Globe: Unasked questions on post 9-11 flight of the Saudis.

[blm]

Unasked questions
The 9/11 commission should ask who authorized the evacuation of Saudi nationals in the days following the attacks

By Craig Unger, 4/11/2004

IN ITS TOUGH QUESTIONING of Richard Clarke and Condoleezza Rice, the 9/11 commission has already shown itself to be more resolute than some skeptics predicted. Many Americans now realize that multiple warnings of an Al Qaeda attack on American soil crossed the desks of Bush administration officials in the months leading up to 9/11. The administration's previously unchallenged narrative has begun to unravel.
 

But when hearings resume on Tuesday, we may learn exactly how tough the commission is prepared to be. This time the stars will be Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert S. Mueller III, among others. When they testify -- especially Mueller -- we will see whether or not the commission has the stomach to address what may be the single most egregious security lapse related to the attacks: the evacuation of approximately 140 Saudis just two days after 9/11.

This episode raises particularly sensitive questions for the administration. Never before in history has a president of the United States had such a close relationship with another foreign power as President Bush and his father have had with the Saudi royal family, the House of Saud. I have traced more than $1.4 billion in investments and contracts that went from the House of Saud over the past 20 years to companies in which the Bushes and their allies have had prominent positions -- Harken Energy, Halliburton, and the Carlyle Group among them. Is it possible that President Bush himself played a role in authorizing the evacuation of the Saudis after 9/11? What did he know and when did he know it?

Let's go back to Sept. 13, 2001, and look at several scenes that were taking place simultaneously. Three thousand people had just been killed. The toxic rubble of the World Trade Center was still ablaze. American airspace was locked down. Not even Bill Clinton and Al Gore, who were out of the country, were allowed to fly home. And a plane bearing a replacement heart for a desperately ill Seattle man was forced down short of its destination by military aircraft. Not since the days of the Wright Brothers had American skies been so empty.
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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/04/11/unasked_questions/

[opihimoimoi]

1. Who authorized the FLIGHTS???? lets see the question asked.

Prolly not.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Here's a thought.

Could these actions be a result of blackmail? Do the Bush Family relationships with the Sauds constitute a national security risk for this country?

I'll say this is a sensitive issue, but justice and truth for the 3,000 Americans who died at the hands of 15 Saudi terrorists demand the question to be asked.

[blm]

4. I agree. I always thought Hussein had blackmail material

against the Bushes, too. We'll see.

[Octafish]

3. Bush bailed out Ambassador/Prince Bandar.

Such love between the Houses of Bush and bin Laden, I mean, Saud.