A video that was shot in 2000 and is just now being made public appears to show a Saudi Arabian government agent along with two men who were part of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
“Why did it take 20 years for this information to see the light of day?” Brett Eagleson said, according to CBS. Eagleson is a leader of the group 9/11 Community United, which wants all of the documents collected for the 9/11 Commission and related investigations to be made public.
The newly released video is described as a party in San Diego that took place at the apartment of hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who had arrived in the United States in January 2000.
Glimpses of the two – who helped hijack the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 – appear. So does Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national whose name has come up at the edges of 9/11 investigations since 2001.
Newly-released home video from 2000 appears to show two 9/11 hijackers with a man said to be a Saudi intelligence operative.
The evidence – obtained by 9/11 families through British courts – renews long-standing question about hijackers’ support network. pic.twitter.com/iN437fvN20— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) April 27, 2022
The video came from British police.
“Will the Justice Department now explain to the families and to America why they did not pursue charges against al-Bayoumi? And most astonishingly, why did this information come from the U.K. government and not our own FBI?” Eagleson said.
Eagleson’s father, Bruce, died at the World Trade Center.
Although al-Bayoumi was arrested by British police shortly after the attacks, he was never charged. The 9/11 Commission opined that, “We have seen no credible evidence that he believed in violent extremism or knowingly aided extremists groups.”
However, CBS said that a 2017 FBI memo said, “In the late 1990s and up to September 11, 2001, Omar al-Bayoumi was paid a monthly stipend as a cooptee of the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) via then Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan….”
“Allegations of al-Bayoumi’s involvement with Saudi Intelligence were not confirmed at the time of the 9/11 Commission Report. The above information confirms these allegations,” the memo said.
Another 2017 memo reported by CBS that was recently declassified added to the picture by saying, “There is a 50/50 chance Omar al-Bayoumi had advanced knowledge the 9/11 terrorist attacks were to occur.”
Retired FBI agent Danny Gonzalez told CBS al-Bayoumi was part of the network supporting the terrorists.
“He helped them with apartments, he helped them with bank accounts,” Gonzalez said.
British records include more than 14,000 pages of documents, more than 20 hours of video and an equal amount of audio interrogations of al-Bayoumi, CBS reported.
Families of the 9/11 victims tried to get their hands on the al-Bayoumi documents in 2018, but said only a few were provided.
Although the Saudis have insisted they had no involvement in the 9/11 attacks, some families of the 9/11 victims do not believe those claims and have sued Saudi Arabia.
CBS said al-Bayoumi is believed to be living in Saudi Arabia, but the network received no help from the Saudi government in trying to find him.
Eagleson has said his group finds it hard to believe the Saudis were totally in the dark about what was being planned, according to an NBC report from August, in the lead-up to the attacks’ 20th anniversary.
Eagleson has pointed to the 2017 sworn testimony of former FBI Special Agent Stephen Moore, who was involved in the FBI’s investigation of the 9/11 attacks.
“Based on evidence we gathered during the course of our investigation, I concluded that diplomatic and intelligence personnel of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia knowingly provided material support to the two 9/11 hijackers and facilitated the 9/11 plot. My colleagues in our investigation shared that conclusion,” Moore said in an affidavit.
Story cited here.
