Saudi Says U.S. Cleared Him of 9/11 Ties

[DoYouEverWonder]

AP Wire

July 30, 2003, 6:04 PM EDT

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- A civil aviation worker is at the center of the latest U.S.-Saudi dispute over whether the kingdom is doing enough to fight terror even though he claimed U.S. officials earlier cleared him of involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks.

The government authorized FBI and CIA agents to question Omar al-Bayoumi again after a congressional report recounted findings that he befriended and helped two of the hijackers.

The report said the FBI found the connection "somewhat suspicious" noting that two of the hijackers later moved to the same San Diego housing complex where al-Bayoumi was living at the time. The report also said "al-Bayoumi gave them considerable assistance."


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Al-Bayoumi, described by U.S. officials as a Saudi civil aviation authority worker, denies he extended financial help to hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi. Al-Bayoumi, who lives and works in the Saudi port city of Jiddah, said he knew them only casually after meeting by chance at a Los Angeles area restaurant.



Seems that al-Bayoumi's changed his story some since we last saw him last year. Here's some background on this character, that the AP story has conveniently forgotten to mention.


San Diego Union-Tribune

September 14, 2002

Al-Bayoumi, who was well known in the Muslim community and often gave parties and videotaped guests, was widely considered by Muslims here to be a Saudi government agent. He was popular in San Diego, and he used his influence to introduce three hijackers – Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid al-Midhar and Hani Hanjour – to the San Diego Muslim community.

They quickly gained acceptance because of Al-Bayoumi, who threw a welcome party for them when they first arrived and found and paid for apartments and other lodging for them.

Al-Bayoumi's name appeared on a U.S. list of 370 individuals and organizations with suspected links to the Sept. 11 attacks that Finnish financial authorities made public in October.

Al-Bayoumi asked several people to assist the future hijackers with translation and other matters. Those approached include material witness Mohdar Abdallah, a former San Diego State student from Yemen who awaits sentencing for immigration violations. Abdallah's lawyer, Randall Hamud, said Abdallah and other Muslims felt duped by Al-Bayoumi, and none has heard from him since he left.

"The world wants to know where Omar Al-Bayoumi is," Hamud said.


In These Times

December 20, 2002

When the reports surfaced, Haifa bint Faisal, wife of Saudi ambassador Bandar bin Sultan, acknowledged that she sent nearly $150,000 to the wife of a Saudi living in San Diego. The recipient, Majeda Ibrahin Dweikat, signed over some of the checks to a friend whose husband, Omar al-Bayoumi (with Dweikat’s husband), helped hijackers Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi find housing in San Diego, open bank accounts, get Social Security cards, pay expenses and arrange flying lessons in Florida.

U.S. authorities suspected days after September 11 that al-Bayoumi, by then in Birmingham, England, had helped the hijackers. The British arrested him and, in a search of his house, found phone records showing calls to two diplomats at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. Lacking conclusive evidence, they released him, and he is now believed back in Saudi Arabia.

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The links between bint Faisal’s powerful Saudi family and financing of terrorism are even more extensive, however. The trails of both Omar al-Bayoumi, the man who aided the hijackers, and that of the financial network of bint Faisal’s family each lead to Osama bin Laden.

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One of the bank’s three founding members and major shareholders is Saleh Abdullah Kamel. A major financial and media power in the Arab world, he is in addition the chairman of the Dallah al-Baraka Group (DBG). Al-Bayoumi was assistant to the Director of Finance for Dallah Avco, a DBG company that works with the Saudi aviation authority. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the United States believes the Dallah al-Baraka Bank, another DBG company, was also used by al-Qaeda.