Archive

FRONTLINE's story on John O'Neill spotlights two central issues that emerged during the 9/11 Commission hearings held in the spring of 2004 investigating why the U.S. intelligence community failed to prevent the Sept. 11th terrorist attack.

This guide is designed to help you use the film to engage students in reflection and dialogue about the historical role of racism in the United States, as well as the role of prejudice and stereotyping in students' lives today.

In the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, an Iowa teacher decides to teach her class a daring lesson in the meaning of discrimination.

The story behind Jane Elliot's "brown eyes/blue eyes" experiment.

What is Jane Elliott doing now? What's been the film's impact over the last 30 years? And how has it affected Elliott's own life?

In this Web-exclusive interview, Jane Elliott discusses her abiding sense that her lesson in bigotry is as necessary today as it was in 1968.

In the 1990s, attempts were made to revamp America's intelligence gathering and law enforcement agencies so that they could better respond to the threat posed by post-Cold War enemies such as Al Qaeda. The reformers, however, had to fight a deep-rooted competitiveness between the FBI and the CIA.

As deputy director of the FBI under Louis Freeh from 1997 to 1999, he initiated a strategic plan in 1998 to overhaul the FBI so it could better address counterintelligence and counterterrorism. He talks about his working relationship with John O'Neill, O'Neill's contributions to the counterterrorism effort, and O'Neill's career problems within the FBI.

President Clinton's national coordinator for counterterrorism, he is currently President Bush's special adviser for cyberspace security. In this interview he talks about the attributes which made John O'Neill stand apart in the world of counterterrorism, sketches Al Qaeda's threat and how it came into focus for U.S. intelligence, and discusses some of John O'Neill's battles, including the USS Cole investigation.

He was an FBI agent in the New York office for 22 years and worked under John O'Neill in the counterterrorism division. In this interview he describes the problems O'Neill encountered in Yemen while investigating the bombing of the USS Cole.

A close friend of John O'Neill, Isham is a senior producer at ABC News, and head of its investigative unit. He set up a 1998 interview for ABC's John Miller with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. In this interview he recounts O'Neill's pleas to see the footage of the entire bin Laden interview. He calls O'Neill "one of those rare birds inside the government who had access to highly classified information, and yet also understood that talking to a journalist was not necessarily a violation of any rules. It could actually be helpful on both sides."

Since 1991, Valerie James was John O'Neill's friend and companion. In this interview she describes daily life with O'Neill. "He is working on this incredible stuff day after day that he can basically talk to none of us about," she tells FRONTLINE. "He can't even tell other of his peers about what he's working on; it's that intense. Does a man like that come home to roast chicken and mashed potatoes every night?"