WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The former senator noted that the information was provided to him by Scotland Yard officials.
"Bayoumi left the United States in the summer of 2001, went to Birmingham, England, lived there for awhile and was actually taken into custody after 9/11 at the FBI’s request by Scotland Yard," Graham said on Wednesday.
Without official charges, UK law enforcement could only legally hold a suspect for seven days, but "the FBI never showed up to interview Bayoumi," during that time, Graham explained.
On July 15, the Office of the National Director of Intelligence released a previously classified chapter of the congressional 9/11 report. The pages included an FBI assessment of Saudi national Omar al-Bayoumi as a likely intelligence officer for Riyadh, who facilitated support, including flight training, for at least two of the 19 hijackers living in San Diego, California.
Bayoumi was released from custody in London and left for Saudi Arabia, where he was presumably protected from US law enforcement by diplomatic immunity.
Bayoumi may have been interrogated later in Saudi Arabia by the US Central Intelligence Agency, Graham posited. "If he was, we don’t know that, and…we don’t know what was in that interrogation," he added.
Graham, who helped write the 2002 congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks, has fought for years to have the declassified chapter of the report released. He has also demanded the declassification of additional materials, including information that would show whether important leads were followed into possible connections between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 hijackers.
The declassified 28 pages represent an initial estimate of possible Saudi connections to the 9/11 hijackers and possible investigative leads. Graham, who was authorized to access to sensitive information during his time on the Senate Intelligence Committee said he is unaware whether the investigative leads were ever pursued.
