Newly unsealed video reveals that a suspected Saudi spy was filming the US Capitol and National Monument just months before al Qaeda officials decided what targets to hit during the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
Omar al-Bayoumi, an accused Saudi intelligence operative with close ties to two of the 9/11 hijackers, can be heard narrating the 1999-era video showing the US Capitol building and the Washington Monument, CBS’s “60 Minutes” reports.
While the US government has maintained that al Qaeda acted alone on Sept. 11, retired FBI Agent Richard Lambert says the video serves as evermore proof that the terror group had help.
“It is another very large brick in a massive wall of evidence that at this point indicates the Saudi government was complicit in the 9/11 attacks,” he told the TV news magazine.
The disturbing footage highlights al-Bayoumi’s trip to Washington, DC, with the Saudi national addressing his “brothers” as he promises to survey the capitol.
“I will go over there, and I will report,” al-Bayoumi says as he pans to the monuments. “I will report to you in detail what is there.”
Al-Bayoumi is also heard referencing a “plan” during the video.
Lambert, who is now a consultant on the case filed by the families of 9/11 victims seeking to hold Saudi Arabia responsible in the terror attack, said the video could have helped al Qaeda decide some of its targets.
Investigators have long-believed that Flt. 93’s intended target was the US Capitol before passengers revolted against the hijackers, leading it to ultimately crash in a field in Pennsylvania.
Another jet was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., across the Potomac River from DC, while two planes hit the Twin Towers in Manhattan.
It remains unclear if US officials have carefully studied the video, which al-Bayoumi and the Saudi government have claimed was just a tourist tape.
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said Sunday that it was clear that al-Bayoumi was casing the Capitol in the “chilling video,” which he admits he had not seen before the “60 Minutes” report.
“No doubt in my mind that it is a casing video, that it is a casing video for some sort of terrorist attack,” Morell told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“I’m 99.9% confident that we did not have this video,” Morell added. “I was the president’s briefer at the time. If somebody had shown me this video, I would have shown it to the president.”
Retired FBI Agent Ken Williams, who worked on the 9/11 investigation, questioned why it has taken more than 20 years for the video to surface after it was provided to the US following a British raid on Al-Bayoumi’s UK residence in 2001.
“If that was missed, then shame on us for missing it,” Williams said. “If it wasn’t missed, then I would have to ask the question: What was done with it?”
The tape was unsealed last week in federal court during the case against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The FBI had declined to comment on the video and overall case, citing ongoing litigation.
