Video and Airplane Sketch Raise New Questions About Saudi Ties to 9/11
The F.B.I. received a trove of evidence from British authorities between 2001 and 2002. Two significant pieces of information, which were not shared with the 9/11 Commission, have recently emerged.
Aug. 9, 2024, 3:24 p.m. ET
A trove of evidence seized by British authorities from the home of a Saudi national with ties to the Sept. 11 Al Qaeda hijackers is now being made public for the first time as part of a long-running lawsuit against the kingdom’s government by the families of some of the victims.
Former U.S. intelligence officials say the new evidence could change the story of the 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, and of the possible involvement in the plot of Omar al-Bayoumi, the Saudi national. The officials also question why some of the evidence was not shared with the 9/11 Commission, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and experts who were tasked with writing the definitive account of the attacks.
Michael J. Morell, a former deputy director of the C.I.A., said that Congress or the Justice Department should investigate the apparent lapse in processing the evidence. “What happened to this stuff after it was turned over to the F.B.I.?” he asked in an interview.
The F.B.I. declined to comment.
George Tenet, who led the C.I.A. at the time of the attacks, said that the new evidence was significant enough to require further evaluation, according to a spokesman. “The 9/11 families deserve no less,” Mr. Tenet said through the spokesman.
Ten days after the attacks, British police officers raided the home of Mr. al-Bayoumi, the Saudi national who had met two of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Los Angeles shortly after they arrived in early 2000 and who later helped them rent an apartment and get settled in San Diego. Among the items the officers seized was a pad on which Mr. al-Bayoumi had sketched an airplane in blue ink. Above the airplane, he had written out a mathematical equation.
Over the next few months, British authorities turned the al-Bayoumi material over to the F.B.I. to assist in its investigation of the attacks. But it is unclear what happened to the plane drawing after that. Ten years would pass before the bureau had an expert analyze the equation and discover its potential significance. The expert found it could be used to help calculate the rate at which a plane would need to descend in order to hit a target on the horizon.
Read the full article from the New York Times HERE.
