New Evidence Suggests Deeper 9/11 Involvement by Saudi National Once Dismissed by Investigators

More than two decades after the 9/11 attacks, newly uncovered evidence is raising serious questions about the role of a previously overlooked individual with direct ties to two of the terrorists.

The September 11 attacks—four coordinated suicide hijackings carried out by al-Qaeda—remain one of the darkest days in U.S. history. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when hijackers crashed planes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.

Now, a CBS News report has revealed new evidence suggesting that Saudi national Omar al-Bayoumi may have played a more significant role in the attacks than previously believed.

From “Unlikely” Suspect to Alleged Facilitator

Al-Bayoumi had been investigated after 9/11, but in 2004 the 9/11 Commission described him as “an unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement with Islamic extremists.”

However, newly reviewed material from his 2001 apartment in the U.S. has led intelligence officials to reassess that conclusion.

Gina Bennett, a former CIA counterterrorism analyst, told CBS News she believes al-Bayoumi was in fact “an al-Qaeda facilitator” who provided critical support to two of the hijackers—Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. “Without his help,” she said, “they may very well have been caught.”

FBI Links Bayoumi to Saudi Intelligence and Hijackers

According to the FBI, al-Bayoumi was working as an agent for the Saudi intelligence service and had close connections to the two hijackers he assisted after they arrived in the U.S. in early 2000. Al-Bayoumi claims their meeting was purely coincidental and that he was simply helping fellow Muslims settle in a new country.

But court documents unsealed last year in a lawsuit filed by 9/11 victims’ families against Saudi Arabia tell a more suspicious story.

Suspicious Video and Notes Raise Red Flags

The newly surfaced evidence includes a video al-Bayoumi recorded in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1999. The footage features the U.S. Capitol’s entrances and exits, security checkpoints, a scale model of the building, and other landmarks. He also points out the Washington Monument and notes how close the airport is—details that former FBI supervisor Richard Lambert says would be useful in planning an attack.

The Saudi government maintains the video is merely a harmless tourist recording.

But other materials have raised further concerns. During a 2021 deposition, al-Bayoumi confirmed he had drawn a diagram and written out equations involving the distance of a plane from Earth and the horizon. Experts say the math could be used by pilots to calculate a descent path toward a specific target.

Speaking through a translator, al-Bayoumi claimed he remembered little about the notes and suggested he might have been trying to recall an equation from high school.

Still Free, Still Uncharged

Despite mounting evidence and lingering questions, Omar al-Bayoumi has never been charged with a crime. He left the U.S. shortly after the attacks and has been living in Saudi Arabia ever since.

The new details are part of the ongoing legal and investigative efforts by 9/11 victims’ families, who continue to push for full transparency and accountability more than 20 years after the attacks.