At least 12 members of Osama bin Laden's family currently hold Federal Aviation Administration pilot's licenses that make them eligible to fly aircraft anywhere in the United States, including three who received their licenses just this June, according to an analysis of FAA records provided to ABC News by a computer security firm, Safe Banking Systems.
One of the three who received his FAA licenses this year, Yeslam bin Laden, a half-brother of Osama who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, is named in a civil lawsuit brought by the families of 9/11 victims alleging he helped to finance Osama's al-Qaeda network as it started up in the 1990s in Yemen and the Sudan.
Yeslam disputes the allegations in the lawsuit and, like the entire family, has repudiated Osama. Still, lawyers for the 9/11 families question whether the FAA has done its job.
"Any ties to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda whatsoever, even remote familial ties, require the utmost scrutiny and skepticism," said Don Migliore, an attorney representing 9/11 families.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/high-flying-bin-ladens/story?id=9271855Yet Homeland Security scrutinizes grandmas in peace groups in the U.S., and people who simply are guilty of consuming falafel. Go figure.