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FBI probing Saudi link to September 11 attackers

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing reports that Saudi money amounting to thousands of dollars was sent to its nationals involved in the September 11 attacks, while they were studying in California.

The bureau uncovered financial records showing a steady pattern of payments to Omar Al-Bayoumi through the bank account of Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, in early 2000, just before hijackers Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhami arrived in Los Angeles to plan the attacks, FBI sources said.

Bayoumi, who was very close to the two hijackers, hosted a welcome party for them in San Diego and even helped them get an apartment, the latest edition of Newsweek quoted FBI officers as saying.

The agency is also probing the financial records of Washington's Riggs Bank through which the monthly payments of US $3,500 came from Saudi Arabia. The investigating agency has also identified Osama Basnan, a known Al Qaeda supporter, as Bayoumi's friend.

Scotland Yard later arrested Bayoumi in the United Kingdom after the September 11 attacks. He firmly denied any link to the attacks or the hijackers and was released for lack of evidence.

But the FBI was still investigating Bayoumi's activities after he returned to Saudi Arabia, suspecting that he may have served as an 'advance man' for the hijackers, the report said.

Following revelations of a Saudi link to the September 11 incident, a draft report by a joint US congressional committee accused both the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency of 'not aggressively pursuing' leads linking the hijackers to the West Asian kingdom.

The draft report also complained of lack of cooperation from Saudi officials in the probe, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that FBI agents tracked phone numbers of a Saudi embassy employee in Bayoumi's San Diego apartment and questioned two staffers in this connection.

"The money had been sent to the Saudi students in San Diego, and it came from a wealthy Saudi source," the newspaper said.

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