New evidence 'shows Saudi government operative with 9/11 hijackers'

New evidence 'shows Saudi government operative with 9/11 hijackers'
Evidence made available by the British police shows Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi Arabian government operative, hosting two of the 9/11 hijackers a year before they carried out the attacks.
2 min read
29 April, 2022
Declassified evidence showed the Saudi Arabian government official with 9/11 attackers [Getty]

Alleged new evidence from the UK's Metropolitan Police purports to show a Saudi government operative with hijackers implicated in the 9/11 attacks on the United States, according to a report published by America's CBS News.

The materials have reportedly been declassified in response to a request for international judicial assistance for an ongoing lawsuit against Saudi Arabia brought by the families of 9/11 victims in New York.

The materials include 14,000 pages of documents, more than 20 hours of video footage, hundreds of photographs, and hours of recorded police interviews.

They were recovered from a police search in September 2001 at residences and offices in England used by Omar al-Bayoumi, an alleged Saudi government operative.

Some of the footage is said to show Al-Bayoumi hosting two of the 9/11 hijackers,  Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego in 2000, while elsewhere he is seen meeting with Saudi officials and embracing Anwar al-Awlaki.

Awlaki was a Yemeni-American cleric accused by US officials of being an al-Qaeda operative. He was killed in a US drone strike on Yemen in 2011.

Documents seized included a drawing of an airplane and calculations used to target structures on the ground.

MENA
Live Story

Omar al-Bayoumi was arrested by the British police two weeks after 9/11. A declassified FBI memo from 2017 stated “There is a 50/50 chance Omar al-Bayoumi had advanced knowledge the 9/11 terrorist attacks were to occur,” as reported by CBS news.

Last November, the FBI declassified hundreds of pages of documents about its unsuccessful effort to investigate the alleged connection between the Saudi Arabian government and the attacks on the US on 11 September 2001.

Riyadh has always denied any involvement in the 9/11 attack on the United States.

The New Arab has contacted the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment but did not receive a response.