Thread by @karolcummins

The Justice Department will reveal the name of an individual believed to be connected to the Saudi government and accused of aiding two of the 9/11 hijackers, prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday. cnn.com/2019/09/12/pol…

Two of the names are already known, though the third name has remained redacted.

The two men, Fahad al-Thumairy and Omar Ahmed al-Bayoumi, have been connected to the Saudi government previously in government reports.
cnn.com/2019/09/12/pol…

Attorneys for 9/11 families have argued that the unnamed individual is likely a more senior Saudi official & point to a portion of the doc where the FBI said a person whose name is redacted "tasked" al-Thumairy & al-Bayoumi with "assisting the hijackers."
cnn.com/2019/09/12/pol…

That third person I believe is Bandar bin Sultan who is a member of the House of Saud and was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005.

economist.com/books-and-arts…

From 2005 to 29 January 2015 Bandar bin Sultan served as secretary general of the National Security Council,

A was director general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014.
wsj.com/articles/SB100…

On 1 July 2014 he was appointed King Abdullah's special envoy which lasted until 29 January 2015.

wsj.com/articles/SB100…

Omar al-Bayoumi

Omar al-Bayoumi's role in the lead up to September 11 plot was highlighted by a congressional report on the attacks released in 2003

theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

Some of the section on Omar al-Bayoumi was deleted "in the interests of national security" but FBI concluded that he had "connections to terrorist elements".

theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

Mr Bayoumi was employed by the Saudi civil aviation authority, left the US to study at Aston University in Birmingham two months before September 11.

theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

The congressional report says he visited the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles in January 2000, and then went straight to a restaurant where he met two of the hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar.

theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

"According to another person the FBI interviewed after September 11, al-Bayoumi said before his trip that he was going to Los Angeles to pick up visitors."
theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

It is unclear whom he met at the Saudi consulate before going to the restaurant, but US officials believe it was Fahad al-Thumairy, a member of its Islamic and cultural affairs section.

Fahad al-Thumairy

theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

Fahad al-Thumairy was stripped of his diplomatic visa and barred from the US on suspicion of having links with terrorism.

theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

Mr Bayoumi looked after the two hijackers when they moved to San Diego in February 2000, allowing them to stay in his flat until he found them one of their own. He co-signed their lease and paid their first month's rent and security deposit.
theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

Mr Bayoumi looked after the two hijackers when they moved to San Diego in February 2000, allowing them to stay in his flat until he found them one of their own.

He co-signed their lease and paid their first month's rent and security deposit.
theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

🔑The congressional report said: "Despite the fact that he was a student, al-Bayoumi had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia."
theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

At one point he delivered $400,000 (£250,000) to buy a mosque in San Diego for the Saudi government.

theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

The report added: "One of the FBI's best sources in San Diego informed the FBI that he thought that al-Bayoumi must be an intelligence officer for Saudi Arabia or another foreign power."
theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

One connection omitted from the congressional report is a money trail to the wife of Prince Bandar, the Saudi Amb to the US.

🔑The FBI discovered that Princess Haifa had given $2,000 a month to the wife of Osama Bassnan, an associate of Mr Bayoumi.
theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

Bank documents showed that some of the money was transferred to Mr Bayoumi's wife.
theguardian.com/world/2003/jul…

On page 415: “While in the United States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support and assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi Government.…
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

On page 415: “[A]t least two of those individuals were alleged by some to be Saudi intelligence officers.”
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

On page 417: One of the individuals identified in the pages as a financial supporter of two of the 9/11 hijackers, Osama Bassnan, later received a “significant amount of cash” from “a member of the Saudi Royal Family” during a 2002 trip to Houston.
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

On page 418: “Another Saudi national with close ties to the Saudi Royal Family, [deleted], is the subject of FBI counterterrorism investigations.”

huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

🔑On pages 418 and 419: Detained al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaida had in his phone book the unlisted number for the security company that managed the Colorado residence of the then-Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

🔑On page 421: “a [deleted], dated July 2, 2002, [indicates] ‘incontrovertible evidence that there is support for these terrorists inside the Saudi Government.’”
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

🔑On page 426: Bassnan’s wife was receiving money “from Princess Haifa Bint Sultan,” the wife of the Saudi ambassador. (Her correct name is actually Princess Haifa bin Faisal.)

huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

🔑On page 436: The general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department, David Aufhauser, testified that “offices [of the Saudi charity al-Haramain] have significant contacts with extremists, Islamic extremists.”
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

CIA officials also testified “that they were making progress on their investigations of al-Haramain.… [T]he head of the central office is complicit in supporting terrorism, and it also raised questions about [then-Saudi Interior Minister] Prince Nayef.”
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

