1 00:00:09,500 --> 00:00:12,700 September 11th is a national tragedy. 2 00:00:15,300 --> 00:00:19,520 My mom told us that there were bad guys who came and took Daddy. 3 00:00:21,020 --> 00:00:24,220 Hijacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers 4 00:00:24,220 --> 00:00:27,700 and took it all away from us. 5 00:00:27,700 --> 00:00:30,140 Our lives were truly shattered on 9/11. 6 00:00:30,140 --> 00:00:32,040 Like, our family was really broken. 7 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:40,360 It's a day that I would like to only think of my husband, 8 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:44,500 and we can't do that if the truth remains buried. 9 00:00:44,500 --> 00:00:49,440 It's 25 years since the world's deadliest terror attack. 10 00:00:51,940 --> 00:00:56,380 Does the arrest of a man in the UK, just days after 9/11, 11 00:00:56,380 --> 00:00:58,480 hold the key to understanding 12 00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:01,120 what happened and who was responsible? 13 00:01:09,460 --> 00:01:10,960 Was he an innocent student... 14 00:01:14,660 --> 00:01:17,820 ..or a Saudi Arabian spy involved in 9/11? 15 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:26,940 OK. 16 00:01:26,940 --> 00:01:31,320 We've scoured hours of never before-broadcast footage... 17 00:01:39,380 --> 00:01:42,140 ..and thousands of pages of declassified documents... 18 00:01:45,340 --> 00:01:48,300 ..to investigate the Saudi connection to 9/11... 19 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:52,280 When we began looking at the evidence, 20 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:56,420 it became quite clear that all roads led to Riyadh. 21 00:01:56,420 --> 00:02:00,860 ..and claims the US government tried to hide it. 22 00:02:00,860 --> 00:02:04,880 I've got to tell you, this is very stressful for me. 23 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:07,160 I still love the FBI. 24 00:02:08,500 --> 00:02:09,940 What does this tell us about 25 00:02:09,940 --> 00:02:12,740 America's relationship with Saudi Arabia? 26 00:02:12,740 --> 00:02:15,100 I'm not going to even touch that. 27 00:02:15,100 --> 00:02:17,980 There's no way. I'll get crushed. 28 00:02:47,460 --> 00:02:52,280 I didn't know exactly what I wanted until I met Tom. 29 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,640 I was 19 and he was 21. 30 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,320 He kind of walked by me, and my sister was there, 31 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:05,940 she was standing over here, and she was like, 32 00:03:05,940 --> 00:03:07,520 "Oh," she said, "I don't know about him. 33 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:09,100 "He looks like trouble." 34 00:03:09,100 --> 00:03:12,420 And I said, "Well, that's OK. He's pretty handsome." 35 00:03:12,420 --> 00:03:15,580 He then started just calling me every day. 36 00:03:15,580 --> 00:03:17,580 He was a hopeless romantic. 37 00:03:21,180 --> 00:03:23,180 Been a long time since I've seen these. 38 00:03:26,220 --> 00:03:29,340 Terry married Tom Strada in 1992. 39 00:03:32,860 --> 00:03:35,020 So that's a good one. SHE CHUCKLES 40 00:03:35,020 --> 00:03:37,280 Throwing down shots in Hawaii. 41 00:03:39,860 --> 00:03:42,460 They settled in New Jersey and started a family. 42 00:03:45,580 --> 00:03:48,460 He was very proud of his children, 43 00:03:48,460 --> 00:03:51,660 and he had the kids outside all the time. 44 00:03:51,660 --> 00:03:54,220 He loved being outdoors. 45 00:03:56,620 --> 00:04:03,580 Their third child was born just days before the 11th of September 2001. 46 00:04:03,580 --> 00:04:06,220 Tom was there when I had Justin. He came in the next day 47 00:04:06,220 --> 00:04:11,140 with Caitlin marching right behind him, "Where's my baby brother?" 48 00:04:11,140 --> 00:04:14,380 I was living the American dream 49 00:04:14,380 --> 00:04:18,180 and I absolutely had the perfect life. 50 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:30,980 RADIO: A beautiful day. Sunny skies in New York. 51 00:04:30,980 --> 00:04:34,200 Humidity 75%, the wind northwest at 9mph. 52 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:38,340 Tuesday morning, I had a newborn in my arms, he was four days old. 53 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:43,120 And Tom went down the stairs, 54 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:45,500 turned around and said, "I'll be home by two. I love you." 55 00:04:47,580 --> 00:04:50,100 He was only going to work half a day. 56 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:56,000 Tom worked as a bond broker on the 104th floor of 57 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:57,980 the World Trade Center's North Tower. 58 00:04:59,140 --> 00:05:01,680 I took a shower, and as I was coming out of the shower, 59 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:05,380 the phone was ringing, and it was Tom, and I almost didn't pick it up. 60 00:05:05,380 --> 00:05:09,140 Then there was a panic in his voice that I'd never heard before, 61 00:05:09,140 --> 00:05:11,900 and he sounded frantic. 62 00:05:11,900 --> 00:05:14,300 And that's when he said, "Terry," he said, 63 00:05:14,300 --> 00:05:18,180 "the building's been hit by an airplane." 64 00:05:18,180 --> 00:05:20,380 RADIO: Breaking news - a plane 65 00:05:20,380 --> 00:05:22,920 has crashed into the World Trade Center. 66 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:26,660 Apparently a direct hit into one of the Twin Towers. 67 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,440 He tells me that the smoke is really bad, 68 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:35,740 and I can hear this noise that sounds like wind, like... 69 00:05:35,740 --> 00:05:37,160 SHE IMITATES GUST OF WIND 70 00:05:39,420 --> 00:05:42,980 He said, "I'm going to the stairwell to get out." 71 00:05:42,980 --> 00:05:44,900 And I remember telling him, 72 00:05:44,900 --> 00:05:47,580 you know, "Yes, go, go, go." 73 00:05:47,580 --> 00:05:49,720 And then it did come on the TV. 74 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,440 And when I saw that black billowing smoke, 75 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:54,700 that's when I screamed, 76 00:05:54,700 --> 00:05:56,260 "He's in that building. That's where he is. 77 00:05:56,260 --> 00:05:57,780 "He can't get out of that." 78 00:05:57,780 --> 00:06:01,240 I was like, "Nobody's going to get out of that." 79 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:03,340 Now you're standing in front of the TV, 80 00:06:03,340 --> 00:06:05,740 and this other airplane comes in. 81 00:06:09,140 --> 00:06:11,340 I was on the phone with a friend, and she said, 82 00:06:11,340 --> 00:06:14,060 "Oh, my God, Terry, you don't want to see what's happening now." 83 00:06:23,820 --> 00:06:26,860 That building came crumbling down, y'all! It's gone! 84 00:06:26,860 --> 00:06:30,180 It never entered my mind that that could happen to Tom's building. 85 00:06:35,820 --> 00:06:38,460 BYSTANDERS GASP 86 00:06:42,620 --> 00:06:44,900 This icy chill went through my body. 87 00:06:44,900 --> 00:06:47,620 It felt like ice water was in my veins. 88 00:06:47,620 --> 00:06:51,700 And I think that's when Tom left this Earth. 89 00:06:54,860 --> 00:06:56,580 Within little more than an hour, 90 00:06:56,580 --> 00:06:59,140 four passenger planes had been hijacked. 91 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:04,160 Two were flown into the World Trade Center. 92 00:07:06,980 --> 00:07:08,660 One crashed into a field 93 00:07:08,660 --> 00:07:12,020 in Pennsylvania on its way to Washington, DC. 94 00:07:17,260 --> 00:07:20,860 Another hit America's military headquarters, the Pentagon. 95 00:07:23,380 --> 00:07:25,640 SIREN BLARES 96 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:28,560 Almost 3,000 people were killed. 97 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,440 Thousands more were injured. 98 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:33,260 Good evening. 99 00:07:33,260 --> 00:07:37,080 Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, 100 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:40,560 our very freedom, came under attack 101 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:44,500 in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. 