NEW YORK (Dispatches) -- A forthcoming New York civil case against Saudi operative Omar Bayoumi is expected to produce evidence tying Riyadh to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but a 2023 filing in the Office of Military Commissions alleges a deeper and largely unexamined layer: a botched and concealed intelligence operation, obstruction of investigations, and a possible Saudi “cutout” role.
The filing does not allege the CIA knew the attacks were coming and chose to let them proceed. It alleges the agency sought to recruit two future hijackers through a liaison relationship with Saudi intelligence, then concealed the operation after it ended in catastrophe.
The document, which summarizes classified government disclosures and interviews with anonymous senior U.S. intelligence officials, alleges the CIA’s Alec Station, its Al-Qaeda tracking unit, was responsible for recruiting Nawaf Hazmi and Khalid Mihdhar. 
An FBI special agent posted there reported that when he learned in January 2000 the pair held multi-entry U.S. visas, his warning to FBI headquarters was blocked by a CIA analyst, according to the filing.
The same analyst, the filing states, directed Saudi intelligence to contact the pair on arrival and later falsely told U.S. inquiries the FBI had been informed. The agent also alleged CIA director George Tenet and operations director James Pavitt concealed the analyst’s activities from the 9/11 Commission.
The filing further alleges the 9/11 Commission’s chief, Philip Zelikow, deliberately blunted inquiries into Saudi involvement, and that senior FBI officials were barred from interviewing Saudi nationals despite leads pointing to Riyadh’s Washington embassy. 
According to the filing’s sources, probing those connections risked exposing the Saudi General Intelligence Directorate as a CIA “cutout.”
Hazmi and Mihdhar received U.S. visas in Jeddah. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers obtained 18 visas in Saudi Arabia; 14 were issued in Jeddah, 11 by a single officer, Shayna Steinger, often on incomplete or forged applications, according to the filing.
In California, the pair met Bayoumi, who found them housing, co-signed their lease and gave them money. The filing alleges Bayoumi was instructed to recruit them by Saudi cleric Fahad Thumairy and was later hosted by FBI informant Abdussattar Shaikh, who also housed hijacker Hani Hanjour. The filing alleges Shaikh received Saudi funds while informing for the FBI.
Alec Station withheld the pair’s presence from the FBI until June 2001, when it showed photos without identifying them, the filing states. The CIA told the FBI it held no files on Bayoumi — a falsehood, according to the filing. Riggs Bank blocked subpoenas of Saudi-linked accounts for a year.
After 9/11, British police seized from Bayoumi’s home a phonebook of Saudi officials, flight simulator software and notes calculating aircraft height, according to the filing. The FBI never provided Britain material to sustain extradition; Bayoumi was released and returned to Saudi Arabia.
The CIA is not a defendant, and state-secrets privilege has shielded its operations. Unless the alleged liaison channel is examined, the case may expose one layer of the 9/11 network while leaving the most protected untouched.