9/11 Families Pushing For FBI Probe Into Suspected Saudi Operative's Role - Reports

9/11 Families Pushing for FBI Probe Into Suspected Saudi Operative's Role - Reports

A group of 9/11 victims' families suing Saudi Arabia over its alleged role in the suicide attacks have been pushing the US Justice Department to release documents believed to implicate a suspected Saudi intelligence operative in the plot, media said

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th April, 2022) A group of 9/11 victims' families suing Saudi Arabia over its alleged role in the suicide attacks have been pushing the US Justice Department to release documents believed to implicate a suspected Saudi intelligence operative in the plot, media said.

The relatives of some of nearly 3,000 Americans killed in New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville in Pennsylvania had to go through British courts to see the evidence against Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who knew at least two of the hijackers and hosted them at a party in San Diego in January 2000, CBS news said.

The documents and videos were seized by UK police at al-Bayoumi's Birmingham home less than two weeks after the attack. Some of the 9/11 families told CBS they had subpoenaed the FBI for the al-Bayoumi records in 2018 but only a fraction were provided and much of that cannot be released publicly.

One declassified FBI memo from 2017, in particular, said that al-Bayoumi "was paid a monthly stipend as a cooptee of the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) via then Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan." Although his role in the attacks was not confirmed at the time of the 9/11 Commission report, this information "confirms these allegations," the memo continued.

"Will the Justice Department now explain to the families and to America why they did not pursue charges against al-Bayoumi? And most astonishingly, why did this information come from the U.K. government and not our own FBI," Brett Eagleson, who leads a group of victims' families, said.

Al-Bayoumi is reported to be living in Saudi Arabia but attempts by CBS News to reach him through the embassy failed. The outlet also asked the FBI if it would consider reopening the investigation into al-Bayoumi and why 9/11 families had to turn to British courts for help but the bureau declined to comment.