102 00:07:44,500 --> 00:07:48,860 The search is under way for those who were behind these evil acts. 103 00:07:48,860 --> 00:07:52,560 We will make no distinction between the terrorists 104 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:55,800 who committed these acts and those who harboured them. 105 00:08:05,180 --> 00:08:09,500 My husband was dead, and I have a newborn and two children, 106 00:08:09,500 --> 00:08:12,380 and I don't know how I'm going to get through this. 107 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,600 Questions were swirling in my head. 108 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:23,000 Who did this? Why would they do it? And how did they do it? 109 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:24,100 How did they carry off 110 00:08:24,100 --> 00:08:26,340 such a horrific attack on the United States? 111 00:08:42,620 --> 00:08:46,240 The FBI launched the biggest investigation in its history. 112 00:08:48,580 --> 00:08:52,160 We have more than 4,000 special agents 113 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:54,900 who are assigned to assist this investigation. 114 00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:01,560 US intelligence agencies rapidly confirmed 115 00:09:01,560 --> 00:09:04,840 the attacks were masterminded by Osama bin Laden. 116 00:09:08,540 --> 00:09:12,660 He was born in Saudi Arabia and was based in Afghanistan. 117 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:16,600 REPORTER: He controls and finances Al-Qaeda, 118 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:18,860 an umbrella network of Islamic militants, 119 00:09:18,860 --> 00:09:22,360 and he's vowed to destroy the United States. 120 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:28,160 Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, had sent 19 hijackers to the US. 121 00:09:30,740 --> 00:09:32,900 A number of the suspected 122 00:09:32,900 --> 00:09:37,840 hijackers were trained as pilots in the United States. 123 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:40,880 15 of the 19 were Saudis. 124 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:43,080 It raised early questions about 125 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:45,700 whether the Saudi government had been involved. 126 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:51,660 All of us in the FBI pledge to leave no stone unturned 127 00:09:51,660 --> 00:09:54,980 in our quest to help find those responsible, 128 00:09:54,980 --> 00:09:58,720 and to bring those individuals to justice. 129 00:10:07,680 --> 00:10:10,080 FBI Special Agent Danny Gonzalez 130 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:14,540 worked 2,500 miles from New York in California. 131 00:10:17,260 --> 00:10:21,660 I was on a staycation. Our kids were young. 132 00:10:21,660 --> 00:10:25,560 Legoland of California had just opened up. 133 00:10:27,980 --> 00:10:29,260 And the kids wanted to go, 134 00:10:29,260 --> 00:10:33,300 and we were just going to spend the week there. 135 00:10:33,300 --> 00:10:37,120 Then, at 6am, my pager went off. 136 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:41,540 911, CodeRED. I took off and went straight to the office. 137 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:46,440 I had shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and tennis shoes, 138 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:49,880 but it didn't matter what you were wearing, you needed to get there. 139 00:10:54,460 --> 00:10:58,720 A car found at a Washington airport gave an early clue. 140 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:03,260 It had been used by two of the hijackers who attacked the Pentagon. 141 00:11:03,260 --> 00:11:08,460 It was a 1988 blue Toyota Corolla with California plates. 142 00:11:08,460 --> 00:11:10,520 And then, when they ran the plates, 143 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:13,360 the registered owner was one of the hijackers. 144 00:11:15,300 --> 00:11:17,940 The car's owner was Nawaf al-Hazmi, a Saudi national. 145 00:11:20,780 --> 00:11:22,640 Hazmi had lived in San Diego 146 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:27,100 in Southern California for almost a year. 147 00:11:27,100 --> 00:11:31,880 Along with fellow Saudi hijacker, Khalid al-Mihdhar, 148 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:36,860 they were the first of the 19 hijackers to arrive in the US. 149 00:11:38,580 --> 00:11:41,980 You have these two individuals that lived here in our back yard. 150 00:11:43,680 --> 00:11:46,440 Early on, we learned that they had lived here for months. 151 00:11:48,620 --> 00:11:52,020 The two men didn't speak English, and hadn't been to America before. 152 00:11:53,940 --> 00:11:56,460 They must have had help. 153 00:11:56,460 --> 00:11:59,540 Finding out who from was now a priority for the FBI. 154 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:04,640 We needed to know everything about them - 155 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:07,200 where they went, who they saw, who they met. 156 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:09,900 You focus on who helped them, who assisted them. 157 00:12:12,340 --> 00:12:15,260 It was a network. But when you see who's 158 00:12:15,260 --> 00:12:19,400 the principal of this network - 159 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:21,780 is Omar al-Bayoumi. 160 00:12:21,780 --> 00:12:23,220 All good here. 161 00:12:23,220 --> 00:12:26,000 OK. Thanks. 162 00:12:35,900 --> 00:12:39,100 These are Omar al-Bayoumi's home videos. 163 00:12:44,300 --> 00:12:47,300 They've never been broadcast before. 164 00:12:47,300 --> 00:12:51,140 They offer a window into his life in America. 165 00:12:51,140 --> 00:12:53,620 CHILD WAILS 166 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:57,140 Family trips to Las Vegas... 167 00:13:05,060 --> 00:13:06,060 ..and SeaWorld. 168 00:13:08,580 --> 00:13:13,200 He'd moved to San Diego from Saudi Arabia in 1994. 169 00:13:24,860 --> 00:13:26,420 Bayoumi lived with his wife 170 00:13:26,420 --> 00:13:29,860 and three children at the Parkwood apartment complex. 171 00:13:29,860 --> 00:13:35,580 Omar, I'm not sure exactly when I met him, 172 00:13:35,580 --> 00:13:39,340 but I do remember being around him a lot. 173 00:13:40,680 --> 00:13:43,840 Holly Ratchford was the manager there. 174 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:46,760 She's speaking publicly for the first time. 175 00:13:47,820 --> 00:13:51,340 Omar, his apartment was right next to the pool. 176 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:57,860 My kids played with their kids, and we went to the pool together. 177 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:05,940 He was always so bubbly and smiling, and just very, very friendly. 178 00:14:09,060 --> 00:14:12,940 But there was always something going on with Omar. 179 00:14:12,940 --> 00:14:15,460 He just talked to everybody. 180 00:14:17,020 --> 00:14:19,160 And Bayoumi filmed that, too. 181 00:14:20,740 --> 00:14:22,440 How are you, brother? Fine. How are you? 182 00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:25,320 Mashallah, Mashallah. He was very, very social. 183 00:14:36,260 --> 00:14:38,660 In February 2000, 184 00:14:38,660 --> 00:14:41,780 Omar al-Bayoumi brought two men to meet Holly. 185 00:14:41,780 --> 00:14:45,260 She says he told her they were his friends and he wanted to get them 186 00:14:45,260 --> 00:14:48,820 an apartment close to his at Parkwood. 187 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:51,980 Omar brought them in with the pretence 188 00:14:51,980 --> 00:14:54,660 that they were just friends from the mosque. 189 00:14:54,660 --> 00:14:57,740 There was absolutely nothing unusual about them. 190 00:14:57,740 --> 00:15:01,480 They were nice, they were polite. 191 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:04,240 The two friends didn't have US bank accounts 192 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:07,720 or the proof of income needed to rent an apartment. 193 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:10,480 They had to have somehow have some way 194 00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:14,180 to prove that they were going to pay their rent on time. 195 00:15:17,900 --> 00:15:20,060 So Bayoumi took them to the bank, 196 00:15:20,060 --> 00:15:24,060 helped them open an account, and returned to see Holly. 197 00:15:24,060 --> 00:15:26,060 This is the application. 