Newly Released Videos Link 9/11 Lawsuit Figure to Extremists and Saudi Officials

Newly obtained video footage has revealed that Omar al-Bayoumi, the central figure in a $1 trillion lawsuit brought by 9/11 victims’ families, maintained extensive connections with Saudi government officials and associates of al-Qaeda. The BBC Panorama and Radio 4 investigation shows Bayoumi paintballing with Anwar al-Awlaki, who later became a leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The videos, which the FBI possessed within days of the September 2001 attacks, directly contradict Bayoumi’s 25-year denial that he was an extremist or a spy for Saudi Arabia. In one clip, Bayoumi is seen embracing Awlaki in January 1998. Another depicts the two men, along with an official from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, participating in paintball sessions near San Diego during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Bayoumi, who claimed to be a student in the US, arrived in San Diego in 1994. Court records indicate he largely abandoned his studies to organize religious events, often filming them with a camcorder. While Awlaki’s extremist views became more prominent after 9/11, he already had ties to al-Qaeda operatives at the time the footage was recorded. Saudi Arabia has stated the videos do not identify who created them, and Bayoumi insisted during 2021 legal depositions that he had never met Awlaki.

The lawsuit, filed against Saudi Arabia, alleges the kingdom was complicit in the attacks and that Bayoumi assisted two of the 19 hijackers. Bayoumi was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in Birmingham, UK, shortly after the attacks. During the search of his property, officers seized thousands of documents, photographs, and videotapes, including a critical piece of evidence: a yellow lined notebook page containing a diagram of a plane and mathematical calculations regarding its descent.

Although copies of this diagram were shared with multiple FBI agents in London, they were withheld from the British interrogators questioning Bayoumi and were also kept from some FBI agents and the 9/11 Commission. Jodi Westbrook Flowers, a lawyer for the 9/11 families, described the diagram as the “smoking gun,” noting it demonstrates knowledge of the precise height and distance required to guide a plane into a target.

Despite this evidence and findings by a federal judge in 2025 that the note connects Bayoumi to knowledge of the attacks, Bayoumi was never prosecuted. He offered no comment to the BBC, and the FBI declined to respond. The investigation raises questions about why the evidence was not fully pursued over the past 25 years, with reports indicating that requests by San Diego FBI agents for evidence and access to Bayoumi’s Saudi contacts were blocked.