Bob Graham speaking out about 9/11 again. Also 2 archived articles Saudi flights after 9/11

[JDPriestly]

61. Some links.

Why Were Saudi Passengers Flown Out of the Country After 9-11?
by Margie Burns

Is the White House really going to pretend that five skyjackers, including the fervently devout Atta, went to Vegas--separately and together at different times--only to fit in a little gambling? And what about those Saudi Royals who were in Las Vegas on 9/11--and allowed to leave the US?

APRIL 9, 2004--Days after September 11, 2001, with commercial flights grounded throughout the United States, the Bush administration allowed select commercial jets to fly out of the country. Four manifests from these flights have been released by Craig Unger, author of the nonfiction bestseller House of Bush, House of Saud. The passenger lists are posted online.

A September 13 flight from Lexington KY to London carried 15 passengers including eight Saudis; a Las Vegas-to-Switzerland flight the next day carried seven Saudis; a "VIP flight" from New York to Paris on September 22 carried 12 passengers including four Saudis; and another Las Vegas-to-Paris VIP flight on September 24 carried 24 passengers including 11 Saudis. Some individuals who jetted away would have been "persons of interest" in any traditional investigation, and others had round-the-clock knowledge of them.

Former Clinton and Bush counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke was asked about the flights at the April 8 hearing of the 9-11 Commission. Clarke responded that "someone" in the Saudi embassy had requested that some persons be allowed to fly out and that he refused, kicking the request over to the FBI, which permitted them.

more

http://baltimorechronicle.com/040904SaudiCIA.shtml

WASHINGTON - April 4, 2004 -- Posted 07:45 ET -- TomFlocco.com -- A copy of a previously unpublished manifest, obtained late Thursday night and dated September 15, 2001, provides evidence of a private Boeing-727 Saudi flight from Lexington, Kentucky to London. But the names on the manifest raise serious questions about FBI policies and procedures related to witness identification, criminal investigations and obstruction of justice.

Ahmad A. M. Alhazmi, 20, (Saudi passport no. B805019) is listed on the manifest with Prince Sultan bin Fahad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, 19, (Saudi passport no. 406 A), son of Saudi defense minister Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.

The name Alhazmi and its ties to laundered Riggs Bank cashiers checks may become a subject of interest when National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice testifies later this week--especially since young Ahmad Alhazmi has the same last name as Nawaf Alhazmi, one of the terrorists identified as an alleged hijacker of American Airlines flight 77.

http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/ManifestRaisesQues.htm

The Book of Bush (Alterman and Greene) and an article by Craig Unger that I show in my records as published by the LA Times in April 2004 entitled After 9/11: the Saudis Who Slipped Away might be helpful. Unger I believe wrote things for Vanity Fair.

Here is another link. I don't know how reliable it is, but it lists flight numbers.

http://www.911myths.com/index.php/9/11_flight_passenger_numbers

BUT. . . full disclosure:

The 9/11 Commission also expanded on the following points in footnotes to the section of the report quoted above:
During the morning of September 11, the FAA suspended all nonemergency air activity in the national airspace. While the national airspace was closed, decisions to allow aircraft to fly were made by the FAA working with the Department of Defense, Department of State, U.S. Secret Service, and the FBI. The Department of Transportation reopened the national airspace to U.S. carriers effective 11:00 A.M. on September 13, 2001, for flights out of or into airports that had implemented the FAA's new security requirements.

After the airspace reopened, nine chartered flights with 160 people, mostly Saudi nationals, departed from the United States between September 14 and 24. In addition, one Saudi government flight, containing the Saudi deputy defense minister and other members of an official Saudi delegation, departed Newark Airport on September 14. Every airport involved in these Saudi flights was open when the flight departed, and no inappropriate actions were taken to allow those flights to depart.

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/flights.asp

I remember reading an item in a Tampa newspaper in 2004 discussing the flight, but I cannot find a reference to it now. Did a flight occur that was covered up? Or, did the flight occur, but after planes were generally cleared for flight in the US?

I don't know. The research I did in 2004 had me convinced that the flights occurred. I wasn't there, however, so I really don't know for sure.