Lyr Add: The Ballad of John O'Neill

Subject: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,just a lurker and fan
Date: 05 Sep 02 - 02:40 AM

I want to share with you a ballad written by Joel (last name anonymous) to honor John O'Neill, the FBI counter-terrorism agent who "retired" in 2001 because his warnings about the Middle East threat were ignored and his efforts stymied by higher-ups. John started a new job on September 11 - security director of the World Trade Center. He died in the rubble. The tune (slightly adapted) is the old "Meeting of the Waters." An audio file is available as an attachment by email for anyone who might wish it. The recording is being played on some alternative radio shows.

The Ballad of John O'Neill
Original lyrics by Joel, 8/18/02
Melody based on Meeting of the Waters (Irish folk song)
Lyrics and melody adapted by David Ziems
First performed by David Ziems, 9/2/02


In golden September, when life's blood runs strong
At the height of a good life, not a second too long
Winter's shadows fell over the national crown
Al Qaida's brash killers brought John O'Neill down.

John had pixy eyes and the hands of an earl,
From his wide joker face, who'd know the man was so bold?
His mind was keen-whetted, his heart hunter-fierce,
Like Conn of Feidlimid, of Erin of old.

He courted the ladies, too well to stay wed.
He left Christine and chased skirts wherever they flared.
Debts piled up willy-nilly and yet in the end,
The Bureau was the mistress he faithfully married.

John followed bin Laden to Lagos and Yemen,
Where those cowards killed seventeen men on USS Cole,
And he was in the Big Apple on that fateful nine-eleven,
When the gash was ripped deep in our nation's own soul.

Monday nights, Irish cops ganged together at Elaine's.
Drinks, a feast, Jeanne O'Connor crooning out melody.
Cigars, and some few drinks at the China Club then.
And, much too late, scapegrace back to Valerie.

In the memo from Phoenix, the agents told all
With ears to hear of men studying how to fly.
Strangely, they didn't care to learn how to land.
John O'Neill got the message, and so he was canned.

Angry, he left the Bureau. They had turned away
From nabbing crooks and tracking the terrorists down,
And became, once again, like in J. Edgar's day,
Political tools, boudoir cops all around.

On September eleven, he drove Valerie
In the old Buick LeSabre to the Fashion Week meet,
Then on to his first day as security boss
At the World Trade Center-- the day it was lost.

O'Neill phoned up his Val at nine-seventeen ("I'm safe")
Then hurried into Tower One to set up command.
Then into Tower Two to save lives of those trapped.
He was lost in the rubble when the building collapsed.

Yet rose up his spirit from the holocaust's heart.
Death could only delay John from trying to save.
By death himself made angel, he grasped others by hand.
And led them to Zion in a far better land.

Ever since nine eleven, our leaders have failed.
They've refused to tell us the truth, they've lied and they've railed.
They played politics with the courts and the Bureau and John.
Blood is red on their hands, may they reap what they've sown.

Plaster saints hang upon walls, but heroes are clay.
They are regular people, hearing their call one day.
Now that John's done his service, where have they all gone?
… Look in the mirror. They're you and me alone.

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,T-boy
Date: 05 Sep 02 - 08:17 AM

A fine attempt. About time this story came out a bit more.

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,Guest, Joel
Date: 10 Sep 02 - 05:09 PM

The ballad is online. Please pass the word to remember a eral hero of 9/11.

Music: http://www.failureisimpossible.com/JONBallad.mp3 Full set of lyrics: www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=9005 The O'Neill story: www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/sept11/features/5513/ Why we should care: www.failureisimpossible.com/essays/oneill.htm

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,Joel
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 11:04 AM

A mirror site has also been established at

http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=31560&group=webcast

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,PBS' Frontline to do The Man Who Knew
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 07:44 PM

PBS says

>>FRONTLINE kicks off its 20th anniversary season with "The Man Who Knew," the extraordinary saga of FBI Special Agent John O'Neill. As the bureau's top counterterrorism agent, O'Neill--who investigated the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole--came to believe the United States should kill Osama bin Laden before Al Qaeda launched a devastating attack on America. <<

More at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/

The show will be October 3rd.

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 08:38 PM

What a load of crap, of all the events in this mans life, his skirt chasing,debt and alcohol consumation is sung about. Unadulterated crap and all this will lead to is the opportunity for his critics to attack him, and point to the ballad which labels him a womanising debt ridden drunk.

Has this done this man any favours??

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,Joel
Date: 04 Oct 02 - 01:07 AM

This is one of those comments that makes it clear why the United States is in such a mess. We refuse to be honest with ourselves.

John O'Neill was indeed a hero. The ballad says so, explicitly.
But he wasn't a plaster saint, one of the false icons that gets put forward to fool people. John Ashcroft is probably faithful to his wife, but he cheats on the Constitution. Louis Freeh doesn't swear, but he prevented O'Neill from doing his job of protecting American citizens. Which one-- the skirtchaser who protects lives or the "moral" man who lets them die-- is the hero? We have lost our way when men like Louis Freeh and John Ashcroft hold power and men like John O'Neill are forced out on shabby pretexts.

The ballad also points out that average people have everything that is required to be heroes on their own. What they need to do is look in the mirror and decide what really matters.

Would you mind, please, looking in the mirror?

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Oct 02 - 04:59 PM

What has constantly reminding his wife thru song that her husband was an adulterer got to do with honouring this brave man. Such issues do not need to be broached, do you think every time his wife looks in the mirror she see's a woman who had a hero for a husband or a cheater.

