T5 B68 Craig Unger Fdr- Media Reports- 1st Pgs for Reference 628

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THE WAR AT HOME

FAMILY FRIENDSPresident Bush and Saudi

ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultanat Bush's ranch in Crawford,

Texas, August 27,2002. Inset, heburning towers on 9/11.

S A Y IN G T H E S A U D ISJust days after 9/11, wealthy Saudi Arabians,including members of the bin Laden family, were wh isked

out of theU.S. onprivate jets. No one will ^admit to clearing th e flights, and the passengers weren't |ljjquestioned. Did the Bush family's long Iff!relationship with th e Saudis help make it happen? I: "

B Y C R A I G U N G E R< " * - > < * * # * m, .

n the morning of Septem-ber 13, 2001, a 49-year-oldprivate eye named DanGrossi got an unexpectedcall f rom the Tampa PoliceDepartment. Grossi hadworked with the Tampaforce fo r 20 years be f o r e r e -

tiring, and it was not particularly unusualfor the police to recommend former offi-cers for special security jobs. But Grossi'snew assignment was very much out of theordinary.

Tw o days earlier, terrorists had hijackedf o u r airliners and carried out the worstatrocity in American history. Fifteen of the19 hijackers had been f rom Saudi Arabia."The police had been giving Saudi students

162 | V A N I T Y F A I R

protection since September 11," Grossi re-calls. "They asked if I was interested in es-corting these students f rom Tampa to Lex-ington, Kentucky."

Grossi was told to go to the airport,where a small charter jet would be avail-able to take him and the Saudis on theirfl ight. He was dubious about the prospectsof accomplishing his task. "Quite f rankly,I knew that everything was grounded," hesays. "I never thought this was going to hap-pen." Even so, Grossi, who'd been asked tobring a colleague, phoned Manuel Perez,a former F.B.I, agent, to put him on alert.Perez was equally unconvinced. "I said,'Forget about it,"' Perez recalls. '"Nobodyis flying today.'"

The two men had good reason to be

skeptical. Within minutes of the attacks on9/11, the Federal Aviation Administrationhad sent out a special notification called aNOTAMa notice to airmenordering everyairborne plane in the United States to landat the nearest airport as soon as possible,and prohibiting planes on the ground fromtaking off. For the next two days, commer-cial and private aviation throughout theentire United States ceased. Former vicepresident Al Gore was stranded in Austriaw h e n h is flight to the U.S. w as canceled. BillClinton postponed travel as well. Maj o r -league baseball games were called off. Forthe first time in a century, American skieswer e nearly as empty as they had been when

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Tom Eld ridgeFrom: Jonathan StullSent: Sunday, June 20, 2004 5:55 PMTo: Tom EldridgeSubject: Michael Moore on the Saudi Flights

