9/11 families demand extradition of Saudi national tied to video evidence
The 'pissed off' 9/11 families suing Saudi Arabia in federal court over alleged links to the terror attacks are demanding a key suspect be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial.
As the Boston Herald has reported, Saudi national Omar Al Bayoumi was seen on video casing the Capitol in the summer of 1999, pointing out Congress, the Washington Monument, the skyline and jotting down in a notebook a formula to calculate the rate of descent. He was on a student visa and has long since returned to the kingdom.
The 9/11 Commission was never aware of this evidence, and it is now part of a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia that is before a federal judge in Manhattan, who will decide if the case can continue.
The 9/11 families also want Al Bayoumi to face justice in a trial of his own.
'Bring this agent of terror back and let the American justice system handle him,' said Brett Eagleson, who was 15 years old when his dad, Bruce, died when the Twin Towers collapsed in New York City.
'Bringing him back is the least we deserve,' Eagleson told the Herald by telephone Monday, after a protest outside FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., seeking help from agency Director Kash Patel. 'Why was this information buried for 23 years? Our government should be held accountable.'
Eagelson choked back tears as he recounted how his dad died on Sept. 11, 2001, as he 'stayed behind in those towers' to help the workers he oversaw running the retail shops at the bottom of the World Trade Center.
Eagleson and his group are calling on President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to 'bring Al Bayoumi back' when they travel to Saudi Arabia in mid-May.
'We 9/11 families are pissed off,' said Dennis McGinley, whose brother, Daniel, died in the Twin Towers. He also spoke at Monday's protest. 'We need someone in government leadership to be our hero and put an end to this national nightmare that has now become a national embarrassment.'
The Saudi government states no government officials, 'senior or otherwise — gave any 'direction' to Omar Al Bayoumi or Fahad Al Thumairy to 'assist' … 9/11 hijackers.' Any contact, the Saudis add, was 'innocent motives … to help fellow Saudis' new to San Diego.
Those Saudis, Nawaf Al Hazmi and Khalid Al Mihdhar, were the first 9/11 hijackers to set up shop in America after landing in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports. Bayoumi and Thumairy, both Saudi officials, are accused of assisting them, court documents allege.
The hijackers plowed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on 9/11. All 64 people aboard, including five hijackers, were killed. Another 125 victims on the ground also died.
Of all the 19 hijackers, 15 of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia. They were all affiliated with al Qaeda and hijacked four jets, killing nearly 3,000 people.
American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 — both out of Logan International Airport in Boston — slammed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan 18 minutes apart, beginning at 8:45 a.m. on 9/11.
United Flight 93 crashed last in Shanksville, Pa., at 10:03 a.m. after heroic passengers rushed the cabin to confront the terrorists. Forty passengers and crew perished when the jet crashed soon after.
That's the jet Eagleson says was destined for Washington, D.C. and that's why the video evidence, he says, is so crucial.
Plus, if the federal judge allows the case against Saudi Arabia to proceed, discovery can begin on other terror cells — including one in the Boston area.
'The children on 9/11 need to know that someone cares,' said McGinley. 'Believe me, they are suffering more than ever.'
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