198 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:30,780 Omar - "Friend." 199 00:15:30,780 --> 00:15:33,020 He WAS their friend. 200 00:15:33,020 --> 00:15:35,900 "Personal References" - Omar. 201 00:15:35,900 --> 00:15:38,660 "In Case of Emergency" - Omar. 202 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:43,640 To make sure their application went through, 203 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:46,360 Bayoumi personally guaranteed to cover their rent. 204 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:51,860 This is the rental agreement, one of thousands 205 00:15:51,860 --> 00:15:54,620 of documents we've combed through for this investigation. 206 00:15:58,280 --> 00:15:59,820 Its strict terms meant 207 00:15:59,820 --> 00:16:02,740 that if the men didn't pay, Bayoumi would have to. 208 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:07,720 So that way I would have gone to Omar immediately 209 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:09,620 if their rent would have 210 00:16:09,620 --> 00:16:13,160 fallen behind, because he was a guarantor. 211 00:16:15,460 --> 00:16:18,820 With Bayoumi's help, Holly's new tenants fitted in well. 212 00:16:21,660 --> 00:16:23,580 I would have cookies and tea with them, 213 00:16:23,580 --> 00:16:26,660 and they would come in, and it wasn't like they were 214 00:16:26,660 --> 00:16:29,700 just someone that came into the office and rented from us. 215 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:33,700 Holly says Bayoumi seemed close to the two men. 216 00:16:35,340 --> 00:16:39,020 I saw them over at his house. They were definitely friendly. 217 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:42,900 Bayoumi's friends were 218 00:16:42,900 --> 00:16:46,600 Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. 219 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:51,820 They'd been hand-picked to be 9/11 hijackers by bin Laden. 220 00:16:51,820 --> 00:16:55,200 They became part of a five-man team 221 00:16:55,200 --> 00:17:00,780 who crashed passenger flight 77 into the Pentagon, killing 184 people. 222 00:17:02,580 --> 00:17:06,460 The manhunt continues without rest. The names of all 19 hijackers 223 00:17:06,460 --> 00:17:08,820 in the four doomed planes are now known. 224 00:17:11,540 --> 00:17:14,220 Someone called me, and they were like, 225 00:17:14,220 --> 00:17:15,740 "Did you know that they were two of the terrorists 226 00:17:15,740 --> 00:17:18,380 "that flew the planes into the Pentagon?" 227 00:17:18,380 --> 00:17:21,060 And I went, "What?" 228 00:17:21,980 --> 00:17:23,580 I had no idea. 229 00:17:24,980 --> 00:17:27,100 And, yeah, it really hurt. 230 00:17:35,700 --> 00:17:38,380 REPORTER: 11 days after America became the target of terrorism, 231 00:17:38,380 --> 00:17:40,160 police in this country are closing 232 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:44,180 the net on people they believe may be linked to the atrocities. 233 00:17:45,860 --> 00:17:48,380 Omar al-Bayoumi and his family had left the US 234 00:17:48,380 --> 00:17:51,580 and settled in Birmingham before 9/11. 235 00:17:54,060 --> 00:17:57,260 When the FBI discovered he'd guaranteed the hijackers' rent, 236 00:17:57,260 --> 00:18:00,220 he became a prime suspect. 237 00:18:02,140 --> 00:18:06,220 Agents asked British counter-terror police to find him. 238 00:18:06,220 --> 00:18:09,060 Anti-Terrorist Branch officers swooped on this house 239 00:18:09,060 --> 00:18:11,300 in the Highgate area of Birmingham last night. 240 00:18:12,820 --> 00:18:16,020 Police arrested Bayoumi and seized his possessions, 241 00:18:16,020 --> 00:18:19,600 including documents, videotapes and his car. 242 00:18:24,740 --> 00:18:27,700 He was taken to Paddington Green Police Station in London 243 00:18:27,700 --> 00:18:31,240 so specialists from the Metropolitan Police could question him. 244 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:18,260 The FBI were in London briefing the Met detectives. 245 00:19:18,260 --> 00:19:19,880 The aim was to get enough evidence 246 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:23,500 so Bayoumi could be extradited to the US and face trial. 247 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,480 The detectives knew Bayoumi wasn't telling the truth. 248 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:45,220 He'd helped two of the hijackers get their apartment in San Diego. 249 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:06,540 After a day of questioning, 250 00:20:06,540 --> 00:20:10,680 Bayoumi finally admitted he knew the two men. 251 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,600 He said he'd met them by chance in a restaurant 252 00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:17,340 in Los Angeles shortly after they arrived in the States. 253 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:36,700 Eventually, Bayoumi said 254 00:20:36,700 --> 00:20:40,720 he told the men they could call him if they were ever in San Diego. 255 00:21:05,620 --> 00:21:08,500 Bayoumi was starting to make admissions, 256 00:21:08,500 --> 00:21:10,480 but under UK law at the time, 257 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:14,340 detectives could only hold him for seven days. 258 00:21:23,740 --> 00:21:26,940 The FBI in San Diego was now in a race against time 259 00:21:26,940 --> 00:21:30,260 to find out all they could about Bayoumi. 260 00:21:32,260 --> 00:21:35,460 We were very aware that the clock was ticking. 261 00:21:35,460 --> 00:21:37,920 All of the agents in the office, 262 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:42,380 all 255, were available to pursue leads. 263 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:47,020 Rick Lambert was a senior FBI manager overseeing 264 00:21:47,020 --> 00:21:49,440 the San Diego 9/11 investigation. 265 00:21:54,100 --> 00:21:58,920 Who Omar al-Bayoumi was is a very good question... 266 00:22:00,420 --> 00:22:03,660 ..because what he represented himself to be and what he actually 267 00:22:03,660 --> 00:22:06,780 was are two very different things. 268 00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:11,620 Omar al-Bayoumi entered 269 00:22:11,620 --> 00:22:13,960 the United States as a Saudi student. 270 00:22:15,780 --> 00:22:18,500 The thing is, al-Bayoumi didn't much go to class, 271 00:22:18,500 --> 00:22:20,780 and the classes he did go to, he mainly failed. 272 00:22:24,100 --> 00:22:27,100 And there was something else that didn't add up. 273 00:22:29,500 --> 00:22:33,420 Agents discovered he was being paid more than $90,000 274 00:22:33,420 --> 00:22:37,680 a year by two US-based companies with links to Saudi Arabia 275 00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:41,660 for a job he didn't seem to do. 276 00:22:41,660 --> 00:22:45,380 Bayoumi continued to be paid his salary, 277 00:22:45,380 --> 00:22:49,480 although he did no work for them whatsoever. 278 00:22:51,700 --> 00:22:55,120 He videotapes and records everything, 279 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:59,380 and he's very inquiring in his conversations. 280 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,020 BAYOUMI LAUGHS 281 00:23:03,020 --> 00:23:05,580 Bayoumi's behaviour led many who knew him 282 00:23:05,580 --> 00:23:09,260 to believe he was working for the Saudi state. 283 00:23:09,260 --> 00:23:11,020 There was a general consensus of people 284 00:23:11,020 --> 00:23:13,440 in the San Diego Muslim community 285 00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:18,260 that Bayoumi was an operative of the Saudi intelligence service. 286 00:23:18,260 --> 00:23:20,740 He was a spy? He was a spy. 287 00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:24,580 Bayoumi had used his time in San Diego 288 00:23:24,580 --> 00:23:27,740 to build a network of contacts. 289 00:23:27,740 --> 00:23:30,180 Agents discovered he'd introduced the hijackers 290 00:23:30,180 --> 00:23:33,300 to members of his network who could help them. 291 00:23:33,300 --> 00:23:36,260 Every one of them that he introduced, 292 00:23:36,260 --> 00:23:41,420 helped him with a certain aspect of their daily affairs, 293 00:23:41,420 --> 00:23:44,700 or of something that they needed. 294 00:23:44,700 --> 00:23:48,460 Somebody needed to facilitate these hijackers. 295 00:23:48,460 --> 00:23:51,260 We viewed him as a facilitator. 296 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,360 FBI records show some of Bayoumi's network 297 00:23:58,360 --> 00:24:02,580 did basic things, like taking them out for coffee... 