FBI Looks at Saudi’s Link to 9/11

The FBI is investigating a Saudi Arabian man who provided assistance to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, a disclosure that comes amid fierce debate in the intelligence community over whether the investigation also points to disturbing new links between the attacks and the Saudi government.

Government sources said Friday there are some indications that high-level Saudi officials were providing money to at least one man, who in turn helped San Diego-based hijackers get established in the United States by making rent payments and providing other assistance.

But congressional and Justice Department sources said they disagree sharply over what to make of the apparent financial links. The debate centers on whether the Saudi sponsors knew the money was going to terrorists -- let alone being used to support the Sept. 11 plot -- and whether the individuals were acting on their own or on behalf of the Saudi government.

Sources said that remains a central and unresolved question before the joint congressional panel conducting an ongoing probe of intelligence failures surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But FBI officials said they have investigated two Saudi men in connection with financial support provided to hijackers, and found no evidence of anything unusual. They determined that the men routinely helped newcomers from Arab countries with modest financial help.

“That is something we would be interested in,” one congressional source said. Investigators “want to find out the complicity or knowledge of officials of a foreign government.”

“If members felt there was some complicity or active knowledge and support, that would be a big deal,” the source said. “But we’re not there yet. All we have is circumstantial evidence.”

The possibility of Saudi government links to the hijackers is sensitive for the Bush administration, which values the oil-rich Persian Gulf state as an important ally, one that is even more important as the U.S. government contemplates a war with Iraq.

The matter has become a source of significant friction between congressional investigators and the Justice Department. Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been pressuring the Justice Department for weeks to declassify new information and evidence surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks.

In recent interviews, Graham has refused to discuss the nature of that evidence, but sources have said that it relates to connections between the San Diego hijackers and a foreign government. The San Diego hijackers, Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, were both Saudi citizens and were among those who commandeered a commercial jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon.

Congressional sources said lawmakers are frustrated that the FBI hasn’t been more aggressive in pursuing the matter.

But a Justice Department official said the FBI has been aware of the evidence since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, and is convinced that it does not point to Saudi complicity in the attacks.

“It’s a suspected linkage that isn’t true,” the official said, adding that the matter is so sensitive that many believe even airing the suggestions of Saudi links will significantly hamper the war on terrorism.

Officially, the FBI declined to comment Friday, citing its ongoing investigation into terrorism. Spokesman Steven Berry, reading from a prepared statement, said that the FBI continues to investigate a man who assisted the terrorists, Omar Al Bayoumi, and a second Saudi, Osama Bassnan. The bureau noted that it previously charged both men with visa fraud but said: “For obvious reasons, the FBI does not divulge details of its pending investigations.”

But two high-ranking FBI officials said this week that there was no evidence that the hijackers received financial support from any foreign power while they lived in San Diego.

“There are absolutely no facts that would support that theory,” said one official.

“We have people we know associated with the hijackers ... but they didn’t do things for the hijackers that they had not already done for 50 other Moslems” who came to San Diego from abroad, one of the FBI officials said.

Al Bayoumi first met Almihdhar and Alhazmi in late 1999 at a Los Angeles restaurant and later brought them to San Diego’s large Muslim community, paying their first two months rent at an apartment in the neighborhood of Claremont.

Bassnan lived for a time in the same Clairemont apartment building as Al Bayoumi and was known as the “Unofficial Saudi Mayor of San Diego.”

Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, FBI agents began questioning Muslims in San Diego about Al Bayoumi. And 10 days after the attacks, he was detained in Birmingham, England, where he was then enrolled at Aston University, at the request of the FBI.

Al Bayoumi was released a week later, strongly denying any knowledge of the terrorist attacks or links to Al Qaeda, and is believed to be in England today.

Bassan, meantime, was recently deported by the U.S. after pleading no contest to charges of visa fraud, authorities said. He was returned to Saudi Arabia.

Sources said FBI agents determined that the hijackers repaid Al Bayoumi and other individuals whatever money they had been provided during their time in San Diego. “The hijackers didn’t need their money,” said one source. “They had their other [financial] sources” for terrorism.

Records and interviews show that Al Bayoumi moved to San Diego in late 1995 or early 1996 and left for England in April 2001.

While in San Diego, Al Bayoumi, 45, was married and had a high school age son and daughter, and a younger boy and girl. His children attended public schools. He lived in two apartment complexes located about two blocks from the Islamic Center of San Diego, the largest mosque in San Diego County, where about 100,000 Muslims live.

During his years in San Diego, Al Bayoumi was a well known but mysterious figure in the local Muslim community. Despite his age he told people he was a student at U.S. International University and holder of two masters degrees. But with the exception of a close friend, nobody ever saw him with textbooks or even going to class.

Sources at the Islamic Center said Al Bayoumi used to spend a lot of time there, praying, socializing, picking up gossip and meeting new immigrants or arrivals. Although he did not work, Al Bayoumi did not want for money. The apartments he lived in are comfortable and well-maintained, not flashy. The buildings are in a middle class community where homes typically sell from $350,000 to $500,000.

A neighbor whom Al Bayoumi befriended said Al Bayoumi told him he was receiving a stipend from the aviation company he worked for in Saudi Arabia. Al Bayoumi told this source that he worked in “airline management.” However, the neighbor also said that Al Bayoumi’s wife came from a wealthy family and guessed that they may have also been a source of Al Bayoumi’s income.

