- Published
The man at the heart of a $1 trillion (£733bn) lawsuit brought by 9/11 families had extensive links to Saudi government officials and went paintballing with one of al-Qaeda's future leaders, video obtained by the BBC reveals.
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video → publish → BBC
The footage, which the FBI had within days of the 2001 attacks, stands in stark contrast to Omar al-Bayoumi's 25 years of denials that he was an extremist and a Saudi spy.
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he → have → denials
Bayoumi, who claimed to be a student when he was in the United States, is seen in one clip embracing Anwar al-Awlaki, who would go on to lead al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
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who → claim → Peninsula
In another, Bayoumi and Awlaki are paintballing near San Diego with an official from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Islamic Affairs.
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Bayoumi → paintballe → Affairs
The videos form part of the 9/11 families' lawsuit against Saudi Arabia and have never been shown publicly before.
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videos → form → Arabia
The lawsuit argues Saudi Arabia was complicit in the attacks and that Bayoumi aided two of the 19 hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon - with another crashing in Pennsylvania.
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another → argue → Pennsylvania
Bayoumi was arrested in the UK by the Metropolitan Police days after the attacks and the videos were found among his possessions, along with other crucial evidence.
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videos → arrest → evidence
This included a diagram of a plane with a flight descent equation written alongside.
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This → include → equation
Multiple FBI agents received copies of the diagram, but it was never shared with the British interrogators, even though it had been couriered to the police station where Bayoumi was being held in custody.
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Bayoumi → receive → custody
The diagram was also kept from some FBI agents investigating Bayoumi, as well as from the 9/11 Commission - the independent inquiry into the largest mass murder in US history, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed.
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people → keep → which
Bayoumi was never prosecuted.
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Bayoumi → prosecute → ?
He and the Saudi government did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment, but both have always denied any involvement in, or prior knowledge of, the attacks.
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both → respond → attacks
The FBI declined to comment.
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FBI → decline → ?
After a judge ruled the lawsuit could go ahead in 2018, thousands of documents, as well as videos and photographs, have been released to the court and also declassified through an executive order made by former President Joe Biden.
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thousands → rule → Biden
BBC Panorama and Radio 4 have examined these documents, and spoken to dozens of special agents and investigators, to trace the evidence the FBI gathered about Bayoumi and Saudi Arabia's alleged involvement in 9/11 - and to understand why it was never fully pursued over 25 years.
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it → examine → years
Our investigation also found:
The plane diagram was sent to the FBI's New York office and was analysed, according to an FBI source.
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diagram → find → source
But a US Department of Justice (DOJ) official told the BBC he was never shown a proposal to prosecute Bayoumi based on the evidence, even though "we've convicted people for less"
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we → tell → less
FBI agents in San Diego, where Bayoumi had lived in the US, repeatedly requested copies of evidence but never received most of it
The San Diego and Los Angeles FBI offices were both blocked from interviewing Bayoumi's Saudi government contacts
Staff on the 9/11 Commission objected to the conclusion that Bayoumi was "unlikely" to have been involved with extremists, prompting the report to attribute this to "our investigators who have dealt directly with him"
Paintballing to 'train for jihad'
Omar al-Bayoumi arrived in San Diego from Saudi Arabia in 1994.
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Bayoumi → live → 1994
He claimed to be studying English, but court records show that within a few years he had, in effect, abandoned his studies.
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he → claim → studies
He was more usually found organising religious events, often with a camcorder pressed to his eye.
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He → find → eye
One video Bayoumi filmed, from 1997 or early 1998, shows men, including Anwar al-Awlaki, paintballing.
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men → film → Awlaki
Filmed near San Diego, the group engages in urban combat scenes and target practice, many wearing military fatigues.
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many → film → fatigues
At one point, some of the men charge into battle, shouting "Allahu Akbar".
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some → charge → Akbar
A visiting Saudi sheikh is with the group and Bayoumi can also be heard addressing Anwar al-Awlaki with the honorific "Sheikh Anwar".
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Bayoumi → visit → honorific
Paintballing emerged as a subject of interest in the FBI's post-9/11 counter-terrorism investigations, and the DOJ used paintball evidence in a number of terrorism prosecutions.
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DOJ → emerge → prosecutions
Omar al-Bayoumi and Anwar al-Awlaki were involved in paintball sessions in San Diego for at least three years in the late 1990s and very early 2000s. When the FBI investigated after 9/11, agents were told some of the participants were taking part to train for jihad.
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some → involve → jihad
Though Awlaki's extremist preaching would come into sharper focus after 9/11, at the time the paintballing video was recorded he already had connections to al-Qaeda operatives and was shortly to be investigated by the FBI.
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he → come → FBI
He was killed in a CIA drone strike in 2011.
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He → kill → 2011
Saudi Arabia has stated that the paintball video does not reveal who "made" or "took" it.
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who → state → it
When he was questioned remotely in the 9/11 families' lawsuit in 2021, Bayoumi insisted he had not met Awlaki.
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he → question → Awlaki
The video evidence contradicting his claim was only made available, confidentially, to the court a year later - and placed on the public docket on 4 September this year.
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evidence → contradict → September
Another previously unreported clip shows Bayoumi embracing Awlaki in January 1998.
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Bayoumi → show → January
Further footage records Bayoumi's many meetings with officials and preachers from Riyadh's Ministry of Islamic Affairs.
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footage → record → Affairs
He appears in a video with two ministry officials, one wielding a clipboard, at SeaWorld.
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He → appear → SeaWorld
Bayoumi passes the camera to his son and bounds into shot to record his presence with them.
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Bayoumi → pass → them
The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, created in 1993, was seen as dominated by clerics who espoused a radical view of Sunni Islam and exported it around the world.
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who → create → world
It spent hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide building mosques, and sent dozens of officials to the US, some of whom oversaw a network of preachers with hard-line views.
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some → spend → views
Plane diagram found in Birmingham
After the 9/11 attacks, Omar al-Bayoumi emerged as an early suspect in the FBI's investigation.
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Bayoumi → find → investigation
His name had been found on an apartment rental agreement signed by the first two hijackers to arrive in the United States, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who were part of a five man hijacking team that crashed a plane into the Pentagon.
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that → find → Pentagon
The FBI traced Bayoumi to Birmingham, UK, where he had moved with his family before 9/11.
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he → trace → 9/11
…and 87 more, not listed.
