Newly unsealed video reveals {that a} suspected Saudi spy was filming the US Capitol and Nationwide Monument simply months earlier than al Qaeda officers determined what targets to hit throughout the Sept. 11 terrorist assault.
Omar al-Bayoumi, an accused Saudi intelligence operative with shut ties to 2 of the 9/11 hijackers, might be heard narrating the 1999-era video displaying the US Capitol constructing and the Washington Monument, CBS’s “60 Minutes” studies.
Whereas the US authorities has maintained that al Qaeda acted alone on Sept. 11, retired FBI Agent Richard Lambert says the video serves as evermore proof that the phobia group had assist.
“It’s one other very massive brick in a large wall of proof that at this level signifies the Saudi authorities was complicit within the 9/11 assaults,” he advised the TV information journal.
The disturbing footage highlights al-Bayoumi’s journey to Washington, DC, with the Saudi nationwide addressing his “brothers” as he guarantees to survey the capitol.
“I’ll go over there, and I’ll report,” al-Bayoumi says as he pans to the monuments. “I’ll report back to you intimately what’s there.”
Al-Bayoumi can be heard referencing a “plan” through the video.
Lambert, who’s now a advisor on the case filed by the households of 9/11 victims looking for to carry Saudi Arabia accountable within the terror assault, stated the video may have helped al Qaeda determine a few of its targets.
Investigators have long-believed that Flt. 93’s supposed goal was the US Capitol earlier than passengers revolted in opposition to the hijackers, main it to finally crash in a discipline in Pennsylvania.
One other jet was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., throughout the Potomac River from DC, whereas two planes hit the Twin Towers in Manhattan.
It stays unclear if US officers have fastidiously studied the video, which al-Bayoumi and the Saudi authorities have claimed was only a vacationer tape.
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell stated Sunday that it was clear that al-Bayoumi was casing the Capitol within the “chilling video,” which he admits he had not seen earlier than the “60 Minutes” report.
“Little doubt in my thoughts that it’s a casing video, that it’s a casing video for some form of terrorist assault,” Morell advised CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“I’m 99.9% assured that we didn’t have this video,” Morell added. “I used to be the president’s briefer on the time. If anyone had proven me this video, I’d have proven it to the president.”
Retired FBI Agent Ken Williams, who labored on the 9/11 investigation, questioned why it has taken greater than 20 years for the video to floor after it was supplied to the US following a British raid on Al-Bayoumi’s UK residence in 2001.
“If that was missed, then disgrace on us for lacking it,” Williams stated. “If it wasn’t missed, then I must ask the query: What was completed with it?”
The tape was unsealed final week in federal courtroom through the case in opposition to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The FBI had declined to touch upon the video and general case, citing ongoing litigation.
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