Irony
As others and yourself have suggested, that’s not really the right word for this. Irony would be if he had always said nothing was going to happen and then it did, taking him with it. In his case, he always said something would happen, was ignored, and it did, taking him with it. That would be more likely classed as a “tragedy” in the traditional sense, and he would be a tragic victim, not an ironic one
Thanks for the compliment! Point taken about the wording. My one concern though is that I’m not sure that ‘most tragic’ is the correct wording either, and that’s not because I don’t think that it’s not tragic what happened to him, I just don’t want to come across as making him out to seem more tragic than some of the other victims like those who died in fear and pain, those stuck at the top of tower 1 waiting for over an hour to die waving napkins for help for example, or the jumpers, or Ron Clifford’s family, etc. if I could think of a more sensitive phrase then I would change the post. I just couldn’t think of a better word. I would argue that it could be described as ironic in some sense (he warned of an impending attack for years, yet even he couldn’t be saved from it).
He could have saved himself from it if he didn’t stick around when he evacuated his office. He chose to stick around and did the right thing, which is notable but doesn’t really need a special label.
I suppose I could’ve possibly said ‘Overlooked victim of 9/11’ or something like that instead perhaps. That said, he has been depicted in films, books etc. and you know that on here you’d get people pointing that out also. Not having a go or anything like that, just pointing out why I have such difficulty coming up with an appropriate title. And you know that anything to do with 9/11 is a very delicate subject and has to be well thought out.
Edit: I think I have found an elegant compromise and have amended the post above. Instead, I have described him as ‘fascinating victim’ since commenters here have found his story fascinating
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Great share!
Thanks!