298 00:24:05,660 --> 00:24:07,400 ..while others went much further. 299 00:24:11,460 --> 00:24:12,980 This is where they brought 300 00:24:12,980 --> 00:24:16,600 the hijackers to enrol in flight lessons. 301 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,620 It's right here. 302 00:24:20,660 --> 00:24:24,380 The FBI discovered Hazmi and Mihdhar hadn't seemed interested 303 00:24:24,380 --> 00:24:28,480 in learning about take-offs and landings, 304 00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:31,400 and were in a hurry to fly bigger aircraft. 305 00:24:33,820 --> 00:24:36,300 As we began to identify the hijackers' associates 306 00:24:36,300 --> 00:24:41,000 and those who had helped them, 307 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:42,980 what became clear is 308 00:24:42,980 --> 00:24:46,800 that there was a network headed up by Omar al-Bayoumi. 309 00:24:50,060 --> 00:24:51,780 Agents were told Bayoumi 310 00:24:51,780 --> 00:24:54,740 had organised a gathering in the hijackers' flat. 311 00:25:00,140 --> 00:25:02,100 HE CHUCKLES 312 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:08,260 Here's Khalid al-Mihdhar, serving food. 313 00:25:08,260 --> 00:25:09,940 His accomplice, Nawaf al-Hazmi, 314 00:25:09,940 --> 00:25:13,080 just out of shot, is encouraged to speak up. 315 00:25:18,660 --> 00:25:20,460 LAUGHTER 316 00:25:27,540 --> 00:25:30,940 It appears to me, based upon that introduction from Bayoumi, 317 00:25:30,940 --> 00:25:33,580 that the purpose of that party 318 00:25:33,580 --> 00:25:37,480 was a welcoming party to let Bayoumi's network 319 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:39,660 see and become familiar with the hijackers. 320 00:25:50,940 --> 00:25:55,120 Bayoumi told British detectives the event was not for the hijackers, 321 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:59,500 but to thank some imams for volunteering at a local mosque. 322 00:25:59,500 --> 00:26:00,580 And he denied knowing 323 00:26:00,580 --> 00:26:04,240 Hazmi and Mihdhar were hijackers or asking anyone to help them. 324 00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:29,580 There were just times I just locked 325 00:26:29,580 --> 00:26:33,780 the bedroom door and screamed into a pillow. 326 00:26:33,780 --> 00:26:37,880 Grief is 24/7, and it's all night long, 327 00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:40,880 when you have little children that are waking up afraid, 328 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:45,580 and when you have a newborn that needs to be fed. 329 00:26:45,580 --> 00:26:48,700 I tried to not let the children see 330 00:26:48,700 --> 00:26:52,720 how destroyed I was. 331 00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:59,260 I was four and my older brother was seven. 332 00:26:59,260 --> 00:27:01,520 I think we did sense it. 333 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:06,900 She was never, like, laying down on the floor, 334 00:27:06,900 --> 00:27:09,500 you know, crying in front of us. 335 00:27:09,500 --> 00:27:14,180 But energy had shifted in the home, and she was sad a lot. 336 00:27:14,180 --> 00:27:17,060 I think we were starting to pick up on that. 337 00:27:18,980 --> 00:27:22,320 I knew that I needed to tell them, but I didn't want to. 338 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:24,220 And I kept telling my mother, 339 00:27:24,220 --> 00:27:27,500 "I can't do it. I can't do this, Mom. I cannot do this." 340 00:27:29,780 --> 00:27:32,740 We were just so happy to see Daddy every day that he got home, 341 00:27:32,740 --> 00:27:35,620 and my dad wasn't there. It was confusing. 342 00:27:41,700 --> 00:27:46,840 So I sat them down, and 343 00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:50,700 I told them that some very bad men 344 00:27:50,700 --> 00:27:54,140 had taken over the controls of airplanes, 345 00:27:54,140 --> 00:27:56,700 "And they flew them into 346 00:27:56,700 --> 00:27:59,000 "the buildings that your daddy worked at. 347 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,800 "And the smoke was so bad 348 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,560 "that the angels came down from heaven, 349 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,440 "and they took your daddy to heaven, 350 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:09,060 "and Daddy is dead." 351 00:28:09,060 --> 00:28:14,180 Well, they both just screamed and collapsed and cried. 352 00:28:14,180 --> 00:28:18,660 And it was the most horrific thing I've ever done. 353 00:28:21,020 --> 00:28:25,040 As a four-year-old, none of it made sense. 354 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:29,980 The innocence in me was gone. There was a fear in me. 355 00:28:29,980 --> 00:28:35,460 I went from a happy-go-lucky little girl to a terrified one. 356 00:28:35,460 --> 00:28:38,940 I am so angry that I was forced to do that. 357 00:28:38,940 --> 00:28:42,180 I was forced to hurt my children, which as a mother, 358 00:28:42,180 --> 00:28:45,060 you do everything you can to protect them. 359 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,040 REPORTER: A man arrested in Birmingham is still being questioned 360 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:54,740 by police in connection with the attacks. 361 00:29:20,900 --> 00:29:24,540 In San Diego, agents were uncovering evidence that wasn't true. 362 00:29:27,660 --> 00:29:32,220 What we discovered as we began to identify Bayoumi's associates 363 00:29:32,220 --> 00:29:36,580 is that they shared this extremist ideology. 364 00:29:36,580 --> 00:29:38,500 They were hostile to the United States, 365 00:29:38,500 --> 00:29:40,760 they were supporters of bin Laden. 366 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:43,720 Very much of the opinion that the United States got exactly 367 00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:46,600 what it deserved in the 9/11 attacks. 368 00:29:51,700 --> 00:29:57,540 Bayoumi had connections to extremists like Anwar al-Awlaki. 369 00:29:57,540 --> 00:30:01,640 He'd go on to lead Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. 370 00:30:03,220 --> 00:30:07,160 Bayoumi later denied meeting Awlaki, but this video, 371 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:10,360 never broadcast before, shows them embracing. 372 00:30:12,820 --> 00:30:15,100 And Bayoumi filmed Awlaki paintballing 373 00:30:15,100 --> 00:30:17,980 with other members of his San Diego network. 374 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,780 Go in, man. Come on! Get ready to shoot! 375 00:30:23,780 --> 00:30:27,580 Go, go, go! The FBI later questioned 376 00:30:27,580 --> 00:30:30,540 men who were at the paintballing sessions. 377 00:30:30,540 --> 00:30:33,700 Agents were told for some it was harmless fun, 378 00:30:33,700 --> 00:30:36,820 but others took it very seriously. 379 00:30:38,340 --> 00:30:42,540 Witnesses have told us that the purpose of that paintball training 380 00:30:42,540 --> 00:30:44,060 was to train for jihad. 381 00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:52,120 And it just further substantiates his association 382 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:58,200 with this likeminded group of radical extremist individuals 383 00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:03,260 who are completely aligned with Al-Qaeda. 384 00:31:03,260 --> 00:31:06,420 And that's what we have here, we have extremist ideologies. 385 00:31:06,420 --> 00:31:08,420 And that was the doctrine at 386 00:31:08,420 --> 00:31:12,620 the time of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 387 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:18,900 Saudi Arabia was under scrutiny 388 00:31:18,900 --> 00:31:22,080 in America after 9/11 for its promotion 389 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:26,500 of a conservative form of Islam. It's known as Wahhabism. 390 00:31:26,500 --> 00:31:29,780 The Wahhabi tradition of Saudi Arabia, 391 00:31:29,780 --> 00:31:31,240 which is a radical religious 392 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:32,940 movement that promotes a literal 393 00:31:32,940 --> 00:31:34,920 interpretation of Islam, 394 00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:36,180 and, above all, 395 00:31:36,180 --> 00:31:39,540 a break between Muslims and non-Muslims. 