Censored 911 Report -Chuck Schumer to 911 Victims: "Enough is enough"

posted by ewing2001 on Sunday July 27, @12:20PM

Sunday Press Conference with 9/11 Victims: Schumer criticised censored Saudi Ties

Newsday -July 27, 2003

NEW YORK -- The Bush administration should release blacked-out sections of the congressional Sept. 11 report and should demand extradition of a Saudi citizen it linked to two of the hijackers, a lawmaker said Sunday.

"Enough is enough _ Saudi Arabia has to come clean about the terrorists and the Bush administration has to stop playing footsie with the Saudis," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

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The unclassified version of the report said that one suspected facilitator known to investigators but still at large _ Omar al-Bayoumi _ paid many of the expenses of two Sept. 11 hijackers and "had access to seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia."

Schumer invited relatives of seven people killed in the attacks to a news conference Sunday, where he released a letter asking President Bush to press the Saudi royal family to return al-Bayoumi to the United States as a material witness.

"Given the revelations of the Joint Inquiry's report, it is obvious that there are many important questions about Saudi Arabia's connections to 9-11 that only al-Bayoumi can answer," Schumer said in the letter.

Chuck Schumer's letter to Bush

senate.gov/~schumer

July 25, 2003

The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush,

I write to respectfully request that you convince the Saudi Arabian government to hand Omar al-Bayoumi over to United States law enforcement officials for questioning as a material witness to the September 11th attacks. Although a previous FBI investigation of al-Bayoumi conducted before 9-11 did not bear fruit, new information that has come to light in the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 that clearly suggests that he was closely connected to the perpetrators of the attack. Evidence now indicates that al-Bayoumi also had connections to the Saudi government and even al Qaeda.

According to the recently released report, al-Bayoumi was an intimate associate of 9-11 hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi and provided them with financial assistance. The FBI has indicated that al-Bayoumi was first introduced to the two hijackers in early 2000 at a restaurant in a "somewhat suspicious meeting" immediately after a closed-door consultation with Saudi officials at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles. Since September 11th, the FBI has learned that al-Bayoumi also had connections to individuals associated with al-Qaeda.

Further evidence also suggests that al-Bayoumi had other intimate connections to the Saudi government. One of the FBI's best sources in San Diego - the city where al-Bayoumi lived - named al-Bayoumi as an intelligence officer for Saudi Arabia or another foreign power while news reports indicate that al-Bayoumi was at one time employed by the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Aviation.

Despite this evidence identifying him as a central figure in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the hijackers, however, no American law enforcement official has questioned al-Bayoumi directly because he left the Untied States before September 11th to return to Saudi Arabia. Given the revelations of the Joint Inquiry's report, it is obvious that there are many important questions about Saudi Arabia's connections to 9-11 that only al-Bayoumi can answer. I respectfully urge you to do all that is in your power to convince the Saudis to hand over al-Bayoumi to the FBI so that the unanswered questions surrounding 9-11 can be resolved.

Sincerely,

Charles Schumer U.S. Senator

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