LA Times -August 2, 2003

...However one interprets the 27 pages, all who have read them agreed on one thing: If they are made public, they will prove extremely embarrassing not only to the Saudi government, but the U.S. government as well, particularly the FBI for missing so many clues pointing to Riyadh and for not aggressively investigating them, sources said.

``If this comes out, it will blow the top off the relations with (the Saudi) government because the American people will just be outraged,'' said one source familiar with the report. ``We invaded Iraq for something tangential. And here we have a government whose senior leaders have very direct, very extensive links to the hijackers, to the actual people who got on the planes and flew them into those buildings.

U.S. Questions Saudi Man in 9-11 Probe

Guardian -August 11, 2003

Al-Bayoumi was described as an accountant by the Saudi official, who spoke to reporters at the Saudi Embassy on condition of anonymity. The official said al-Bayoumi was not an agent of the Saudi government.

The FBI had no immediate comment on the Saudi official's characterization of the conversations in Saudi Arabia.

Report on 9/11 Suggests a Role by Saudi Spies

NY Times

By JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1

The classified part of a Congressional report on the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, says that two Saudi citizens who had at least indirect links with two hijackers were probably Saudi intelligence agents and may have reported to Saudi government officials, according to people who have seen the report.

These findings, according to several people who have read the report, help to explain why the classified part of the report has become so politically charged, causing strains between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Senior Saudi officials have denied any links between their government and the attacks and have asked that the section be declassified, but President Bush has refused.

People familiar with the report and who spoke on condition of not being named said that the two Saudi citizens, Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassnan, operated in a complex web of financial relationships with officials of the Saudi government. The sections that focus on them draw connections between the two men, two hijackers, and Saudi officials.

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