Editing John P. O'Neill (section)

===Retirement===
[[File:12.6.11JohnP.O'NeillPanelN-63ByLuigiNovi1.jpg|thumb|right|O'Neill's name is located on Panel N-63 of the [[National September 11 Memorial]]'s North Pool.]]
In early 2001, [[Richard A. Clarke]], the National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism wanted to move to another position; he insisted O'Neill was the best person to replace him. O'Neill proved reluctant, not least because of the relatively low salary. When O'Neill heard of upcoming leaks to ''[[The New York Times]]'' about the May 2000 incident in which his briefcase had been stolen, he decided to retire from the bureau and take a higher-paying job in the private sector, as chief of security at the World Trade Center.<ref name=NewYorker/>

An August 19, 2001, ''The New York Times'' report by [[James Risen]] and David Johnston suggested that O'Neill had been the subject of an "internal investigation" at the FBI because O'Neill was responsible for losing a briefcase with "highly classified information" in it, including among other things "a description of every counterespionage and counterterrorism program in New York." The briefcase was recovered shortly after its disappearance.

The FBI investigation was reported to have concluded that the briefcase had been snatched by local thieves involved in a series of hotel burglaries and that none of the documents inside had been removed or even touched.<ref name=NYTimes>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E3DF113EF93AA2575BC0A9679C8B63|title=F.B.I. Is Investigating a Senior Counterterrorism Agent|first1=David |last1=Johnston |first2=James |last2=Risen |date=August 19, 2001|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Several people came to O'Neill's defense, suggesting that he was the subject of a "smear campaign".<ref name=NYTimes/> One of O'Neill's associates later claimed that O'Neill believed the source for the ''Times'' story was FBI official [[Thomas J. Pickard]].<ref>"The Man Who Knew". ''[[Frontline (U.S. TV series)|Frontline]]''. [[PBS]].</ref> The ''Times'' reported that O'Neill was expected to retire in late August.

O'Neill started his new job at the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] on August 23, 2001. In late August, he talked to his friend Chris Isham about the job. Jokingly, Isham said, "At least they're not going to bomb it again", a reference to the [[1993 World Trade Center bombing]]. O'Neill replied, "They'll probably try to finish the job."<ref name="NewYorker">{{cite web |author=Wright |first=Lawrence |author-link=Lawrence Wright |date=January 6, 2002 |title=The Counter-Terrorist |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/01/14/the-counter-terrorist |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141117113651/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/01/14/the-counter-terrorist |archive-date=November 17, 2014 |access-date=October 3, 2021 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref>