Newly launched movies present Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi nationwide investigated by the FBI after the September 11, 2001 assaults, embracing future al Qaida chief Anwar al-Awlaki and participating in paintball workout routines with him, based on a BBC investigation.The footage, obtained by BBC Panorama and Radio 4, was amongst proof gathered by investigators after the assaults however has by no means beforehand been made public. It varieties a part of a $1 trillion lawsuit filed by 9/11 households alleging Saudi Arabia was complicit within the assaults.One video, filmed close to San Diego in 1997 or early 1998, exhibits Bayoumi and Awlaki taking part in paintball workout routines alongside an official from Saudi Arabia’s ministry of Islamic affairs. Contributors, some sporting military-style clothes, have interaction in mock city fight and goal follow, with some heard shouting “Allahu Akbar”.In line with the BBC, FBI investigators have been later instructed that some individuals used paintball periods to coach for jihad. Awlaki, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2011, already had hyperlinks to al Qaida operatives on the time.One other beforehand unseen clip exhibits Bayoumi embracing Awlaki in January 1998. Bayoumi had denied assembly Awlaki throughout a 2021 deposition within the 9/11 households’ lawsuit. The video seems to contradict that declare.Bayoumi arrived in San Diego in 1994, claiming to be an English-language scholar. Investigators later discovered proof suggesting he had largely deserted his research and was concerned in organising non secular actions.Bayoumi emerged as an early FBI suspect after his title was discovered on an house rental settlement signed by Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, two of the hijackers who later helped crash a airplane into the Pentagon.British police arrested Bayoumi in Birmingham on September 21, 2001, and seized hundreds of paperwork, pictures and round 80 videotapes. Among the many proof was a handwritten diagram exhibiting a airplane alongside mathematical calculations regarding altitude and distance.The FBI obtained copies of the diagram inside days of the assaults, however British detectives questioning Bayoumi weren’t briefed about it, regardless of the proof being simply metres away on the police station the place he was held.A federal choose later mentioned the doc, on its face, “connects Bayoumi with information of the 9/11 Assaults”, the BBC reported.The BBC additionally discovered that FBI brokers in San Diego repeatedly sought proof about Bayoumi however didn’t obtain a lot of it, whereas makes an attempt by FBI places of work to interview a few of his Saudi authorities contacts have been blocked.Bayoumi was launched on September 28, 2001, after US officers concluded there was inadequate proof to hunt his extradition.Bayoumi and the Saudi authorities have denied involvement in or prior information of the assaults. Neither responded to the BBC’s requests for remark. The FBI declined to remark.
