-Caveat Lector-
9-11 Hijackers: A Saudi Money Trail?
The Feds probe a possible new Saudi link to Al Qaeda
By Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE
Nov. 22 — The FBI is investigating whether the Saudi Arabian
government—using the bank account of the wife of a senior Saudi
diplomat—sent tens of thousands of dollars to two Saudi students in
the United States who provided assistance to two of the September
11 hijackers, according to law-enforcement sources.
THE BUREAU, THEY SAY, has uncovered financial records
showing a steady stream of payments to the family of one of the
students, Omar Al Bayoumi. The money moved into the family’s
bank account beginning in early 2000, just a few months after
hijackers Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi arrived in Los Angeles
from an Al Qaeda planning summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
according to the sources. Within days of the terrorists’ arrival in the
United State, Al Bayoumi befriended the two men who would
eventually hijack American Flight 77, throwing them a welcoming
party in San Diego and guaranteeing their lease on an apartment
next door to his own. Al Bayoumi also paid $1,500 to cover the first
two months of rent for Al Midhar and Alhazmi, although officials said
it is possible that the hijackers later repaid the money.
Sources familiar with the evidence say the
payments—amounting to about $3,500 a month—came from an
account at Washington’s Riggs Bank in the name of Princess Haifa
Al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince
Bandar bin Sultan, and the daughter of the late Saudi King Faisal.
After Al Bayoumi left the country in July 2001—two months before
the September 11 terror attacks—payments for roughly the same
amount began flowing every month to Osama Basnan, a close
associate of Al Bayoumi’s who also befriended the hijackers. A
federal law-enforcement source told NEWSWEEK that
Basnan—who was recently convicted of visa fraud and is awaiting
deportation—was a known “Al Qaeda sympathizer” who “celebrated
the heroes of September 11” at a party after the attacks and openly
talked about “what a wonderful, glorious day it had been.”
Administration officials stressed repeatedly in interviews that
they do not know the purpose of the payments from Princess Haifa’s
account. It is also uncertain whether the money was given to the
hijackers by Al Bayoumi or Basman. White House sources also
raised a number of other cautionary notes, saying that it was not
uncommon for wealthy Saudis to provide financial assistance to
struggling Saudi families in the United States. “The facts are
unclear, and there’s no need to rush to judgement,” said one
administration official.
But other sources describe the financial records as “explosive”
and say the information has spurred an intense, behind-the-scenes
battle between congressional leaders and the Bush administration
over whether evidence highly embarrassing to the Saudi
government should be publicly disclosed—especially at a time that
the White House is aggressively seeking Saudi support for a
possible war against Iraq. “This is a matter of the foreign-policy
interests of the United States,” said another administration official,
who cited the need to prevent a rift in the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
A spokesperson for Princess Haifa said “she will cooperate
fully with the United States.” The princess hasn’t been asked about
the payments by any representatives of the U.S. government, and
she wasn’t aware of the allegations until today, her spokesperson
said.
Administration officials expressed concerns that premature
disclosure of the evidence of the financial payments could
jeopardize the ongoing FBI probe, especially the bureau’s efforts to
apprehend and develop a case against Al Bayoumi. Upon leaving
the United States last year, Al Bayoumi flew to Great Britain where
he enrolled in a graduate-level business program at Birmingham’s
Aston University. He was arrested by New Scotland Yard after
September 11 but adamantly denied any connection to the attacks
or knowledge of the hijacker’s links to Al Qaeda and was released a
week later for lack of evidence. He is now believed to be back in
Saudi Arabia. Law-enforcement officials say they are still intensely
investigating his activities, suspecting that he may have served as
an “advance man” for the hijackers.
The leaders of a joint House-Senate Intelligence Committees
investigation have vigorously pushed for the release of a classified
report that lays out the evidence of the Saudi money flow. But Bush
administration officials, led by Attorney General John Ashcroft and
FBI Director Robert Mueller, have adamantly refused to declassify
the evidence upon which the report is based. Senate Intelligence
Committee chairman Sen. Bob Graham declined to discuss the
evidence gathered by the joint inquiry, but he said he was upset over
the Bush administration’s intransigence. “This one stinks of people
using classified information” for political purposes, said Graham.
© 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
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