Omar al-Bayoumi

Omar al-Bayoumi (Arabic: عمر البيومي‎‎) is a Saudi national who allegedly befriended two of the 9/11 hijackers in the United States.

Saudi Arabia firmly maintains that al-Bayoumi is not an agent of theirs. Bayoumi was listed before 9/11 in FBI files as being a Saudi agent. Per previously-classified memoranda released by the National Archives in May 2016, as of June 6, 2003 "the FBI "believes it is possible that he was an agent of the Saudi Government and that he may have been reporting on the local community to the Saudi Government officials. In addition, during its investigation, the FBI discovered that al-Bayoumi has ties to terrorist elements as well."

Al-Bayoumi was probably born around 1958, but virtually nothing is known of al-Bayoumi's early life. Until 1994 he lived in Saudi Arabia, working for the Saudi Ministry of Defense and Aviation, a department headed by Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.

In August 1994, al-Bayoumi moved to the United States and settled down in San Diego, California, where he became involved in the local Muslim community. He was very inquisitive, and was known to always carry around a video camera. According to several sources (Newsweek 11/22/03, 11/24/03), al-Bayoumi was strongly suspected by many residents of being a Saudi government spy. The man the FBI considered their "best source" in San Diego said that al-Bayoumi "must be an intelligence officer for Saudi Arabia or another foreign power," according to Newsweek magazine.

During this time, al-Bayoumi was in the United States as part of a work-study program. The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation paid al-Bayoumi's salary through a government contractor. When the contractor proposed terminating its relationship with al-Bayoumi in 1999, a Saudi government official replied with a letter marked "extremely urgent" that the government wanted al-Bayoumi's contract renewed "as quickly as possible." As a result, Al-Bayoumi's employment with the project continued.

...
Wikipedia