Watch: Did the FBI bury evidence of alleged Saudi agent’s role in 9/11? The man at the heart of a $1 trillion (£733bn) lawsuit brought by 9/11 families had extensive links to Saudi government officials and went paintballing with one of al-Qaeda's future leaders, video obtained by the BBC reveals.
The footage, which the FBI had within days of the 2001 attacks, stands in stark contrast to Omar al-Bayoumi's 25 years of denials that he was an extremist and a Saudi spy. Bayoumi, who claimed to be a student when he was in the United States, is seen in one clip embracing Anwar al-Awlaki, who would go on to lead al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
In another, Bayoumi and Awlaki are paintballing near San Diego with an official from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Islamic Affairs. The videos form part of the 9/11 families' lawsuit against Saudi Arabia and have never been shown publicly before. The lawsuit argues Saudi Arabia was complicit in the attacks and that Bayoumi aided two of the 19 hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – with another crashing in Pennsylvania.
Bayoumi was arrested in the UK by the Metropolitan Police days after the attacks and the videos were found among his possessions, along with other crucial evidence. This included a diagram of a plane with a flight descent equation written alongside. Multiple FBI agents received copies of the diagram, but it was never shared with the British interrogators, even though it had been couriered to the police station where Bayoumi was being held in custody.
The diagram was also kept from some FBI agents investigating Bayoumi, as well as from the 9/11 Commission – the independent inquiry into the largest mass murder in US history, in which nearly 3,000 people