Of all the people the 9/11 Commission should be interviewing but isn't, one person tops the list. It's not because he's on the wrong side of the table, like Jamie Gorelick (who raised the wall that separated domestic and foreign intelligence, but somehow became a commissioner instead of a witness). After working for years to put the pieces of the puzzle together and bring down al-Qaeda, a dedicated FBI agent finally gave up... and then al-Qaeda killed him. The man who should be interviewed is John O'Neill.

In 1995, O'Neill was put in charge of the investigation into the 1993 WTC bombing, which pointed to Iraqi involvement. His team captured Ramzi Yousef, the al-Qaeda operative who was directly responsible for the attack (and whose identity may actually have been an Iraqi intelligence plant). He also investigated the al-Qaeda attacks in Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) and Nairobi (Kenya) in 1998, and on the USS Cole in 2000. His aggressive attitude towards catching terrorists clashed with the limited access the Yemenis gave him to the Cole bombing suspects. Rather than upset the Yemenis, Ambassador Barbara Bodine had him barred from the country, the first time such a thing had ever been done.

O'Neill quit the FBI soon after that, when an investigation began over a briefcase containing sensitive files that disappeared from his hotel room... only to mysteriously reappear in another hotel ninety minutes later, untouched. He became the head of Security at the World Trade Center in July 2001, and was at his desk on 9/11 when the planes hit. After getting out of the building and reporting to a command post, he re-entered Tower 2 to help others escape, and was killed when it collapsed.

The Clinton administration always insisted that al-Qaeda was a new type of terrorist group, one with no ties to any countries. John O'Neill knew that this was impossible. His investigation of the Cole attack, for instance, turned up evidence that a rogue state was involved, probably Iraq. The explosive used in the bombing was only used in the US, Israel, and "two Arab countries." The sophisticated device used in the attack also pointed to state involvement. Vincent Cannistraro, former CIA counter-terrorism chief, stated in October 2000 that Iraq had been wanting to carry out terrorist attacks, and that the Iraqi military had been in contact with Osama bin Laden. The "mainstream" media's studied ignorance of statements like these is baffling.

John O'Neill's personal files from his years of traveling around the world investigating al-Qaeda are now being used as evidence in a lawsuit. His family is suing Saddam Hussein and the Nation of Iraq for his death. The evidence includes documents unearthed in the headquarters of the Mukhabarat (Iraq's intelligence service) and information gleaned from the interrogation of both al-Qaeda and Iraqi prisoners. The purpose of the suit, coordinated by the Washington Center for Peace and Justice, is to prove that Saddam Hussein was a silent partner in al-Qaeda's terror attacks against the US; that he harbored and trained al-Qaeda terrorists. For instance, the lawsuit states that two of bin Laden's senior military commanders, Muhammed abu-Islam and Abdullah Qassim, visited Baghdad in April and May 1998 to meet with Qusay Hussein, Saddam's younger (and slightly saner) son. It also claims that Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's top deputy, met with Iraqi officials including then-Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan. Documents recovered in Iraq also show, the lawsuit further states, that three al-Jazeera employees were acting as messengers between Osama and Saddam. "We can substantiate through witnesses and documents all the allegations," WCPJ attorney Joshua Ambush stated. The crux of the matter is that the 9/11 hijackers were very likely trained at Salman Pak, Saddam's terrorist training camp just south of Baghdad. Sabah Khodada, a former Iraqi army captain who worked at the camp, gave an interview to the New York Times and PBS on 14 October 2001 in which he made this claim. Khodada said, "I assure you, this operation was conducted by people who were trained by Saddam." Is it any wonder that the Bush administration looked to Iraq for answers about 9/11, when the media was full of stories about the connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda?

The O'Neill case is not the only legal action being taken against states that have sponsored and supported terrorism on behalf of 9/11 victims. In May 2003, Judge Harold Baer of the Southern District Court of New York ruled that plaintiffs had presented enough evidence to be awarded $104 million in a lawsuit against the State of Iraq, among others. Over 2,000 lawsuits have been filed against the governments of Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

The O'Neill lawsuit will be the keystone case, however. Not only does this particular suit have more damning and thorough documentation (having been lodged after the fall of Baghdad and the recovery of the Mukhabarat files), but much of the investigative work was done by O'Neill himself before his death. The victim, in this case, will be the architect of the prosecution.

Poetic justice at its finest.