… Amid similar conditions -- a terrorist attack, an ongoing investigation and Saudi diplomatic pressure -- we have seen Saudi nationals spirited out of the country en masse in the past rather than be exposed to any part of an investigative process.
I refer, of course, to the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, when following a private meeting on Sept. 13 between President George W. Bush and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, "something strange began to happen," as former Florida Sen. Bob Graham writes in his 2004 book "Intelligence Matters." (As Senate Intelligence committee chairman, Graham co-chaired the Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11.)
"Although the FAA had ordered all private flights grounded, a number of planes began flying to collect Saudi nationals from various parts of the United States." Within a week, Graham continues, 140 Saudis, including members of the bin Laden family, had been flown out of the country without ever having to answer a single question about anything.
What's almost worse is that for nearly three years, as Graham reports, "the White House and other agencies insisted that these flights never took place."
The Bush administration cover-up would climax with the redaction of a 28-page chapter of the 9/11 Commission report regarding foreign, particularly Saudi, support for some of the al-Qaida hijackers.
We, the People, still can't read those redacted pages --