Three Files, One Archive, a Specific Date
The paperwork arrived in public view on March 15, 2024, when John Greenewald of The Black Vault published a consolidated document archive covering Saudi nationals who departed the United States in the days following September 11, 2001. Three distinct records constitute the set.
The first is a 40-page FBI report dated September 24, 2003, internally designated VANITYBOM. Originally classified Secret, it was produced as a response to an October 2003 Vanity Fair article and obtained by Judicial Watch through FOIA litigation, case 04-1643, released in 2005. The report’s title redacts the name of a specific family, reading “Re: [Redacted] Family Departures After 9/11/2001.” The Department of Justice stated that redactions were made to protect the privacy interests of Saudi subjects identified in the file.
The second is a 215-page collection of FBI records concerning Saudi nationals and their post-September 11 departure flights, drawn from the personal papers of Russ Kick (1969–2021), a government transparency researcher. After Kick’s death, Dr. Susan Maret facilitated the transfer of his papers. Page counts for both documents are stated in Greenewald’s publication and have not been confirmed by an independent source.
The third body of material is the 9/11 Commission Report and its associated staff documents, which include a dedicated appendix examining the Saudi departure flights, inspection procedures, and the authorization trail. The Commission’s 585-page final report was published in July 2004.
Chartered Departures During a Grounded Airspace
Following the September 11 attacks, the FAA suspended non-emergency air activity nationwide. U.S. Customs and Border Protection records, provided to the 9/11 Commission by Judicial Watch in June 2004, show that 160 Saudi nationals left the United States on 55 commercial flights between September 11 and September 15, 2001. National airspace formally reopened at 11:00 a.m. on September 13, 2001. The 9/11 Commission found no evidence that any Saudi departure occurred before that reopening, though one open point, noted below, complicates that finding.
The most thoroughly documented individual flight is Ryan International Airlines Flight 441, a chartered Boeing 727 arranged by the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. At 02:05 a.m. on September 20, 2001, the aircraft departed Boston’s Logan International Airport for Newfoundland, Canada, having collected passengers at earlier stops in Saint Louis, Los Angeles, Orlando, and Washington Dulles. The 9/11 Commission records identify 23 passengers and 3 private security guards aboard. At least 13 passengers were relatives of Osama bin Laden, 12 sharing the bin Laden surname, according to Commission records. Named passengers per those records include Shafig bin Laden, a half-brother of Osama bin Laden; Omar Awad bin Laden, a nephew previously investigated by the FBI due to his residence with the leader of an organization suspected of terrorist ties; and Akberali Moawalla, an official at an investment company operated by Yeslam bin Laden, another half-brother. The released FBI documents redact passenger identities throughout; the names cited here come from the 9/11 Commission record, not the FBI file.
The VANITYBOM Finding
FBI agents conducted interviews and security screenings of passengers in connection with these departures. The formal determination in the VANITYBOM report is that none of the passengers had identifiable connections to the September 11 hijackers and none were designated as subjects of investigative interest. The record contains no indication that charges followed or that further investigative action arose from the screenings. The 9/11 Commission independently confirmed that the FBI’s screening was satisfactory and that no one with known links to terrorism left on those flights.
Routine Diplomatic Facilitation: The Account the Record Supports
The Saudi Embassy arranged the charters. The FBI screened passengers against available investigative information. NSC counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke, having confirmed with the FBI that passengers had been checked, gave his approval for the flights to proceed. The 9/11 Commission found no evidence of political involvement above Clarke’s level and noted that the President and Vice President stated they were unaware of the matter until it surfaced in news coverage. Diplomatic facilitation followed by FBI vetting and NSC-level authorization is what the record most directly supports.
The Authorization Question: A Documented Silence
One procedural detail the record does not fully resolve is whether all passengers were interviewed before boarding. The 9/11 Commission stated that FBI agents interviewed all persons of interest prior to departure, but elsewhere in the available record there are indications that some Saudi nationals left without a prior FBI interview. Whether those statements describe different groups of travelers or represent a genuine factual discrepancy is not settled by the released materials. Senator Frank Lautenberg’s staff also reported that at least one domestic flight for Saudi nationals was permitted before airspace formally reopened on September 13, 2001, which would conflict with the Commission’s finding of no pre-September 13 departures. The Commission’s own record does not resolve that conflict.
Active Redactions and Three Unresolved Points
The VANITYBOM report contains active redactions that have not been lifted. Greenewald filed a Mandatory Declassification Review, an administrative request, separate from a standard FOIA request, asking an agency to reconsider whether a classification decision still meets the legal standard, targeting those remaining redactions. The outcome had not been reported as of March 15, 2024, the archive’s publication date. The identity of the family whose name is redacted in the report’s title remains undisclosed. The ultimate destination of Flight 441 beyond Newfoundland is also unconfirmed in the Commission’s appendix; Greenewald’s primary source states Geneva, Switzerland, but that detail does not appear in Commission records reviewed here and should be treated as unverified.
What Greenewald Said, and What That Is
Greenewald characterized the episode as “significant yet bizarre” and framed it as evidence of extraordinary diplomatic access. That language is his editorial judgment accompanying the archive, not a finding drawn from the documents themselves. The documents establish that the flights occurred and that the FBI cleared the passengers; they do not, on their face, establish that the access was improper or anomalous. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated in 2005 that the FBI report was “self-serving” and showed “a lackadaisical investigation.” That characterization reflects Judicial Watch’s position as a party in the FOIA litigation; it is not a finding in the documents either. The VANITYBOM report remains partially redacted, the Mandatory Declassification Review outcome is pending, and the family name in the report’s title is still blank.