Background:
In the hours and days immediately following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Saudi nationals, including members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to flee the country by airplane even as our nation’s airspace was virtually shut down. Judicial Watch, through a FOIA request made in October 2003, was the first organization in the country to discover that 55 commercial flights spirited more than 160 Saudis out of the country – apparently with the permission and assistance of the federal government. Approximately one-third of these individuals left within 48 hours after the attacks, despite claims by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that all of them were thoroughly vetted before departure. Judicial Watch immediately launched an investigation and discovered that the FBI performed only cursory security reviews. Some of the individuals were never interviewed prior to departure. Moreover, while the United States was still under attack, one Saudi national was provided a private FBI escort to the airport because he “feared for his life.” As part of its continuing investigation of the federal government’s failures before and after the terrorist attacks, Judicial Watch recently obtained a shocking, declassified “Secret” FBI report that documents Osama bin Laden’s ties to individuals who fled the U.S. in the days following 9/11.
Excerpt:
FOIA Exemption (b)(6): Clearly Unwarranted Invasion of Personal Privacy
“Exemption (b) (6)-4 has been asserted to protect the identities and/or personal and non-public information concerning three individuals in whom the FBI had an investigative interest during the course of this investigation…These individuals have a strong privacy interest in this information and its disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of their privacy interests. In balancing this interest against the public interest in disclosure, the FBI found no legitimate public interest to be served by releaseing personal, non-public information concerning individuals who were of investigative interest to the FBI.”
Unclassified FBI Document re: Saudi Flight-207: The [REDACTED] Family
“[REDACTED] is a member of a large and wealthy Saudi family. The family patriarch [REDACTED] came to the kingdom from Hadramout (South Yemen) sometime around 1930.”
Relevance:
Judicial Watch conducted an analysis of news stories that were cited in the documents and cross-reference the articles with the redactions. A shocking truth emerged: according to these “Secret” documents, the FBI redacted the name of Osama bin Laden, citing FOIA Exemption 6, which permits the government to withhold information in favor of the privacy interests of individuals involved with FBI investigations. In other words, the federal government placed the privacy rights of Osama bin Laden ahead of the public’s right to know what happened in the days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history – an attack masterminded by bin Laden himself! Judicial Watch is continuing its investigation of this disturbing, and baffling, matter.