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WASHINGTON, June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released new documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") related to the "expeditious departure" of Saudi nationals, including members of the bin Laden family, from the United States following the 9/11 attacks. According to one of the formerly confidential documents, dated 9/21/2001, terrorist Osama bin Laden may have chartered one of the Saudi flights.
The document states: "ON 9/19/01, A 727 PLANE LEFT LAX, RYAN FLT #441 TO ORLANDO, FL W/ETA (estimated time of arrival) OF 4-5PM. THE PLANE WAS CHARTERED EITHER BY THE SAUDI ARABIAN ROYAL FAMILY OR OSAMA BIN LADEN ... THE LA FBI SEARCHED THE PLANE [REDACTED] LUGGAGE, OF WHICH NOTHING UNUSUAL WAS FOUND." The plane was allowed to depart the United States after making four stops to pick up passengers, ultimately landing in Paris where all passengers disembarked on 9/20/01, according to the document.
Overall, the FBI's most recent document production includes details of the six flights between 9/14 and 9/24 that evacuated Saudi royals and bin Laden family members. The documents also contain brief interview summaries and occasional notes from intelligence analysts concerning the cursory screening performed prior to the departures. According to the FBI documents, incredibly not a single Saudi national nor any of the bin Laden family members possessed any information of investigative value.
Moreover, the documents contain numerous errors and inconsistencies, which call to question the thoroughness of the FBI's investigation of the Saudi flights. For example, on one document, the FBI claims to have interviewed 20 of 23 passengers on the Ryan International Airlines flight (commonly referred to as the "Bin Laden Family Flight"). On another document, the FBI claims to have interviewed 15 of 22 passengers on the same flight.
"Eight days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Osama bin Laden possibly charters a flight to whisk his family out of the country, and it's not worth more than a luggage search and a few brief interviews?" asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Clearly these documents prove the FBI conducted a slapdash investigation of these Saudi flights. We'll never know how many investigative leads were lost due to the FBI's lack of diligence."
U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts ordered the FBI to resubmit "proper disclosures" to the Court and Judicial Watch, having previously criticized the adequacy of redaction descriptions, the validity of exemption claims, and other errors in the FBI's disclosures. Incredibly, the FBI had previously redacted Osama bin Laden's name from the records in order "to protect privacy interests."
The latest version of the FBI documents, obtained under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and through ongoing litigation (Judicial Watch v. Department of Homeland Security & Federal Bureau of Investigation, No. 04- 1643 (RWR)) is available on Judicial Watch's website, Judicial Watch.
SOURCE Judicial Watch
Judicial Watch Releases New FBI Documents: Osama bin Laden May Have Chartered Saudi Flight Out of U.S. After 9/11 - Yahoo! News (broken link)
[/b]Or, he may not have. Typical scare tactics. So what?
Wow, I am surprised you and other didn't jump all over this as the ultimate blunder of the Bush government. What do you mean by "scare tactic"?
Quote:
Eight days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Osama bin Laden possibly charters a flight to whisk his family out of the country, and it's not worth more than a luggage search and a few brief interviews?" asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Clearly these documents prove the FBI conducted a slapdash investigation of these Saudi flights. We'll never know how many investigative leads were lost due to the FBI's lack of diligence"
Why is it that the FBI wanted to cover up information? Do they have something more to hide or were they told to cover it up by Bush Sir. so his friends could leave the country? If we didn’t have the Judicial Watch and others to monitor our government then who or what is in control of it?
How is the fact that this might have happened be a scare tactic?
It's not logical.
A scare tactic is saying that NYC's subway system is in danger of an attack based on 3 year old info conveniently released at an opportune time for the administration, just like the other times we had color coded alerts.
I’m scared that the Bushs and the bin Ladens are too friendly with each other. You know Mr. Bin Laden Sir. had a son named Osama, and Mr. Bush Sir had a son named George. Now the world has to fear the both of them! Kids,,,, they never grow up like parents want them to.
This is old news for some of us. Glad to see some reporting on it though. Hopefully more Americans will question what this administrations is up to. I'd love to see this on the 6:00 news, but I doubt it.
Speculating on something that may or may not be true, especially years after it happened, is a scare tactic. Someone want sto make it sound like someone else screwed up, but they offer nothing but "it may have happened..."
Heck, everyone knows I don't think much of the Bush administration, but "jumping" on them for something that MAY or MAY NOT have happened is sort of unfair. They have enough legitimate screw-ups that we can safely ignore this one, especially as there is little we could do about it even if it is true.
If you think we should hold the Bush folks accountable for whether or not someone may or may not have chartered a plane, then I'm certain you'll agree that they should be criminally charged for invading Iraq.
Bringing up this old news and trying to make a scandal out of it is very much like saying, "The sky might be falling!"
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scare tactic?
