ICYMI: New Investigation Details How FBI Withheld Evidence Leading to UK Freeing Key Saudi Agent Tied to 9/11

NEW YORK – Earlier today, The Sunday Times (UK) published an explosive exposé shedding unprecedented light on the arrest and release of Saudi government agent Omar al-Bayoumi in the days after the September 11 attacks at the direction of the FBI, and on consequential U.S. government decisions that kept British counterterrorism detectives in the dark and left key evidence unexploited for years.

Read the article, “Revealed After 24 Years, How UK Was Forced To Free 9/11 ‘Plotter’” by clicking HERE.

Acting on an FBI warrant, Bayoumi was arrested at his home in Birmingham, England just days after the 9/11 Attacks. Evidence seized was immediately turned over to the FBI. Washington, however, withheld evidence from British interrogators, including a notebook with an aircraft sketch and flight calculations, a “casing” video of the U.S. Capitol and extensive footage showing Bayoumi with two of the hijackers. The FBI also chose to withhold information about its scrutiny of Bayoumi in the 1990s.

Nevertheless, according to the report, investigators were deeply suspicious of Bayoumi based on their interrogations and were preparing to have him extradited, but the U.S. Department of Justice declined after a one-hour call, allowing Bayoumi to walk free.

The report illustrates that the FBI’s extensive pattern of behavior of withholding information and evidence about the 9/11 Attacks began with America’s closest allies and continues to this day with the American people. It raises questions, too, about decision making at Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Justice Department and Robert Mueller’s FBI, which never exploited the airplane sketch, the Capitol “casing” video, or the complete party footage. All were withheld from the 9/11 Commission either in whole or in part.

This long hidden evidence has only come to light thanks to the 9/11 community’s suit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in U.S. federal court. In that case, Judge George B. Daniels held last week that the 9/11 community has presented credible evidence that Saudi government agents, including Bayoumi, were tasked by Riyadh to assist the hijackers, allowing litigation to proceed toward a public trial.

Additional evidence, however, remains out-of-reach. The FBI is continuing to fail to comply with a 2018 subpoena for documents related to its 9/11 investigation and Executive Order 14040.

“The FBI has repeatedly acted as a gatekeeper, shielding Saudi officials and suppressing its own findings. It continues to mete out crumbs of incomplete and heavily redacted files while mischaracterizing others as too sensitive to share,” said 9/11 Families United National Chair Terry Strada. “As we prepare to put the Kingdom on trial for the worst atrocities committed against this Nation, we demand full transparency from our government. No more secrets. No more delays.”

About 9/11 Families United:
9/11 Families United is an organization consisting of family members of those murdered in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as many of those who survived, were injured in or sickened from the attacks, a community that numbers well over 10,000. More information is at www.911familiesunited.org

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