Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, a fresh investigative report has reignited scrutiny over Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national long suspected of aiding two of the hijackers, with newly surfaced video footage placing him in close contact with a future al-Qaeda leader years before the attacks.
Previously unseen footage shows al-Bayoumi alongside Anwar al-Awlaki, who would later rise to prominence as a senior al-Qaeda figure. The recordings, reportedly recovered by the FBI within days of the 2001 attacks, capture the two men participating in what has been described as a military-style paintball session near San Diego in the late 1990s, with some participants dressed in combat-style clothing and shouting religious slogans during the activity. A separate clip from January 1998 reportedly shows the two embracing.
Omar-al-Bayoumi has always denied being an extremist and a Saudi spy. But new evidence uncovered by the BBC shows that while living in the US in the lead up to the 911 attacks, he spent time with one of Al-Qaeda‘s future leaders as well as Saudi officials.
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The hijackers were… pic.twitter.com/EPr0AmMwMW
Time that similar paintball sessions were being used by some individuals as informal training linked to jihadist activity, and that al-Awlaki already had contacts within al-Qaeda circles during this period. The footage also reportedly shows an official connected to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs present during the gathering, adding another layer to the questions surrounding al-Bayoumi’s associations.
Al-Bayoumi arrived in San Diego from Saudi Arabia in 1994, claiming he had come to the United States to study English. Records that emerged afterward indicated he devoted little attention to his coursework and was instead heavily involved in organising religious events. His name entered the 9/11 investigation after it was found on a rental agreement for an apartment leased by Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, two of the 19 hijackers involved in the attacks, who later took part in the assault on the Pentagon.
Days after the attacks, al-Bayoumi relocated to Birmingham, England, where British police arrested him on September 21, 2001. A search of his premises turned up thousands of documents, photographs and at least 80 videotapes. Among the material was a notebook page containing a sketch of an aircraft along with calculations relating to altitude and distance from a target — a find that legal representatives of 9/11 victims’ families have described as significant evidence. States that a copy of this sketch reached FBI officials in London, but British authorities did not share it with some of the agents questioning al-Bayoumi at the time, nor was it passed on to investigators in San Diego or to the 9/11 Commission. Despite repeated attempts by FBI agents in San Diego to obtain the complete set of evidence seized in Britain, they were unable to secure full access. A former investigator connected to the case said that earlier access to this material could have helped agents connect several important threads sooner.
FBI officials sought to question Saudi officials about their ties to al-Bayoumi but were not granted permission to do so. A former Justice Department official described al-Bayoumi as among the most significant figures who could plausibly have faced charges, calling both the aircraft sketch and the paintball footage important pieces of evidence. Al-Bayoumi has never been charged in connection with the attacks and has consistently denied any role in them or any accusation that he acted as an extremist or a Saudi intelligence operative. Saudi Arabia has likewise repeatedly denied any government or official involvement in the 9/11 attacks, which killed 2,976 people according to FBI figures.