Omar al-Bayoumi
Omar al-Bayoumi is a Saudi national currently living in England. He acheived noteriety when it was discovered he was friends with two of the 9/11 hijackers, and some suspect he was a Saudi agent and an accessory to the attacks. Saudi Arabia firmly maintains that he al-Bayoumi is not an agent of theirs, and he was let off
Income
Virtually nothing is known of al-Bayoumi's early life. Until 1994 he lived in Saudi Arabia, working for the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Aviation, a department headed by Prince Sultan. The FBI has revealed that al-Bayoumi's salary was approved by Hamid al-Rashid. A Congressional report[1] notes "Hamid is the father of Saud al-Rashid, whose photo was found in a raid of an al-Qaida safehouse in Karachi and who has admitted to being in Afghanistan between May 2000 and May 2001."
In August of 1994, al-Bayoumi moved to the United States and settled down in San Diego, California, where he became involved in the local Muslim community. According to several sources[2] [3] (Newsweek 11/22/03, 11/24/03) [4], al-Bayoumi was strongly suspected by many residents of being a Saudi government spy.
At this time, al-Bayoumi was paid about $3,000 per month by Dallah Avco, a Saudi company closely tied to the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Avaition, al-Bayoumi's former employer. The salary was officially for a project in Saudi Arabia, although he was living in the United States at the time and apparently did no work for them. For five years, the Saudi ministry reimbursed Dallah Avco for al-Bayoumi's salary, and he was considered a civil servant. When the company tried to fire al-Bayoumi in 1999, a Saudi government official replied with a letter marked "extremely urgent" that the government wanted al-Bayoumi's contract renewed "as quickly as possible."[5] Dallah Avco is currently being investigated by the FBI for ties to al-Qaida.
In June of 1998, an anonymous Saudi philanthropist donated $500,000 to have a Kurdish mosque in San Diego, on the condition that al-Bayoumi hired as maintenance manager with a private office. The donation was accepted, but because al-Bayoumi rarely showed up for work, the mosque's leadership became unhappy with him.
Some time in late 1999 or early 2000, Omar al-Bayoumi began receiving another monthly payment–this one from Princess Haifa bint Faisal, the wife of Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Checks for between $2,000 and $3,000 were sent monthly from the princess, through two or three intermediaries, to al-Bayoumi.[6] The payments continue for several years, totalling between $50,000 and $75,000.
Alhazmi and Almihdhar
In January of 2000, al-Bayoumi visited the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, and had a closed-door meeting with Fahad al Thumairy, according to Newsweek Magazine. (After 9/11, al Thumairy was barred entry into the U.S. due to his links to terrorism.[7]) He then went to a restaurant in LA "to pick up visitors", according to an FBI source.[8]
On January 15, 2000, future 9/11 hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar flew to Los Angeles, California from Bangkok, Thailand, just after holding an important al-Qaida meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Al-Bayoumi met them at a restaurant after landing, and later claimed he met them by accident. He invited the two hijackers to move to San Diego with him, and they did. Al-Bayoumi found them an apartment, co-signed the lease, and gave them $1500 in cash to help pay for their rent. He also helped the two obtain driver's licenses, rides to Social Security, information on flight schools, and more. According to Newsweek magazine, the FBI's "best source" in San Diego said that al-Bayoumi "must be an intelligence officer for Saudi Arabia or another foreign power," and a former top FBI official said, "We firmly believed that he had knowledge [of the 9/11 plot], and that his meeting with them that day was more than coincidence."
Alhazmi and Almihdar's neighbors later reported that the two struck them as quite odd. They had no furniture, constantly played flight simulator games, and limousines picked them up for short rides in the middle of the night.[9] [10] During this time, al-Bayoumi lived across the street from them. Throughout this period, his payments from Dallah Avco, his titular employer, greatly increase. The two later moved into the house of Abdussattar Shaikh, a friend of al-Bayoumi's, who was secretly working as an FBI informant at the time.[11] [12]
Arrest
In July of 2001, Omar al-Bayoumi moved to England for unknown reasons. Ten days after the September 11 attacks he was arrested by British authorities working with the FBI.
(I will add more later.)