Heat Is OnFilmmaker Michael Moore Takes on F actual Challenges toFahrenheit 9/11ABCNEWS.comJune 20, 2004 Michael M oore's controversial new movie, Fahrenheit9/11, opens on screens across the United States on Friday. It'ssure toenrage Bush lovers and rally Bush haters. But can it convince any ofthe unconvinced? This Week anchor George Stephano poulos visitedwith Moore in his hometown of Flint, Mich, to talk about it. M oorebegan the interview, excerpted below, by establishing his motivationfor making the film.STEPHANO POULOS: Random House defines "propaganda" as information, rumors, et cetera, deliberatelyspread widely to help or harm a person, group, movem ent, et cetera. B y that definition, Fahrenheit 911 ispropaganda, isn't it?MOORE: Well, it'san op-ed piece. It'smy opinion about the last four years of the Bush administration. An dthat's what I call it. I'm no t trying to pretend that this is some sort of, you know, fair an d balanced work ofjournalism, eve n though those who use the words "fair an d balanced" often aren't that, butSTEPHANOPOULOS: And your goal is to defeat President Bush.MOORE: I would like to see Mr. Bush removed from the White House.Saudis FlyAwayCritics of the movie charge that Moore's f i lmmaking style is deliberately misleading. Stephanopoulos raised tw oseparate issues about the film's accuracy the first regarding Moore's assert ions about the movement of thebin Laden family in the week following 9/11.STEPH ANO POU LOS: Take the issue of the Sa udi planes. You make a big issue, a big chunk in the fi lm aboutthis issue where a few days after Sept. 11, many members of the Osam a bin Laden family, Saudi nationals,were taken out of the country. It was helped, arranged by the White House. Yo u suggest it was done when theairspace was closed. You sugges t that these people w ere not screened. And you also [suggest] there's a wholesinister subtext there that this was because of the Bush family ties to the bin Laden family. But the 9/11commission report found that they didn't fly until the airspace was open, that they were screened by the FBI. nfactMOORE: That's no t true. That's no t true. And in fact... there's an FBI agent who was on the al Qaeda taskforce who's in my movie, who sa ys quite bluntly, "No , proper police proced ures were not followed."STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, wait. But what wasn't true? Because it says here in the 9/11 commission reportthat these flights didn't take off until after the airspace reopened. That is true, correct?MOO RE: No, they were on charter flights. Once the airspace ope ned for commercial flights, they hadn't openedfor the charter flights. And so the charter flights that picked up the bin Ladens around the country, that went tothe various cities this was all assisted by the White H ouse, which really should be the real focus of this.STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, but Richard Clarke, who's probably a t the top of the White H ouse enemy list, saysthat it was his decision, he takes responsibility for it. He doesn't think it was a mistake.

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W i I i am F Schr-ei bem

questionsThe 9/11 commission should ask who authorized the evacuation of Saudinationals in the days following the attacks|B Y C R A I G U N G E R

IN ITS TOUGH QU ESTION ING of RichardClarke and Condoleezza Rice, the 9/11 commis-sion has alreadyshown itselfto bsjnpre resojutethan some skeptics predicted. Many Americansnow realize that multiple warnings of an Al Qa-eda attack on Am erica n soil crossed the desks ofBush administration officials in the monthslead-ing up to 9/11. The administration's previouslyunchallenged narrative has begun to unravel.

But when hearings resume on Tuesday, wemay learn exactly how tough the commissionis prepared to be. This time the stars will be At-torney General John Ashcroft and FBI directorRobert S. Mueller III, among others. When theytestify-especially Mueller-we will see whetherorno t the commission has the stomach to addresswhat may be the single most egregious securitylapse related to the attacks: the evacuation of ap-proximately 140 Saudis just two days after 9/11.This episode raises particularly sensitivequestions for the adm inistration. Never before in

history has a president ofthe United States hadsuch a close relationship with another foreignpower as President Bush and his father have hadwith the Saridi royalfamily' iHeHousie'df Saud. Ihave traced more than.?:(.4 biiJion in investmentsan d contracts that went from the House of Sauclover the past 20 years to companies in whichthe Bushes and their allies have had prominentpositions -Harken Energy, Halliburton, and theCarlyle Group among them. Is it possible thatPresident Bush himself played a role in authoriz-ing the evacuation of the Saudis after 9/11? W ha tdid he know and when did he know it?

Let's go back to Sept, 13, 2001, and look atseveral scenes that were taking place s imul ta-neously. Three thousand people had just beenkilled. The toxic rubble of the World TradeCenter was still ablaze. American airspacewas locked down. Not even Bill Clinton andAl Gore, who were out o f the country, were al-lowed to fly home. And QUESTIONS, PageD5

Craig Unger , th e former edi tor of Boston Magazine , -i s th e author of "House o f Bush, House ofSaud:The Secre t Relat ionship Between th e World's Two Most Powerful Dynast ies" (Scribner, March 2004).


