They’re finally realizing it… the rise of al-Qaeda. In my opinion, “The Prince of Darkness” sounds like something out of a video game or Harry Potter but that’s besides the point. Today, I’ll be talking about how the US gets info on al-Qaeda and the contribution of, “The Prince of Darkness.”
Now you’re probably thinking, “He’s been rambling about some Prince of Darkness but I still have absolutely no clue who that is.” Well actually, the “Prince of Darkness” is a man named John O’Neill. O’Neill was one of the first people to start investigating bin Laden and al-Qaeda. In the mid 1990s, he and Richard A. Clarke started pursuing the criminal Ramzi Yousef who was one of the attackers of the World Trade Center in 1993. O’Neill was determined to be an FBI agent. He often would tell his coworkers what to do and was always serious in his work. He started to work on cases all night which earned him the nickname, “Prince of Darkness.” Within 72 hours of O’Neill being on the case of Ramzi Yousef, he was able to capture him. This was a major accomplishment. At the time, O’Neill hadn’t even entered his position in the FBI officially yet. He was a key part in warning the US of the potential threats of al-Qaeda. During this time, al-Qaeda obviously started to move and they decided to use a car bomb in November of 1995 outside the communications center for the Saudi National Guard.
In my opinion, O’Neill symbolizes something very important in our history because he was a warning sign but people refused to believe him and therefore, he was simply just waved off. Even though he dedicated his life to keeping others safe from the attacks of al-Qaeda we decided to just see him as another person who had suspicions. I’m also quite surprised that he isn’t more well known because he was obviously someone important but I’ve never heard anybody talk about him when 9/11 discussions come about. It tells people that within a haystack, there could be a needle that is very sharp and John O’Neill certainly was the sharp and intelligent needle within.