An individual previously overlooked in investigations had connections with two of the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and new evidence points to a potentially deeper role.
Though over two decades have passed since the September 11 attacks, the event continues to resonate deeply in the American psyche.
The attacks consisted of four coordinated actions by Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaeda.
In an event that has become an indelible part of American history, two commercial airlines were flown into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York as part of the attacks.
Another plane crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth was brought down in a Pennsylvania field due to a passenger revolt, preventing it from reaching its intended target.
A total of 2,977 people lost their lives in the attacks.
In response, authorities conducted extensive investigations, and a CBS News report has highlighted new evidence implicating an individual allegedly tied to the events.
Omar Al-Bayoumi, a Saudi Arabian national, came under scrutiny after the attacks. However, the 9/11 Commission in 2004 deemed him “an unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement with Islamic extremists.”
Recent evidence from his 2001 apartment in the U.S. offers a new perspective, and Gina Bennett, a counterterrorism analyst with the CIA during the attacks, believes important information may have been overlooked.
Bennett asserts that the evidence suggests Bayoumi “was an al-Qaeda facilitator” who provided significant support to “two hijackers, without which they may very well have been caught.”
The FBI has identified Bayoumi as an operative of the Saudi intelligence service with close associations to two of the hijackers.
Last year’s unsealed evidence from a federal court, part of the 9/11 families’ lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, included video footage Bayoumi recorded in Washington during the summer of 1999.
The video documents the Capitol’s entrances and exits, security locations, a building model, and nearby landmarks.
Bayoumi highlighted the Washington monument and noted the proximity of the airport, information that retired FBI supervisor Richard Lambert considered crucial for planning an attack.
The Saudi government has characterized Bayoumi’s video as a mere tourist recording.
Additional evidence raising suspicions about Bayoumi includes a sketch and equation he admitted during a 2021 deposition to having written.
Though he remembered little about these notes, they contained calculations related to the plane’s height and distance from the horizon.
Experts indicated that such an equation could help a pilot determine the descent rate needed to hit a target.
With the aid of a translator, Bayoumi remarked: “Perhaps this was an equation that we studied before in high school, and I was trying to remember whether I’m going to be able to figure out and solve it or not.”
Bayoumi also encountered 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar in Los Angeles in early 2000, which he claimed was a chance meeting, and he was merely assisting them in settling in the U.S.
After the attacks, Bayoumi moved to Saudi Arabia and has never faced any criminal charges.