The latest development in the effort by Judicial Watch to determine what transpired in the events surrounding the evacuation of Saudi subjects following 9/11 is a court order directing the FBI to "... submit 'proper disclosures' to the Court and Judicial Watch by December 15, 2006." In the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks scores of Saudi subjects, apparently including members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to leave the country while all air traffic was supposedly grounded. Richard Clarke has said that he approved the flights after the FBI assured him that the evacuees were not involved in the terrorist acts. It later became clear that the assurances of the FBI could not be validated. It is still not clear who was secretly transported out of the country, and who organized the effort along with dubious assertions communicated to Mr. Clark.
Judicial Watch originally filed a FOIA request October 8, 2003 seeking documents relating to the decisions, flight information, U.S. intelligence communications and lists of passengers on the flights. When the request was denied, Judicial Watch filed a complaint (pdf file) in the D.C. District Court for Injunctive Relief. In March 2005 the FBI produced 171 pages of highly redacted documents (Large pdf File), concerning the "Saudis House of Saud and Bin Laden family members leaving US after 9/11/01."
In the "The bin Ladens’ Great Escape" article published in The National Review, Byron York said:
... At the time, the massive 9/11 investigation was just beginning. The government had begun detaining hundreds of people who were held for days, weeks, or months while U.S. agents performed extensive background checks and interviews. In addition, the government announced its intention to question thousands of men from Muslim countries who might simply have known something of interest to the investigation ...
... While FBI agents looked into bin Laden family members in the Boston area immediately after September 11, it appears that the agents' first chance to interview them — or other family members who lived elsewhere in the country — came on the day they left the U.S. Each family member was given the all-clear on the basis of a single, day-of-departure interview — conducted, in Bill Carter's words, "at the airport, as they were about to leave..."
... It's hard to reconstruct precisely how the departures were arranged. The only public statement the Saudis have made was in October 2001, when Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., said on CNN, "His Majesty said it's not fair for these innocent people to be subjected to any harm. On the other hand, we understood the high emotions. So with the coordination with the FBI, we got them all out." Otherwise, officials at the Saudi embassy in Washington decline to comment.
When NR called an official at Logan Airport, he said, "You have to talk to the State Department. They're the ones who set it up." But a State Department source said the department "played no role" in the matter. "This is not something we would have brokered," the source said. "Bandar does not need Foggy Bottom to get a phone call returned by the White House." That seemed a clear hint that the White House was involved, but the White House declined immediate comment, saying it would look into the matter...
According to the article "Saving Bin Ladens", published in The Nation:
"Somebody brought to us for approval the decision to let an airplane filled with Saudis, including members of the bin Laden family, leave the country," the magazine (Vanity Fair) quotes Richard Clarke, who was then a top White House counter-terror official, as saying. "My role was to say that it can't happen until the FBI approves it. And so the FBI was asked -- we had a live connection to the FBI [from a situation room] -- and we asked the FBI to make sure that they were satisfied that everybody getting on that plane was someone ... OK to leave. And they came back and said yes, it was fine with them. ... I asked them if they had any objection to the entire event -- to Saudis leaving the country at a time when aircraft were banned from flying. ..."
Clarke suggests the FBI or State might have come up with the idea, but the magazine (Vanity Fair) -- in an echo of National Review's reporting -- quotes a State official saying, "It did not come out of this place. The likes of Prince Bandar does not need the State Department to get this done..."
... Letting the House of Saud airlift its favorites out of America while the World Trade Centers still smoldered was an offensive and stupid decision. It amounted to, in essence, putting the corrupt Saudi Arabian dictatorship briefly in charge of our FBI. Dale Watson, the FBI's former head of counterterrorism, told Vanity Fair his men had to argue with Prince Bandar to even find out who was on the plane. He says, "They were not subject to serious interviews or interrogations." Why not?
Judicial Watch has been asking "Why not?" but has not gotten answers. That may soon change, as an article on their website says "Judge Orders FBI to Correct Disclosures Concerning Government Evacuation of Saudi Royals and bin Laden Family After 9/11." U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts ordered the FBI to submit "proper disclosures" to the Court and Judicial Watch by December 15, 2006. Judge Roberts said that the redacted documents previously submitted were inadequate and questioned the accuracy of associated sworn statements. Some pertinant quotes from the web article:
... "The FBI’s 220-page annotated production and accompanying...Declaration together do not, as they must, provide sufficient detail or precision about the withheld information...the FBI’s motion for summary judgment will be denied and the FBI will be directed to file disclosures that fairly meet the requirements of [court precedent]," wrote Judge Roberts, noting that one particular FBI exemption argument "strains credulity."
(...)
"We’re pleased the court refuses to allow the FBI to cover its tracks by playing games with the open records process,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The American people have a right to know why Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family received special treatment in the days after 9/11."
It's about time that we found out who the FBI transported out of the U.S. jurisdiction before any investigation, and without interviewing them. We also need to know who was actually behind the "evacuation," and what their motives were. We may be one step closer to those answers.