Date of publication: 29 Apr 2022 • 1 day ago • 2 minutes reading • 18 comments Khalid al-Mihdhar appeared for a few frames at the party in Feb. 2000. Photo by Screengrab
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Recent declassified FBI records include evidence that an alleged Saudi agent staged a “welcome party” in the United States for two 9/11 hijackers.
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CBS broadcast a video showing Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, two 9/11 hijackers who arrived in the United States in January 2000, attending a rally organized by Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national, in apartment in San Diego. The two hijackers seem to be avoiding the camera, but Mihdhar appears in the kitchen for a while during the party. The men were part of the team that took over Flight 77, which crashed at the Pentagon. Danny Gonzalez, a retired FBI agent, told CBS that al-Bayoumi was a “facilitator” who helped the hijackers settle in San Diego. “He helped them with apartments. “He helped them with bank accounts,” Gonzalez said. Bayumi was arrested in the United Kingdom ten days after the 9/11 attacks and the video was confiscated along with boxes of other information. He was released after questioning and later returned to Saudi Arabia. The government has reportedly not provided assistance to CBS to help locate Bayumi in the country.
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A recent video released at home in 2000 appears to show two 9/11 hijackers with a man said to be a Saudi intelligence agent. The data – obtained from 9/11 families through British courts – refreshes the long-standing question about the hijacking support network. pic.twitter.com/iN437fvN20
– Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) April 27, 2022
The video, which dates back to February 2000, shows several men attending a Bayoumi hijacking party. They seem to be having a big party and drinking soft drinks on the floor of a sparsely furnished house. An FBI report from October 2001 described the rally as both a “religious” and a “welcome party” for the two hijackers.
A 510-page recently declassified and liberally worded FBI note from 2017 states that al-Bayoumi, “in the late 1990s and until September 11, 2001, received a monthly stipend as an associate of the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency through then – Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan “.
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The report continues, “Al-Bayoumi’s allegations of involvement with Saudi intelligence were not substantiated at the time of the Commission’s 9/11 Report. The above information confirms these allegations “. The report found that Bayumi regularly shared his intelligence with then-Ambassador Bandar, who encouraged close ties with President George W. Bush and earned the nickname Bandar Bush. Bayumi had a job at a Saudi Arabian airline in San Diego where he did not appear to appear, Harper’s reports. He met extremist clerics and immediately afterwards it is said that he met “by mistake” Michdar and Hazmi in a restaurant and showed up, the report states. Bayumi’s salary as soon as he met the hijackers increased by 700 percent and was cut when they left the city, he adds.
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The Saudi government has long denied allegations of supporting the hijackers. Some of the families of the 9/11 victims are suing Saudi Arabia, but the Commission’s report on 9/11 found no connection. A recent declassified FBI report said: “There is a 50/50 chance that Omar al-Bayoumi had advanced knowledge that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were about to take place.” The report, entitled ENCORE, cites a woman who told the FBI that Bayoumi often said the Islamic community was “in jihad” and “must take action.” He also cites a witness who said he saw Bayumi sitting by the window as if waiting for the hijackers to arrive at the Los Angeles restaurant where they first met, instead of falling for them.
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