Right-Wing Terrorism: An Interview with Retired FBI Special Agent Tom O’Connor

After more than 20 years investigating terrorism for the FBI, Special Agent Tom O’Connor and his wife, Jean, retired on September 11th, 2019 in honor of the victims of 9/11 and those who tragically lost their lives due to 9/11-related illnesses. As a member of the Evidence Response Team (ERT), SA O’Connor worked some of the most significant terrorism cases in modern history, to include the bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya in 1998, the attack on the USS COLE in Yemen in 2000 and the plane strike on the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001. He also worked assignments in the Balkans, Latin America, Iraq, Pakistan, Ukraine and many more countries around the world. In the United States, he specialized in criminal investigation of right-wing violent extremists and was part of ERTs deployed in the aftermath of numerous mass shootings, to include the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018. The following is an edited transcript of an interview with SA O’Connor, focused on the growing problem of right-wing terrorism, that took place on May 15th, 2020 (just a few days before the world’s first incel terrorism charge in Canada, and an incel-inspired shooting took place at an Arizona mall). The full interview is available to listen to at this link.