by Dan Darling, of Regnum Crucis Of course, the big story today is the release of the Congressional 9/11 Report, with the exception of the censored bits about Saudi Arabia. On which topic... Omar al-Bayyoumi, a suspected Saudi government agent, assisted two of the 9/11 hijackers, Kaled al-Mihdar and Nawaf al-Hamzi, both of whom were alumni of the Kuala Lumpur meeting in Maylasia (where they were photographed by the CIA) that was chaired by Tawfiq Attash Khallad, the mastermind of the U.S.S. Cole attack and a top al-Qaeda leader. With the exception of Mohammed Atta and the Hamburg cell, which were in direct touch with Mohammed Atef (al-Qaeda's top military commander, killed in November 2001 by the CIA in Afghanistan) through Abu Dahdah, al-Mihdar and al-Hamzi were the only members of the 9/11 hijackers that were in direct touch with al-Qaeda's central leadership. I did some digging and discovered that this isn't Mr. al-Bayyoumi's first appearance. He also surfaced last winter in connection with the scandal involving Princess Haifa (the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the US) giving money that wound up in the hands of the 9/11 hijackers. Al-Bayyoumi being a Saudi agent certainly makes this earlier scandal a lot more interesting.