Bin Laden's Diplomatic Passports

[paulthompson]

Has anyone seen this before?

This comes from a blog by Douglas Farah. He's a Washington Post reporter currently on sabbatical. All the below words are from him.

http://www.douglasfarah.com/archive/2004_12_01_archive.shtml

December 05, 2004
Bin Laden's Diplomatic Passports

I know journalists should not bury the lead, but I was looking for a second source to verify what Mike Scheuer told me on the record. Now that I have found one, I find it astonishing to find, in a Google search, that it has not been reported yet, at least where I can find it. (If it is out there, it still bears repeating):

All the Binladen's living in the United States were granted Saudi diplomatic passports in 1996. Didn't matter if they were students, working in shady "charities" or just hanging out. They all got Saudi passports. In 1998, when the FBI's New York office actually sought to investigate some of the Binladen family's activities in this country because of suspicions of ties to terrorism, the State Department forced them to shut down the entire operation. Because the bin Laden's were "diplomats" and as such enjoyed diplomatic immunity, making such investigations illegal. Talk about going Through the Looking Glass. It may explain why all the Binladens were able to extricate themselves from the United States so quickly, with only cursory investigations, after 9/11. There could be no interrogations of diplomats by the FBI. That certainly cuts down on the questioning and background checks and speeds one's exit.

So there you have it. One more small piece of a very large puzzle. What is most unnerving is the lack of ability to investigate the family's activities here. It is not clear to very many people that the entire clan has cut off its contact with Osama. While Osama is always portrayed as a renegade, family ties, not to mention religious and political sympathies, ofter outweigh edicts given from a discredited and waning government officials.

[spooked911]

1. Certainly makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the info.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. Thank you for this info as I have never heard about this.n/t

[Old and In the Way]

3. How many trillions are the Saudi's invested in us?

Actually, our petro-dollars. They've been investing heavily in our country with our dollars that we spend to burn their gas. That's a big reason why we can't go after the country whose people attacked us on 9/11.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. Didn't Moore say in F9/11 that they own about 7% of the US? n/t