Was bin Laden's family allowed to jet out of US after 9/11?

[spooky3]

http://www.edinburghnews.com/index.cfm?id=971322003

[westerby]

1. Probably yes. But that is not new

Here is what Paul Thompson wrote in his timeline (which is a chronological compilation of, let's say, 95 per cent of all relevant mainstream media sources reporting on things connected with 9/11).

(In the original, the sources contain the links)

Members of bin Laden's family and important Saudis are "driven or flown under FBI supervision to a secret assembly point in Texas and then to Washington from where they left the country on a private charter plane when airports reopened three days after the attacks." The flights to Texas and Washington occur before the national air ban is lifted.
The Tampa Tribune reports that on September 13, a Lear jet takes off from Tampa, Florida, carrying a Saudi Arabian prince, the son of the Saudi defense minister Prince Sultan (see August 2001 (G), August 31, 2001, August 15, 2002), as well as the son of a Saudi army commander, and flies to Lexington, Kentucky, where the Saudis own racehorses. They then fly a private 747 out of the country.
Multiple 747s with Arabic lettering on their sides are already there, suggesting another secret assembly point. The Tampa flight left from a private Raytheon hangar. (Raytheon's name keeps coming up in relation to 9/11 (for instance, see September 25, 2001).)
Prince Bandar, Saudi ambassador to the US, helps move the bin Laden family out of the US. Ron Motley, the lead lawyer in a 9/11 lawsuit against many Saudis, points to the flights during the air ban as evidence that Saudis are "protected by the Bush administration" because of "oil." There have been conflicting reports as to whether the FBI interviewed these people before they left the country. Osama bin Laden's half brother, Abdullah bin Laden, stated that even a month after 9/11 his only contact with the FBI was a brief phone call.
The existence of these flights during the air travel ban is now usually referred to as an urban legend.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/timelineafter911.html

[supercrash]

2. ..

I think Vanity Fair is running this story on the 9th

[RamboLiberal]

16. Yes Vanity Fair is running it - hear Richard Clarke admits

helping the bin Ladens and other Saudis fly out.

The story was reported on MSNBC tonight.

[kentuck]

3. It is new to those that did not hear it...

and there were probably millions of Americans that will find this totally shocking...because it was not reported as much on the media previously...

[King_Crimson]

4. Heard on Mike Malloy...

last night that former "Terrorism" guru Richard Clarke has opened his mouth and confirmed that, with American airspace closed down, a plane was sent in and spirited all bin-Ladens family outta the country. Now get this...the plane didn't just stop in one city but as many as 10...including L.A., Houston, Boston...and others! What a crock of shit!

[Starpass]

5. WHY has this become some super secret thing--It was on TV Sept 12th

I've watched these threads for a couple days and it's like this is some big secret now being revealed, etc. GOD, I sat in my own living room on 9/11 and 12 and 13 watching intently all the 9/11 coverage. This was on all news channels about 10 times a day complete with pictures. It was announced that even though everything was, of course, shut down, there was this permission to get the bin Laden family out because of fear of reprisals. They shot film through a chain link fence at an airport that should a bunch of them bording. They shot film on some college campuses as a backdrop to telling us that a bunch of them were at various colleges in the US of A. The only thought I had at the time was: how do they know so real fast like WHO did this and why wouldn't they want these people detained to see if they were a part of it or knew where Uncle Osama was????----that was the part that stunk. I have NO idea who has turned this nationally televised event into something that was done in secret---it wasn't.

[ramblin_dave]

6. Snopes still says it's false

Snopes.com updated their page on this topic yesterday. They added a footnote referencing the Edinburgh News article and quoted from it. But they still say the claim is false.

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/flight.htm

[westerby]

7. False may be the simple version in their headline

"Secret flights whisked bin Laden family members out of the U.S. over the objection of the FBI two days after the September 11 attacks, while a general ban on air travel was still in effect, and before the FBI had any opportunity to question them. "

"Why bin Laden family members (and other Saudis) wanted to leave the U.S. in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks should be obvious: most of the hijackers who perpetrated the attacks were Saudis, as was the mastermind of the plot, Osama bin Laden. Many Saudis temporarily residing in the U.S. (not just bin Laden family members) feared they might become victims of anti-Arab, anti-Saudi, and anti-bin Laden reprisals at the hands of angry Americans"

It is still very conspicuous that the US government should be in such a hurry to protect the Saudis. The government was not so concerned about sentiments against Muslims (after, the hijackers were all Muslim, so they should be afraid of "reprisals at the hands of angry Americans", too.)
But here, it is even the government itself who goes after the Muslims. Thousand of them were detained in the weeks after 9/11, contradictory to every normal legal procedure, basic rights were violated.
If the government is to take any chance to investigate every possible trace, then it would not be wise to let the Bin Ladens go, even if there are many of them and the connection to Osama not so strong for each of them.

In my eyes, the urban legends page a little bit too sympathetic to the government’s actions and too anxious to play the case down as a normal procedure.

[Democat]

9. Snopes have become Bush defenders since 9/11

They went the way of Dennis Miller.

[RamboLiberal]

17. Then Snopes better make another correction

because MSNBC reported tonight that Richard Clarke admits it.

[chiburb]

8. Today's NY Times...

Snip:

White House Approved Departure of Saudis After Sept. 11, Ex-Aide Says

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 — Top White House officials personally approved the evacuation of dozens of influential Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, from the United States in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when most flights were still grounded, a former White House adviser said today.

The adviser, Richard Clarke, who ran the White House crisis team after the attacks but has since left the Bush administration, said he agreed to the extraordinary plan because the Federal Bureau of Investigation assured him that the departing Saudis were not linked to terrorism. The White House feared that the Saudis could face "retribution" for the hijackings if they remained in the United States, Mr. Clarke said.