396 00:31:39,540 --> 00:31:42,220 Western countries saw Saudi Arabia 397 00:31:42,220 --> 00:31:46,480 as a source of the radical ideology that was used by Al-Qaeda, 398 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:50,780 Osama bin Laden and other terrorist organisations worldwide. 399 00:31:54,900 --> 00:31:59,980 Saudi Arabia is governed by a powerful royal family. 400 00:31:59,980 --> 00:32:03,300 Some senior royals were pro-American and saw bin Laden as a threat. 401 00:32:05,340 --> 00:32:09,020 His citizenship was revoked in the 1990s, but the royal family 402 00:32:09,020 --> 00:32:13,200 still needed the support of the kingdom's hardline 403 00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:16,560 religious leaders to maintain power. 404 00:32:17,740 --> 00:32:21,220 It's widely known that the Saudi government entered into 405 00:32:21,220 --> 00:32:25,560 a compact with conservative Wahhabi religious groups within 406 00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:30,140 the kingdom and basically gave it 407 00:32:30,140 --> 00:32:34,020 a fair amount of support and autonomy 408 00:32:34,020 --> 00:32:35,380 to act on religious matters 409 00:32:35,380 --> 00:32:38,220 outside the kingdom, 410 00:32:38,220 --> 00:32:41,500 so long as it behaved inside the kingdom. 411 00:32:41,500 --> 00:32:43,880 To shore up that support, Saudi Arabia created 412 00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:49,400 a Ministry of Islamic Affairs and gave religious leaders control. 413 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:51,940 The ministry spent hundreds of millions of dollars 414 00:32:51,940 --> 00:32:53,900 building mosques, 415 00:32:53,900 --> 00:32:58,720 distributing literature and funding Islamic charities worldwide. 416 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:02,420 Saudi Arabia has accepted that before 9/11 417 00:33:02,420 --> 00:33:05,660 some of that money found its way to Al-Qaeda and associated groups. 418 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:10,520 After 9/11, the Saudi relationship with the US 419 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,080 went into a very bad moment. 420 00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,960 Americans began to ask questions openly, 421 00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:22,080 "Is Saudi Arabia friend or foe?" Which has never been asked before. 422 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:27,860 And they started being suspicious of Saudi employees 423 00:33:27,860 --> 00:33:31,360 at government offices in the US, 424 00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,280 in mosques, in charities. 425 00:33:36,340 --> 00:33:38,340 Saudi Arabia has said it's 426 00:33:38,340 --> 00:33:41,460 since taken steps to tackle extremism. 427 00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:49,440 The Ministry of Islamic Affairs sent dozens of officials, 428 00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:52,200 some with diplomatic status, to the US. 429 00:33:54,940 --> 00:33:57,060 They were based in Saudi Arabia's embassy 430 00:33:57,060 --> 00:34:00,780 and consulates, including this one in Los Angeles. 431 00:34:02,660 --> 00:34:06,220 After 9/11, it became the focus of FBI investigations. 432 00:34:08,580 --> 00:34:10,320 I assumed we were going to find 433 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,840 a cell that had been operating in the United States. 434 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,760 The one thing I wasn't expecting is 435 00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:20,340 that it was going to go to a Saudi government building. 436 00:34:20,340 --> 00:34:24,940 Steve Moore led a team of 400 FBI agents in Los Angeles. 437 00:34:24,940 --> 00:34:28,720 He's speaking publicly about the Bayoumi case for the first time. 438 00:34:28,720 --> 00:34:32,100 His team looked into Bayoumi's claim to have met the hijackers in LA 439 00:34:32,100 --> 00:34:34,680 by chance. 440 00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:38,220 This guy al-Bayoumi drives all the way up from San Diego. 441 00:34:38,220 --> 00:34:41,900 He drives directly to the Saudi consulate. 442 00:34:41,900 --> 00:34:44,700 Bayoumi meets with somebody at 443 00:34:44,700 --> 00:34:47,940 the Saudi consulate who is with Islamic Affairs, 444 00:34:47,940 --> 00:34:52,980 and then he accidentally meets the hijackers. 445 00:34:52,980 --> 00:34:55,080 HE SCOFFS 446 00:34:55,080 --> 00:35:00,060 FBI agents, we don't believe in coincidence generally, 447 00:35:00,060 --> 00:35:03,580 but specifically, that wasn't a coincidence. 448 00:35:05,940 --> 00:35:07,720 Straight after meeting the hijackers, 449 00:35:07,720 --> 00:35:09,980 Bayoumi had another meeting, 450 00:35:09,980 --> 00:35:13,040 this time with a diplomat from the ministry. 451 00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:15,380 His name's Fahad al-Thumairy. 452 00:35:16,720 --> 00:35:21,580 He was also an imam at the new Saudi-funded mosque in LA. 453 00:35:21,580 --> 00:35:24,820 The FBI suspected he was a hardcore extremist 454 00:35:24,820 --> 00:35:28,680 and had been coordinating Bayoumi's help for the hijackers. 455 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:32,180 We found that Thumairy and Bayoumi 456 00:35:32,180 --> 00:35:38,060 were closely linked as far as telephone communications. 457 00:35:39,060 --> 00:35:41,780 They'd go long periods of time without communicating. 458 00:35:41,780 --> 00:35:43,280 And then the hijackers 459 00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:45,580 are coming into the United States, and, bam, 460 00:35:45,580 --> 00:35:48,220 their communications began again. 461 00:35:48,220 --> 00:35:52,800 Phone records show the men spoke at key moments before, 462 00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:56,220 during and after the hijackers arrived in San Diego. 463 00:35:57,340 --> 00:35:59,260 It looked to the FBI like a Saudi diplomat 464 00:35:59,260 --> 00:36:01,440 with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs 465 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:04,520 was directing Bayoumi every step of the way. 466 00:36:06,220 --> 00:36:10,240 When the trail led to the consulate, it was disturbing. 467 00:36:11,300 --> 00:36:16,880 We had no beef against the Saudis at that point. 468 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:19,160 And I can remember trying to balance this 469 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:20,380 in my mind and trying 470 00:36:20,380 --> 00:36:23,140 to rationalise how this could be. 471 00:36:26,660 --> 00:36:29,500 Fahad al-Thumairy has since said he didn't know Bayoumi, 472 00:36:29,500 --> 00:36:31,840 and has denied being an extremist 473 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:35,220 or having any involvement in 9/11 whatsoever. 474 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:50,940 In San Diego, agents discovered Bayoumi's connections to Saudi 475 00:36:50,940 --> 00:36:53,660 officials in the US went much deeper. 476 00:36:56,980 --> 00:37:02,100 They raided a mosque he'd set up there three years before 9/11. 477 00:37:02,100 --> 00:37:06,660 We seized an address book which listed virtually 478 00:37:06,660 --> 00:37:12,100 everybody who's anybody in the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC. 479 00:37:12,100 --> 00:37:15,940 We're talking about dozens of names. And then, as we began 480 00:37:15,940 --> 00:37:19,320 to collect Bayoumi's telephone toll records, 481 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:24,620 we discovered that from when the hijackers entered the United States, 482 00:37:24,620 --> 00:37:28,200 Bayoumi placed 93 telephone calls 483 00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:30,660 to various Saudi government 484 00:37:30,660 --> 00:37:34,240 establishments, either the embassy or the consulate. 485 00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:35,980 That's a lot of telephone activity. 486 00:37:35,980 --> 00:37:39,740 And we wanted to know - what was that all about? 487 00:37:41,180 --> 00:37:44,780 Bayoumi has since denied writing or owning the address book, 488 00:37:44,780 --> 00:37:48,620 and said he often called the embassy about his studies, or the mosque. 489 00:37:52,720 --> 00:37:55,840 The FBI office in New York was in overall charge 490 00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:58,360 of the 9/11 investigation. 