There’s fresh evidence indicating a man who was dismissed in the 9/11 case might actually have something to do with what happened.
Even though it’s been more than 20 years since 9/11, people in the U.S. still think about it a lot
The September 11 terrorist attacks may have happened over 20 years ago, but the day remains alive in the American consciousness. Four coordinated terrorist attacks were carried out by Islamist extremists tied to al-Qaeda.
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The total death count was 2,977 victims
In the end, nearly 3,000 people lost their lives. Authorities back then launched into a series of investigations. And according to a CBS News report, something new came up—evidence pointing to a guy who might’ve been more involved than anyone thought before.
Authorities originally dismissed this guy as uninvolved
The man in question is Omar Al-Bayoumi from Saudi Arabia. He was looked into back then, but in 2004, the 9/11 Commission basically said he didn’t seem like the type to be secretly working with terrorists.
Now rediscovered evidence has changed that view
Some old stuff from his apartment back in 2001 showed up again. And Gina Bennett, who worked at the CIA back then, thinks they might’ve missed something pretty important.
A CIA analyst believes Bayoumi helped the hijackers
She straight up said she thinks Bayoumi “was an al-Qaeda facilitator” and that he seriously helped two of the hijackers. She said without his help, maybe those guys would’ve actually been caught.
The FBI’s also saying he was tied to Saudi intelligence and knew the two hijackers well.
There was also this video that came out in court last year that Bayoumi recorded back in 1999
It shows him filming all kinds of stuff in D.C., like entrances and exits at the Capitol, some security points, a model of the building, and other nearby spots.
But the Saudi government said it was just a tourist video.
Bayoumi confirmed writing a sketch and an equation
Another weird thing—there was this sketch and a math equation, and Bayoumi admitted during a 2021 deposition that he wrote them.
Bayoumi didn’t give a clear answer. Through a translator, he just said: “Maybe this was an equation we learned back in high school, and I was just trying to see if I could solve it again.” But experts later said that math could’ve helped a pilot figure out how to hit a target from far away.
He said he met the hijackers by chance
He also said he met two of the hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, in L.A. in early 2000. But he swears it was random and he was just being helpful while they were getting settled.
After everything happened, Bayoumi went back to Saudi Arabia. He’s never been charged with anything.
