First, the backgroun…

First, the background:

The Hill said a political controversy has been brewing over who approved the six controversial flights that carried 140 Saudi citizens.

At the time the members of the Saudi elite were allowed to leave, the Bush administration was preparing to detain Muslims in the U.S. as material witnesses to the attacks.

Democrat leaders, including Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, had been pressing members of the 9-11 Commission to find out, “Who authorized the flight[s] and why?”

A Democrat who attended a May 6 closed-door meeting of the panel quoted a panel member, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., as saying: “We don’t know who authorized it. We’ve asked that question 50 times.”

Most of the 26 passengers aboard a Sept. 20, 2001, fight were relatives of Osama bin Laden, whom intelligence officials blamed for the attacks almost immediately after they happened, The Hill said.

We’ll come back to this story and link to it in just a second, but first…

Indeed, who’s idea was that? Michael Moore’s adoring fans on Indymedia repeat his allegation in his new “documentary” Fahrenheit 9/11 that Bush made the decision.

AFTER the 9/11 attacks, why was the only plane to fly out of the US carrying 24 members of Osama bin Laden’s family?

IN the wake of the attacks, the US became a no-fly zone. Moore asks: “Why did Bush allow a private Saudi jet to fly around the US in the days after September 11 to pick up members of the bin Laden family and fly them out of the country without a proper FBI investigation? Might it have been possible that at least one of the 24 bin Ladens would have known something?”

Of course, this, to the Indys, is another “Bush LIED!” scenario, and is one of the reason Bush (allegedly) wants to ban the movie (although nothing in the article except the headline talks about Bush making any sort of statement for or against the movie).

An article on Democrats.com says the same thing:

Regarding the curious fact that the flight had taken place when all other air traffic was still grounded, Dan Grossi said “he was told that clearance for the flight had come from the White House after the Prince’s family pulled a favor from former President Bush.”

A quote that says that the “White House” authorized it must mean that it was the President himself, ya’ think?

Well, more folks than just these have argued that Bush himself was personally responsible. So now let’s rejoin the original news story, already in progress:

Former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke says he is solely responsible for allowing members of Osama bin Laden’s family to flee the United States immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“I take responsibility for it. I don’t think it was a mistake, and I’d do it again,” Clarke told The Hill newspaper yesterday.

…

Clarke told the paper responsibility for the Saudis’ departure “didn’t get any higher than me.”

“On 9-11, 9-12 and 9-13, many things didn’t get any higher than me,” he said. “I decided it in consultation with the FBI.”

The conspiracy theorists all seemed to miss that, oddly enough, almost as if they’d made up their minds first and later looked for evidence to confirm it. (Look up any article about the 9/13 flight of the bin Laden family, and you won’t find Richard Clarke’s name in connection with it. Let me know if you do, though. I’d be pleasantly surprised.)

But it doesn’t stop there. Mr. Clarke has some explaining to do:

But this new account of the events seemed to contradict Clarke’s sworn testimony before the Sept. 11 commission at the end of March, The Hill said.

“The request came to me, and I refused to approve it,” Clarke testified. “I suggested that it be routed to the FBI and that the FBI look at the names of the individuals who were going to be on the passenger manifest and that they approve it or not. I spoke with the – at the time – No. 2 person in the FBI, Dale Watson, and asked him to deal with this issue. The FBI then approved … the flight.”

Panel member Tim Roemer said yesterday in response: “That’s a little different than saying, ‘I claim sole responsibility for it now.'”

Moreover, the FBI has denied approving the flight, according to the Capitol Hill paper.

Sounds like grandstanding to me. Sort of like publishing a book about 9/11 just days before you testify about it, eh Mr. Clarke?

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