Video evidence links Omar al-Bayoumi to Anwar al-Awlaki and Saudi officials

Omar al-Bayoumi linked to Anwar al-Awlaki and Saudi officials in declassified footage

The BBC obtained videos and documents submitted in a 9/11 families’ lawsuit showing Omar al-Bayoumi with Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs officials and embracing Anwar al-Awlaki, and a notebook page with a plane descent calculation that prosecutors later deemed significant.

Footage seized by UK police after Bayoumi’s arrest in Birmingham days after the 11 September 2001 attacks includes a 1997–98 paintballing clip showing Bayoumi and Anwar al-Awlaki in what agents described as urban-combat exercises, as well as further clips of Bayoumi with Saudi ministry figures. Those materials were part of thousands of pages, photographs and at least 80 videotapes taken from his properties.

British officers couriered a yellow-lined notebook page with a sketch of a plane and a flight descent equation to the FBI in London; that page was later provided to the 9/11 families’ lawsuit and publicly filed in 2022. The federal judge in the lawsuit found the notebook page appears to “connect Bayoumi with knowledge of the 9/11 Attacks.” Bayoumi has previously denied knowing the hijackers or being a Saudi spy.

Copies of videos and the plane diagram were distributed among FBI agents in London and New York, but San Diego and some investigators did not receive or were blocked from receiving key items. San Diego investigators repeatedly requested evidence from New York while conducting local inquiries into Bayoumi’s mosque, phone records and associates.

FBI and Department of Justice documents cited to the BBC reference other seized materials that “demonstrate Omar al-Bayoumi’s anti-American sentiments and beliefs,” but contemporaneous summaries and memos did not always mention the paintball footage or Bayoumi’s link to Awlaki. The FBI declined to comment for the BBC report.

Liberal News Analysis: What Does This Development Mean?

Declassified videos and documents made available through the 9/11 families’ lawsuit show Bayoumi photographed and filmed with Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs officials and with Anwar al-Awlaki; a notebook page with a flight descent calculation was among evidence turned over to US investigators and later filed in court. Investigators and some 9/11 Commission staff questioned conclusions that Bayoumi was unlikely to have extremist ties, noting the commission did not see many seized materials during its 2003 interview.

FBI field offices in San Diego and Los Angeles reported they were limited in interviewing Saudi contacts, and some FBI agents have said key exhibits were not shared across offices. DOJ officials cited by the BBC said no prosecution proposal based on the plane diagram reached them, despite later legal team statements calling it a “smoking gun.”

Quick Glance: What You Need to Know

• Declassified videos show Omar al-Bayoumi with Anwar al-Awlaki and Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs officials.
• A notebook page with a plane descent calculation was seized in Birmingham and later submitted in the 9/11 families’ lawsuit.
• Copies of evidence were shared among some FBI offices but were not consistently passed to San Diego investigators or to the 9/11 Commission during its inquiry.