Video suggests Saudi government was complicit in 9-11 attacks

 MSN:

For more than two decades, the U.S. position has been that al Qaeda acted alone on September 11th, but a newly public video has raised questions about whether the Saudi government provided crucial assistance to the hijackers during the 9/11 terror attacks.

Omar al-Bayoumi, whom the FBI says was an operative of the Saudi intelligence service with close ties to two of the 9/11 hijackers, can be heard on the video, which was unsealed in federal court this week and obtained by 60 Minutes. The 1999 video was taken within 90 days of the time when senior al Qaeda planners were deciding on 9/11 targets, Richard Lambert, a retired FBI agent who led the initial 9/11 investigation in San Diego, said.
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"It is another very large brick in a massive wall of evidence that at this point indicates the Saudi government was complicit in the 9/11 attacks," Lambert said.
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Bayoumi filmed the video over the course of several days. It shows entrances and exits of the U.S. Capitol along with security posts and a model of the building. At one point, he points out the Washington Monument and says he'll go there and "report to you in detail what is there." He also notes the airport is nearby.

Lambert, who's now a consultant on the case filed by the families of 9/11 victims to hold Saudi Arabia responsible in the Sept. 11 attacks, said knowledge of where the Washington Monument is in relation to other D.C. landmarks could help guide people toward intended targets.

Federal investigators believe the hijackers on Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, had the U.S. Capitol as their likely target. Lawyers for the 9/11 families and former intelligence analysts who spoke with 60 Minutes believe portions of the video show Bayoumi surveilling the Capitol as part of that plan. In the video, Bayoumi is heard referencing a "plan."

"I think he's talking to the al Qaeda planners who tasked him to take the pre-operational surveillance video of the intended target," Lambert said.

British police found the video during a raid on Bayoumi's U.K. apartment in the days after 9/11. They also seized Bayoumi's hand-written address book that the lawyers for the 9/11 families say was filled with phone numbers of numerous senior Saudi officials who were in the government at the time.

When Bayoumi recorded the Washington video, he was often with two Saudi diplomats who the FBI says had "ties to al Qaeda," a finding the Saudi government disputes.
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The Saudis deny they were involved in the 9-11 attacks.  The response of the US against those seen as responsible for the attacks likely gives the Saudis good reason to distance themselves from those responsible.