Matt Bevan

Chris Isham said that John started getting frustrated that he wasn't being taken seriously enough.

The problem was John didn't have all the marbles.

He could only access the information the FBI was gathering domestically, not the stuff the CIA was gathering in the Middle East.

His frustration began to compound.

In the FBI jar, which John had access to, there were a couple of concerning marbles.

One was that a man with known connections with extremist groups had recently been arrested by the FBI while attending a flight training school in Minnesota.

Another suggested a coordinated effort may be underway by bin Laden to send people to the United States to obtain flight training after a number of suspicious people were seen attending flight schools in Arizona.

Two interesting marbles in the FBI jar, but not enough to get the full picture.

Unbeknownst to John, over in the CIA's jar, they had more data points.

The CIA knew that a number of high-profile al-Qaeda operatives were attending planning meetings in Malaysia and intended to travel to the United States.

John O'Neill was never across that information.

In mid-2001, he left the FBI, partially out of frustration, and took a high-paid job in the private sector.

Due to his experience in counterterrorism and security, he was offered a job as the head of security for the World Trade Center.

He called his producer friend Chris Isham to tell him the news.

Isham said, well, at least they're not going to bomb it again, referencing the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

John O'Neill responded, they'll probably try to finish the job.

John's first day was August 23rd, 2001.

He died in the centre's South Tower on September 11th, just three weeks into the job.

The coincidence there is just unbelievable.

You couldn't write about it.