Im calling bullshit...well snopes is

[Bong30]

Here is a start.....

Flights of Fancy


Claim: Secret flights whisked bin Laden family members and Saudi nationals out of the U.S. immediately after September 11 while a general ban on air travel was still in effect, and before the FBI had any opportunity to question any of the passengers.

Status: False.

Origins: In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America, the Federal Aviation Administration immediately ordered all flights in the United
States grounded, and that ban stayed in effect until September 13. (Even then, for that first day commercial carriers were mostly either completing the interrupted flights of September 11 or repositioning empty aircraft in anticipation of the resumption of full service. New passenger flights did not generally resume until the 14th.) During that two-day period of full lock-down, only the military and specially FAA-authorized flights that delivered life-saving medical necessities were in the air. The enforcement of the empty skies directive was so stringent that even after the United Network for Organ Sharing sought and gained FAA clearance to use charter aircraft on September 12 to effect time-critical deliveries of organs for transplant, one of its flights carrying a human heart was forced to the ground in Bellingham, Washington, 80 miles short of its Seattle destination, by two Navy F/A-18 fighters. (The organ completed its journey after being transferred to a helicopter.)

The claim that bin Laden family members (and other Saudis) were allowed to secretly fly out of the U.S. and back to Saudi Arabia while a government-imposed ban on air travel was in effect, all without any intervention by the FBI, has since been negated by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the "9/11 Commission"). In their final report, the commission noted:
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. To the contrary, every flight we have identified occurred after national airspace reopened.

Second, we found no evidence of political intervention. We found no evidence that anyone at the White House above the level of [National Security Council official] Richard Clarke participated in a decision on the departure of Saudi nationals ... 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.

Third, we believe that the FBI conducted a satisfactory screening of Saudi nationals who left the United State on charter flights. The Saudi government was advised of and agree to the FBI's requirements that passengers be identified and checked against various databases before the flights departed. The 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.

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.
The 9/11 Commission also expanded on the following points in footnotes to the section of the report quoted above:
During the morning of September 11, the FAA suspended all nonemergency air activity in the national airspace. While the national airspace was closed, decisions to allow aircraft to fly were made by the FAA working with the Department of Defense, Department of State, U.S. Secret Service, and the FBI. The Department of Transportation reopened the national airspace to U.S. carriers effective 11:00 A.M. on September 13, 2001, for flights out of or into airports that had implemented the FAA's new security requirements.

After the airspace reopened, nine chartered flights with 160 people, mostly Saudi nationals, departed from the United States between September 14 and 24. In addition, one Saudi government flight, containing the Saudi deputy defense minister and other members of an official Saudi delegation, departed Newark Airport on September 14. Every airport involved in these Saudi flights was open when the flight departed, and no inappropriate actions were taken to allow those flights to depart.

Another particular allegation is that a flight carrying Saudi nationals from Tampa, Florida, to Lexington, Kentucky, was allowed to fly while airspace was closed, with special approval by senior U.S. government officials. On September 13, Tampa police brought three young Saudis they were protecting on an off-duty security detail to the airport so they could get on a plane to Lexington. Tampa police arranged for two more private investigators to provide security on the flight. They boarded a chartered Learjet. The plane took off at 4:37 P.M., after national airspace was open, more than five hours after the Tampa airport had reopened, and after other flights had arrived at and departed from that airport. The three Saudi nationals debarked from the plane and were met by local police. Their private security guards were paid. and the police then escorted the three Saudi passengers to a hotel where they joined relatives already in Lexington. The FBI is alleged to have had no record of the flight and denied that it occurred, hence contributing to the story of a "phantom flight." This is another misunderstanding. The FBI was initially misinformed about how the Saudis got to Lexington by a local police officer in Lexington who did not have firsthand knowledge of the matter. The Bureau subsequently learned about the flight.

These flights were screened by law enforcement officials, primarily the FBI. For example, 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. Screening of this flight was directed by an FBI agent in the Baltimore Field Office who was also a pilot ... The Bin Ladin flight and other flights we examined were screened in accordance with policies set by FBI headquarters and coordinated through working-level interagency processes. Although most of the passengers were not interviewed, 22 of the 26 people on the Bin Ladin flight were interviewed by the FBI. Many were asked detailed questions. None of the passengers stated that they had any recent contact with Usama Bin Ladin or knew anything about terrorist activity.
Last updated: 11 December 2005


The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/rumors/flights.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2006
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
This material may not be reproduced without permission.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources:
Andrews, Bill. "Bin Laden Family's US Exit 'Approved'."
Edinburgh Evening News. 3 September 2003.