🔑2017: Which brings Kristen Breitweiser to her last point—the Saudi Aramco IPO on Wall Street. Mrs. Breitweiser’s husband was burnt to death on September 11th. The remains she received included his two arms, a few fingers, and his wedding band.
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

Thousands of innocent people were brutally slaughtered and turned to ash in broad daylight on that horrific day, now more than 15 years ago. The notion that the Saudis — whom the 9/11 families are currently trying to hold accountable
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

In a court of law for their role in the murder of their loved ones. The fact that the Saudis want to return to the scene of their own alleged crime to make billions of dollars is immoral and simply untenable.
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

As Ms. Breitweiser & fellow 9/11 widows have repeatedly said — “not over our husbands’ dead bodies.”
huffpost.com/entry/presiden…

Welp! It’s happening...

Today 9/12/19: Big U.S. Investment Banks Crowd Into Aramco IPO
As Saudi Arabia tries to attract investment after Khashoggi killing, global bankers are guiding the kingdom’s reform plans
wsj.com/articles/big-u…

Reminder: Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia, fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens.
floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

Interview with then Saudi Ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar bin Sultan:

 “In Saudi Arabia they chose not to see these radical fundamentalists….

We allow them to flourish, and have no reason to believe that their way of life would do anyone harm.”
floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

🔑Prince Bandar is implicated, as is his wife, regarding payments made to Osama Basnan, a U.S.-based Saudi suspected of being part of the hijackers’ support system.
floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

‘Bandar Bush’

Bandar was close to President George W. Bush and his family, so close that he earned the nickname “Bandar Bush”.

Just two days after the 9/11 attacks, he was photographed relaxing on a WH balcony with GWB, Cheney, & Condoleeza Rice.

floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

From left to right: Dick Cheney, Prince Bandar, Condoleezza Rice, and George W. Bush, on the Truman Balcony of the White House on September 13, 2001. [Source: White House via HistoryCommons.org]

Disquietingly, Bandar’s name and those of of members of his staff had also emerged elsewhere in the work of 9/11 investigators. No questions relating to any of that intelligence was raised with Prince Bandar in the Commission’s 2003 interview.

floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

On September 13, for instance, the night of Bandar’s White House visit, his deputy called the FBI to seek assistance in getting bin Laden “family members” and other Saudis out of the country.
floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

The Saudi exodus, which took place the moment U.S. airspace reopened, was the subject of an extensive FBI investigation.
floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

Long hidden 9/11 Commission interview with Saudi Prince Bandar released; Intel chief Prince Turki’s withheld
floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

On Thursday, September 12, U.S. AG William Barr is to announce whether he will invoke the state secrets privilege to hide the identity of the person who, the FBI has said, “tasked” Bayoumi & Saudi diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy with helping Hazmi and Mihdhar.
floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

The name of that person, believed to be a Saudi official, is contained in a heavily-censored October 2012 FBI summary report.
floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

That details how federal prosecutors and FBI agents actively explored filing charges against a suspect for providing material support to the 9/11 hijackers.
floridabulldog.org/2019/09/long-h…

Trump arrives in Saudi Arabia in first foreign trip

US president receives warm welcome by King Salman as he seeks to repair ties with Washington's closest Arab ally.
aljazeera.com/news/2017/05/t…

🔑Saudi royalty has been buying from Trump dating to 1995, with some of the deals coming during periods when Trump was in need of cash.
washingtonpost.com/politics/i-lik…

In 1991, when Trump was nearly $900 million in debt from failed casino projects, he sold his 281-foot yacht to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for $20 million.
washingtonpost.com/politics/i-lik…

The boat had been originally owned by late Saudi billionaire and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, a cousin of Jamal Khashoggi.
washingtonpost.com/politics/i-lik…

A few years later, the prince bought a stake in Trump’s Plaza Hotel by agreeing to pay off some of Trump’s debts on the property.
washingtonpost.com/politics/i-lik…

Tim O’Brien, a journalist who wrote the 2005 biography “TrumpNation,” said these deals were one-sided — in the prince’s favor. He said Trump was in dire financial straits, so the prince got a good price.
washingtonpost.com/politics/i-lik…

In June 2001, Trump sold the 45th floor of his Trump World Tower, in New York, to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for $4.5 million.
washingtonpost.com/politics/i-lik…

Trump Adviser Said to Have Pursued Saudi Nuclear Deal as He Sought Administration Role

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1155895279314300928?s=21

Trump administration approved 2 nuclear deals to Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul

abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump…