Corrections and Clarifications
Posted 4-24-2004

Following the lead of several major news organizations whose stories we quoted from for two articles appearing on this website, "Bin Laden's Brother-in-law Had Close Ties to Bush" (8-28-2002) and "Chairman Kean's pre-9/11 Oil Links to bin Laden Severed Just Before Appointment to Commission" (4-1-2004), we are correcting the reports referring to Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz as Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, as a financial backer of Delta Oil Company, and as a link to the finance of terrorism in America.

We had quoted from Fortune Magazine, Washington Post and USA Today, etc., all of whom have recently issued similar corrections. Moreover, former CIA Director James Woolsey was quoted in the LA Times on 2-20-2004 regarding his prior Senate testimony that "I don't know what to say other than there was some confusion, but I never meant to refer to bin Mahfouz's sister," having previously reiterated this on 12-15-2003 in a libel trial against the Wall Street Journal.

We quoted and referred to statements made in USA Today regarding its references to Sheikh Mahfouz as having financial links to Islamic charities under FBI investigation for financing terrorism. USA Today and others have retracted that assertion, and we do also. Since Fortune Magazine published a correction saying that Sheikh Mahfouz never had an ownership interest in Delta Oil Company, our quoted reference to that statement in USA Today is also retracted. In the interest of fairness, accuracy and doing what is right, we apologize to Sheikh Mahfouz for quoting and/or referring to statements in major news media organizations which were recently corrected and/or retracted. The two articles in question have been removed from this website and a link is provided regarding additional information related to the Sheikh's recent settlements with Pluto Press and London Mail on Sunday.

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