Who cleared the bin Laden family to leave the USA soon after 9/11?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.hillnews.com/news/021104/waxman.aspx

Waxman looking for ‘reassurance’

Congressman asks for probe of flights of bin Laden kin

California Democrat Henry Waxman is calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft to reveal who cleared members of Osama bin Laden’s family and other Saudi citizens to leave the country immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. snip

At a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing last year, Richard Clarke, who has headed the National Security Council’s counterterrorism security group, said: “What happened was that shortly after 9-11, when it became clear that most of the terrorists of 9-11 were Saudis, the Saudi government feared that there would be retribution and vigilantism in the United States against Saudis. That seemed to be a reasonable fear.” snip

“The list of personnel that were being evacuated was provided to the FBI,” Clarke said. “We asked the FBI to see if there was anyone on the evacuation list that they wanted to detain and question. And the FBI told us there was no one on the list that they wanted to detain.”

Clarke said there were members of bin Laden’s family on a flight leaving the country, but added that the family “is enormous” and that “the members of the bin Laden family who were living in the United States, {those} we were aware of.” snip

Waxman argued that Clarke’s testimony at another hearing does not match media accounts in which “both the FBI and the State Department have denied involvement in facilitating flying the Saudi citizens out of the country.”

more

[maddezmom]

1. Waxman is hitting homeruns this week.

[jean]

2. Clarke was asked about this by Conason (yesterday in an interview)

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/03/24/clarke/index2.html


Were you aware of the Saudi airlifts of their nationals after 9/11, at the time that they were happening?

What I am aware of is that sometime after 9/11, in the days immediately thereafter, the Saudi embassy requested to evacuate some of its nationals because it feared there would be retribution. That information came to me and I was asked to approve it. I said no, I would not approve it, until the FBI approved it. And I asked the FBI to approve it, to look at the names of people on the flight manifests, and the FBI approved it.

Now, there's a big tempest about this in retrospect. People think the FBI should have done a better job of looking at the names. The FBI could have called me and said they wanted more time, and I would have given it to them. They could have said they want this individual or that individual detained, and I would have said fine. I am still unaware to this day of anyone who left on any of those flights who the FBI now wants.

[Don Claybrook]

4. Beat me to it n/t

[Don Claybrook]

3. self-deleted

Information already covered in post above.

[DemonFighterLives]

5. Slick and Sly

This maneuver happened while everyone else in the U.S. was grounded. Not much news of it escaped as per plan. If the FBI cleared them, it was sure fast compared to GITMO detainees. Why didn't they just detain them for a day or 2 more and make sure that everyone was checked fully.

[NNN0LHI]

6. And at the same time Ashcroft was picking up anyone named Mohammad n/t

[maddezmom]

7. wonder if they will be able to bring this up today?

probably not, maybe at a later date.

[eek]

8. yeah - our own citizens aren't so well-treated.

Also, people were getting beaten up and killed by vigilante apes
who thought anyone with dark hair and browner skin was
an A-rab.

Remember a Sikh man was killed?

BTW - what sort of plane took the Saudis home? Private? Commercial?
Who paid the airfare?

Why couldn't people stranded far from home due to airport closings be taken home as well?


Lying sacks of sh+t.

[IronLionZion]

9. Several Sikh men were killed in NY and New Jersey

because anyone who wears a turban must be one of Osama's boys even though they hate Muslims more than the KKK does.