Submitted In preparation for the anniversary of the attack.
Text below is from first part of the article here:
September 11, 2001: Evacuation of Saudi Nationals - SourceWatch
September 11, 2001: Evacuation of Saudi Nationals
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Yet to attract the proper attention it deserves from the media is the March 29, 2005, AFP article "FBI flew Saudis out after 9/11":
"... newly released US government records show that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents gave personal airport escorts to two prominent Saudi families who fled the US, while several other Saudis were allowed to leave the country without first being interviewed."
The information was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit lodged against the Department of Justice by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, who gave the information to the New York Times. Although "major passages" of the information were deleted, "the records show that prominent Saudi citizens left the United States on several flights that had not been previously disclosed." [1]
This clearly answers the question posed May 18, 2004, by Alexander Bolton: "Who let bin Ladens leave U.S.?" In his article, Bolton provided a comprehensive overview of the situation as it was known at the time.
Text below is from first part of the article here:
September 11, 2001: Evacuation of Saudi Nationals - SourceWatch
September 11, 2001: Evacuation of Saudi Nationals
Jump to navigationJump to search
Yet to attract the proper attention it deserves from the media is the March 29, 2005, AFP article "FBI flew Saudis out after 9/11":
"... newly released US government records show that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents gave personal airport escorts to two prominent Saudi families who fled the US, while several other Saudis were allowed to leave the country without first being interviewed."
The information was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit lodged against the Department of Justice by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, who gave the information to the New York Times. Although "major passages" of the information were deleted, "the records show that prominent Saudi citizens left the United States on several flights that had not been previously disclosed." [1]
This clearly answers the question posed May 18, 2004, by Alexander Bolton: "Who let bin Ladens leave U.S.?" In his article, Bolton provided a comprehensive overview of the situation as it was known at the time.
- Earlier in the day, September 13, 2001, the FAA "issued a notice that private aviation was banned and that three private planes that had violated the ban had been forced to land by military aircraft," according to an article published in Vanity Fair.
- On the afternoon of September 13, 2001, "three Saudi men in their early 20s flew in a Lear jet from Tampa, Fla., to Lexington, Ky., where they boarded a Boeing 747 with Arabic writing on it waiting to take them out of the country."
- The flight from Tampa to Lexington, first reported October 2001 in the Tampa Tribune, "was one of several flights that Saudi Arabian citizens took in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001 when the rest of the country was prohibited from flying.""
- "Many of the Saudis were members of the Saudi royal family or the bin Laden family."
- The New York Times "reported that bin Laden family members were driven or flown under FBI supervision to a secret meeting in Texas and then to Washington, from where they left the country when airports were allowed to open Sept. 14, 2001."