FBI Releases First New Material on 9/11
(September 12, 2021) — Pursuant to Biden’s executive order, the FBI has declassified a redacted copy of its April 4, 2016 report on Operation Encore, an investigation into support for 9/11 hijackers. While much of the material is redacted, either on the initiative of the FBI or other agencies, fresh details emerge that strengthen the case that Saudi Arabia directed support towards the hijackers.
One significant component is the meeting between Omar Al-Bayoumi — a “ghost employee” of Saudi aviation company Dallah AVCO and a person considered by the FBI for years to be an agent of the Saudi government — and future hijackers Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi. Bayoumi was considered a “very high status” person at the Saudi consulate, although he was not officially on the staff there. The meeting occurred at a restaurant, and was, according to Bayoumi’s telling, a “chance encounter” based on Bayoumi’s hearing Midhar and Hazmi’s “gulf accents” as they spoke in Arabic. But another eyewitness reports that Bayoumi sat in the restaurant looking out the window, and approached the two men as they entered the restaurant, inviting them to join him at his table. Midhar and Hazmi had been brought to the restaurant by an individual who was directed to do so. Bayoumi was at the Saudi consulate just one hour before the restaurant meeting.
(This restaurant meeting is similar to the “chance meeting” at a Virginia 7–11 that led to support from a small network in the city of Falls Church.)
Unusual transactions into Bayoumi’s bank accounts coincide with transactions wherein he provided assistance to Hazmi and Midhar. When Bayoumi’s phone was inspected during his post-9/11 detention in the UK, his contact list was found to include phone numbers associated with Shaykh al-Khudayr, “identified as the spiritual advisor to [a] senior Usama Bin Laden lieutenant.”
While the two hijackers were in Los Angeles, Bayoumi was in almost daily contact with Osama Bassnan, who, along with his wife, received direct cash payments from Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador in Washington. Bassnan had hosted a party for the “Blind Sheikh,” who had been convicted for his role in planning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In another demonstration of their close ties, Bassnan’s and Bayoumi’s wives were arrested together in early 2001 while attempting to shoplift jewelry at a JCPenney’s.
Hazmi and Midhar were supported during their time in Los Angeles by Fahad al Thumairy, an imam at the King Faad Mosque connected to Al Qaeda and to a plot to bomb LAX airport.
Another link is seen through Ziyad Khaleel, an Usama bin Laden logistics coordinator who transferred money from the Islamic American Relief Agency to bin Laden. His roommate for four months was Mutaib Al-Sudairy, whose phone number was also found in Bayoumi’s phone. Bayoumi had called Sudairy five times while the hijackers were in Los Angeles. The calls coincide with logistical support for the hijackers, including the day after the “chance” meeting at the restaurant and immediately after their apartment and living arrangements were organized, with Bayoumi fronting the money. Two months after that call, Sudairy was at the Falls Church address at which four hijackers later established residence.
This story may be expanded over time.
