9/11 Families Demand Answers on FBI's Withheld Bayoumi Evidence as 3,000 Deaths Near 25th Anniversary
Updated
Updated · ProPublica · Sep 11
9/11 Families Demand Answers on FBI's Withheld Bayoumi Evidence as 3,000 Deaths Near 25th Anniversary
2 articles · Updated · ProPublica · Sep 11
Summary
9/11 families renewed demands this week for the Justice Department to explain what happened to evidence seized in Britain from Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi intelligence asset who helped two future hijackers in San Diego.
More than 80 VHS tapes, papers and computer records taken in 2001 deepened British investigators’ suspicions, but key material was not widely shared with FBI field agents and surfaced publicly only years later in litigation.
That trove undercuts the FBI’s long-standing account that Bayoumi met Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar by chance and aided them unknowingly; records show he co-signed their lease, loaned about $1,500 and linked them to local helpers.
Declassified memos and later FBI records showed Bayoumi was paid as a Saudi intelligence co-optee before 9/11, while Operation Encore agents said headquarters resisted pursuing a broader Saudi support network and even moved to shut the inquiry down.
The pressure campaign lands as the 25th anniversary is marked Friday and as families question whether closer Trump-Saudi ties are blunting a full accounting of any Saudi officials’ role.