Former terrorism czar Richard Clarke has admitted that he, not President Bush, authorized flights to allow bin Laden family members out of the US. As The Hill notes:
Most of the 26 passengers aboard one flight, which departed from the United States on Sept. 20, 2001, were relatives of Osama bin Laden, whom intelligence officials blamed for the attacks almost immediately after they happened.
Clarke’s claim of responsibility is likely to put an end to a brewing political controversy on Capitol Hill over who approved the controversial flights of members of the Saudi elite at a time when the administration was preparing to detain dozens of Muslim-Americans and people with Muslim backgrounds as material witnesses to the attacks.
I have to agree with Clarke. There’s absolutely no evidence that any of the bin Laden family members were security threats, knew anything about al-Qaeda, or had any complicity in the attacks. The bin Laden family had disowned Osama bin Laden long ago. The bin Ladens could reasonable assume that their lives were in danger in the US, and allowing them to leave was a smart policy choice.
Of course, given that line of crap is one of the major points of Michael Moore’s latest Two Hours Hate, one can be assured that we’ll still hear Bush be blamed for some kind of conspiracy with the Saudis and September 11 ad nauseam…
