On today's Meet the Press: Powell ADMITS post-911 Saudi escorts!!

[Jim Sagle]

At http://www.msnbc.com/news/963025.asp?0sl=-10&cp1=1 (but first pointed out by Buzzflash):

MR. RUSSERT: The cover of Time magazine tomorrow, headlined, The Saudis: Whose Side Are They On in the War on Terror? — in this release from Vanity Fair magazine, “Former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke tells Vanity Fair that the Bush administration decided to allow a group of Saudis to fly out of the U.S. just after September 11 — at a time when access to U.S. airspace was still restricted and required special government approval. According to other sources at least four flights with about 140 Saudis, including roughly two dozen members of the bin Laden family, flew to Saudi Arabia that week — without even being interviewed or interrogated by the F.B.I.”

Why was that allowed?

SEC’Y POWELL: Well, I don’t know that that’s accurate. I don’t know the details of what happened. But my understanding is that there was no sneaking out of the country; that the flights were well-known, and it was coordinated within the government. But I don’t have the details about what the FBI’s role in it might or might not have been.

Powell is doing two things here:

1) Knifing w in the gut (and that's a GOOD thing); and

2) Distancing himself from w's crew.

Maybe he sees impeachment coming and wants to sidestep it.

[Mika]

1. Phantom Flight From Florida

Phantom Flight From Florida
By KATHY STEELE [e-mail]
Published: Oct 5, 2001
http://web.archive.org/web/20011108145853/http://www.tampatrib.com/MGA3F78EFSC.html
{This page has been axed, I saved it to disk}

The twin-engine Lear jet streaked into the afternoon sky, leaving Tampa behind but revealing a glimpse of international intrigue in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on America.

The federal government says the flight never took place.

But the two armed bodyguards hired to chaperon their clients out of the state recall the 100-minute trip Sept. 13 quite vividly.

In the end, the son of a Saudi Arabian prince who is the nation's defense minister and the son of a Saudi army commander made it to Kentucky for a waiting 747 and a trip to their homeland.

The hastily arranged flight out of Raytheon Airport Services, a private hangar on the outskirts of Tampa International Airport, was anything but ordinary. It lifted off the tarmac at a time when every private plane in the nation was grounded due to safety concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Local and federal authorities will say little about the flight.

``It's not in our logs ... it didn't occur,'' said Chris White, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration's regional office in Atlanta.

-

In less than two hours, the Lear landed at the Blue Grass airport, where the passengers were met by Saudi security officials, Grossi said. He and Perez saw several private 747s parked on the tarmac with foreign flags on the tails and Arabic lettering on the sides.

[FullCountNotRecount]

7. Didn't New Yorker Mag and Seymour Hersh first report this?

I thought this was in the New Yorker within weeks after the attacks. They probably hate Seymour Hersh because isn't he the one who said the it was false intelligence (LIES) that Saddam was going to assassinate the Bushes on their visit to Kuwait after Bush 1 lost the election.

I never believed that Saddam would assassinate Bush because Bush lost the election while Saddam stayed in power. Everyday Bush woke up after he lost the election, he had to think about this irony. That's my analysis of the psychology even before Hersh said that the attempts on Bush were probably lies.

[bluedog]

20. more from phantom flight

.....For private investigators Dan Grossi and Manuel Perez, the bodyguards on the Lear, it was a trip they can't forget.

A Special Situation Grossi said Tampa police intelligence detectives called him about 11 a.m. Sept. 13, needing help with a special situation: They had been watching three young Saudi men - at least one a student at the University of Tampa - at their south Tampa apartment, and the trio was scared and wanted to go home.

Jim Harf, director of UT's international programs, confirmed one of them is the son of Prince Sultan, the defense minister.

University spokesman Grant Donaldson refused to provide details. Perez said he understood the men arrived in Tampa three weeks earlier to receive tutoring in English.

The Tampa detectives guarding the men were ordered to stay in Tampa by Police Chief Bennie Holder, so Grossi was offered the job of escorting the trio to Lexington, Ky., where the prince's relatives were buying race horses.

Lexington police Lt. Mark Barnard confirmed a Saudi relative had asked for help in getting protection for the men in Tampa. Two off-duty detectives were assigned. Tampa police records list Sultan bin Fahad as the one requesting the security detail.

But Tampa's official assistance ended at Raytheon's airport terminal.

"There was a perceived threat, and the family of the person wanted him home right away," said Tampa police Sgt. John Solomon. "The job lasted about five hours. It was handled very quickly."

*****here we have the names of the bodyguards and the Prince whos kid was on the plane.....why oh why are these men and this reporter not getting this out on the media?????were they threatened or what....I live here in Fl and my son works across the street from the Rayethon airport....and indeed a plane flew out.....when all other air traffic was grounded!!!!

[liberalmuse]

2. It was so well-known...

that Snopes smugly denied it, essentially calling Michael Moore a conspiracy nut.

