New evidence in the long-running 9/11 lawsuit has raised fresh questions about alleged 9/11 Saudi links and the FBI’s handling of evidence connected to Omar al-Bayoumi.
Video footage obtained by the BBC shows Bayoumi, who has repeatedly denied being an extremist or Saudi spy, with Anwar al-Awlaki, who later became a senior figure in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The footage also shows Bayoumi taking part in paintball activities near San Diego alongside a Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs official.
New footage highlights Bayoumi’s Saudi connections
The videos are part of a $1 trillion (£733bn) lawsuit brought by families of victims of the 11 September 2001 attacks against Saudi Arabia. The families allege that Saudi Arabia was complicit in the attacks and that Bayoumi assisted two of the 19 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar.
One recording from 1997 or early 1998 shows Bayoumi filming a paintball session involving Awlaki and other men. Some participants wore military-style clothing and took part in urban combat exercises and target practice. At one point, participants shouted “Allahu Akbar” while charging into the activity.
The FBI was aware of the footage after the attacks, but investigators did not question Bayoumi about the paintball sessions or his relationship with Awlaki when British police interviewed him in September 2001.
Another video reportedly shows Bayoumi embracing Awlaki in January 1998. Other recordings show Bayoumi meeting Saudi officials and religious figures connected to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.
9/11 Saudi links Plane diagram becomes key evidence
Bayoumi became an early suspect after investigators discovered his name on an apartment rental agreement signed by Hazmi and Mihdhar, the first two hijackers to arrive in the United States.
Following his arrest in Birmingham on 21 September 2001, British police searched his properties and recovered thousands of documents, photographs, travel records, phone cards and at least 80 videotapes. Among the material was a handwritten diagram of a plane accompanied by mathematical calculations concerning its height and distance from an object on the ground.
The document was eventually provided to the court in the 9/11 families’ lawsuit. In 2021, Bayoumi said he could not remember when he had written it and claimed he simply liked working with equations.
A federal judge later found that the document, on its face, “connects Bayoumi with knowledge of the 9/11 Attacks.” The families’ lawyer Jodi Westbrook Flowers described the calculation as the “smoking gun” they had been searching for.
FBI evidence handling under scrutiny 9/11 Saudi links
The plane diagram was reportedly sent to the FBI’s New York Field Office for analysis, but records tracing what happened to it afterward remain incomplete. The evidence was not provided to FBI agents in San Diego, despite repeated requests from the office investigating Bayoumi and his associates.
Rick Lambert, who led the San Diego investigation, said his team believed access to the evidence could have helped investigators connect important pieces of the case more quickly.
The paintball footage was also reportedly reviewed by FBI personnel in New York, but it was absent from summaries concerning Bayoumi’s extremist connections. Former Justice Department counter-terrorism official Jeffrey Breinholt told the BBC that the footage and Bayoumi’s association with Awlaki would have been significant evidence in considering possible terrorism charges.
Despite the evidence collected after the attacks, Bayoumi was never charged. He was released by British authorities on 28 September 2001 after US officials decided there was insufficient evidence to seek his extradition.
Questions over the 9/11 Commission
Further questions emerged over how Bayoumi was assessed by the 9/11 Commission.
The commission interviewed him in Riyadh in October 2003 in the presence of Saudi secret police. Its notes indicate that Bayoumi was told investigators did not believe he had knowingly assisted the hijackers.
When the commission published its report in July 2004, it described Bayoumi as “obliging and gregarious” and said there was no evidence that he held extremist views. However, some commission staff members disagreed and believed he may have known that Hazmi and Mihdhar were al-Qaeda operatives.
The commission did not see the plane diagram, paintball footage or some of the written material recovered from Bayoumi’s properties.
Bayoumi and the Saudi government have continued to deny involvement in the 9/11 attacks. Saudi Arabia has described allegations that it or its officials were complicit as categorically false, while Bayoumi has previously denied knowing that Hazmi and Mihdhar were hijackers and rejected claims that he was a Saudi spy.
The newly disclosed material is now part of the continuing legal battle between the 9/11 families and Saudi Arabia, while the handling of evidence gathered in the immediate aftermath of the attacks remains a central question.
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