(José Niño, Headline USA) Newly unearthed documents reveal how US authorities’ secrecy led to the release of a man now at the center of a trillion-dollar lawsuit over 9/11.
British law enforcement agency Scotland Yard was compelled to release Omar al-Bayoumi, the alleged Saudi intelligence officer accused of supporting the 9/11 hijackers, after the FBI failed to share crucial evidence discovered during their investigation, per British media outlet The Times.
24 years after the attacks, officers and victims’ families continue searching for answers to lingering questions about Bayoumi and the role of the Saudi state in the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Pretty interesting development in the long-running 9/11 civil litigation. It was revealed earlier this month that attack plans pictured on the left belong to the man on the right–a Saudi agent and alleged CIA asset pic.twitter.com/wNTvS0GTpB
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 15, 2024
British counterterrorism officers interviewed Bayoumi 10 days after the Twin Towers fell. During a search of his Birmingham home, they found notebooks containing a crude airplane sketch and calculations for flight descent, alongside 80 videos, including footage with Bayoumi meeting two hijackers, The Times reported.
One confiscated tape showed Bayoumi filming Capitol Hill alongside Saudi diplomats—individuals the FBI later described as having a “nexus” with the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Yet the notebook and crucial video were withheld from UK police, and authorities were never told Bayoumi had previously been investigated by the FBI in the 1990s.
Detective Constable David Campbell, who interrogated Bayoumi, recalled, “I would have taken Bayoumi to the cleaners on those pieces of evidence.” Shocked by the lack of cooperation, Campbell explained to The Times. “I still think about it, and I am shocked to this day.” Ultimately, the efforts to extradite Bayoumi to the United States were rejected by US officials who cited insufficient evidence.
Court documents that The Times acquired revealed Bayoumi received inflated sums from the Saudi government-linked aviation firm Dallah Avco—up to $6,500 a month plus a $90,000 education stipend. FBI agents traced financial connections between Bayoumi and two of the hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar.
Bayoumi not only paid their first month’s rent and deposit but also signed the lease on their apartment in San Diego, a few doors down from his own. Though Bayoumi claimed these meetings were coincidental, police found a notebook and videos suggesting foreknowledge and support.
Campbell described Bayoumi’s demeanor during interrogation as “very, very measured, very calm, very collected, very as if he just knew what to say.” Officers concluded there were “too many coincidences in Bayoumi’s story; too many things that stretched credibility or could not be explained,” per The Times report.
When pressed, Campbell told Bayoumi he was “equally as guilty as the hijackers who crashed the aircraft and killed all those people.” Bayoumi replied, “I don’t have any involvement in this situation at all”, The Times reported.
The original evidence—including the crucial aircraft sketch and address book—was returned to Bayoumi before he permanently left the UK for Saudi Arabia in August 2002. Years later, an FBI technician in Washington discovered a copy of the sketch among materials marked “Omar al-Bayoumi.”
The diagram, experts found, contained formulas for computing an aircraft’s descent to a target without GPS—knowledge not typical in basic flight training. The materials, declassified only in 2021, indicated Bayoumi acted as a “co-optee” of Saudi intelligence and supported the hijackers as part of a coordinated operation.
In his 2021 deposition via Zoom, that The Times had recordings of, Bayoumi admitted the diagram was in his handwriting but insisted, “It’s an equation like any other equation.”
Yet newly disclosed evidence from The Times, which obtained 900 pages of interview transcripts and nearly 11 hours of custody recordings, shows Bayoumi conducting extensive surveillance, including filming Washington landmarks and recording aircraft landings.
Such actions were described by former FBI agent Bassem Youssef as textbook “al-Qaeda casing a terrorist target,” as The Times reported. Despite this, the 9/11 Commission never received these materials.
A trillion-dollar lawsuit spearheaded by victims’ families alleges Saudi government officials aided the hijackers and provided a support network. Gavin Simpson, counsel for the families, insisted, “At every step, at every juncture, Bayoumi acted in coordination with the Saudi government network that tasked him,” The Times highlighted. In a critical ruling, as Axios reported, Judge George Daniels found families had provided “reasonable evidence” that Bayoumi and another Saudi were sent by their government to assist the terrorists, paving the way for a public trial.
The Times concluded that British and American officials have generally denied knowledge or declined comment on Bayoumi’s arrest and release. Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, stated, “The public and the victims’ families deserve answers.” Lord Beamish, parliament’s intelligence committee chair, affirmed, “These revelations are deeply concerning and raise serious questions of why no action was taken against Bayoumi. The families understandably want to know why.”
Saudi Arabia continues to deny all allegations.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
