Most of the 911 hijackers got visas in Saudi Arabia in Jeddah through the fast track program and then traveled to the US via the UAE. Richard Clarke was the  UAE’s whipping boy, he even tipped them off when they were “bird  hunting” with Bin Laden in Afghanistan. This was of course the same as  just tipping off Bin Laden himself. Al Qaeda was so entangled with the  CIA and Mossad by 2001 that there was no way the leadership was worried  about being nabbed, as a little birdy would always let them stay two  step ahead of investigators.