Post 9/11 Saudi flight q

Factual Questions
1

Ok, before I start read this ------> Please don’t hijack this thread. I’m asking for a factual answer to explain conflicting reports from the media.
In Farenheit 9/11 Moore shows a pan across the 9/13/01 flight list. Down an entire column labeled Departure Date (I think that was the correct title): 9/13/01.

This Washington Post article (dated today) says that the flight was 8 days later.

Even stranger, this AP article (less than an hour old) states:

And all of this while Clarke has already claimed responsibility for authorizing the flights.
My questions are:

  1. The flights happened, right?
  2. If they did, when did they happen?
  3. If they did, why is the 9/11 Comission saying they didn’t?
    And 4) Why would the 9/11 Comission say it didn’t happen at all when Clarke has claimed to have been the one that authorized the flight.
    I may have missed something along the way, so could someone please let me know what the heck happened and why there are so many versions of what happened from several credible sources?
2

They flew within the country during the lockdown, but did not leave the US until general travel had resumed. http://www.snopes.com/rumors/flight.htm

3

This article gives some info about the LearJet flights between Tampa FL and Lexington KY and seems to indicate (if I’m reading it right) that the flight with the Saudis left Lexington for London on the 13th.

4

Ok, that helps explains some of my question.

Also, I remember seeing not too long ago (maybe AP written? or was it in F/911?) that the White House had been strongly denying the flights had happened until a year or so ago.

Why?

(If this isn’t true and I got the info from the Witchitaw Penny Press or some other less than NYTimesworthy writing please ignore that question)

5

From Moore’s list of Fahrenheit 9/11 facts:

FAHRENHEIT 9/11: “At least six private jets and nearly two dozen commercial planes carried the Saudis and the bin Ladens out of the U.S. after September 13th. In all, 142 Saudis, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to leave the country.”

NOTE: It should be noted that even though the film does not make the allegation, strong evidence has recently come to light that at least one private plane flew to pick up Saudi nationals while private flights were still grounded. Moreover, for nearly three years, the White House has denied that this flight existed. This was reported in the June 9, 2004 St. Petersburg Times article cited below.

  • After the airspace reopened, six chartered flights with 142 people, mostly Saudi Arabian nationals, departed from the United States between September 14 and 24. One flight, the so-called Bin Ladin flight, departed the United States on September 20 with 26 passengers, most of them relatives of Usama Bin Ladin.
    National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Threats and Responses in 2001, Staff Statement No. 10, The Saudi Flights, p. 12;
    http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing10/staff_statement_10.pdf

  • It should be noted that the US Customs and Border Protection document released by the Department of Homeland Security under the FOIA, Feb 24, 2004 lists 162 Saudi Nationals who flew out of the country between 9/11/2001 and 9/15/2001, departing from New York’s Kennedy airport, Washington’s Dulles, and Dallas Fort Worth.
    http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/2004/homelandsecurity.pdf

  • For an official list of Saudi Passport holders (names redacted) who flew out of the country between 9.11.2001 – 9.15.2001, see US Customs and Border Protection document released by the Department of Homeland Security under the FOIA, Feb 24, 2004;
    http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/2004/homelandsecurity.pdf

  • The St. Petersburg Times reported on Jun 9, 2004:

o "Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, with most of the nation’s air traffic still grounded, a small jet landed at Tampa International Airport, picked up three young Saudi men and left. The men, one of them thought to be a member of the Saudi royal family, were accompanied by a former FBI agent and a former Tampa police officer on the flight to Lexington, Ky. The Saudis then took another flight out of the country.”

o Moreover: “For nearly three years, White House, aviation and law enforcement officials have insisted the flight never took place and have denied published reports and widespread Internet speculation about its purpose… The terrorism panel, better known as the 9/11 Commission, said in April that it knew of six chartered flights with 142 people aboard, mostly Saudis, that left the United States between Sept. 14 and 24, 2001. But it has said nothing about the Tampa flight… The 9/11 Commission, which has said the flights out of the United States were handled appropriately by the FBI, appears concerned with the handling of the Tampa flight.

o "Most of the aircraft allowed to fly in U.S. airspace on Sept. 13 were empty airliners being ferried from the airports where they made quick landings on Sept. 11. The reopening of the airspace included paid charter flights, but not private, nonrevenue flights.” Jean Heller, “TIA now verifies flight of Saudis; The government has long denied that two days after the 9/11 attacks, the three were allowed to fly.” St. Petersburg Times, June 9, 2004