The Great Escape : How did assorted bin Ladens get out of America after September 11?

National Review, Sept 29, 2003 by Byron York

Vanity Fair quotes Nail al-Jubeir, the Saudi director of information, as saying that the Saudi flights were approved "at the highest level of the U.S. government" -- just as Clarke said. So far, however, those highest levels are saying very little. The FBI's account remains the same -- "We didn't clear them to leave the country, we don't have that power," a spokesman tells National Review . As for the State Department, Secretary Colin Powell, when asked about the subject on Meet the Press , said, "I don't know the details of what happened, but my understanding is that there was no sneaking out of the country; that the flights were well known, and it was coordinated within the government." For its part, the White House remains silent.

All of which has led to growing curiosity. "I think people need to know the facts," says Arizona Republican senator Jon Kyl, who chaired the Judiciary subcommittee hearing the day Richard Clarke testified. "It's a perfectly legitimate subject. Clarke very candidly testified that he had run it past the State Department."

The official silence has also led observers to wonder whether there is some information about the bin Laden flights in the 28 blacked-out pages of the House and Senate intelligence committees' September 11 report. Those pages are apparently devoted to Saudi involvement in the terrorist attacks, but it seems they do not cover the Saudi departures. Sen. Kyl has read the material, and while he will not say what is in it -- not even whether it discusses the Saudis -- he says he is "unaware of any information in the intelligence reports that I have read that specifically goes into that."

Finally, the administration's silence on the Saudi question is having one more effect: It is allowing some Democrats to turn the issue into a political football.

The day after he questioned Clarke, Sen. Schumer participated in a news conference with the Senate Democratic leadership. "On September 12th and 13th [2001], hundreds of Saudis were able to take flights home back to Saudi Arabia when no one else could fly," Schumer said. "I couldn't fly. Senator Boxer couldn't fly. Senator Durbin couldn't fly. But relatives of the royal family, including two members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to get on airplanes and go back to Saudi Arabia."

According to all available evidence, that is simply not true. Perhaps Schumer was unaware of the facts; at the hearing the day before, he confessed that he had not even read the Vanity Fair article, relying instead on a summary the magazine had released. In any event, he leveled an incendiary charge based on faulty premises.

Schumer has also written a letter to the president calling for an investigation of the Saudi flights. "For whatever reason, it appears as if these particular Saudis were given a free pass by the U.S. government despite their potential knowledge about 9-11," Schumer wrote. "Allowing approximately 140 Saudi citizens with potential links to the 9-11 attacks to leave the United States without FBI interrogation in the days after September 11th is clearly a glaring investigative failure."