Saudi government officials arrived in the U.S. nearly three years before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to reportedly serve as an ‘advance team’ for hijackers, according to newly declassified reports.
The revelations could provide a basis for additional FBI and U.S. intelligence investigations into whether the Saudi Arabian government was directly involved in organizing the attacks.
Video and corresponding documents, journalist Catherine Herridge reports, prove that Saudi government employees came to the U.S. in 1998 to allegedly help lay the groundwork for the hijackers.
A person familiar with the investigation told the Daily Mail that the FBI is aware of the report and is on the lookout for any documents related to the latest revelations.
Assistant Director of the FBI’s Office of Congressional Affairs Marshall Yates is already leading the charge to review any materials related to the investigation into the terrorist attacks, an FBI official confirmed.
Mutaib al-Sudairy and Adel Mohammad al-Sadhan, both Saudi government officials at the time, were seen in video from June 1999 filming multiple D.C. landmarks, including the U.S. Capitol, Washington Monument and White House.
Both of these locations were potential targets for the attacks in 2001.
When former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center Bill Evanina was asked about the clips, he said they’re ‘clearly not a tourist video.’
Saudi national Omar al-Bayoumi is seen in a video in front of the U.S. Capitol in June 1999 taken by Saudi government officials Mutaib al-Sudairy and Adel Mohammad al-Sadhan, who arrived in the U.S. in December 1998 to allegedly lay the groundwork for the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks
Mutaib al-Sudairy and Adel Mohammad al-Sadhan, both Saudi government officials at the time, are seen driving around Washington, D.C. in video from June 1999
‘It’s very specific with intent of not only the visualization of multiple sides of the building, but also the security detail,’ he noted in an interview with Herridge.
While the audio is not included in the video, there are subtitles that show that the three men are joking around and noting what they saw in the country they just landed in months earlier.
The subtitles show one of the men observing at one point: ‘In this area there is a church, of course.’
‘Even the women are not covering their faces in this area,’ one of the men says in the 1999 clip.
Also seen in the video is Saudi national Omar al-Bayoumi, who is also linked to the hijackers but maintains his innocence in connection to the attacks.
An investigation found that al-Sudairy and al-Sadhan landed in Southern California in December 1998 – 18 months before the first two 9/11 hijackers also landed in Los Angeles.
Evanina told Herridge that the newly declassified materials brings the U.S. ‘closer’ to connecting the Saudi government to the horrific attacks 24 years ago.
‘I think it’s clear that we now had individuals who came here prior to 9/11 who were official Saudi employees,’ he said, but added it’s not clear if they were here on behest of the government or if they had secret ties to al-Qaeda.
The naming of these two officials, Eviana said, does ‘provide new investigative leads for the FBI and our investigative services.’
The men took video of landmarks in D.C., including the U.S. Capitol
They also took detailed video of the Washington Monument
Former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center Bill Evanina (pictured) said the clips are ‘clearly not a tourist video – it’s very specific with intent of not only the visualization of multiple sides of the building, but also the security detail’
The unearthed video shows the men filmed the South Lawn of the White House in June 1999
Evanina spent 24 years at the FBI and investigated the September 11th terrorist attacks.
Herridge uncovered in thousands of pages of 9/11 documents that al-Sadhan and al-Sudairy allegedly received help from Saudi national al-Bayoumi to obtain drivers licenses and living quarters, as well as other financial assistance.
The FBI released a report in 2021 claiming that al-Bayoumi could have been a Saudi intelligence asset who helped the hijackers with logistics once they were in the U.S.
The report released by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs mentions the links al-Bayoumi had with al-Sadhan and al-Sudairy – including his familiarity with their movements between the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles and their first stop in the U.S. at the King Fahad Mosque in Culver City.
Newly declassified documents reveal two Saudi government officials were in the U.S. three years before September 11, 2001, allegedly to lay the groundwork for the hijackers to carry out the terrorist attacks
The documents Herridge confirmed that al-Bayoumi co-signed an apartment lease with the hijackers in San Diego.
Both al-Sadhan and al-Sudairy moved to San Diego shortly after meeting al-Bayoumi in Los Angeles, according to the recently declassified report.
The 2021 FBI report claims that documents they uncovered contract al-Bayoumi’s previous claims to FBI investigators that he ‘randomly’ met the 9/11 hijackers at a restaurant in southern California.
Gaps in his story undermine claims that he’s innocent and was not linked to the September 11th attacks.
