‘Let it happen’ – Richard Clarke helped bin Laden family flee US after 9/11

Former National Security Council counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke approved the evacuation of Osama bin Laden’s relatives from the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"It was Clarke who personally authorized the evacuation by private plane of dozens of Saudi citizens, including many members of Osama bin Laden’s own family, in the days immediately following September 11," the Boston Herald notes in a March 26 editorial.

According to the Herald, "Clarke’s role was revealed in an October 2003 Vanity Fair article. ‘Somebody brought to us for approval the decision to let an airplane filled with Saudis, including members of the bin Laden family, leave the country,’ Clarke told Vanity Fair. ‘My role was to say that it can’t happen unless the FBI approves it. . . And they came back and said yes, it was fine with them. So we said "Fine, let it happen."’

"Vanity Fair uncovered that the FBI never fully investigated the passengers on those privately chartered flights (one of which flew out of Logan International Airport after scooping up a dozen or so bin Laden relatives.) But Clarke protested to Vanity Fair that policing the FBI was not in his job description."