I do get the meaning of the song, I do look in the mirror and some times do not like what I see, this mans personal life and his relationship with his wife is not our business. As you point out he done his job regardless of his womanising so that was not an issue to him professionally so it should not be in the ballad, let his wife hold his memory with dignity.

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 04 Oct 02 - 11:56 PM

OK guest, calm down. If you haven't seen the Frontline presentation, please see it. It and the song tell the truth which is far more than the US Gumitup has been doing regarding this matter. Pickard and Bodine might well have their names spoken in the same breath as Chamberlain and Quisling. O'Neil's wife has either made her peace with her husband's phillandering or not. The song stands!

CB

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 10:26 AM

CB, the recent Edwina Currie revelations has opened the old wounds of J.Major's wife,the innocent party is suffering again.

No matter what political statement or truth telling spin you put on it, the constant reminder of this mans personal life has nothing to do with his sacrifice which quite rightly should be honoured.

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 12:54 PM

Saw Frontline.

The song pretty well tells the story, but I do think it could benefit from a little "folk processing."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 11:21 AM

(quote)
"The song pretty well tells the story, but I do think it could benefit from a little "folk processing."

It's a nice "first effort" , but something tells me this ain't the last word on an "Ode to John O'Neil" just yet.

Anyway more people learned more about John O'Neil through this Frontline documentary than by way of some obscure attempt at memorializing him in a "first draft " ode.

This story may just wind up being the first probable source for attempting to film a 9/11 story. I just hope that it's more of a Kevin Spacey role rather than a Bruce Willis.

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,Joel
Date: 07 Oct 02 - 10:02 PM

For Guest, Coyote Breath, Don Firth and Taliesn

Guest says>>What has constantly reminding his wife thru song that her husband was an adulterer got to do with honouring this brave man.<<

You think lying about his life would be more honorable?

O'Neill's wife (and more importantly, his children) knew that O'Neill played around. He was long separated from his wife. And, of course, Frontline covered O'Neill's private life fairly extensively. Thus, the comparison to Edwina Currie is misleading. That affair had not become public knowledge.

Again, I say, that honoring a man means honoring the whole man. Not some half-truth trimmed from the facts of his life, but the whole megillah.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks, Coyote. A voice of reason is appreciated. I have written to Frontline regarding Pickard and Freeh and attach excerpts of the letter in the next post.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don Firth says >>I do think it could benefit from a little "folk processing." <<

You're welcome to contact the webmistress of Failure is Impossible (www.failureisimpossible.com) to discuss this. The song was produced under a tight deadline and without a number of benefits that some bards might possess. It is much more important that it be popularized than that the exact original format be adhered to. However, if you're familiar with the tune on which it is based, you'll recognize that it is integral to the story.

Don and Taliesn and others, thanks for your interest. The material is copyrighted, so prospective revisions should be done in consultation with the author. It's fine to say it's a first attempt-- it certainly is, and there's no greater flattery than having people follow one's lead-- but folks who are planning to improve it might maybe should give that little bit of courtesy to the originator.

But again, thanks. The goal is a memorial to a brave, good man, not fame and fortune for the author.   

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,Joel
Date: 07 Oct 02 - 10:06 PM

While I enjoyed this program, I was underwhelmed. The show focused all of the blame on Louis Freeh and Deputy Director Pickard. While both men deserve criticism, they are hardly alone. Kenneth Starr and the Congress, for example, were instrumental in misdirecting FBI resources into political investigations of Clinton. Much of that anti-Clinton activity was orchestrated by friends of the Bush family, people like Ted and Barbara Olson.

The Congress also hamstrung Clinton in taking retaliatory strikes against bin Laden and wasting Administration resources on defending against the impeachment circus. So, Freeh is more of a symptom of what is wrong with the FBI rather than the cause. The Bureau has been politicized. The failure of The Man Who Knew to point to other examples of the politicization and deprofessionalization of the Bureau, including the Hanssen case, the firing of whistleblower Fred Whitehurst and the covering of rear ends over errors in handling Ruby Ridge and Waco depleted the show of much of the meaning of the intelligence failure surrounding 9/11.

I am also not satisfied with Mr. Kirk's explanation about John O'Neill and the Phoenix memo, and more broadly not satisfied with his interpretation of the intelligence failure. He says that the NY Times is simply wrong in reporting that O'Neill saw the memo. Well, excuse me, but evidence is required. If Kirk is correct, he should prevail on-- Van Natta and Johnston, I think it was-- to correct their story. Who saw the Phoenix memo and why didn't they act?    And what about the Minneapolis memo?

More broadly, the Kirk narrative essentially asks us to believe that the US Government missed the largest terrorist episode since the Indian Wars simply because one man was politically unpopular. I'm not buying. There is ample reason to believe that the new Bush Administration actively shut down efforts to go after bin Laden. Certainly work by The Guardian's Palast suggests that the Bush Administration gave special pleading for other members of the bin Laden family. Clinton Administration officials have also recounted briefings supplied to the Bush Administration which were contemptuously ignored.

So, at the end of the day, The Man Who Knew is better journalism than one generally sees. For this, I give Mr. Kirk credit. On the other hand, I also am left with the sense that he is hiding something-- or rather, a number of somethings-- that he fears might be politically risky to discuss.

Subject: RE: The Ballad of John O'Neill
From: GUEST,Joel
Date: 12 Oct 02 - 11:59 PM

A friend tells me that The Ballad of John O'Neill was played on NPR, on ATC, with the note that it was "popular among the underground."

I don't know that this is true, just that I've so been told. Anyone else know?