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Tom EldridgeFrom: articles-email@ms1 .Iga2.nytimes.com on behalf of Christine HealeySent: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 9:12AMTo: Tom EldridgeSubject: NYTimes.com Article: The Great EscapeThe article below from NYTimes.comhas been sent to you by [email protected]@9-llcommission.gov

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An off icial selection of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, THE CLEARING sta rs ROBER TREDFORD and HELEN MIRREN as Wayne and Eileen Hayes - a husband and wife living theAmerican Dream. Together they've raised two children and struggled to build a successfulbusiness from the ground up. But there have been sacrifices along the way. When Wayne iskidnapped by an ordinary man, Arnold Mack (WILLEM DAFOE) , and held for ransom in a remoteforest, the couple's world is turned inside out. Watch the trailer at:http: //www. f oxs ar ch light . com/ he clear ing /index_nyt .html\eGreat Escape

June 1, 2004By CRAIG UNGER

Americans who think the 9/11 commission is going to answerall the crucial questions about the terrorist attacks are likely to be sorely disappointed- especially if they're interested in the secret evacuation of Saudis by plane that beganjust after Sept. 11.We knew that 15 out of 19 hijackers were Saudis. We knewthat Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, was behind 9/11. Yet we didnot conduct a police-style investigation of the departing Saudis, of whom two dozen weremembers, of the bin Laden family. That is not to say that they were complicit in theattacks.Unfortunately, though, we may never know the real story.The investigativ e panel has already concluded that there is"no credible evidence that any chartered flights of Saudi Arabian nationals departed theUnited States before the reopening of national airspace." But the real point is that therewere still some restrictions on American airspace when the Saudi fli ghts began.In addition, new evidence shows that the evacuationinvolved more than the departure of 142 Saudis on sixcharter flights that the commission is investigating.According to newly released documents, 160 Saudis left the United States on 55 fligh tsimmediately after 9/11 - maki ng a total of about 300 people who left with the apparentapproval of the Bush administration, far more than has been reported before. The recordswere releas ed by the Department of Homeland Security in response to a Freedom of

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3. TheGreat Escape - June 1, 2004CRAIG UNGERThe New York TimesAm ericans who think the 9/11 comm ission is going to answer all the crucial questions about theterrorist attacks are likely to be sorely disappointed especially if they're interested in the se cretevacuation of Saudis by plane that began just after Sept. 11.We knew that 15 out of 19 hijackers were Saudis. We knew that Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, wasbehind 9/11. Yet we did not conduct a po lice-style investigation of the departing Saudis, of who mtwo dozen were members, of the bin Laden family. That is not to say that they were complicit inthe attacks.Unfortunately, though, we may never know the real story. The investigative panel has alreadyconcluded that there is "no credible evidence that an y chartered flights of Saudi Arabian nationalsdeparted the United States before the reopening of national airspace." But the real point is thatthere were still some restrictions on Am erican airspace when the Saudi flights began.In addition, new evidence sh ows that the evacuation involved m ore than the de parture of 142Saudis on six charter flights that the com mission is investigating. A ccording to newly releaseddocuments, 160 Saudis left the United States on 55 flights imm ediately after 9/11 making atotal of about 300 people who left with the apparent approval of the Bush adm inistration, far morethan has been reported before. The records were released by the Department of HomelandSecurity in response to a Freedom of Information Act reque st filed by Judicial Watch, aconservative, nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington.The vast m ajority of the newly disclosed flights were com mercial airline flights, not charters, oftencarrying just two or three Saudi passengers. They originated from more than 20 cities, includingChicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit and Houston. One Saudi Arabian Airlines flight left KennedyAirport on Sept. 13 with 46 Saudis. The next day, another Saudi Arabian A irlines flight left with 13Saudis.Th e panel ha s indicated tha t it has yet to find any evidence that the F.B.I, checked the manifestsof departing flights against its terror watch list. The departures of additional Saudis raise morequestions for the panel. Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism czar, told The Hill newspaperrecently that he took full responsibility for a pproving som e flights. But we do n't know if other Bushadministration officials participated in the decision.The passengers should have been questioned about any links to Osama bin Laden, or hisfinancing. We have long kno wn that some faction of the S audi elite h as helped funnel money toIslamist te rrorists inadvertently at least. Prince Ahmed bin Salman, who has been accused ofbeing an intermediary between Al Qaeda and the House of Saud, boarded one of the evacuationplanes in Ke ntucky. Was he interrogated by the F.B.I, before he left?If the comm ission dares to address these issues, it will undoubtedly be accused of politicizing oneof the most important national security investigations in Am erican history in an election year,no less.But if it does not, it risks something far worse the betrayal of the thousands of people who losttheir lives that day, not to mention millions of others who want the truth.Craig Unger is the author of "House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relat ionship Betweenthe World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties."


