The release of a chilling pre-9/11 video “rewrites everything Americans” have been told about the terror attacks that murdered nearly 3,000 in one day and is still claiming others stricken with cancer from working on the toxic Twin Towers pile.
The video, just posted by “60 Minutes,” is part of a lawsuit 9/11 families are waging against Saudi Arabia for allegedly aiding some of the al Qaeda hijackers, court documents state. A hearing in the case is set for July 11 in federal court in Manhattan.
The video is a key piece of evidence made public this week that could help finally expose the level of involvement Saudi Arabia may of had in the terror attacks, plaintiffs argue.
“The existence of this video rewrites everything Americans have been told about 9/11,” said Brett Eagleson, who was 15 years old when his dad, Bruce, died while working at the World Trade Center in Manhattan on 9/11.
“Every single member of the U.S. Congress should be standing in solidarity with the 9/11 community demanding accountability from Saudi Arabia,” the Connecticut man told the Herald Thursday night. “It was members of our community who gave their lives on 9/11 to save the United States Capitol building and all the members working inside of it. We now need their help.”
The video allegedly shows a Saudi suspect “casing the Capitol” in the summer of 1999, pointing out where Congress sits. Eagleson also says a companion sketchbook painstakingly shows “an aviator’s algorithm on how to hit a target on the horizon when flying a plane.”
He credits British officials for obtaining both pieces of “incredible” evidence and retired FBI agents for assisting 9/11 families who refuse to give up on seeking justice nearly 23 years after the ruthless jet attacks on New York City, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pa.
The man behind the camera, according to “60 Minutes” and alleged in court documents, is Omar Al Bayoumi — then working for Saudi intelligence, according to the FBI.
The video shows a man speaking in Arabic as he tours the Capitol that summer. There are time stamps, footage of exits and entrances to Congress, a model of the building and nearby landmarks — including the towering Washington Monument.
The video was taken in late June and early July of 1999. The plan to attack America using hijacked jets was hatched soon after, according to multiple reports, with Osama bin Laden and suspected architect of the 9/11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is held in Guantanamo Bay awaiting a military tribunal, backing the evil idea.
Bayoumi has been linked to Nawaf Al Hazmi and Khalid Al Mihdhar — the first 9/11 hijackers to set up shop in America after landing in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports. Bayoumi and another Saudi official, Fahad Al Thumairy, are accused of assisting them, court documents allege.
The Saudi government’s latest appeal 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.
The first two 9/11 hijackers in the U.S. — Hazmi and Mihdhar — arrived in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2000, without being able to speak English. Yet, records show, they made it to San Diego where they took flying lessons — and flunked out — rented an apartment, and attended a mosque.
Those Saudis plowed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. All 64 people aboard, including five hijackers, were killed. Another 125 victims on the ground also died.
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, at 10:03 a.m. after heroic passengers rushed the cabin to confront the terrorists. Forty passengers and crew perished as the hijackers put the plane into a nosedive.
That’s the jet Eagleson says was destined for Washington, D.C.
If the judge allows the case to proceed, the 9/11 families — 10,000 plaintiffs-strong who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks and those still dying from cancer from working on the pile — will be able to expand discovery.
That means al Qaeda cells in Boston, Portland, Maine, Phoenix, Florida and New Jersey can also be investigated fully with this new knowledge.
Of all the 19 hijackers, 15 of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia. They were all affiliated with al Qaeda.
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