People have been talking - rightly so - that the Obama administration could have nabbed Faisal Shahzad, the (alleged) would-be SUV bomber a little earlier. Somehow Shahzad managed to elude his followers, get through airport security and get on to a plane.
However, the plane did not leave with him on it. The redundancies built into the system finally worked. The plane was not given clearance to leave, and Shahzad was removed.
Do you remember what happened with planes after 9-11? Of course, for several days there were no flights. But some of the first which were allowed to depart were full of Bin Laden's relatives, getting them out of the country - with the blessing and the support of the Bush government.
In case you're unaware of this bit of information, here's a quick review:
The plane to which ... refers was an aircraft chartered by the Saudi government in the days after the terrorist attacks. The individuals were two dozen members of Osama bin Laden's extended family who had been living in the United States. Saying they were afraid that family members might suffer retribution in the U.S., the Saudis asked for American assistance in getting them out of the country. With the help of the FBI, the Saudis and the bin Laden family chartered an aircraft to pick up family members in Los Angeles, Orlando, and Washington, D.C. The bin Laden plane then flew the relatives to Boston, where — one week after the attacks — the group left Logan Airport bound for Jeddah.
For more, see this National Review Article
Now, the bin Laden clan is very large (all those wives) and it can be expected that many of the people were innocent, at least in intent. But the fact remains that several of these people probably knew something that could have helped locate Osama bin Laden and could have caught him and his people. They may have been right to fear a reaction from the American people. But they could have been kept in protective custody and questioned more thoroughly.
The ties between the Republicans and the Saudis really need to be explored more - possibly in a future diary (a Saudi prince is the second largest owner of FOX). But in the meantime, it's instructive to note the differences in the responses of the Bush admin and the Obama admin when confronted with terrorists. The Bush administration assisted potential witnesses leave the country. The Obama administration stopped the flight and caught the (alleged) perp.