By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
A pile of new evidence released by Scotland Yard and filed under seal in federal court in New York includes an exhibit about a coded message found on “a suspect’s computer” discussing an apparent terrorist test of airport security prior to 9/11.
The coded message was among dozens of exhibits provided to attorneys representing thousands of 9/11 families and survivors who are suing Saudi Arabia, alleging the kingdom was complicit in the horrific Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington. The information was released May 9 in response to a 2021 Freedom of Information request to the Royal Courts of Justice by lawyers for the families seeking evidence held by London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) about Omar al-Bayoumi.
Bayoumi, labeled a Saudi “cooptee,” or spy, by the FBI was arrested in Birmingham, England 10 days after the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. He was later released. He and his family had moved there from San Diego, CA around July 2001. Bayoumi, 44 at the time, went to England to attend Aston University.
The new records, as well as others released previously by the MPS, includes materials seized during Bayoumi’s arrest. That includes a video he made during a pre-9/11 visit to Washington. The video, purportedly showing Bayoumi “casing” the U.S. Capitol, was aired by 60 Minutes in April.
The 67 new exhibits themselves are at least temporarily sealed under the terms of a court-approved protective order previously issued at the request of the FBI, but an attached schedule compiled by the MPS offers brief descriptions of each. It says the coded message was embedded in an image file found during a 2004 United Kingdom terrorism investigation called Operation Rhyme. That probe led to the arrest of alleged al Qaeda operative Dhiren Barot and seven other men.
Barot, said by British authorities to have been handpicked by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to commit sensational terrorist attacks in both the U.S. and the U.K., was later convicted of plotting to commit mass murder on a “colossal and unprecedented scale,” according to The Guardian newspaper. He was sentenced in 2007 to at least 40 years in prison.
THE HIDDEN MESSAGE
The MPS’s description says the digital message was found on a compact disc containing an image file dubbed “helicopters.psp”:
“It was recovered from a suspect’s computer. Police Note: when viewed in digital forensic software, the raw data of this image file has been found to contain a message conveyed via steganography.”
The message reads, “For your information, I have taken a knief [sic] and bag on board [prior to the WTC attacks] and there were no security checks whatsoever. Also, the perimeter fence that goes around the tarmac was not electricuted [sic].”
Unlike encrypted messages, steganography conceals both a message’s contents and the fact that a message has been sent.
A Wikipedia article explains, “In digital steganography, electronic communications may include steganographic coding inside a transport layer, such as a document file, image file, program, or protocol. Media files are ideal for steganographic transmission because of their large size. For example, a sender might start with an innocuous image file and adjust the color of every hundredth pixel to correspond to a letter in the alphabet. The change is so subtle that someone who is not looking for it is unlikely to notice the change.”
Who wrote the message found on the unidentified suspect’s compact disc and when and why they hid it was not released. But the MPS schedule, kind of a road map to the exhibits, says it was produced to the plaintiffs “in disclosure under Operation Exchange as review of court documents establishes relevance to the investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”
Operation Exchange refers to MPS’s international law enforcement cooperation and information sharing efforts.
Bayoumi has been a focus of intense FBI interest since shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Why? He was one of the first people to meet the first 9/11 hijackers to enter the U.S. – Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar – in January 2000. He aided them in finding housing in San Diego, co-signed their lease, helped them open a bank account and hosted a welcome party for them.
Bayoumi, who lives today in Saudi Arabia, has said he was unaware that Hazmi and Mihdhar, who were later aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it slammed into the Pentagon, were terrorists.
THE OTHER EXHIBITS
The new MPS records includes various British police and court records, as well as seized correspondence, computer files, financial statements, videos and other materials. The 17-page “Schedule of Relevant Material” that describes the exhibits was prepared by David McGillicuddy, a detective superintendent with London’s MPS.
In a statement attached to the exhibits, McGillicuddy said they were all previously marked “secret,” but are no longer classified.
They include two transcripts from the sentencing hearings of Barot and his co-conspirators in 2006 and 2007.
Another exhibit features four recordings recovered during Operation Rhyme. One labeled “NYC camcorder video” is 1 hour and 20 minutes long. The others are a half-hour History Channel program, “The Stock Exchange;” 24 minutes of “Anti-Capitalist Programmes;” and a five-minute clip of excerpts from “Die Hard with a Vengeance.”
Exhibits seized at Bayoumi’s home and garage at 34 Dymoke St., Birmingham include:
- A World Trade Center brochure with a cover page logo for the World Trade Center Association San Diego, along with pages “containing printed and handwritten notes, forms, names, addresses and correspondence in English and Arabic.”
- A ring binder containing Saudi American Bank statements “Bayoumi account” from Jan. 1, 2001-September 2, 2001.
- Bayoumi’s telephone book and an electronic list of contacts found on floppy discs in the garage.
- Bayoumi’s correspondence, notes, travel records, camera film.
- Interviews with Bayoumi, his wife, Manal Bagader, and others.
- Forensic digitalized image copied from a Phillips hard drive that was found in Bayoumi’s home, and other storage devices.
Other intriguing exhibits included correspondence and reports from the FBI to MPS. They include a Sept. 17, 2001 FBI letter stating that Bayoumi “may have been involved in or had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks” and includes a summary of his links to Hazmi and Mihdhar. Also, a letter the FBI sent a day later “transmitting information for use” when MPS detectives interviewed him.
There are also FBI “Action” requests from early October 2001 that the MPS research Bayoumi’s “flights with Egypt Air and travel to Cairo” and his “flights with British Airways.” Three exhibits immediately following those requests are a “typed document showing British Airways passenger records for AL-BAYOUMI flights in May 2000,” exhibits compiled by the MPS detailing Bayoumi’s “travel movements,” and another report regarding Bayoumi’s “plans to travel to Paris, France.”
Additional exhibits include a Jan. 14, 2002 letter to the FBI transmitting a report “on Al-BAYOUMI telephone investigation;” an April 18, 2002 FBI letter asking MPS “to review Affidavit regarding investigations into Al-Bayoumi and BARZANJEE [no first name included],’’ and an Oct. 8, 2002 FBI letter “attaching summary of ‘Operation Exchange’ investigation” into Bayoumi.
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