Published reports in the U.S. and Britain say Al Bayoumi worked for Dallah-AVCO, a company that contracts with the Saudi aviation authority. Company officials confirmed to the Wall Street Journal and Manchester Guardian that Al Bayoumi was an employee.

Other sources said Al Bayoumi also told them he was being paid by his company while studying in the U.S, but he never told them where he worked. Still others said he told them he was living off a scholarship from the Saudi government.

The mystery surrounding Al Bayoumi’s source of income raised suspicions, as did his habit of videotaping people at social events and soccer games. Many believed he was a Saudi spy, keeping tabs on Saudi students, nationals and other Middle Easterners.

“It was a common belief that he was a spy or [Saudi] government agent. People were suspicious and afraid of him,” said a local Muslim leader who knows Al Bayoumi. “Oh, he was mysterious. He was polite and nice, but usually alone. I can’t think of anybody who was his close friend.”

Another Muslim leader said suspicions about Al Bayoumi increased one day when his wallet fell out of his pants pocket during prayer service at the center. The man who picked it up noticed a police type credential inside issued by the Saudi government. Al Bayoumi was aware that others believed he was a Saudi spy, said a neighbor. “We used to laugh and joke about that,” said the man.

As for Al Bayoumi’s habit of carrying a video recorder everywhere, the neighbor said: “The guy considered himself an artist, a videographer. He loved to make movies.”

According to the neighbor, Al Bayoumi did not approve of Palestinian suicide bombers. “He’d say, ‘What’s the point? Innocent people are killed and it invites retaliation.’ ... His idea of jihad was to make something of our lives so we can help ourselves and other Muslims in America.”

The neighbor said Al Bayoumi admired many things about America, especially its political system. “He really admired American politics and how the U.S. is governed.”

The neighbor was not the only young Arab singled out for special attention by Al Bayoumi.

Numerous sources said Al Bayoumi brought Alhazmi and Almihdhar to San Diego from Los Angeles in late 1999 or early 2000.

A former roommate of Alhazmi said that even Alhazmi was suspicious of Al Bayoumi, despite their close ties.

Alhazmi, according to the former roommate, said he and Almihdhar were in a Los Angeles restaurant when Al Bayoumi walked by their table and pretended to drop a newspaper.

He picked up the paper and told the two men he overheard them speaking Arabic and was comforted by hearing his native tongue in a strange land. After striking up a conversation with them, Al Bayoumi offered to bring the men to San Diego and help them get established.

Upon arriving in San Diego, Al Bayoumi helped Alhazmi and Almihdhar find an apartment at the Parkwood Apartments, down the street from the Islamic Center. Records show Al Bayoumi had recently moved into the Parkwood after living at another complex a block away for four years.

“I don’t find it unusual that he paid their rent,” said the neighbor. “He’s a very generous person. The FBI’s notion that [Al Bayoumi] helped the terrorists plan the attacks is way off base. In his mind, he was only helping two fellow Saudis. He especially liked to help students.”

The neighbor said that Al Bayoumi “had a lot of contact” with the Saudi Embassy in Washington. Al Bayoumi told him that he talked to people at the embassy a lot because he was always ordering copies of the Koran for local mosques, and that the only accurate English copies of the Koran came from Saudi Arabia.

He also told the neighbor and others that he used contacts at the embassy and the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles to obtain financial support for Saudi students in San Diego. A source at the Islamic Center said the consulate provides social services for Saudi students and monitors Saudi student clubs.

“He drove to L.A. a lot, to the consulate,” said the source. “Somehow, he knew who the Saudi students were and tried to get close to every one of them. This smelled fishy to a lot of people. Why would a 44-year-old man, who was a student that never went to school, want to hang out with younger college students? This is why a lot of people thought he was spying for the Saudi government.”

Al Bayoumi was described as being “very nationalistic” by his neighbor and always willing to assist a fellow Saudi. The source at the Islamic Center said Al Bayoumi was not shy about voicing support for the Saudi government. This source said that Al Bayoumi’s “loyalty to the Saudi government exceeded his loyalty to his family.”

In early 2000, after Ramadan, Al Bayoumi hosted a party at Alhazmi’s and Almihdhar’s apartment to introduce them to the community. The party was attended by 30 to 40 invited men from throughout San Diego County, who dined on lamb and rice.

A source who was at the party said Alhazmi and Almihdhar did not say much, except that they were here to study English. Al Bayoumi asked those in attendance to welcome the pair to San Diego and help them get established here.

It is a tradition in Muslim communities to welcome newcomers, but nobody could recall Al Bayoumi hosting a welcome party for anybody else.

After the party, Al Bayoumi was often seen in the company of Alhazmi and Almihdhar. “Nawaf [Alhazmi] and Khalid [Almihdhar] and Al Bayoumi were very close. Whatever help they needed, they got it from him,” said the source from the Islamic Center.

In April 2000, the source said, Al Bayoumi directed Alhazmi to a Kuwaiti man at the Islamic Center. Alhazmi asked the man if his brother in Saudi Arabia could wire $5,000 to the man’s bank account for Alhazmi. The man agreed.

The source said the funds were transferred April 18, 2000 through the Royal Bank of Canada. But it came from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, not Saudi Arabia. And the sender was identified only as “Ali.” This made the Kuwaiti suspicious of Alhazmi. It was the last favor he did for the eventual terrorist.

The FBI’s failure to secure Al Bayoumi’s arrest only fueled speculation in San Diego that he was a Saudi agent.

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Miller reported from Washington, Krikorian from Los Angeles and Reza from San Diego.