Did Osama charter flight out of U.S. after 9/11?
From World Net Daily
Excerpt: ... Judicial Watch said the FBI documents show several chartered flights eventually were authorized during the time frame right after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, to expedite the return of the Saudi nationals to their homeland. The team of terrorists later was determined to include a majority with Saudi backgrounds.

"The document states: 'ON 9/19/01, A 727 PLANE LEFT LAX, RYAN FLT #441 TO ORLANDO, FL W/ETA (estimated time of arrival) OF 4-5PM. THE PLANE WAS CHARTERED EITHER BY THE SAUDI ARABIAN ROYAL FAMILY OR OSAMA BIN LADEN…THE LA FBI SEARCHED THE PLANE [REDACTED] LUGGAGE, OF WHICH NOTHING UNUSUAL WAS FOUND,'" the Judicial Watch report said. ...

... The papers were obtained after U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts ordered the FBI to resubmit "proper disclosures" to the court and Judicial Watch, having previously criticized the adequacy of redaction descriptions, the validity of exemption claims, and other errors in the FBI paperwork.

"Incredibly, the FBI had previously redacted Osama bin Laden’s name from the records in order "to protect privacy interests," Judicial Watch said.

"According to [an FBI spokesman], FBI counterterrorism agents pursuing the investigation were stranded all over the country, unable to fly for several days. Yet now the same counterterrorism unit was effectively acting as a chaperone for the Saudis," the report added.
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Labels: bin Laden, Saudi, September 11

CIA Disbands Unit Set Up to Hunt for Bin Laden
From Reuters via ABC News
Excerpt: The CIA has disbanded a unit set up in the 1990s to oversee the spy agency's hunt for Osama bin Laden and transferred its duties to broader operations that track Islamist militant groups, a U.S. intelligence official said on Tuesday.

The bin Laden unit, codenamed Alec Station, became less valuable as a separate operation as counterterrorism operations eliminated top al Qaeda operatives and the movement's focus shifted more to regional networks of militants, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.


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Labels: agency, bin Laden, CIA