Richard Clarke takes responsibility for post-9/11 Saudi airlift

On March 24, 2004, 9/11 Commissioner Tim Roemer asked former counterterrorism official Richard Clarke who he thought was responsible for the decision to allow "a plane of Saudis to fly out of the country" immediately following 9/11; a flight that included members of the bin Laden family.

Mr. Clarke testified:

"Let me tell you everything I know…In the days following 9/11, whether it was on 9/12 or 9/15 I can’t tell you, we were in a constant crisis management meeting that had started the morning of 9/11 and ran for days on end. We were making lots of decisions, but we were coordinating them with all the agencies through the video teleconference procedure. Someone — and I wish I could tell you who, but I don’t know who — someone brought to that group a proposal that we authorize a request from the Saudi embassy. The Saudi embassy had apparently said that they feared for the lives of Saudi citizens, because they thought there would be retribution against Saudis in the United States as it became obvious to Americans that this attack was essentially done by Saudis, and that there were even Saudi citizens in the United States who were part of the bin Laden family, which is a very large family…

"The request came to me and I refused to approve it. 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 number-two person in the FBI, Dale Watson, and asked him to deal with this issue. The FBI then approved — after some period of time, and I can’t tell you how long — approved the flight."

Translation: it was the FBI’s fault.

Despite testifying under oath that he "refused to approve" the request to allow Saudi nationals related to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to evacuate the country after 9/11, Mr. Clarke now admits that he was responsible for approving the flight. According to a recent interview in The Hill, Mr. Clarke admits: “I take responsibility for it. I don’t think it was a mistake, and I’d do it again." He continued: "It didn’t get any higher than me. On 9-11, 9-12 and 9-13, many things didn’t get any higher than me. I decided it in consultation with the FBI.”

Mr. Clarke has some serious explaining to do.