[ramblin_dave]

3. Now snopes has apologized to Moore

on their web page. But still they don't acknowledge they were entirely wrong.

Given the efforts to hide this episode, Moore got the basic part right and snopes was wrong.

[NNN0LHI]

6. We now need a web site to debunk Snopes lies. Real nice, huh? n/t

[Dudley_DUright]

4. Snopes has now admitted they were wrong

and have issued an apology to Michael Moore. See:

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/flight.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Though it's an improvement,

they still control the content of the response by controlling the questions.

[VolcanoJen]

21. More on the Snopes situation here; thanks, Tom Tomorrow!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=291976

[lazarus]

23. they're still quibbling

and trying to say it wasn't a secret in any case.

If that's true, why were all the websites scrubbed?

[kentuck]

5. He doesn't know the details but he say this :

"there was no sneaking out of the country; that the flights were well-known, and it was coordinated within the government."

If he doesn't know the "details", how does he know it was well-coordinated within the government????

[FullCountNotRecount]

8. If they were so well-known, did the Dem Senate Leader know?

Anyone. Tom? You were in power at the time. How about the FBI oversight?

[Jim Sagle]

9. Tom was busy gibbering, "Please don't anthrax me anymore!"

[NNN0LHI]

12. Probably the same thing I would be saying if I was him. n/t

[Gin]

17. Exactly...sounds like details to me....liars.

gin

[dutchdemocrat]

18. I think

Snopes has to do a little more rearranging on their former anti-Moore page.

What do you think?

[dutchdemocrat]

19. I email him to change the page

Snopes that is.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. The Sec of State

admits on live TV that we allowed members of Osama bin Laden's family to fly out of the US a couple of days after 9-11. When no one else was allowed to fly anywhere.

The bin Ladens were allowed to leave the country without being questioned by the FBI. Excuse me? These are family members of the man who supposedly just killed 3000 Americans. At the least, they were material witnesses. In any murder case, it is standard practice to hold family members for questioning. But for the worst terrorist attack on American soil, our own president allowed material witnesses to leave the country. THAT IS TREASON!

[Old and In the Way]

22. Since we were told on 9/12 that Osama was the architect behind

9/11....why didn't we arrst every bin Laden and hold them as leverage with Osama? I already know the answer, but I think any other Preseident would not have been hamstrung with personal relationships and would have used every tool available to get OBL....inlcuding putting them in a federal pen.

Amazing that we can throw 13 years olds and goat farmers into Gitmo, but real links to terror get escorted out of the country....

[NNN0LHI]

11. Shouldn't we be entitled to know who gave the OK for this?

That is the question that we should be asking right now.

Don

[MGKrebs]

13. The description of that airport sounds familiar...

Wasn't there an airport around there that was found to be training some of the alleged hijackers? And the owner of the facility had a shady background? And the CIA was allegedly running stuff out of there?

I can't remember specifics.

[NNN0LHI]

16. I think it may sound familiar because some 911 hijackers trained there?

http://www.madcowprod.com/index11a.html

[calimary]

14. Uh - the flights were well-known?

Only to us "fringies," they were. It was pretty hush-hush to the rest of America. Hardly anybody knew this stuff.

And I LOVE the - "it was coordinated within the government" part. Well, well, well, Colin.

Nice that it's finally going a little more mainstream. Not too many regular folks read the high-fallutin' "Vanity Fair," I'd suspect. But many more read Time Magazine.


Drip, drip, drip...

[Dude_CalmDown]

24. You can almost hear the Freepers shorting out

But don't worry, the programmers at FAUX will re-wire their little heads and soon all will be back to normal.

[waggawagga]

25. I Saw This Story on Local News a Few Days After 9/11

And am confused about why some purport that this was secret. Raised my eyebrow at the time. But secret?

[linazelle]

26. I disagree...What I see Powell doing is quietly admitting to wrongdoing...

long after the impact of the original deed has weakened. It's the class Bushco approach--a win-win for them. They get to do the crime, and admit to it and still be upheld as honest and forthright for telling "the truth." Most sheeple missed it the first time, and it went over their heads this time as well. No gut punches here or distancing IMHO. Powell only entrenched himself further in the BFEE.

[MrPrax]

27. Hitchens is working for Vanity Fair

He wrote a column about this days after 9/11 called Johnny Walker Blackened when he was at The Nation
He probably tipped them over at Vanity...

Vanity is doing a makeover anyhow...(rev must be down)

Shamelessly promoting the BushCabal and the War and now reversing itself and posing as populists...

The annoying part is that most of these 'revelations' were well-known and 'shouted down' by the warmongers (AND YOU know who your are!!!)

What NEXT:
The shocker that: General Mahmoud Ahmad, head of Pakistani Intelligence and linked to Atta via funding and phonecalls, had breaky with Bob Graham, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee on the morning of 911?

He left quickly having spent most of the week prior to the bombings hanging around