On October 5, 2001, the Tampa Tribune published a short article regarding a flight that “the federal government says…never took place.” The flight left Tampa at 4:37 p.m. on September 13, 2001, two days after the 9/11 attacks. On board were three young Saudis (some FBI documents say four) that probably included the son of Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, now Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. In a chartered eight-passenger Learjet the youths left for Lexington, Kentucky, where they were met by security and escorted to a hotel to join relatives awaiting departure. The entire group of fifteen Saudis chartered a luxury Boeing 727 and left the United States on September 16.

The Tampa flight was one of several that consolidated and then transported Saudis out of the country between September 13 and 24. The numbers generally reported are 142 Saudis on six international charter flights; the 9/11 Commission reported 160 passengers—“mostly Saudi nationals”— on nine flights. An additional Saudi government flight left from Newark on September 14 with the deputy defense minister and other Saudi officials. The exodus was organized by Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, who expedited the departure of two extended families: the royal family of Saudi Arabia and the bin Ladens. The latter are close to the royal family and owners of a multi-billion-dollar construction conglomerate known as the Saudi Binladin Group. A total of about twenty-four members of the bin Laden family departed on the flights. The specific charter referred to as the “bin Laden flight,” because many of the passengers were Osama bin Laden’s relatives, left the United States on September 19 with twenty-eight passengers. The flight originated in St. Louis and then picked up Saudis in Los Angeles, Orlando, Washington, DC, and Boston before leaving the country.

According to US Customs and Border Protection records acquired by Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation that “promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government,” an additional 160 Saudi nationals left the United States after the 9/11 attacks on some fifty commercial flights from twenty cities. This apparently occurred without FBI checks of the passenger manifests against terrorist watch lists.

On September 13, the same day as the Tampa flight, the ambassador Prince Bandar visited the White House and had a conversation with President Bush. They met on the Truman Balcony; Vice President Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Bandar’s aide Rihab Massoud were also present. The timing of the meeting suggests that the evacuation of Saudis may have been discussed, but this is unverifiable and has been denied by the White House. The Saudi embassy comments only that the flights were approved by “the highest level of the US government.” The meeting between Bandar and Bush had been arranged prior to 9/11 to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, but that agenda was preempted by the attacks. Bandar is an old and close friend of the Bush family, and his relations with the President on September 13—an embrace as greeting, cigars on the balcony—suggest a mood of conciliation and solidarity. For the two days following the attacks, Bandar was also in close contact with the FBI, Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The empty Tampa Airport on an early morning. Photo courtesy of Flickr/swbuehler.

Exposing the Flights

The White House’s authorization of the Saudi evacuation was revealed in 2003 by a major article in Vanity Fair and one anticipating it in the New York Times. Richard Clarke, who in 2001 was head of the Counterterrorism Security Group of the National Security Council and also leader of the White House crisis team responding to the 9/11 attacks, acknowledged that he had authorized the departure of the Saudi flights. (In the Vanity Fair article, where he is quoted, he actually uses the singular, “an airplane filled with Saudis.”). The 9/11 Commission staff concurs: the original contact remains unidentified, but “the request came to the attention of Richard Clarke.” The Commission further noted that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was aware of the Saudi request, and Colin Powell publicly acknowledged government involvement during a Meet the Press interview. The President and Vice President, for their parts, were not under oath when they explained to the Commission that they had learned of the Saudi flights through the media.

The Saudi flights became an ongoing concern for the White House and the FBI following the publication of Craig Unger’s “Saving the Saudis” in the October, 2003 Vanity Fair. The article prompted inquiries from Senators (notably Dianne Feinstein), and Representative Henry Waxman requested an explanation from Attorney General John Ashcroft. The FBI compiled a rebuttal to the Vanity Fair article, and its final version was made available after presentation (as stated in an FBI email) “to the White House for possible review by the President.” A heavily redacted copy and related documents were reluctantly released to the public after Judicial Watch litigation, in 2005.

Another detail that emerged years after the flights, in July, 2004, suggests that the White House may have been directly involved in the evacuation of the Saudis. The bin Laden flight left the United States on a chartered aircraft that is also frequently chartered (and perhaps leased) by the White House. This particular Boeing 727, with the tail number N521DB, is operated by Ryan International and used by the White House to transport the press corps that accompanies the President and Vice President.

The flight manifest that identified the bin Ladens’ aircraft was acquired from Logan Airport authorities by Senators Frank Lautenberg and Chuck Schumer. Senator Schumer had previously requested the flight manifest from the FBI; the request was denied. The use of the same aircraft by the White House and the bin Ladens suggests that the White House facilitated arrangements that were made by or through the Saudi embassy. One of the declassified FBI documents states that “the plane was chartered either by the Saudi Arabian royalty [sic] family or Osama Bin Laden” or, in another document, “by the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, DC.”

FBI Involvement

The White House’s role in the evacuation remains unverifiable, but the FBI’s direct involvement is well documented. After the 9/11 attacks many Saudis, concerned about their safety, sought protection and expeditious departure. In October, 2001, Bandar explained to CNN that his government feared reprisals against innocent Saudis, so in “coordination with the FBI, we got them all out.” The FBI denied any preferential treatment of Saudis or participation in the exodus—“I can say unequivocally that the FBI had no role in facilitating these flights one way or another,” a spokesman said—but all indications are to the contrary. A New York Times article published shortly after the attacks, on September 30, gave early indication that the FBI supervised the transport of Saudis, and the 9/11 Commission later concurred. Ron Ryan of Ryan International, from whom the bin Laden flight was chartered, said “the FBI and Secret Service were heavily involved.” And internal FBI documents repeatedly mention FBI escort of passengers to their flights: “[Redacted] was escorted by FBI LA to a charter terminal at LAX”; “[Redacted] was escorted by FBI TP to the airport in Orlando, FL.”