(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A military judge has ordered the FBI to produce 3,000 pages of documents about Omar al-Bayoumi, an alleged Saudi and CIA intelligence asset who acted as the handler for two of the 9/11 hijackers.
First reported by the national security blog SpyTalk, 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.”
As SpyTalk noted, Bayoumi 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.
Shockingly, SpyTalk also published earlier this year a sworn statement from Office of Military Commissions investigator Don Canestraro, who said that Bayoumi was a CIA asset.
According to Canestraro, at least two FBI agents told him that the CIA had attempted to recruit al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar. The CIA was directing its recruiting efforts through Bayoumi, Canestraro said.
One of the FBI agents, identified as “CS-3” in the court filing, said Bayoumi allegedly set up bank accounts and rented apartments for the two hijackers in San Diego, at the behest of the CIA.
“According to CS-3, prior to the 9/11 attacks, the CIA was under pressure to recruit informants within al-Qaeda,” Canestraro said. “Responding to this pressure, [an unidentified CIA official] and his/her colleagues at the CIA were attempting to recruit al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar via a liaison relationship with the Saudi GID.”
Another FBI agent, identified as CS-23, made similar statements, according to Canestraro.
“CS-23 told me that the attempt to recruit al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar was an operation directed by the Central Intelligence Agency. CS-23 told me that the CIA used their liaison relationship with the Saudi intelligence services to conduct an operation on U.S. soil,” Canestraro said.
Along with the FBI agents, Canestraro spoke with former Deputy National Security Advisor Richard Clarke, who has spoken about the CIA-recruitment theory publicly.
Clarke reportedly told Canestraro that the reason the CIA was recruiting the hijackers was for a “false flag operation.”
“According to Mr. Clarke, this ‘false flag’ operation would have involved al-Bayoumi befriending the two hijackers by attempting to convince them that he was sympathetic to their cause,” Canestraro said in the court filing.
“At the same time, al-Bayoumi would have been reporting on the hijackers’ activities to Saudi intelligence and ultimately to the CIA.”
A CIA spokesperson reportedly denied the abovementioned allegations.
Meanwhile, families of 9/11 victims lamented that alleged terrorists at Gitmo are being able to access more information about the incident than they are.
“The defense counsel for those accused of mass murder on 9/11 is getting more access to documents than the terror victims themselves,” Eagleson, who lost his father after al-Qaida operatives commandeered commercial airlines and crashed them into the World Trade Center, told SpyTalk.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
