One of the central themes when watching F911 was that Bush "highest levels of white house" let the Saudis leave while all flights were grounded (in an attempt to add emphassis F911 even mentioned that former president Bush's flight was grounded) as a political favor. I have seen moore deny this on his website, but viewing the film leaves no doubt as to what the intended message was. And that message was an outright lie.
So to put an end to it here is what the 911 report has to say:
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/US/resources/9.11.report/911Report_Ch10.pdfFlights of Saudi Nationals Leaving the United States
Three questions have arisen with respect to the departure of Saudi
nationals from the United States in the immediate aftermath of 9/11:
(1) Did any flights of Saudi nationals take place before national airspace
reopened on September 13, 2001? (2) Was there any political intervention
to facilitate the departure of Saudi nationals? (3) Did the FBI
screen Saudi nationals thoroughly before their departure?
First, we found no evidence that any flights of Saudi nationals,
domestic or international, took place before the reopening of national
airspace on the morning of September 13, 2001.24 To the contrary,
every flight we have identified occurred after national airspace
reopened.25
Second, we found no evidence of political intervention.We found
no evidence that anyone at the White House above the level of Richard
Clarke participated in a decision on the departure of Saudi nationals.
The issue came up in one of the many video teleconferences of the
interagency group Clarke chaired, and Clarke said he approved of how
the FBI was dealing with the matter when it came up for interagency
discussion at his level. Clarke told us,“I asked the FBI, Dale Watson . . .
to handle that, to check to see if that was all right with them, to see if
they wanted access to any of these people, and to get back to me.And
if they had no objections, it would be fine with me.” Clarke added,“I
have no recollection of clearing it with anybody at the White
House.”26
Although White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card remembered
someone telling him about the Saudi request shortly after 9/11, he said
he had not talked to the Saudis and did not ask anyone to do anything
about it.The President and Vice President told us they were not aware
of the issue at all until it surfaced much later in the media. None of the
officials we interviewed recalled any intervention or direction on this
matter from any political appointee.27
Third,we believe that the FBI conducted a satisfactory screening of
Saudi nationals who left the United States on charter flights.28 The
Saudi government was advised of and agreed to the FBI’s requirements
that passengers be identified and checked against various databases
before the flights departed.29The Federal Aviation Administration representative
working in the FBI operations center made sure that the
FBI was aware of the flights of Saudi nationals and was able to screen
the passengers before they were allowed to depart.30
The FBI interviewed all persons of interest on these flights prior to
their departures.They concluded that none of the passengers was connected
to the 9/11 attacks and have since found no evidence to change
that conclusion. Our own independent review of the Saudi nationals
involved confirms that no one with known links to terrorism departed
on these flights.31
Comments?
