Why did the Bush Admin. Allow relatives (and their entourages) of Osama bin Laden leave the country after 9/11

Question

Bush admin. allowed relatives (and their entourages) of Osama bin Laden, the man who admitted responsibility for the attacks on Sept 11, to leave the country when everyone in the US was not allowed to fly ANY type of aircraft in US airspace. The bin Ladens were removed from the US without being debriefed about Osama Bin Laden by the FBI; Bush,,despite spending trillions of dollars on war on terror still has not caught Osama

Answer 1

GREAT QUESTION, and we STILL do not have answers SIX YEARS LATER.

Immediately after 9/11, the Bush administration flew hundreds of Saudis, including bin Laden family members, out of the country on secret flights. Some of the flights in the U.S. happened during the time when planes were grounded and NO AMERICAN CIVILIAN was allowed to fly.

Most of the Saudis were NEVER QUESTIONED and the ones who WERE questioned were not seriously interrogated.

These were MATERIAL WITNESSES some of whom know OSAMA BIN LADEN personally and others may have been members of AL QAEDA.

To this day we do not know WHO ARRANGED THESE SPECIAL FLIGHTS, though Richard Clarke gave his OK for them when asked by the FBI.

We also do not know the identity of these Saudis who were secretly whisked out of the US, because the Bush administration has refused to release this information.

NOte that the US Customs and Border Protection document at the below link was released by the Department of Homeland Security under the FOIA, Feb 24, 2004.
It lists 162 Saudi Nationals who flew out of the country between 9/11/2001 and 9/15/2001, departing from New York’s Kennedy airport, Washington’s Dulles, and Dallas Fort Worth.

http://www.hillnews.com/news/051804/binladen.aspx
http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/2004/homelandsecurity.pdf
http://www.judicialwatch.org/printer_5139.shtml


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ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Henderson#Richard_Clarke.27s_various_statements_regarding_the_approval_of_the_flights

Richard Clarke's has made conflicting statements regarding the approval of the flights.

Critics point to various statements and testimony by former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, which they contend indicates that Clarke had the initial responsibility which he then passed off to Dale Watson who was the agent in charge of investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks at the FBI.

However, Clarke's statements about the flights and how they were approved have varied over time. The following is a chronological summary:

September 3, 2003: In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Clarke said: "It is true that members of the bin Laden family were among those who left. We knew that at the time. I can't say much more in open session, but it was a conscious decision with complete review at the highest levels of the State Department and the FBI and the White House."
March 24, 2004 [8]: In testimony to the 9/11 Commission, Clarke indicated that the request was not abnormal, "The Saudi embassy, therefore, asked for these people to be evacuated; the same sort of thing that we do all the time in similar crises, evacuating Americans." He goes on to explain that the FBI eventually approved the flights and he describes conversations in which the FBI has said that there was no one who left on those flights who the FBI now wants to interview.
However, under questioning by Commission member Tim Roemer, Clarke appeared to suggest that the White House may have had a role in originating the request for approval: "I would love to be able to tell you who did it, who brought this proposal to me, but I don't know. The two -- since you press me, the two possibilities that are most likely are either the Department of State or the White House Chief of Staff's Office. But I don't know."
May 25, 2004: In an interview with The Hill newspaper, published the following day [9], Clarke said "I take responsibility for it. I don't think it was a mistake, and I’d do it again." He went on to say that "It didn’t get any higher than me... On 9–11, 9–12 and 9–13, many things didn't get any higher than me. I decided it in consultation with the FBI."

Clarke's statements on the matter have been inconsistent, and his statement in March that the "request for approval" may have originated in the White House and may have been an executive decision passed down for approval by inferiors.

Since leaving his White House position, Clarke has become a prominent critic of the Bush administration's so-called "war on terrorism."

