A review of discovery provided by the FBI, however, shows that one witness, whose name is redacted from documents provided by the Government to the Defense, told agents in 2002 that he/she observed Al-Bayoumi dropping a piece of paper near Al-Hazmi and Al-Mihdhar’s table and then striking up a conversation with them. According to the FBI’s witness, Al-Bayoumi’s actions appeared “unnatural.”
I then conducted further research regarding Omar Al-Bayoumi. Information obtained from open sources shows that the FBI suspected that Al-Bayoumi was associated with Fahad Al-Thumairy, a Saudi government official who was assigned to the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles prior to 9/11. Open source documents also show that an FBI examination of telephone records shows numerous phone calls between numbers associated with Al-Thumairy and Al-Bayoumi prior to the 9/11 attacks.
During June of 2016, I interviewed a former 9/11 Commission investigator whose identity is known to me. The investigator is identified herein as CS-1. CS-1 stated that sometime around 2003, he/she interviewed Fahad Al-Thumairy at a Saudi Government building in Riyadh. CS-1 stated that the purpose of the interview was to question Al-Thumairy regarding his relationship with the San Diego hijackers and his possible association with Omar Al-Bayoumi. CS-1 recalled that numerous other people were in the room while he/she and other investigators were questioning Al-Thumairy.
CS-1 stated that members of the Saudi counter intelligence agency were also present during his/her interview of Al-Thumairy. CS-1 told me that he/she felt that Al-Thumairy was “less than 100% forthcoming” when he was questioned by the commission. CS-1 noted that Al-Thumairy seemed to react when questioned regarding his relationship with Omar Al-Bayoumi. CS-1 recalled that sometime after the first interview, he/she and other members of the 9/11 Commission interviewed Al-Thumairy a second time in Riyadh. The second interview was held in a Saudi government building. Members of the Saudi security service were also present at the second interview.
CS-1 recalled that Al-Thumairy spoke English fluently. CS-1 also noted that during both sessions when Al-Thumairy was asked a controversial question, he asked that the question be translated from English into Arabic. CS-1 noted that the above might had been an indicator that Al-Thumairy was being deceptive during his questioning by the members of the commission. CS-1 confirmed that Al-Thumairy worked for the Saudi government in the Department of Religious Affairs.
I next interviewed a second former 9/11 Commission investigator, whose identity is known to me. The investigator is herein referred to as CS-2. CS-2 stated that he/she was responsible for the 9/11 Commission’s investigation into the possible link between the Saudi government and the 9/11 attacks. CS-2 noted that the staff director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, limited the number of witnesses that Commission investigators could interview. CS-2 recalled
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