The fact that relatives of Mr. bin Laden and other Saudis had been rushed out of the country became public soon after the Sept. 11 attacks. But questions have lingered about the circumstances of their departure, and Mr. Clarke's statements provided the first acknowledgment that the White House had any direct involvement in the plan and that senior administration officials personally signed off on it.

Mr. Clarke first made his remarks about the plan in an article in Vanity Fair due out Thursday, and he expanded on those remarks today in an interview and in Congressional testimony. The White House said today that it had no comment on Mr. Clarke's statements.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/politics/04SAUD.html

[spooky3]

10. I have heard that Michael Moore

plans to focus on this story in his next film.

[paulthompson]

11. More info

I posted this on another, dying thread.

I noticed something interesting.

If you read the latest N.Y. Times story on how the bin Laden relatives were allowed to leave the US during the air ban a couple days after 9/11, there's this interesting paragraph:

"Mr. Schumer said in an interview that he suspected that some of the Saudis who were allowed to leave, particularly two relatives of Mr. bin Laden who he said had links to terrorist groups themselves, could have shed light on the events of Sept. 11."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/politics/04SAUD.html?ex=1063252800&en=808be44ae0b6c3aa&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Joe Conason at Salon points out these are the same two bin Laden relatives mentioned in a report by Greg Palast.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2003/09/04/family/

Here's the timeline entry I've made that summarizes the info about them:

September 11, 1996: An FBI investigation into two relatives of bin Laden, begun in February 1996, is closed. The FBI wanted to learn more about Abdullah bin Laden, "because of his relationship with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) - a suspected terrorist organization." (Guardian, 11/7/01) Abdullah was the US director of WAMY and lived with his brother Omar in Falls Church, Virginia, a town just outside Washington. The coding on the document, marked secret, indicates the case involved espionage, murder, and national security. WAMY has its offices at 5613 Leesburg Pike. Remarkably, it is later determined that four of the 9/11 hijackers lived at 5913 Leesburg Pike at the same time the two bin Laden brothers were there. WAMY has not been put on a list of terrorist organizations in the US, but it has been banned in Pakistan. (BBC Newsnight, 11/6/01, Guardian, 11/7/01) The Bosnian government later says a charity with Abdullah bin Laden on its board had channeled money to Chechen guerrillas, something that "is only possible because the Clinton CIA gave the wink and nod to WAMY and other groups who were aiding Bosnian guerrillas when they were fighting Serbia, a US-approved enemy." The investigation into WAMY is only restarted two days after 9/11, and after the bin Laden brothers have left the US. (Best Democracy Money Can Buy, by Greg Palast, 2/03)

---

So, in short, these two are allowed to leave the US without being questioned THE SAME DAY the FBI reopens an investigation into them! How wierd is that?

Greg Palast talked last month a bit more about WAMY here:

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=15530

So not only are WAMY people delivering recent cassettes coming from Osama bin Laden, but WAMY even now is openly running a training camp in Florida!

How messed up is all that? For crying out loud, when will some journalist or prominent Democrat bring this kind of thing up to point out Bush is far from strong on terrorism?

[MrPrax]

12. Days After...

The Ambassador of Saudi Arabia was on Larry King explaining himself...

why is this a revelation now...

Hitchens wrote a column about it in his own special 'anti-arab' way in the Nation...

Consider the following. On September 11, you could not fly and I could not fly. The national airspace was locked down. But twenty-four members of the bin Laden family, living in the United States, were gathered by private jet under the auspices of Prince Bandar Bin-Sultan, the Saudi ambassador in Washington. With what he gratefully describes as the cooperation of the FBI, the Prince mustered all the bin Ladens, who at the first opportunity were taken under FBI escort to Boston's Logan Airport (departure point for two of the death squads) and then permitted to fly home with no questions asked. I do not think that any question of racial profiling would have been involved if members of the immediate bin Laden tribe had been inconvenienced to the extent of being asked a few questions. Boasting of this amazing coup on October 1, Prince Bandar told Larry King an affecting story about one of these privileged escapees:

"But you know what hurt me? A young man said to me, "Prince Bandar, I always couldn't understand why the American Japanese wanted a memorial. What's the big deal?" He said: "Suddenly I realize: I'm a rich man, I'm in Harvard, and I have to leave my school, not because I was guilty, but because the emotions are high." That really touched me, Larry."

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20020121&s=hitchens

[librechik]

13. the story was also in the New Yorker Nov 11 2001

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?011112fa_FACT3
excerpt

"Around two dozen other American-based members of the bin Laden family, most of them here to study in colleges and prep schools, were said to be in the United States at the time of the attacks. The New York Times reported that they were quickly called together by officials from the Saudi Embassy, which feared that they might become the victims of American reprisals. With approval from the F.B.I., according to a Saudi official, the bin Ladens flew by private jet from Los Angeles to Orlando, then on to Washington, and finally to Boston. Once the F.A.A. permitted overseas flights, the jet flew to Europe. United States officials apparently needed little persuasion from the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, that the extended bin Laden family included no material witnesses. The Saudi Embassy says that the family coöperated with the F.B.I. The Saudi government has said that the family signed a statement officially disowning Osama in 1994, a year after the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The Saudi government also stripped bin Laden of his citizenship, which resulted in self-exile to Sudan. When I asked a senior United States intelligence officer whether anyone had considered detaining members of the family, he replied, "That's called taking hostages. We don't do that."

very good article, BTW

[Trek234]

14. So?

Do we start prosecuting family because one member does something illegal?

If your sibling murders someone can we lock you away with them?

[Generic Other]

15. Uday and Qusay say "No"

Sheik Omar's son says "No."