491 00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:01,400 They played a key role in deciding what information 492 00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:03,020 from San Diego was shared with 493 00:38:03,020 --> 00:38:06,180 the detectives in London questioning Bayoumi. 494 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,640 Our analysis of FBI records shows that a lot of 495 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:14,300 that information didn't make it into the interview room, 496 00:38:14,300 --> 00:38:15,700 so detectives often 497 00:38:15,700 --> 00:38:18,500 didn't have enough to challenge Bayoumi's account. 498 00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:48,140 But the detectives didn't have 499 00:38:48,140 --> 00:38:50,780 some of the key documents and evidence, 500 00:38:50,780 --> 00:38:52,520 so Bayoumi wasn't asked 501 00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:55,600 about allegations he was a spy, an extremist, 502 00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:58,720 or about his calls with Saudi government officials. 503 00:38:58,720 --> 00:39:01,200 It's not clear why. 504 00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:03,740 The FBI declined to comment when we asked them. 505 00:39:21,780 --> 00:39:23,980 After seven days in custody, 506 00:39:23,980 --> 00:39:27,020 time was up for the detectives questioning Bayoumi. 507 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:47,460 FBI documents show it was decided there wasn't enough evidence 508 00:39:47,460 --> 00:39:50,060 to extradite Bayoumi to the United States. 509 00:39:51,420 --> 00:39:54,020 Within months, he was back in Saudi Arabia. 510 00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:09,780 George Bush, 511 00:40:09,780 --> 00:40:12,500 I remember him standing on the pile at Ground Zero 512 00:40:12,500 --> 00:40:16,480 in the rubble and taking a megaphone so that he could tell the people, 513 00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:19,240 you know, "We're going to get them." 514 00:40:19,240 --> 00:40:22,840 I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. 515 00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:27,460 And the people... CROWD CHEERS 516 00:40:27,460 --> 00:40:30,860 ..and the people who knocked these buildings down 517 00:40:30,860 --> 00:40:32,580 will hear all of us soon. 518 00:40:32,580 --> 00:40:35,580 CROWD CHEERS 519 00:40:35,580 --> 00:40:37,960 I was also invited to the White House 520 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,280 with the 9/11 families 521 00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:41,620 and he looked me right in the eyes 522 00:40:41,620 --> 00:40:43,760 and said, "We're going to get the bad guys. 523 00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:45,380 "We are going to get them. 524 00:40:45,380 --> 00:40:47,900 And I did believe him because I went home and that's what 525 00:40:47,900 --> 00:40:49,480 I told my children. 526 00:40:51,780 --> 00:40:56,000 George Bush completely changed his promise that he made 527 00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:57,940 to the American people 528 00:40:57,940 --> 00:41:00,820 because the bad guys were clearly the Saudis 529 00:41:00,820 --> 00:41:03,460 and he was not holding them accountable. 530 00:41:06,380 --> 00:41:09,300 George Bush had a famously close relationship 531 00:41:09,300 --> 00:41:11,000 with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 532 00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:16,240 Seven days after 9/11, the president met with 533 00:41:16,240 --> 00:41:19,320 Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US. 534 00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:25,200 He was sitting on the Truman Balcony 535 00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:27,980 of the White House with Prince Bandar. 536 00:41:27,980 --> 00:41:32,860 Why are they so relaxed about a terrorist attack 537 00:41:32,860 --> 00:41:35,780 that had just happened, and 15 of them were Saudi nationals, 538 00:41:35,780 --> 00:41:39,100 and Osama bin laden is a Saudi national. 539 00:41:39,100 --> 00:41:43,240 Where is the alarms going off that, Saudi Arabia, 540 00:41:43,240 --> 00:41:44,300 what do they know? 541 00:41:47,460 --> 00:41:51,420 It was a tight, powerful relationship. 542 00:41:51,420 --> 00:41:53,700 I think it's true about George W 543 00:41:53,700 --> 00:41:56,020 that Bandar had him around his fingers. 544 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:01,800 Lawrence Wilkerson was a senior official in the Bush administration. 545 00:42:02,980 --> 00:42:06,900 Bandar was as slick as you can imagine. 546 00:42:06,900 --> 00:42:08,980 Extremely good diplomat 547 00:42:08,980 --> 00:42:13,840 but always aware that he had billions of dollars 548 00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:19,240 and that, as long as he had that, he probably had the upper hand. 549 00:42:21,100 --> 00:42:25,400 Saudi Arabia was a key US ally in the Middle East. 550 00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:29,100 Well, I would sum up the US-Saudi relationship throughout 551 00:42:29,100 --> 00:42:33,660 its history with one three-letter word - oil. 552 00:42:35,420 --> 00:42:38,580 And then increasingly over the decades, 553 00:42:38,580 --> 00:42:41,220 the relationship sort of evolved. 554 00:42:41,220 --> 00:42:42,820 Oil, money, 555 00:42:42,820 --> 00:42:44,300 money, oil, 556 00:42:44,300 --> 00:42:45,620 money, military, 557 00:42:45,620 --> 00:42:47,300 military, money, oil - 558 00:42:47,300 --> 00:42:51,700 all those three things predominating in the relationship. 559 00:42:54,420 --> 00:42:57,580 MATT FREI: Apache helicopters over the desert. Thousands of US 560 00:42:57,580 --> 00:42:59,820 troops are based in Saudi Arabia. 561 00:42:59,820 --> 00:43:01,280 After 9/11, 562 00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:03,980 the relationship grew even more important 563 00:43:03,980 --> 00:43:06,820 when President Bush unleashed his war on terror. 564 00:43:09,300 --> 00:43:11,340 The terrorists brought this war to us. 565 00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:15,300 And now we're taking it back to them. 566 00:43:20,140 --> 00:43:23,100 Coalition forces first invaded Afghanistan 567 00:43:23,100 --> 00:43:24,620 to hunt down Bin Laden. 568 00:43:26,980 --> 00:43:28,720 And Iraq was going to be next, 569 00:43:28,720 --> 00:43:30,900 despite there being no evidence 570 00:43:30,900 --> 00:43:34,600 of significant Iraqi links to Al-Qaeda or 9/11. 571 00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:40,240 Suddenly, Iraq was on the target list. 572 00:43:40,240 --> 00:43:43,280 No-one was talking about Saudi Arabia. 573 00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:45,940 You would be told "That's not an issue. 574 00:43:45,940 --> 00:43:47,580 "That's not what we're here to talk about." 575 00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:55,760 The FBI had by now been investigating 9/11 576 00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:57,580 for more than a year, 577 00:43:57,580 --> 00:44:00,620 and Congress was releasing a 900-page report 578 00:44:00,620 --> 00:44:03,460 with access to the agency's classified files. 579 00:44:05,860 --> 00:44:09,380 A 28-page chapter laid out Bayoumi's connections 580 00:44:09,380 --> 00:44:12,180 to Saudi government officials and allegations 581 00:44:12,180 --> 00:44:15,740 of Saudi money helping to fund Al-Qaeda. 582 00:44:15,740 --> 00:44:18,780 But the Bush administration stepped in. 583 00:44:18,780 --> 00:44:21,100 An entire chapter was excised. 584 00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:23,980 There was definitely a concerted 585 00:44:23,980 --> 00:44:26,340 effort by the Bush administration, when they excised 586 00:44:26,340 --> 00:44:30,740 the 28 pages, to keep the American people from understanding 587 00:44:30,740 --> 00:44:33,780 the level that the Saudis were involved in 9/11. 588 00:44:35,100 --> 00:44:37,520 President Bush said at the time that releasing 589 00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:40,320 the pages would damage national security 590 00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:43,520 and compromise the 9/11 investigation. 591 00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:47,020 The chapter was eventually released 14 years later. 