Quote:And then one night in November 2001, as I lay in bed, half asleep, reading an article in The New Yorker by investigative journalist Jane Mayer, I stumbled across a paragraph that made me sit up and read it again, because I couldn't believe what it said. It read, "Around two dozen other American-based members of the bin Laden family, most of them here to study in colleges and prep schools, were said to be in the United States at the time of the attacks. The New York Times reported that they were quickly called together by officials from the Saudi Embassy, which feared that they might become the victims of American reprisals. With approval from the FBI, according to a Saudi official, the bin Ladens flew by private jet from Los Angeles to Orlando, then on to Washington, and finally to Boston. Once the FAA permitted overseas flights, the jet flew to Europe. United States officials apparently needed little persuasion from the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, that the extended bin Laden family included no material witnesses."

What? How had I missed this story in the news? I got up and went back through the New York Times, and there I found this headline: fearing harm, bin laden kin fled from u.s. The story began, "In the first days after the terror attacks on New York and Washington, Saudi Arabia supervised the urgent evacuation of twenty-four members of Osama bin Laden's extended family from the United States."

So, with the approval of the FBI and the help of the Saudi government -- and even though fifteen of the nineteen hijackers had been Saudi citizens -- the relatives of the number-one suspect in the terror attacks were allowed not only to just up and leave the country, but they were assisted by our own authorities! According to the Times of London, "the departure of so many Saudis worried U.S. investigators, who feared that some might have information about the hijackings. FBI agents insisted on checking passports, including the royal family's."

That's all the FBI could do? Check some passports, ask a few brief questions, like "Did you pack your own bags?" and "Have your bags been in your possession since you packed them?" Then, these potential material witnesses were sent off with a bon voyage and a kiss goodbye. As Jane Mayer wrote in The New Yorker, "When I asked a senior United States intelligence officer whether anyone had considered detaining members of the family, he replied, 'That's called taking hostages. We don't do that.' "

GonzoStyle Wrote:The FBI has repeatedly stated that they never got to interview them, wanna site a source to back up your statement?

Quote:Moreover, the report states the Saudi flights were screened by the FBI, and 22 of the 26 people on the bin Laden flight were interviewed. None had any links to terrorism. (emphasis mine)

Quote:[A plane flies overhead before landing.]

[Scenes of stranded travelers in airports.]

MOORE (VO): In the days following September 11, all commercial and private airline traffic was grounded.

[An airport flight monitor listing all planes as cancelled.]

[A lot of planes parked on the ground.]

MALE SPOKESMAN: The FAA has taken the action to close all the airports in the United States.

[Bush I and Barbara enter a dark car.]

MALE NEWSMAN (VO): Even grounding the President’s father, former President Bush, on a flight forced to land in Milwaukee.

[More stranded travelers.]

MALE NEWSMAN (VO): Thousands of travelers were stranded. [Ricky Martin.] Among them, Ricky Martin, due to appear at tonight’s Latin Grammy awards.

MOORE (VO): Not even Ricky Martin could fly. But really, who wanted to fly? [A dog walked by the police in an airport terminal.] No one. [Osama bin Laden.] Except the bin Ladens.

[A large plane takes off, apparently dodging missiles(???).]

SONG: We gotta get out of this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do…

SEN. BYRON DORGAN (D-ND), Senate Subcommittee on Aviation: We had some airplanes authorized at the highest levels of our government to fly to pick up Osama bin Laden’s family members and others from Saudi Arabia and transport them out of this country.

[New York Times headline: White House Approved Departure of Saudis After Sept. 11]

MOORE (VO): It turns out that the White House approved planes to pick up the bin Ladens and numerous other Saudis. [Listing of flights to Saudi Arabia.] At least six private jets and nearly two dozen commercial planes [Close Up: “SAUDIA ARABIA”] carried the Saudis and the bin Ladens out of the US after September 13th. [CU: Scan down long list of flights, focusing on the 9/13 date.] In all, 142 Saudis, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to leave the country.

[Osama bin Laden.]

CRAIG UNGER, Author, House of Bush, House of Saud: Osama’s always been portrayed as the bad apple, the black sheep of the family and that they’ve cut off all relationships with him around 1994. In fact, things are much more complicated than that.

