posted March 29, 2005 09:31 AM              

Published: March 27, 2005

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ASHINGTON, March 26 - The episode has been retold so many times in the last three and a half years that it has become the stuff of political legend: in the frenzied days after Sept. 11, 2001, when some flights were still grounded, dozens of well-connected Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, managed to leave the United States on specially chartered flights.

Now, newly released government records show previously undisclosed flights from Las Vegas and elsewhere and point to a more active role by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in aiding some of the Saudis in their departure.

The F.B.I. gave personal airport escorts to two prominent Saudi families who fled the United States, and several other Saudis were allowed to leave the country without first being interviewed, the documents show.

The Saudi families, in Los Angeles and Orlando, requested the F.B.I. escorts because they said they were concerned for their safety in the wake of the attacks, and the F.B.I. - which was then beginning the biggest criminal investigation in its history - arranged to have agents escort them to their local airports, the documents show.

But F.B.I. officials reacted angrily, both internally and publicly, to the suggestion that any Saudis had received preferential treatment in leaving the country.

"I say baloney to any inference we red-carpeted any of this entourage," an F.B.I. official said in a 2003 internal note. Another F.B.I. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said this week regarding the airport escorts that "we'd do that for anybody if they felt they were threatened - we wouldn't characterize that as special treatment."

The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Justice Department by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, which provided copies to The New York Times.

The material sheds new light on the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, and it provides details about the F.B.I.'s interaction with at least 160 Saudis who were living in or visiting the United States and were allowed to leave the country. Some of the departing Saudis were related to Osama bin Laden.

The Saudis' chartered flights, arranged in the days after the attacks when many flights in the United States were still grounded, have proved frequent fodder for critics of the Bush administration who accuse it of coddling the Saudis. The debate was heightened by the filmmaker Michael Moore, who scrutinized the issue in "Fahrenheit 9/11," but White House officials have adamantly denied any special treatment for the Saudis, calling such charges irresponsible and politically motivated.

The Sept. 11 commission examined the Saudi flights in its final report last year, and it found that no Saudis had been allowed to leave before national airspace was reopened on Sept. 13, 2001; that there was no evidence of "political intervention" by the White House; and that the F.B.I. had done a "satisfactory screening" of the departing Saudis to ensure they did not have information relevant to the attacks.

The documents obtained by Judicial Watch, with major passages heavily deleted, do not appear to contradict directly any of those central findings, but they raise some new questions about the episode.

The F.B.I. records show, for instance, that prominent Saudi citizens left the United States on several flights that had not been previously disclosed in public accounts, including a chartered flight from Providence, R.I., on Sept. 14, 2001, that included at least one member of the Saudi royal family, and three flights from Las Vegas between Sept. 19 and Sept. 24, also carrying members of the Saudi royal family. The government began reopening airspace on Sept. 13, but many flights remained grounded for days afterward.

The three Las Vegas flights, with a total of more than 100 passengers, ferried members of the Saudi royal family and staff members who had been staying at Caesar's Palace and the Four Seasons hotels. The group had tried unsuccessfully to charter flights back to Saudi Arabia between Sept. 13 and Sept. 17 because they said they feared for their safety as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks, the F.B.I. documents say. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/politics/27exodus.html

posted March 31, 2005 09:48 AM              

Sunday 27 March 2005, 20:03 Makka Time, 17:03 GMT

In the wake of the attacks, most aircraft in the US were grounded

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The FBI played an active role in arranging chartered flights for dozens of well-connected Saudi nationals - including relatives of Usama bin Ladin - after 9/11, The New York Times has reported.

The newspaper on Sunday, citing official documents, reported that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation gave personal airport escorts to two prominent Saudi families who fled the United States, while several other Saudis were allowed to leave the country without first being interviewed.

The Saudi families, in Los Angeles and Orlando, had requested the FBI escorts out of concern for their personal safety in the wake of the attacks.

The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Justice Department by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, which provided copies to the Times.

Angry reaction

FBI officials contacted by the daily reacted angrily to the allegation of preferential treatment for the Saudis.

"We'd do that for anybody if they felt they were threatened - we wouldn't characterise that as special treatment"

Unnamed FBI official

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, when queried by the Times about the airport escorts said "we'd do that for anybody if they felt they were threatened - we wouldn't characterise that as special treatment".

The Saudis' chartered flights - arranged in the days after the 11 September 2001 attacks when most aircraft were still grounded – have long been a topic of allegations related to close family ties and associates of US President George Bush and the Saudi royal family.

The charges received their most prominent airing last year by the filmmaker Michael Moore, in his Fahrenheit 9/11 documentary.

White House officials have strongly denied any special treatment for the Saudis.

posted March 31, 2005 11:17 AM            

This issue was settled long ago. It was settled when it was revealed by the person who supplied the bloated airhead Michael Moore much of the material used in his fantasy film that it was he and he alone who authorized the flights of Saudi citizens out of the US.

Richard Clarke said the decision didn't get any higher than him. That the FBI came to him and asked if there was any reason the NSA would want to hold Saudi citizens or prevent them from leaving the US. Clarke said the FBI told him they had interviewed all the Saudi citizens they were interested in interviewing.

NO special flights of Saudi citizens...either private or commercial were in the air at a time when civilian aircraft either private or commercial were grounded in the US after 9/11.

There is always that 10% of the population who don't get the word or who can't understand what the words mean. Why is it always the crazed morons of the radical left who don't get it?

One would think that when Richard Clarke, who is no friend of the Bush Administration, said "Michael Moore got it wrong", that would be the end of the attempts by the crazed morons of the radical left to make an issue out of it...but that would require one to think the crazed morons of the radical left are intellectually capable of understanding what the words mean.

Richard Clarke told Moore in plenty of time to change the thrust of his fantasy film but Moore went straight ahead and attempted to mislead with what was known by him at that time to be a total lie.

posted March 31, 2005 12:12 PM              

Any comment, Randall?

posted April 03, 2005 01:28 PM            

Queen, you shouldn't put words in my mouth..nor having done so express outrage at what your interpretation had me say.

Besides Queen, at the time I referred to those writers at the NY Times who continue to bring up this dead horse issue as crazed morons of the radical left, you hadn't said a word on this thread about either the story or the issue.