592 00:44:47,020 --> 00:44:50,260 President Bush didn't respond to our request for comment. 593 00:44:53,220 --> 00:44:56,540 In California, FBI agents were beginning to feel 594 00:44:56,540 --> 00:44:59,100 US relations with Saudi Arabia 595 00:44:59,100 --> 00:45:02,420 were being prioritised over their pursuit for the truth. 596 00:45:05,460 --> 00:45:07,160 The San Diego office wanted 597 00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:10,600 to question Saudi diplomats about phone records 598 00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:14,340 suggesting they'd coordinated Bayoumi's help for the hijackers. 599 00:45:17,700 --> 00:45:22,040 Now, obviously, that has huge political implications, 600 00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:24,220 if Bayoumi was doing this 601 00:45:24,220 --> 00:45:28,840 at the behest of more superior Saudi government officials. 602 00:45:29,940 --> 00:45:34,240 Diplomats have special status, so the FBI needed permission from 603 00:45:34,240 --> 00:45:37,200 President Bush's State Department to approach them. 604 00:45:38,260 --> 00:45:41,420 I don't even know, 605 00:45:41,420 --> 00:45:45,020 given the glaring diplomatic sensitivity of this, 606 00:45:45,020 --> 00:45:49,480 if the FBI headquarters even ran this by the State Department. 607 00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:52,560 I'm not so sure they didn't look at it and say, 608 00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:54,380 "That ain't happening." 609 00:45:54,380 --> 00:45:56,900 The answer came back, "No, you're not going to do that." 610 00:45:59,140 --> 00:46:01,400 It was a similar story in Los Angeles. 611 00:46:03,060 --> 00:46:06,260 Agents couldn't get permission to interview Fahad al-Thumairy - 612 00:46:06,260 --> 00:46:07,960 another diplomat suspected 613 00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:10,880 of coordinating Bayoumi's help for the hijackers. 614 00:46:12,860 --> 00:46:15,380 And that's where we hit the wall. 615 00:46:15,380 --> 00:46:20,000 I mean, we hit...we hit a roadblock so hard, 616 00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:22,400 I think we all had air-bag burns. 617 00:46:24,540 --> 00:46:27,180 Steve says his team made repeated requests 618 00:46:27,180 --> 00:46:30,860 to interview Thumairy, but permission never came. 619 00:46:30,860 --> 00:46:33,660 We were never given a reason why, 620 00:46:33,660 --> 00:46:35,860 so it was only left to us to speculate. 621 00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:40,840 It is my belief that the reason for this 622 00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:43,040 involves Saudi Arabia. 623 00:46:44,620 --> 00:46:48,620 Thumairy, like Bayoumi, went back to Saudi Arabia. 624 00:46:48,620 --> 00:46:51,740 The State Department and FBI declined to comment. 625 00:46:59,460 --> 00:47:02,000 I am lead trial counsel for this case 626 00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:05,100 that was brought this morning on behalf 627 00:47:05,100 --> 00:47:09,460 of over 600 families who suffered losses 628 00:47:09,460 --> 00:47:13,320 as a result of the atrocities of September the 11th. 629 00:47:14,460 --> 00:47:17,700 In 2002, the 9/11 families set off 630 00:47:17,700 --> 00:47:21,500 on their own mission to uncover the truth, 631 00:47:21,500 --> 00:47:25,160 launching a trillion-dollar lawsuit against alleged sponsors 632 00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:28,120 and facilitators of Al-Qaeda. 633 00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:30,780 It was incredible to hear that there 634 00:47:30,780 --> 00:47:34,640 was a way to get answers outside of what my government was telling me. 635 00:47:36,100 --> 00:47:38,940 Terrorism was witnessed live and up close 636 00:47:38,940 --> 00:47:40,600 around the world. 637 00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:42,860 We must not just speak out against it. 638 00:47:42,860 --> 00:47:45,940 We must act out against it. 639 00:47:45,940 --> 00:47:49,760 The central allegation was that Saudi Arabia 640 00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:51,780 had funnelled money to Al-Qaeda, 641 00:47:51,780 --> 00:47:55,120 and that had become the lifeblood of what turned into 642 00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:57,540 the 9/11 attacks. 643 00:47:57,540 --> 00:48:02,620 Jodi Westbrook Flowers was one of the lawyers working on the case. 644 00:48:02,620 --> 00:48:06,220 The goal of the families from the beginning was accountability. 645 00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:10,040 Under US law, it was effectively 646 00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:12,500 impossible to sue a sovereign nation, 647 00:48:12,500 --> 00:48:16,480 unless it was on the US government's list of state sponsors of terror. 648 00:48:18,580 --> 00:48:20,940 Saudi Arabia wasn't on the list, 649 00:48:20,940 --> 00:48:24,500 so the 9/11 families launched a campaign to change the law. 650 00:48:27,180 --> 00:48:29,340 Nobody had any way of knowing 651 00:48:29,340 --> 00:48:32,940 how difficult it was going to be. 652 00:48:34,320 --> 00:48:38,860 It snowballed into something bigger than I had imagined. 653 00:48:38,860 --> 00:48:42,300 Terry spent years lobbying politicians in Washington, 654 00:48:42,300 --> 00:48:45,500 before the families finally secured a vote in Congress. 655 00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:49,560 We were sitting up in the chamber, watching. 656 00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:52,480 One widow was like this, "I can't watch, I can't watch." 657 00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:54,220 REPORTER: Congress gave the families 658 00:48:54,220 --> 00:48:56,300 of those killed on September 11th 659 00:48:56,300 --> 00:48:59,180 the legal right to sue Saudi Arabia 660 00:48:59,180 --> 00:49:01,600 for any alleged assistance to the terrorists. 661 00:49:03,940 --> 00:49:05,860 It meant that we could file a lawsuit 662 00:49:05,860 --> 00:49:07,560 and actually name Saudi Arabia 663 00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:10,520 as a defendant for the first time under the law. 664 00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:17,340 The lawyers were now able to demand law enforcement agencies 665 00:49:17,340 --> 00:49:20,180 hand over evidence against Omar al-Bayoumi. 666 00:49:22,720 --> 00:49:26,380 It was a lengthy process. It was over a series of years. 667 00:49:26,380 --> 00:49:30,220 But the evidence was absolutely game-changing. 668 00:49:34,240 --> 00:49:38,820 This video was released to the legal teams and became public in 2024. 669 00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:43,360 It was filmed by Bayoumi in 1999. 670 00:49:56,460 --> 00:49:59,620 As Al-Qaeda was trying to figure out which US targets 671 00:49:59,620 --> 00:50:02,460 to attack, Bayoumi was at one of 672 00:50:02,460 --> 00:50:05,860 America's most famous buildings - the Capitol. 673 00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:10,000 There are moments when it looks like a tourist video. 674 00:50:14,540 --> 00:50:17,260 But others when it looks more like surveillance. 675 00:50:18,420 --> 00:50:22,520 He'd been casing all of the outside and the entrances and the exits... 676 00:50:29,660 --> 00:50:30,900 ..the flight path... 677 00:50:39,700 --> 00:50:42,340 ..looking at the security, in and out... 678 00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:47,500 ..talking about, you know, "You said that in the plan." 679 00:50:51,300 --> 00:50:54,580 It was eerie to see that. Very eerie. 680 00:50:54,580 --> 00:50:56,540 The Capitol video was shocking. 681 00:51:06,620 --> 00:51:09,060 The video of our Capitol, in our view, 682 00:51:09,060 --> 00:51:10,800 could not have been for any other purpose, 683 00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:14,700 but to case a federal building that was a target on 9/11. 684 00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:22,640 FBI agent Danny Gonzalez spent 15 years 685 00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:24,460 investigating Omar al-Bayoumi. 686 00:51:26,180 --> 00:51:29,700 But he only got to see the Capitol video after he'd retired 687 00:51:29,700 --> 00:51:32,860 and began working for the 9/11 families' lawyers. 