MOORE (OS): You mean Osama has had contact with other family members?

[Osama bin Laden.]

UNGER: That’s right. In the summer of 2001 right before 9/11 one of Osama’s sons got married in Afghanistan and several family members showed up at the wedding.

MOORE (OS): bin Ladens.

UNGER: That’s right. So they’ve not cut off completely. That’s really an exaggeration.

LARRY KING: We now welcome to Larry King Live — good to see him again — Prince Bandar, the ambassador of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States.

PRINCE BANDAR: … We had about 24 members of bin Laden’s family. And, uh — in America. Students, and — And His Majesty thought it’s not fair for these innocent people to be subjected to any harm. On the other hand, we understood you had the high emotions. So, with the cooperation of the FBI, we got them all out.

[Jack Cloonan.]

MOORE (VO): This is retired FBI agent Jack Cloonan. Before 9/11, he was a senior agent on the joint FBI-CIA Al-Qaeda task force.

CLOONAN: Yes, an investigator would not want these people to have left. … I think in the case of the bin Laden family I think it would have been prudent: hand the subpoenas out, have them come in, get on the record. Get on the record.

MOORE (OS): That’s the proper procedure.

CLOONAN: Yeah. [FBI pushing someone into a car.] How many people were pulled by the airlines after that coming into the country who were what, coming from the Middle East or they fit a very general picture.

MOORE (OS): We held hundreds of…

CLOONAN: We have held hundreds…

MOORE (OS): …for weeks and months at a time.

[Craig Unger.]

MOORE (OS): Did we do anything when the bin Ladens tried to leave the country?

UNGER: No, they were identified at the airport. They were—they look at their passports and they were identified.

MOORE (OS): Well, that’s what would happen to you or I if we were leaving the country.

UNGER: Exactly. Exactly.

MOORE (OS): A little interview, check the passport, what else?

UNGER: Nothing.

Quote:LEHANE: Yes. And I have great respect for Michael. He is a wonderful reporter.

But I think, if you carefully look at the words that were employed and the facts that are employed in this movie on that particular portion that he is talking about, you will find that it‘s very, very hard to question it. First of all, we do not say that flights took off when federal airspace was closed.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Viewers don‘t look at a transcript, though, Chris. You know that. They are left with an impression by looking at images.

LEHANE: Yes, but we are very, very careful. We make very clear that the flights didn‘t take off until after September 13, which is when federal airspace was opened.

And the Saudis that Michael is talking about, there were 140 Saudis on those flights, 142. Only 30 of them were interviewed in a way that was completely inconsistent with usual FBI and Justice Department protocol. In fact, even in the 9/11 Commission report that Michael is referring to, it raises some issues about the length of those interviews and the fact that the vast majority of folks who left the country after this terrible tragedy were not interviewed.

There‘s an FBI agent in the movie who personally talks about the fact that this was not consistent with the practices that should have been employed.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: OK, Chris.

Michael, respond.

ISIKOFF: Well, Joe, I think the point you were saying, that the clear impression of the movie is a little different than some of the particular words that sort of slip by very quickly.

For instance, an example, Chris says that they never say that it was when federal airspace was shut down. They say it happened after September 13. But it doesn‘t say in the movie, at least not in any transcript I have seen or what I heard when I saw the movie, that that‘s when federal airspace was reopened.

LEHANE: But that‘s not what you wrote in your piece, Michael.

(CROSSTALK)

LEHANE: In the piece that you wrote in “Newsweek,” you specifically said that Michael Moore‘s movie stated that flights left while federal airspace was closed. The movie does not state that. Your piece was wrong on that.

(CROSSTALK)

ISIKOFF: Does the movie say that it—explicitly say that when federal airspace was reopened? Does it say that?

LEHANE: Did your story specifically state that the movie did state that? Is that what your story said?

(CROSSTALK)

LEHANE: This is important, because you wrote this specifically in your piece. And, as I said, you‘re an awesome reporter, but you had that one wrong.

Galt Wrote:For someone who's not a Bush apologist, Isakoff sure had some really not nice things to say about Moore's movie.