Free Republic

LIKE MANY GREAT SPY STORIES, this one begins with a brief, mundane scene whose significance only becomes apparent later on. Around lunchtime on February 1, 2000, a man dropped a piece of paper near a table in a Middle Eastern restaurant outside Los Angeles and paused long enough to strike up a conversation with two Arabic-speaking men dining nearby. It would take FBI agents nearly 20 years to understand the full meaning of that small event. The man who dropped the piece of paper was Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi intelligence asset, recently declassified FBI documents show. And the two Arabic-speaking...

The 28-page section of the 9/11 report detailing Saudi involvement in the September 11, 2001 jihad attacks have finally been released (albeit with substantial portions still redacted), and it is now clear why one President who held hands with the Saudi King and another who bowed to him worked so hard all these years to keep these pages secret: they confirm that the 9/11 jihad murderers received significant help from people at the highest levels of the Saudi government. The report states that Omar al-Bayoumi, who “may be a Saudi intelligence officer,” gave “substantial assistance to hijackers Khalid al-Mindhar and...

War on Terror San Diego FBI team denies it missed chance to thwart 9/11 San Diego FBI officials, bracing for a congressional report that criticizes their handling of an informant who rented rooms to two Sept. 11 hijackers, said yesterday they could not have uncovered the plot with the information they had at the time. Officials acknowledged for the first time that an informant, whom they refused to identify, had provided the first names of two men who would later become hijackers, the Associated Press reported. But the names did not raise any red flags before the terror attacks. "There...

A Saudi national, Omar al-Bayoumi, wanted for questioning about his links to the September 11 hijackers, says he is ready to talk to US officials. He agreed to the interview but only in his homeland, and in the presence of officials from his government. Advertisement On Sunday, al-Bayoumi appeared on Dubai-based Al Arabiya television, saying he had written to the Saudi interior minister telling him he was ready for the questioning. His name was raised in a US congressional report that recounted that he had befriended and helped two of the suicide hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. Al-Bayoumi said...

Saudis step up pleas for 'acquittal' over September 11 attacks By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 31/07/2003) Saudi Arabia's campaign to clear itself in the court of American public opinion of involvement with the September 11 attacks was stepped up yesterday with an offer to let the United States interrogate a Saudi official. Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, in Washington for a hastily arranged meeting with President Goerge W Bush, said he had granted a request from the US national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to question Omar al-Bayoumi.But the prince declined to say if his government would extradite...

<p>November 23, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - The FBI is looking into whether the Saudi government - using the bank account of the wife of its ambassador to the United States - sent thousands of dollars to two Saudi students who helped two Sept. 11 hijackers, it was reported yesterday.</p>

At the top-of-the-hour newsbreak it was reported a "material witness" being held since Sept related to the 9/11 attacks has gone missing. His lawyer has reported he has no information on the whereabouts of his client. The client has not been seen since last Wednesday morning when he appeared in NY to give testimony. He was told then, apparently, that he faced charges back in San Diego for falsifying information on his application for asylum. The suspect is a student at San Diego State University.