(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Recent court filings in a long-running lawsuit over the 9/11 terrorist attacks reveal the existence of a video that purportedly shows alleged CIA asset Omar al-Bayoumi “casing” the U.S. Capitol ahead of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Bayoumi, an alleged Saudi and CIA intelligence asset, was a subject of FBI investigations for more than 20 years because he was the handler for two of the plane hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. He was never charged.
According to a Jan. 26 order in a 9/11 civil lawsuit, a video exists from 1999 that purportedly shows Bayoumi “casing” Capitol Hill. The Florida Bulldog reported earlier this month that the video was among a collection of documents and footage released to the plaintiffs in March 2022 and December 2023 by London’s Metropolitan Police Service, which also investigated Bayoumi.
Plaintiffs are trying to use the video, which is sealed from the public, as evidence as part of their lawsuit against the government of Saudi Arabia. However, the presiding judge has thus far disallowed that because plaintiffs’ attorneys were allegedly late in providing a copy to the defense, which in turn had no opportunity to analyze the video.
Plaintiffs have asked the judge to reconsider her decision, but Saudi Arabia urged the judge to exclude the video in a court filing Friday.
In its filing, Saudi Arabia’s attorneys disputed the plaintiffs’ characterization of the video. Far from helping plot a terrorist attack, Bayoumi was simply a tourist in Washington DC, according to the kingdom’s lawyers.
“The hour-long video has only seven minutes of footage of the outside of the Capitol, taken at ground level. The vast majority of the video—including footage of the White House, the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Institute, the National Mall, the Saudi Embassy, and the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., as well as the artwork on the inside of the Capitol— has no possible connection to a plan to crash an airplane into the Capitol,” Saudi Arabia’s lawyers said.
“In the video, Al Bayoumi shows an interest in beautiful flower beds, old-fashioned lamp posts, water fountains, and even a squirrel running across the White House lawn. He introduces himself to other tourists along the way and ends by filming the exterior of the hotel ‘where I live,’” they said.
“This is nothing more than a tourist video. It bears no similarity to actual Al Qaeda casing reports on U.S. targets, which included ‘very detailed’ logistic and structural reports on potential targets.”
The judge has yet to render her final decision on the matter.
Meanwhile, A military judge has ordered the FBI to produce 3,000 pages of documents about Bayoumi.
First reported by the national security blog SpyTalk on Dec. 1, the order was issued by a judge overseeing proceedings against 9/11 defendants, including alleged mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohamad, at Guantanamo Bay.
“The accused [9/11 defendants] are charged with a conspiracy, so existing evidence from the criminal investigations into that conspiracy is relevant to this case,” wrote Air Force Col. Michael McCall in his order, according to SpyTalk.
“It is notable that the prosecution has not argued that additional materials do not exist, nor has it asserted a privilege over the information.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
