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 allegations are made in the upcoming edition of Vanity Fair, and has been picked up by the New York Times. Sen. Schumer (the gods bless his soul) has already jumped on the revelations demanding an investigation.
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.
The disclosure came just weeks after the classified part of a Congressional report on the Sept. 11 attacks suggested that Saudi Arabia had financial links to the hijackers, and Mr. Clarke's comments are likely to fuel accusations that the United States has gone soft on the Saudis because of diplomatic concerns.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, seized on Mr. Clarke's comments to call on the White House to conduct an investigation into the hasty departures of about 140 Saudis from the United States in the days after the attacks.
Basically, the FBI was told to keep their hands off several Saudis, including the bin Ladens who were in the US. Here's an excerpt:
Officials told to 'back off' on Saudis before September 11
Greg Palast and David Pallister Wednesday November 7, 2001 The Guardian
FBI and military intelligence officials in Washington say they were prevented for political reasons from carrying out full investigations into members of the Bin Laden family in the US before the terrorist attacks of September 11.
US intelligence agencies have come under criticism for their wholesale failure to predict the catastrophe at the World Trade Centre. But some are complaining that their hands were tied.
FBI documents shown on BBC Newsnight last night and obtained by the Guardian show that they had earlier sought to investigate two of Osama bin Laden's relatives in Washington and a Muslim organisation, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), with which they were linked.
The FBI file, marked Secret and coded 199, which means a case involving national security, records that Abdullah bin Laden, who lived in Washington, had originally had a file opened on him "because of his relationship with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth - a suspected terrorist organisation".
Michael Moore has been working on a movie on the Bush/Saudi connection, with an ETA of September 2004. But aside from that, this story got no attention from the so-called "journalists" that infect our nation's newsrooms. So a close Bush/Saudi connection would be news to a lot of Americans, I'd be willing to wager...for evidence of this, mention these facts to your next door neighbor:
James Baker III is legal counsel to the bin Laden family. The Carlyle Group (staffed by Reagan/Bush people, even G Bush 41 was employed by them) are consultants to the bin Ladens. High level Saudis fund terror groups. Bush's White House has impeded a full investigation regarding 9/11, and blacked out the section dealing with the Saudis on grounds of national security. Bush hasn't mentioned Osama's name in public for months.
Just mention that bin Laden was trained and funded by the CIA throughout the 80s and you will get raised eyebrows, at best.
That "not news" proves fundamental conflict of interest (at a bare minimum), which I'm sure the American people would be interested to hear about. The poor creatures are so confused they blame Saddam for 9/11.
Who's behind that little misconception?
The official 9/11 story is full of gaping holes, unexamined by the media.
Start with the timeline, look at the put orders on United and American, look at the secret bin Laden evacuation. Look at Cheney asking Daschle to limit his investigation. Continue with Rumsfeld's admonition "sweep it all up, go massive. Things related and not". Look at those black lines in the congressional report. Look at what we've done in response (Iraq, Patriot Act, & wedge politics at it's ugliest)
If this is not news, what is???? Kobe??? Scott Peterson???