Buncombe, Andrew. "Fears of Reprisal Force Bin Laden Family to Flee Homes in US."
The [London] Independent. 26 September 2001 (p. 3).

Cullen, Kevin. "Bin Laden Kin Flown Back to Saudi Arabia."
The Boston Globe. 20 September 2001 (p. A29).

Cullen, Kevin. "Saudi Diplomat: IDs Were Stolen."
The Boston Globe. 29 September 2001 (p. A6).

Hayward, Ed. "Hub Attack on Arab Student Investigated As Hate Crime."
The Boston Herald. 18 September 2001 (p. 28).

Kurz, Hank. "Organ Network Gets Clearance for Charter Flights."
The Associated Press. 13 September 2001.

Lichtblau, Eric. "White House Approved Departure of Saudis After Sept. 11, Ex-Aide Says."
The New York Times. 4 September 2003.

Steele, Kathy. "Phantom Flight from Florida."
Tampa Tribune. 5 October 2001 (p. 1)

Tyler, Patrick E. "Fearing Harm, Bin Laden Kin Fled from U.S."
The New York Times. 30 September 2001 (p. A1).

Associated Press. "FAA Allows Cross-Country Flight of Antivenin to Miami Victim."
13 September 2001.

CBSNews.com. "Returning to the Air."
15 September 2001.


That is false... what else will i find at snopes?

Bong30 Reviewed by Bong30 on 05-03-2006. Im calling bullshit...well snopes is Here is a start..... Flights of Fancy Claim: Secret flights whisked bin Laden family members and Saudi nationals out of the U.S. immediately after September 11 while a general ban on air travel was still in effect, and before the FBI had any opportunity to question any of the passengers. Status: False. Origins: In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America, the Federal Aviation Administration immediately ordered all flights in the United Rating: 5

[Gumby]

if all aircraft was grounded why did all these helicopters fly right over the WTC buildings?? one each time there was an explosion... and one each time they fell...

find out what these were doing there on your snopes thingy...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...61603&q=9%2F11

I'm not trying to say anything or attack you Bong, I've just never found out what/who they were... and why they were there... I was told that no escapes were possible because of the smoke over the towers... but if that's the case and airtraffic was closed, what were they doing there at that time??

[Bong30]

police hlicopter?

snopes said somethng about helicopters...

[xblackdogx]

anything coming from the 9/11 Commission Report is questionable, due to its credibility.
I think we can all say that due to such findings as:
a. not mentioning WTC 7,
b. not mentioning, or investigating to this day the put options- bet that a company's stock is going down- placed on American Airlines and United Airlines stocks (600%, and 200%[?] respectively) a few days prior to Septemeber 11
c. the outrageous "we never thought this would happen" like statements
d. the pentagon whole, and the mysterious damages far from the place of impact
e. with fiber optic cameras located in hundreds of places in the Pentagon, the released footage of the "impact" shot of the "plane" hitting the building is from a terrible quality camera- in addition, cannot even recognize an outline of the plane

therefore all the information you posted is not "fact". let's not spin this: the gov'ts side of the story is not good enough, they should release the logs from the planes arriving from the US to Europe/Middle East during the 2 days after 9/11 (all overseas airports should have to submit the logs to gov't and then release it.

[Gumby]

go to minute 29 of the movie.. and watch for 1 minute...

by the way if you listen at the begining they mention the Sears Tower was closed... that's caues sliverstien has insurace on it as well... and he just re-upped it, so the next terrorist attack... I got money on the Sears Tower ...

[Bong30]

Snopes proved that OBL family wasnt on the plane right after 9-11


i will post snopes ofetn

[Gumby]

snopes wasn't right on the helicopter... you got another source for that one?

[Bong30]

i said
police helicopter?

i said with a question mark i wasnt sure..... if im sure, ill let you know

[Gumby]

I know... that's why I asked if you had another... see you think I'm attacking you... I'm not I'm attacking your source... it was wrong.. that's all... just find one that's not and let me know about that one... that's what debate is... you think one thing and say why (police helicopter - snopes) others disagree (video shows it wasn't) ... you just have to find another reason...

I don't care how many times you are Bong...it's that your wrong a lot without showing why... I undestand why you were wrong here and just want to find another source that isn't wrong... no personal attack... just source attack... and please fell free to attack my sources... that's what debate is..

but it's getting better.. at least you looking now instead of just guessing... keep it up...

ps... the video also talks about your pyroclastic flow... go to minute 108 to hear about it... you should watch the whole thing... but just take 5 minute and watch the two parts I've shown you... atleast just do that... then maybe you may wanna watch more...