Waxman presses for investigation of post-9/11 Bin Laden Airlift

[JackRiddler]

Another big one, goes to the heart of 9/11 questions: The White House in Sept. 2003 admitted that it authorized the Bin Laden airlift in the "no-fly" days after 9/11! How did they know to judge the guilt or innocence of those let go, in advance? Keep in mind how Pakistani taxi drivers were being rounded up wholesale at the exact same time, no appeal to back-channels!

Now Waxman is demanding an investigation!

http://thehill.com/news/021104/waxman.aspx

California Democrat Henry Waxman is calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft to reveal who cleared members of Osama bin Laden’s family and other Saudi citizens to leave the country immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Citing press accounts and congressional testimony on the issue, Waxman says the public “needs reassurance” that the Bush administration conducted an “appropriate investigation” of the Saudis that were allowed to leave.

“If such investigation did not occur, the public deserves to know why,” Waxman said. The lawmaker, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, has been increasingly active in his minority oversight role. A committee aide said Waxman decided to send the letter now “because there was never any satisfactory answer” on the questions that were out there.

Waxman asked for the identity of all Saudi citizens allowed to leave in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, specifically inquiring about Abdullah and Omar bin Laden. In his letter, he argued that bin Laden’s family members may have had both general or specific information on the al Qaeda terrorist network, including the terrorist leader’s whereabouts.

At a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing last year, Richard Clarke, who has headed the National Security Council’s counterterrorism security group, said: “What happened was that shortly after 9-11, when it became clear that most of the terrorists of 9-11 were Saudis, the Saudi government feared that there would be retribution and vigilantism in the United States against Saudis. That seemed to be a reasonable fear.”

[arcane1]

1. dear god, Waxman, stay out of small planes, PLEASE

and maybe hire a trusted security detail while you're at it...

:yourock:

[RBHam]

2. Mr. Waxman, please invest in an automatic car starter...

Also, check your mail VERY carefully.

[farmbo]

3. Want a chuckle...read on...

<snip>

Clarke said this kind of thing is done “all the time,” adding he organized similar flights to help Americans abroad.
.....
“Without going into more in open testimony, let me just say we were aware there were members of the bin Laden family living in the United States, and had they been doing anything wrong we would have known about it. Let me stop there,”
Clarke said.

Waxman argued that Clarke’s testimony at another hearing does not match media accounts in which “both the FBI and the State Department have denied involvement in facilitating flying the Saudi citizens out of the country.”
<snip>

This kind of thing is done ALL THE TIME?!? (Yeah...every time we have a 9/11 we clandestinely transport the perpetrator's family out of the country by first class air when all commercial aviation is grounded.)
:crazy:

Had they been doing anything wrong WE WOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT IT?!? (Yeah...just like those nineteen 9/11 hijackers)
:grr:

What f*%kin' planet is THIS GUY from?

And aren't you glad he's defending us from Terrorism?!

Go Henry Go!

[HootieMcBoob]

4. Finally

Maybe this will catch on like the AWOL thing. I don't think to many regular folks out there are aware of this. The major media hasn't touched it. Go Henry!

[goclark]

5. Yea Waxman!

Thank You For Speaking Out!

I hope that he told Michael Moore that he was doing this-Michael has been pounding this one but no sticky.

How do we give Waxman our support on this?

I also want him to hire his own private security guards because this one is so hot and no one has touched it.

Finally, our representatives have gotten over their laryngitis.

Keep them on the defensive -- this is the real war,to get rid of all of the Neocons!

[RBHam]

6. This is so DAMN important!

Haven't heard it on CNN yet!

[JackRiddler]

7. kick

x

[enki23]

8. wait... it's just a michael moore invention.

remember? the nader-worshipping communist who hates guns, god, and america? yeah. he made it all up.

a year or so passes...
well, maybe he didn't make it all up, but it's wrong.

a while longer...
well, maybe it's not all wrong, but it's mostly wrong.

another interlude...
ok, so maybe he was pretty much right. but he still hates america.

[spanone]

9. Waxman is a rare politician. He seeks the truth. God bless him.

[Snappy]

10. Crime

When a murder has been committed don't the police investigate family members and other people close to the suspect(s)? The FBI were expressly no allowed to interview any bin Laden family members. The bin Ladens were whisked out of the US at the American taxpayers expense. I believe Dubya's family should pay the taxpayers back, don't you?