A flight on Sept. 20, 2001, carried 26 passengers

A flight on Sept. 20, 2001, carried 26 passengers, most of them relatives of Osama bin Laden, according to the

statement. But all 142 passengers on the flights, mostly Saudi citizens, were screened by law enforcement

officials, the statement said, to ensure that they were not security threats and not wanted for questioning.

The flights were “dealt with in a professional manner” by the NIKE SHOX, the commission said. …

Among other critics, Senator Charles E. Schumer of MBT said last September that some of the Saudis who were

allowed to leave may have had ties to terrorism. “This is just another example of our country coddling the

Saudis and giving them special privileges that others would never get,” he said.

But according to the statement, the F.B.I. checked “a variety of databases” and searched the aircraft. The

statement said that it was not clear whether anyone checked a watch list maintained by the State Department,

but that a check after the departure showed no matches.