From Senator Frank Lautenberg, NJ
Should the Bin Laden Family Have Been Allowed to Flee the U.S. One Week After 9-11?
Tuesday, July 27, 2004WASHINGTON, DC –United States Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), who obtained the passenger manifest of the “Bin Laden Flight” out of the U.S. on September 19th, 2001, issued the following statement in reaction to the findings of the 9-11 Commission:
“The 9-11 Report concludes that none of the Saudi flights ‘took place before the reopening of national airspace.’ But that misses the point.
The issue with the ‘Bin Laden flight’ of 9-19 is not whether the airport was open at the time – it clearly was. The issue is whether the Bush Administration and the FBI should have let these Bin Laden family members leave the country so swiftly and without interrogation.
The 9-11 Report makes clear that no interrogation was conducted. Rather ‘interviews’ were conducted at the airport by an FBI Agent from the Baltimore Field Office.
As the Report indicates, the FBI agent cleared them after passengers claimed that they had ‘no recent contact with Osama Bin Laden’ and ‘knew nothing about terrorist activity.’ The passengers were not under oath, they were not interrogated, but were simply interviewed at the airport. If Muhammad Attah was asked such questions on his way out of the country, would he have answered yes?
The 9-11 Report also indicates that two passengers on the 9-19 flight had, in the late 1990’s, been under investigation by the FBI for links to terrorism. Despite this, they were allowed to leave, after a cursory, insufficient interview.
Allowing this flight to leave was a grossly negligent act. Had we taken stronger action with these Bin Laden family members, we may have Osama Bin Laden in custody today and done more to dismantle his al Qaeda terrorist network.
Aside from the question of why the Bush Administration let this flight leave, we must find out what role the White House played in arranging the September 19th flight of the Bin Ladens. The charter plane at issue, tail number N521DB, has been chartered by the White House many times to carry its press corps on Presidential trips. Of the 375 Boeing 727s available for charter in the United States, who arranged for the Bin Ladens to hire this particular plane?”
http://www.lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=254259
Go away.