What the . . ?
Bin Laden may have helped family flee US
You know, when I watched Fahrenheit 9/11, I thought it was a very heavy-handed propaganda film. So heavy-handed that I left the theatre less convinced of my opposition to the Iraq War than when I went in. The most interesting part of the experience was how quickly the audience was willing to buy the film's message. In that regard, I felt it had at least been instructional, though I'd never consider using it as a source. This story managed to bring the film back to mind, though.
OSAMA bin Laden may have chartered a plane that carried his family members and Saudi nationals out of the US after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the FBI says.
The papers, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, were made public by Judicial Watch, a Washington-based group that investigates government corruption.
One FBI document referred to a Ryan Air 727 airplane that departed Los Angeles International Airport on September 19, 2001, and was said to have carried Saudi nationals out of the US.
"The plane was chartered either by the Saudi Arabian royal family or Osama bin Laden,'' according to the document, which was among 224 pages posted online.
I say almost defies belief since this is the same government that issued a visa to Muhammed Atta six months after he crashed a plane into the World Trade Centre, so anything is possible. I don't actually believe that they wouldn't have noticed Osama chartering a plane at that time. We'll use a form of Occam's Razor on this and say it was probably the Saudi royals or a different member of the bin Laden clan. Still causes some cognitive dissonance, though.