688 00:51:34,840 --> 00:51:37,080 That's something that I should have seen 689 00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:40,520 and I was supposed to have seen and I was a case agent. 690 00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:43,160 It should have come to me... 691 00:51:43,160 --> 00:51:44,780 ..but it didn't. 692 00:51:44,780 --> 00:51:46,440 And I had no answers to that. 693 00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:48,820 And that's...that's not a good feeling. 694 00:51:50,660 --> 00:51:53,100 So, why had it remained hidden for so long? 695 00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:57,700 It had been seized by the Metropolitan Police 696 00:51:57,700 --> 00:52:01,360 when they raided Bayoumi's home in September 2001 697 00:52:01,360 --> 00:52:03,900 and sent to the FBI's New York office. 698 00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:10,200 The fact that our government, our US government, 699 00:52:10,200 --> 00:52:12,660 had this information right after 9/11, 700 00:52:12,660 --> 00:52:16,400 and we only learned about it decades later, 701 00:52:16,400 --> 00:52:18,340 you know, is a travesty of justice. 702 00:52:20,300 --> 00:52:23,220 But there was something more shocking still - 703 00:52:23,220 --> 00:52:25,840 a single piece of paper that could have helped 704 00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:27,980 extradite Bayoumi to the US 705 00:52:27,980 --> 00:52:31,960 to face the charge of material support for terrorism. 706 00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:35,540 Evidence suggesting he didn't just know the hijackers, 707 00:52:35,540 --> 00:52:37,800 but he knew what was being planned too. 708 00:52:39,740 --> 00:52:43,120 The plane diagram is handwritten notes 709 00:52:43,120 --> 00:52:45,740 found in Bayoumi's possession 710 00:52:45,740 --> 00:52:50,580 that indicate both the height and the distance required 711 00:52:50,580 --> 00:52:53,940 in an airplane in order to hit a given target. 712 00:52:53,940 --> 00:52:57,060 It's the mathematical calculation of the crash. 713 00:52:59,020 --> 00:53:01,880 When we figured out what it was, we knew that it was... 714 00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:05,460 ..it was the smoking gun that we'd been looking for. 715 00:53:05,460 --> 00:53:09,940 The flight diagram was seized at the same time as the Capitol video. 716 00:53:09,940 --> 00:53:14,540 The Met Police marked it "top priority" and gave it to the FBI. 717 00:53:14,540 --> 00:53:16,200 But it didn't find its way into 718 00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:18,820 the hands of the detectives questioning Bayoumi. 719 00:53:29,980 --> 00:53:31,400 They raid his home. 720 00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:35,300 They find a treasure trove of evidence. 721 00:53:35,300 --> 00:53:39,220 Then he's questioned by their counterterrorism experts, 722 00:53:39,220 --> 00:53:41,900 but they don't see this evidence. 723 00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:46,800 The flight diagram could have made all the difference. 724 00:53:48,940 --> 00:53:52,480 Jeff Breinholt was a US prosecutor and deputy director 725 00:53:52,480 --> 00:53:55,120 of counterterrorism at the Department of Justice. 726 00:53:57,220 --> 00:54:02,500 The flight designs and calculations is the worst... 727 00:54:02,500 --> 00:54:06,460 That's the most inconvenient evidence for him, in my opinion. 728 00:54:06,460 --> 00:54:08,660 We've convicted people for less. 729 00:54:08,660 --> 00:54:11,060 I would have agreed to work that up to the Assistant 730 00:54:11,060 --> 00:54:13,880 Attorney General for material support prosecution. 731 00:54:15,740 --> 00:54:19,520 I think it's one of the many mysteries of this story. 732 00:54:19,520 --> 00:54:23,940 Was it just handled in an incompetent way and missed 733 00:54:23,940 --> 00:54:27,420 or deliberately suppressed in some way? 734 00:54:27,420 --> 00:54:29,020 Even with everything that we know 735 00:54:29,020 --> 00:54:31,840 that was going on in the aftermath of 9/11, 736 00:54:31,840 --> 00:54:35,420 it's hard to think that the FBI could have completely missed 737 00:54:35,420 --> 00:54:37,800 this airplane diagram 738 00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:39,700 from one of the only people 739 00:54:39,700 --> 00:54:43,000 who is directly involved with the hijackers. 740 00:54:44,820 --> 00:54:49,200 If we knew about the evidence that was seized in 741 00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:53,300 Omar al-Bayoumi's flat in England, 742 00:54:53,300 --> 00:54:57,900 had our government analysed it properly and used it, 743 00:54:57,900 --> 00:54:59,900 my life would be very different. 744 00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:05,980 Bayoumi has since said the plane diagram was just an equation, 745 00:55:05,980 --> 00:55:08,180 and he can't remember when he drew it. 746 00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:13,280 This key piece of FBI evidence remained hidden 747 00:55:13,280 --> 00:55:18,100 even from the official US inquiry - the 9/11 Commission. 748 00:55:18,100 --> 00:55:21,900 It found Omar al-Bayoumi was an unlikely candidate 749 00:55:21,900 --> 00:55:26,460 for clandestine involvement with Islamist extremists. 750 00:55:26,460 --> 00:55:28,920 The 9/11 Commission, they didn't look at 751 00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:31,800 what the UK police had in Birmingham, 752 00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:35,060 having seized it from Omar al-Bayoumi home, 753 00:55:35,060 --> 00:55:38,500 and it simply didn't have access to the actual information 754 00:55:38,500 --> 00:55:42,420 that they would need to have to make that sort of determination. 755 00:55:44,700 --> 00:55:48,300 The commission relied on the FBI and US Department of Justice 756 00:55:48,300 --> 00:55:50,100 to provide it with evidence. 757 00:55:51,140 --> 00:55:54,180 The DOJ says it's unable to comment on matters 758 00:55:54,180 --> 00:55:56,580 and decisions from 25 years ago, 759 00:55:56,580 --> 00:55:58,960 involving staff who no longer work there. 760 00:56:00,340 --> 00:56:02,340 The Metropolitan Police says 761 00:56:02,340 --> 00:56:05,300 it can't comment because of the ongoing legal case. 762 00:56:08,060 --> 00:56:10,520 Omar al-Bayoumi has always denied knowing 763 00:56:10,520 --> 00:56:12,580 Hazmi and Mihdhar were hijackers, 764 00:56:12,580 --> 00:56:17,500 that he was a Saudi spy and that he had any involvement in 9/11. 765 00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:22,200 Saudi Arabia and its Ministry of Islamic Affairs 766 00:56:22,200 --> 00:56:24,180 didn't respond to our questions. 767 00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:28,680 The Kingdom has previously said any allegation 768 00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:31,120 that Saudi Arabia or its officials are complicit 769 00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,940 in 9/11 is categorically false. 770 00:56:38,860 --> 00:56:42,340 September 11th, when it comes around every year, 771 00:56:42,340 --> 00:56:44,020 it's a very solemn day. 772 00:56:44,020 --> 00:56:49,480 It's a day that I would like to only think of my husband, 773 00:56:49,480 --> 00:56:53,300 talk to him about the kids, 774 00:56:53,300 --> 00:56:57,020 but because nothing is settled, 775 00:56:57,020 --> 00:56:58,840 I don't get that luxury. 776 00:57:00,540 --> 00:57:04,120 The 9/11 families' lawsuit against Saudi Arabia is now 777 00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:06,140 at the US Court of Appeals, 778 00:57:06,140 --> 00:57:09,140 where the Kingdom is trying to have the case thrown out. 779 00:57:10,800 --> 00:57:13,960 For Terry Strada, it's been a 25-year fight 780 00:57:13,960 --> 00:57:16,880 for the truth about her husband Tom's murder. 781 00:57:20,060 --> 00:57:22,000 I'm proud of what I've done. 782 00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:24,140 But as I'm starting to look at my twilight years, 783 00:57:24,140 --> 00:57:26,260 cos I'm in my 60s, 784 00:57:26,260 --> 00:57:30,580 I also feel very sad that that is the life... 785 00:57:35,420 --> 00:57:40,160 That's when it gets to me, that that is the life I had to live. 786 00:57:40,160 --> 00:57:44,820 It's nothing to what I really wanted out of life... 787 00:57:47,260 --> 00:57:49,840 ..which was a happiness that they took, 788 00:57:49,840 --> 00:57:51,780 that you just can't get back.