Posted on 03/28/2005 8:58:02 AM PST by nextthunder
Documents show FBI helped Saudis depart after 9/11 attacks: New York Times
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The FBI (news - web sites) played an active role in arranging chartered flights for dozens of well-connected Saudi nationals -- including relatives of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) -- after the 9/11 terror attacks.
The New York Times reported that the documents show Federal Bureau of Investigation agents gave personal airport escorts to two prominent Saudi families who fled the United States, while several other Saudis were allowed to leave the country without first being interviewed, citing newly-released US government records.
The Saudi families, in Los Angeles and Orlando, had requested the FBI escorts out of concern for their personal safety in the wake of the attacks.
The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Justice Department (news - web sites) by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, which provided copies to the Times.
FBI officials contacted by the daily reacted angrily to the allegation of preferential treatment for the Saudis.
One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, when queried by the Times about the airport escorts said "we'd do that for anybody if they felt they were threatened -- we wouldn't characterize that as special treatment."
The Saudis' chartered flights -- arranged in the days after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks when most aircraft were still grounded -- long have been a topic of allegations related to close family ties and associates of US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and the Saudi royal family.
The charges received their most prominent airing last year by the filmmaker Michael Moore, in his "Fahrenheit 9/11" documentary.
White House officials have strongly denied any special treatment for the Saudis.
Sorry, Mr. Moore, ths BS has been debunked eight ways to Sunday.
in before the zot?
Old News bump
Jeeezz, not this s**t again!
Didn't we already know that certain Saudis were escorted out of the country? Imagine how shocked the New York Times will be when it finally gets around to cracking open its copy of the 9/11 report.
And knowing this does not alter the fact that Michael Moore is a lying propagandist.
For anyone who cares, the three questions and their answers are detailed on pages 329-330 of the 9/11 Commission Report. (If the 9/11 Commission couldn't dig up dirt, who could?)
Briefly:
1. There was "no evidence" that any flights of Saudi nationals, domestic or international, took place before 9/13/2001.
2. No evidence of political intervention for flights that carried Saudi nationals after airspace opened.
3. FBI conducted a satisfactory screening of Saudi nationals leaving the US on charter flights. No one connected to terrorism was identified.
Richard Clarke already said that he was the one who allowed them to leave.
Haha, did you hear about that Hindenburg airship? Tragic.
How many times will they print this story?
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_18_55/ai_109411350
Recently, however, Richard Clarke, the former head of anti-terrorism at the National Security Council, gave some answers while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on terrorism. "I do recall the State Department coming to us that week [after September 11]," Clarke testified,
saying that the Saudi Embassy felt that in the wake of the terrorist attacks, Arabs in this country, particularly Saudis, might be victims of retribution attacks, and they wanted therefore to take some Saudi students and the Saudi citizens back to their kingdom for safety, and could they be given permission to fly, even though we had grounded all flights. Now, what I recall is that I asked for flight manifests of everyone on board and all of those names need to be directly and individually vetted by the FBI before they were allowed to leave the country. And I also wanted the FBI to sign off even on the concept of Saudis being allowed to leave the country. And as I recall, all of that was done. It is true that members of the bin Laden family were among those who left. We knew that at the time. I can't say much more in open session, but it was a conscious decision with complete review at the highest levels of the State Department and the FBI and the White House.
They're a perfect pair.
This was all reported after it happened after 9-11. The NYT is starting to remind me of Paris Match. Wonder when they'll start asking questions about the flight that crashed into the Pentagon. Lots of loonies think it was a bomb. You've really got to wonder about the true agenda of the NYT.
Klayman turned out to be addicted to publicity and never sought rehab.
*sniff sniff*
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