New 9/11 Lawsuit Videos Reveal Extremist Links of Suspect
Newly uncovered videos from a $1 trillion 9/11 lawsuit show Omar al-Bayoumi playing paintball with a future al-Qaeda leader and ties to Saudi officials.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- New videos emerge in a $1 trillion 9/11 lawsuit concerning Omar al-Bayoumi
- Footage shows meetings with Anwar al-Awlaki and Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs officials
- FBI possessed crucial diagram and videos days after 2001 attacks but withheld them
Never-before-seen videos obtained from a massive $1 trillion, or £733 billion, lawsuit brought by families of 9/11 victims have revealed extensive ties between Omar al-Bayoumi and Saudi government officials, alongside footage of him playing paintball with a future al-Qaeda leader.
The footage, which was in the hands of the FBI within days of the 2001 attacks, sharply contradicts 25 years of denials by Bayoumi that he operated as a extremist or a Saudi spy. In one clip, Bayoumi is seen embracing Anwar al-Awlaki, who later led al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, while another shows them paintballing near San Diego alongside an official from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Islamic Affairs.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
The newly surfaced videos form part of an ongoing legal battle arguing that Saudi Arabia was complicit in the attacks and that Bayoumi assisted two of the 19 hijackers. Bayoumi was arrested in the UK by the Metropolitan Police shortly after the attacks, and the recordings were discovered among his belongings.
"Grainy images from a paintballing session filmed by Bayoumi show urban combat scenes and target practice."
Among the items found was a diagram of an aircraft accompanied by a flight descent equation. Multiple FBI agents received copies of this diagram, yet it was never shared with British interrogators stationed at the police facility where Bayoumi was held, nor was it provided to the independent 9/11 Commission investigating the historic tragedy.
This ongoing litigation highlights the decades-long pursuit of accountability by victims' families following the massacre that killed nearly 3,000 people. Thousands of documents and media files have recently been declassified through an executive order by former President Joe Biden, shedding light on intelligence gaps that persisted for years.
Both Bayoumi and the Saudi government have consistently denied any prior knowledge of or involvement in the attacks and did not respond to requests for comment from the BBC, while the FBI also declined to comment. Investigative teams from BBC Panorama and Radio 4 continue to examine these declassified records to understand why the evidence was never fully pursued.
Source: BBC World
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