According to the 9-11 Commission: “First, we found no evidence that any flights of Saudi nationals, domestic or international, took place before the reopening of national airspace on the morning of September 13, 2001. To the contrary, every flight we have identified occurred after national airspace reopened.
- “Second, we found no evidence of political intervention … None of the officials we interviewed recalled any intervention or direction on this matter from any political appointee.
- “Third, we believe that the FBI conducted a satisfactory screening of Saudi nationals who left the United States on charter flights. The Saudi government was advised of and agreed to the FBI’s requirements that passengers be identified and checked against various databases before the flights departed. The Federal Aviation Administration representative working in the FBI operations centre made sure that the FBI was aware of the flights of Saudi nationals and was able to screen the passengers before they were allowed to depart.
- “The FBI interviewed all persons of interest on these flights prior to their departures. They concluded that none of the passengers was connected to the 9/11 attacks and have since found no evidence to change that conclusion. Our own independent review of Saudi nationals involved confirms that no one with known links to terrorism departed on these flights.”
