"Out, out, damn spot!!!"
Two Democratic House members from South Florida, Peter Deutsch and Robert Wexler, are calling for an investigation into how Bush administration officials allowed about 140 Saudi nationals to leave the country in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/6799277.htm
Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2003
WASHINGTON, D.C.
National Briefs
Deutsch, Wexler seek probe into Saudi flights
From Herald staff and wire services
Two Democratic House members from South Florida, Peter
Deutsch and Robert Wexler, are calling for an
investigation into how Bush administration officials
allowed about 140 Saudi nationals to leave the country
in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks.
At a time when all private aviation was grounded, top
officials allowed charter flights to pick up Saudis
around the country and then leave for Saudi Arabia,
according to reports in Vanity Fair and The Tampa
Tribune.
The group included some members of the royal family
and some relatives of Osama bin Laden. The departures
occurred as investigators learned that 15 of the 19
hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were from Saudi
Arabia, and some Saudi officials said they feared a
backlash against their citizens.
Deutsch and Wexler requested the General Accounting
Office to launch a formal investigation of the
incident.
''It is unconscionable that the Bush administration
would bypass long-standing national security measures
by urging the Saudis to repatriate 140 nationals the
day after the largest attack in U.S. history,'' Wexler
said.
Posted by richard at September 19, 2003 03:09 PM