Reply #4: Salient facts form the 911 timeline. [View All]

[Hoping4Change]

Some commercial flights begin resuming on Sept 13.

However, all private flights are still banned from flying.

Nonetheless, some private flights do take place, carrying Saudi royalty and bin Laden family to transit points so they can leave the country.

These flights take place even as fighters escort down three other private planes attempting to fly...New York Times, 9/30/01, Vanity Fair, 10/03]

One of the flights is a Lear Jet that leaves from a private Raytheon hangar in Tampa, Florida (see also September 25, 2001) and takes three Saudis to Lexington, Kentucky.

Prince Bandar...pushes for the flights...Vanity Fair, 10/03, CBC, 10/29/03 (D)]

For two years, a violation of the air ban is denied by the FAA, FBI, and White House, and decried as an urban legend except for one article detailing them in a Tampa newspaper (Tampa Tribune, 10/5/01).

Finally in 2003, Richard Clarke, National Security Council Chief of Counterterrorism confirms the existence of these flights, and Secretary of State Powell confirms them as well.

The White House is still silent on the matter. The Saudis are evacuated to Saudi Arabia over the next several days (see September 14-19, 2001).


See Paul Thompson's 911 Timeline for more details and quotes from FBI
agents that thorough interviews were not done.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline_saudis,_bush&startpos=50