The Secret Saudi Flight on 9-13 Could be the Key to the Bush-Saudi-Al Qaeda Connection

Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz is being sued by families of the 9-11 victims for personally approving millions of dollars of Saudi government funding for terrorist front groups. Amazingly, bin Abdul Aziz arranged for his son to be flown from Florida to Kentucky on 9-13 - a flight the Bush administration denies ever happened, on the second day when ALL civilian flights in the US were prohibited. To make matters worse, bin Abdul Aziz and his Saudi co-defendants hired James Baker’s law firm to defend him against the TRILLION dollar 9-11 lawsuit - even as Baker personally represents the Bush administration on crucial intelligence matters. Could this trial expose the deep Saudi connections to Al Qaeda, and the Bush connections to both? Is a Special Prosecutor needed? Is it even possible to investigate the Bush-Saudi-Al Qaeda ties? Stay tuned…

By Catherine Arnie

About a month after the September 11th attacks, I read an article in the Tampa Tribune by Kathy Steele entitled “Phantom Flight From Florida.” The intriguing report told the tale of a flight out of Florida that allegedly took place on September 13 - a day when ALL civilian air traffic in the United States was grounded.

“This was out of a Tom Clancy movie,” according to a retired homicide detective who was hired for the flight. Its mission was to spirit the son of a Saudi prince, the son of a Saudi army commander, and another unidentified Saudi from Florida to Kentucky, because “there was a perceived threat, and the family of the person wanted him home right away.”

The “person” in danger was the son of Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who is no minor figure in the Saudi Royal family. Rather, Prince Sultan is the kingdom’s minister of defense, the third-ranking position in the Saudi Government, whose powers exceed those of even America’s super-powerful Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Dan Grossi and Manuel Perez were the two Floridians who were hired to serve as private bodyguards on the flight.

According to the article in the Tampa Tribune, Dan Grossi is a retired Tampa cop who worked in internal affairs and homicide. Perez is a retired FBI man whose experience was in counter-terrorism and bomb-making. Perez now runs a detective agency and the two men provided security for the National Football League at Raymond James Stadium in September of 2001.

The article reported that shortly after the September 11 attack, Lexington police Lt. Mark Barnard received a request from a prominent Saudi Kingdom official for the protection of three young Saudi men in Florida, at least one of whom - Prince Sultan’s son - had been studying English at the University of Tampa for three weeks. (Tampa police records listed Sultan Bin Fahad as the individual who specifically requested protection for the three men. That is probably Prince Sultan Bin Fahad, head of the Saudi General Presidency of Youth Welfare. In family-run Saudi Arabia, there is apparently a whole Ministry devoted to keeping Royal youth out of trouble - something the Bush family elders no doubt dream of copying.)

Apparently Barnard then contacted the Tampa police department and two “off-duty” Tampa intelligence detectives were assigned to watch the three Saudis for their protection. At around 11:00 AM on September 13, Dan Grossi received a phone call from the Tampa police detectives who needed help with a problem: escorting the Saudi men they were protecting on a flight to Kentucky.

Grossi and Perez evidently felt they were up to the task, and at 2:30 PM Grossi was contacted by the Tampa Police Department with specific instructions. And by 4:35 PM a plane carrying Grossi, Perez, Prince Sultan’s son, the son of an unidentified Saudi military commander, and third unidentified Saudi, was in the air and en route to Kentucky. The private Lear jet originated from Raytheon Airport Services, which owns a private hangar on the outskirts of the Tampa International airport.

Tampa, of course, is home to General Tommy Franks and the Pentagon’s Central Command (CentCom), which directly rules Afghanistan and Iraq, and indirectly rules the entire oil-rich Middle East and Central Asia through its growing network of Halliburton-supplied military bases…{{link http://www.democrats.com/view2.cfm?id=14289/ MORE}}

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