Answer 2

This is an illustration of how phony what Americans believe from watching TV really is. For decades, the American taxpayer was forced to keep the Soviet Union afloat. Our politicians would loan them money (our money!), and then write off the debt. Our politicians even gave them the technology to make the tiny ball bearings necessary for MIRV (multiple warheads) missiles. Another political gangster named Richard Nixon made Communist China into the threat it is today, and betrayed our ally, Taiwan at the same time. Our politicians have been giving China most-favored status for decades. Why is this? Ask yourself. And the only conclusion you can come up with is, it is our own politicians who create our enemies. It does not surprise me about Osama's relatives. It does not surprise me that he hasn't been caught. He is more valuable to our politicians where he is.

Answer 3

George Bush senior saw the attacks happen in the company of Bin Laden relatives.
There is a long and tangled history between the Bush family and the elite of Saudi Arabia, including the bin Laden family. It begins in the 1970's in Houston, Texas, when George W. Bush was just starting out in his family's two businesses of politics and oil. The powerful - and very rich - bin Laden family helped fund his first venture into oil. The cozy friendship continued for decades. After a terrorist attack at a barracks in Saudi Arabia which killed 19 Americans, the bin Laden family received a multi-billion dollar contract to re-build. And incredibly, George Bush Sr. was in a business meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington on the morning of September 11th with one of Osama bin Laden's brothers. While serving as governor of Texas, George W. Bush met with high-level Al Qaeda leaders, hoping to get support to build a pipeline across Afghanistan. Four months into his presidency, he rewarded the Taliban by handing over $43 million in May 2001, only four months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

All airlines in the United States were grounded for two days after 9/11. Yet, on September 13, 2001, the White House authorized six Saudi jets to fly bin Laden family members from America to Saudi Arabia. The members of the bin Laden family were never questioned by United States authorities. Judicial Watch called for George Herbert Bush to resign from the Carlyle Group, when it became known that Osama bin Laden was a major investor in the firm. (Judicial Watch, March 5, 2001) After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman said, "This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of President George W Bush's father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11 is horrible. President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group." (Judicial Watch, September 28, 2001)

Answer 4

Please to read the ENTIRE CBS article cited below... but here... where it states very clearly....

"They left the country on a private charter plane when airports reopened three days after the attacks."

Please note the phrase, "WHEN THE AIRPORTS REOPENED."

The relatives were "removed:"

1-at the request of the Saudi Arabian Embassy
2-at the request TO the Embassy by one of Bin Laden's brothers

The FBI was "employed" (used) merely to assist in rounding up the requested relatives, isolate and protect them in Texas and then in Washington DC.

They were not "removed" ... in the sense of being "thrown out." They were "gathered up" by the FBI, which was the only agency which was used to do this. It was NOT the FBI's "job" to debrief them, it was their job to gather them and protect them.

Even the NEW ZEALAND reporters got this story STRAIGHT... and I quote again... please read the entire article cited below:

"The young members of the bin Laden clan were taken under FBI supervision to a secret assembly point in Texas and then flown to Washington, from which they left the United States on a private charter plane when airports reopened three days after the attacks."

Note, again, it says WHEN THE AIRPORTS WERE REOPENED.

Please GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT before blathering out the rest of your tirade!

Have a right-wing day!

Answer 5

Why did the Clinton Administration allow Osama bin Laden's relatives (and their entourages) into the country in the first place?

And why did the Clinton Administration allow bin Laden himself to get away scot-free after the first World Trade Center bombings?

If these events never happened, we wouldn't have this mess now.

Answer 6

For their safety!

(Then again, they could have just roomed at the White House until the FAA reauthorized flights. After all, the Saudis are "our friends.")

Answer 7

Ok...so your brother is a serial killer...you have long before distanced yourself from him...would it be fair for your police force to take you and hold you b/c you are his brother.....

OBL family had nothing to do w/ him....you are probably the same person on here that believes all the conspiracy theories....

like the one above me said....why did clinton allow them here...why didnt clinton capture OBL when he had the chance.....

you are very misinformed my friend...

Answer 8

US funds are still going to Bin Laden through the Saud family. Somebody high up in the U.S. doesn't want him eliminated.

Answer 9

For their safety! Princess Haifa was giving cash to the hijackers, so she had to get out quickly and safely before it became public knowledge.

Answer 10

We wanted Osama, not his brother sisters, cousins and what not, they left for thier safety.