FBI says 9/11 hijackers had US-based, Saudi-sponsored support

A newly released FBI memo strongly suggests the 9/11 hijackers who killed 3,000 people and sparked a 20-year war were bankrolled by the Saudis.

The Biden administration declassified an FBI memo that fortified suspicions of official Saudi involvement with the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks, but it fell short of the proof that victims’ families suing Saudi Arabia had hoped for.

The memo from 4 April, 2016, which had been classified until now, showed links between Omar al-Bayoumi, at the time a student but suspected to have been a Saudi intelligence operative, and two of the Al-Qaeda operatives who took part in the plot to hijack and crash four airliners into targets in New York and Washington.

A man stands in the rubble, and calls out asking if anyone needs help, after the collapse of the first of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre Tower in lower Manhattan. Picture: AFP

Based on 2009 and 2015 interviews with a source whose identity is classified, the document details contacts and meetings between Bayoumi and the two hijackers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Midhar, after the two arrived in Southern California in 2000 ahead of the attacks.

It also strengthens already-reported links between the two and Fahad al Thumairy, a conservative imam at the King Faad mosque in Los Angeles and an official at the Saudi consulate there.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin AbdulAziz of Saudi Arabia, Chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (R), hands former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (L) a check for USD 10 million for the Twin Towers Fund in New York. Picture: AFP

The document says that telephone numbers associated with the source indicated contact with a number of people who assisted Hamzi and Midhar while they were in California, including Bayoumi and Thumairy, as well as the source himself.

It says the source told the FBI that Bayoumi, beyond his official identity as a student, had “very high status” in the Saudi consulate.

“Bayoumi’s assistance to Hamzi and Midha included translation, travel, lodging and financing,” the memo said.

The memo also said that the FBI source’s wife told them Bayoumi often talked about “jihad.” And it further connects by meetings, phone calls and other communications, Bayoumi and Thumairy with Anwar al-Awlaki, the US-born cleric who became an important Al-Qaeda figure before he was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

The document released was still significantly redacted and did not offer a clear direct link between the Saudi government and the hijackers.

It was released after President Joe Biden was pressured by family members of those killed on 9/11 who have sued Saudi Arabia for complicity.

Three successive US administrations have refused to declassify and release documents related to the case, apparently because they do not want to damage the US-Saudi relationship.

Many thanks to my Dad #JimKreindler for fighting for the victims of #11septembre2001 ❤ pic.twitter.com/eJrvmuF7vm

— Victoria Pousada Kreindler (@VictoriaPousada) September 12, 2021

Jim Kreindler, one of the leaders of the lawsuit, said the document validates the lawsuit’s key contention that the Saudi government helped the hijackers.

“With this first release of documents, 20 years of Saudi Arabia counting on the US government to cover up its role in 9/11 comes to an end,” Kreindler said in a statement.

The families are still hoping for stronger evidence when more classified material is released inside the next six months, based on a Biden order

It comes as a former FBI agent claimed that he believed at least two of the hijackers who carried out the attacks had a US-based support network.

The New York Post reports that Danny Gonzalez worked on “Operation Encore,” the still- top secret investigation into the two Saudi hijackers who were based in San Diego.

In a new interview, Gonzalez told CBS News he’s confident the records of that operation will show the hijackers had help.

“19 hijackers cannot commit 3,000 mass murders by themselves,” Gonzalez told the network.

#OperationEncore “I can’t sit on the sidelines when I know the truth,” retired FBI agent Danny Gonzalez told @CBSNews in his first network TV interview about the still secret FBI case + retired FBI agent Ken Williams who wrote the “Phoenix memo” that warned before 9/11 potential pic.twitter.com/jSNey1YeJn

— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 4, 2021

Mr Biden signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to oversee a declassification review of some documents related to the 9/11 attacks, after pressure from families of victims who are demanding to know if Saudi Arabia helped the hijackers.

The DOJ must release any declassified documents in the next six months.

Some records pertain to “Operation Encore,” which began two years after the commission’s report.

Gonzalez said the public would learn “a lot” if records from Operation Encore were released, and that it would change the public’s understanding of 9/11.

9/11 hijackers of American Airlines flight 77: Clockwise from left: Hani Hanjour, Majed Moqed, Nawaf al-Hazmi, Salem al-Hazmi, Khalid al-Mihdhar. Picture: Supplied

Gonzalez said the two hijackers — Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar — were helped by a number of Saudis, including Omar al-Bayoumi.

Bayoumi, who was working for the Saudi government, has said he randomly met the two hijackers at a restaurant in LA and encouraged them to move to San Diego. He helped them find apartments and open bank accounts. The two hijackers even started attending flight school nearby.

Gonzalez said he can’t reveal certain classified information about Operation Encore, per FBI orders.

Nor can another former agent, Ken Williams, who wrote a memo before 9/11 that warned potential terrorists were taking flight lessons in Arizona.

NEW: Executive Order calls for expedited review, release long secret 9/11 docs including records from “Operation Encore” that drilled down on who helped the hijackers move seamlessly around the US.  April 4 FBI summary document or “EC” is vital (unless heavily redacted) to pic.twitter.com/YIM2ypfYEU

— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 3, 2021

“The evidence is there. I’ve seen it. But I can’t get into specifics because of the protective order,” Williams said.

Both former agents are now working for the families of 9/11 victims as investigators.

“I can’t sit on the sidelines when I know the truth,” Gonzalez said.

The 9/11 families are suing Saudi Arabia, though the Saudis deny official involvement, and the 9/11 Commission report found no connection.

The commission report also found that Bayoumi was an “unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement with Islamist extremists,” and said there was “no credible evidence that he believed in violent extremism or knowingly aided extremist groups.”

- With the New York Post

Originally published as FBI says 9/11 hijackers had US-based, Saudi-sponsored support