WaPo: 9/11 Panel Calls for Major Changes

[many a good man]

9/11 Panel Calls for Major Changes

By Dan Eggen and Steve Coll
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 18, 2004; Page A01


Commission investigators have looked in depth at what they earlier labeled the bin Laden flight, a charter plane on which relatives of the al Qaeda leader departed the United States after the attacks, apparently because they feared for their security. As of two months ago, the commission staff had found "no evidence" to contradict the FBI's conclusion that none of the Saudis on the flight had involvement in the attacks or with bin Laden's other terrorist ambitions.

In their initial inquiry, commission staffers were unable to learn who at the White House helped to arrange the bin Laden flight. Eventually, however, the request was passed to counterterrorism coordinator Richard A. Clarke. "Each of the flights we have studied was investigated by the FBI and dealt with in a professional manner" before it was allowed to fly, and none of the planes was permitted to take off before U.S. airspace was reopened to commercial aviation, the commission staff concluded.

The flight with bin Laden relatives departed on Sept. 20 with 26 passengers, including three private security guards. The FBI interviewed 22 of the people on board, asking many of them detailed questions, commission investigators said. FBI agents checked "a variety of databases" for watch lists and other information, found no matches and ultimately concluded that the passengers were of no interest to investigators.

[many a good man]

1. Cherry-picked to debunk F9/11?

I find it interesting that the article would choose to present the panel's earlier findings in a way that would seem to refute MM's presentation in the film.

F9/11 stated that the bin Ladens and Sauds begin flying the day after 9/11 on chartered personal jets. He even shows the flight manifest.

WaPo gives only one date for a flight with bin Ladens: Sept 20. Claim airspace was open to commercial aviation at that time.

Is WaPo willfully omitting facts? The Commission must have found that only private passenger planes flying in the first days after 9/11 contained Saudis. They flew when the ban was lifted on cargo planes, but passenger traffic was still disallowed.

Anybody have any ideas about this?