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4. Elemen ts of Myth Enter Into Post-9/11 Flights by Saudis June 1, 2004ALAN MURRAYThe Wall Street JournalThe secret evacuation of Saudi nationals from the U.S. after the Sept. 11, 2001 , terrorist attackshas achieved grassy-knoll status. Craig Unger, author of "House of Bush; House of Saud," calls it"the single most egregious security lapse related to the attacks." Every Bush hater ca n cite thebasic details: At a time when Americans were grounded, m ore than 140 Saudis, includingmembers of the bin Laden family, were spirited out of the U.S. without questioning by the FederalBureau of Investigation.It's a m yth. But like all great m yths, it has such sugges tive pow er that it will live o n for years,despite its feeble connection to fact.In a recent column, I criticized Michael Moore for adopting this myth, both in his most recentbook, "Dude, Where's My Country," and in his new movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11." I mentioned I hadn'tseen the film -- Mr. Moore declined to make it available before the Cannes festival - but I reliedon a synops is provided by his pub licist.Mr. Moore responded, not by disputing the facts of the Saudi flights, but with a blistering attack onme for daring to "review" a synopsis. On his Web site, he said that everything I wrote about thefilm was "completely false." This despite the fact it all was quoted d irectly from his book or thesynopsis, and confirmed in a telephone interview w ith Mr. Moore himself.But perhaps I shouldn't have picked on the hero of Cannes, who has long had a looserelationship to truth. The Saudi story has made its way into much more respectable journalism.An d the flood of critical e-mail I received after writing that column convinced me the myth ha sconsiderable staying power.For wh at it 's worth, here are the facts, as gathered by the staff of the bipartisan 9/11 Co mm ission:Between S ept. 14 and 24, 2001, six chartered flights carrying mostly Saudi nationals amon g their142 passengers departed from the U.S. The 9/11 Commission found "no credible evidence thatany chartered flights of Saudi Arabian nationals" left before U.S. airspace reopened. Moreover, allsix flights "were screened by law-enforcement officials, primarily the FBI" to ensure that no one ofinterest was allowed to leave. The most con troversial flight, filled with members of the sprawlingbin Laden family, left Sept. 20. Of the 26 people aboard - 23 passengers and three privatesecurity guards - the FBI interviewed 22 before the plane was allowed to leave.Last week, I reviewed these facts with Mr. Unger, who is now a principal proponent of the Saudiflight m yth. "I think mo st of that is true," he replied. "I neve r said any flight left the U.S. wh ile therewere still restrictions on U.S. airspace."I asked Mr. Ung er, wha t's the problem then? He pointed to an accoun t, first reported in theTamp a Tribune, of a Lear jet with three Saudi p assengers that f lew from Tampa, Fla., toLexington, Ky., on Sept. 13,2001, as part of a n effort to help prominent Saudis who fearedreprisals in the U.S. While commercial airspace was open at that time, private planes still weren'tallowed to fly, according to M r. Unger. He said he believes it couldn't have flow n "without aspecial favor from the White Hou se." Moreover, he says, he's not sure "the FBI did their jobthoroughly" in screening passen gers on the Sau di flights that later left the U.S.The 9/11 Com mission still is investigating the Tam pa flight, but it has found no evidence that anydiscussion of Saudi flights rose higher than Richard Clarke, former a ntiterrorism czar an d now a

T5 B68 Craig Unger Fdr- Media Reports- 1st Pgs for Reference 628

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