A recently released video from 1999 shows a man identified by the
FBI as a Saudi intelligence agent filming various locations in Washington, DC, three months before Al-Qaida decided to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
The footage, which was in the possession of the FBI, was unsealed as part of a court action by families of the 9/11 victims who claim that Saudi Arabia's government was complicit in the event, a claim the country's rulers deny. The video was obtained by CBS and aired on the 60 Minutes program.
In the video the man, Omar al-Bayoumi, provides commentary about various locations in the city, including the Washington Monument and the entry points and security arrangements of the US Capitol building. He also refers to a "plan" at one point. The Capitol is believed to have been the target of one of the planes before its hijackers were overwhelmed by passengers, causing it to crash in the Pennsylvania countryside.
The film was initially discovered by UK investigators in Bayoumi's flat in Birmingham, where he was a PhD student at Aston University, in the days following the 9/11 attacks. The flat also contained an address book that lawyers for the families say contains the contact details of officials in the Saudi government at the time. Scotland Yard provided the footage to the FBI.
Bayoumi has long been a subject of speculation due to his links to two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. Declassified FBI reports suggest that Bayoumi may have had advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and provided significant assistance to the hijackers after their arrival in the US.
In the video, Bayoumi greets the "esteemed brothers" and welcomes them from "Washington the American capital city." He points out the Washington Monument and mentions going there to report back in detail. The FBI claims that when Bayoumi was shooting the video, he was accompanied by two Saudi Arabian diplomats who the bureau said had ties to al-Qaida.
The official 9/11 Commission report, published in 2004, concluded that intelligence failures on the part of the CIA and FBI were primarily to blame for the attack. The report stated that there was no credible evidence that Bayoumi believed in violent extremism or knowingly aided extremist groups. When Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, credited as the attack mastermind, was asked under interrogation if he knew Bayoumi, he said he did not.