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Whereas President Biden signed an govt order final fall to declassify 9/11 proof, the households of some 9/11 victims say they needed to undergo the British courts to get data and movies seized 20 years in the past from an alleged Saudi authorities operative which have by no means been public till now.
“Why did it take 20 years for this info to see the sunshine of day?” Brett Eagleson instructed CBS Information senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge.
He’s main a bunch of households combating for the paperwork. He was 15 years previous when his father, Bruce, was killed within the World Commerce Middle South Tower, and 20 years later, he desires his youngsters to know what he calls “the key of 9/11” and who was behind the plot to kill their grandfather.
“Will the Justice Division now clarify to the households and to America why they didn’t pursue fees towards (Saudi nationwide Omar) al-Bayoumi? And most astonishingly, why did this info come from the U.Ok. authorities and never our personal FBI?”
Lower than two weeks after 9/11, bins of proof, together with private notes and video, have been seized by British police from a house in Birmingham, England.
Buried contained in the trove is a house video from 2000, now being seen publicly for the primary time. The occasion was described in 9/11 Fee data as a celebration on the San Diego residence of Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, the primary two hijackers to reach within the U.S. in January 2000.
Whereas the 2 hijackers apparently averted the video digital camera on the celebration, a handful of frames captured Mihdhar within the kitchen. Together with Hazmi, their crew would later commandeer Flight 77 that slammed into the Pentagon.
The celebration’s host, Saudi nationwide Omar al-Bayoumi, was arrested by British police lower than two weeks after the assault that killed almost 3,000 People in New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. British police seized the movies and paperwork from Bayoumi.
Three years after the assault, the 9/11 Fee mentioned, “Now we have seen no credible proof that he (Bayoumi) believed in violent extremism or knowingly aided extremists teams.”
Although a newly declassified and closely redacted FBI memo from 2017 acknowledged, “Within the late Nineties and as much as September 11, 2001, Omar al-Bayoumi was paid a month-to-month stipend as a cooptee of the Saudi Common Intelligence Presidency (GIP) through then Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan….”
The memo continued, “Allegations of al-Bayoumi’s involvement with Saudi Intelligence weren’t confirmed on the time of the 9/11 Fee Report. The above info confirms these allegations.”
One other not too long ago declassified FBI memo from the identical yr, citing supply reporting, mentioned, “There’s a 50/50 probability Omar al-Bayoumi had superior data the 9/11 terrorist assaults have been to happen.”
The declassified data pertain to a long-secret investigation, code named “Operation Encore,” which centered on the 2 hijackers who lived in San Diego and who might have assisted them.
Retired FBI agent Danny Gonzalez, who labored on Operation Encore, instructed CBS Information final fall that he believes Bayoumi was a part of the hijackers’ U.S-based assist community.
“He helped them with flats, he helped them with financial institution accounts,” Gonzalez instructed CBS Information.
Gonzalez and one other former FBI agent, Ken Williams, are engaged on behalf of the households of some 9/11 victims of their litigation towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Williams wrote a memo earlier than 9/11 that warned potential terrorists have been chickening out classes in Arizona.
Williams mentioned, “He was additionally an worker of the federal government of Saudi Arabia.”
In keeping with a spokesman for the 9/11 households, the British information include over 14,000 pages of paperwork, greater than 20 hours of video and as many hours of audio interrogations of Bayoumi by British counterterrorism police.
As a part of their lawsuit searching for cash from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, CBS Information has discovered that a few of the 9/11 households mentioned they subpoenaed the FBI for the Bayoumi data in 2018, including solely a fraction have been offered by the bureau and are beneath seal, which suggests they won’t be publicly launched.
Among the many data launched by British authorities was a notepad. As first reported by CBS Information in August 2021, the FBI twice quizzed an American pilot in 2012 concerning the significance of the hand-drawn airplane and mathematical equation.
In keeping with a sworn declaration for the courtroom, the pilot mentioned it is likely to be used to view a goal after which calculate the speed of descent to the goal. “I shared with the FBI my opinion that there was an affordable foundation to consider that the drawing and equation have been used as a part of the preparations of the al Qaeda terrorists to hold out the 9/11 assaults,” Navy veteran and pilot Robert M. Brown mentioned.
In one other video that’s believed to be from earlier than 9/11, Bayoumi is seen warmly greeting and embracing the American Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who additionally supported the hijackers in San Diego after which in Virginia within the months earlier than the 9/11 assault.
Later killed in a CIA drone strike in 2011, Awlaki was the primary American focused for demise by the company as a senior chief of the al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, which was accountable for failed plots together with the tried 2009 underwear bombing of a passenger jet on Christmas Day 2009. Awlaki can also be blamed for the radicalization of People by means of his digital propaganda and the rise homegrown terrorism.
“Al-Awlaki first is available in contact with the hijackers right here in San Diego. He subsequent is available in contact with them in Falls Church, Virginia,” Williams mentioned. He believes the assist community in southern California for the hijackers was mirrored in Virginia with Awlaki.
“He follows them throughout the nation, or they comply with him throughout the nation. … To what depth was he concerned? To what extent was he concerned? And we’re that proper now, in our work with the attorneys for the plaintiffs,” Williams mentioned.
A number of the 9/11 households are suing Saudi Arabia. The Saudis deny involvement, and the 9/11 Fee report discovered no connection.
Bayoumi is believed to be residing in Saudi Arabia. CBS Information tried to achieve him by means of the Saudi embassy. It didn’t instantly reply to our questions, however final fall mentioned in a press release, “Any allegation that Saudi Arabia is complicit within the September 11 assaults is categorically false.”
The FBI declined to remark. CBS Information requested if the Bureau would take into account re-opening its investigation into Bayoumi, and why the 9/11 plaintiffs needed to undergo the British courts to get the data and movies, moderately than getting them from U.S. regulation enforcement.
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