9/11 families say this US ally helped the hijackers. They're suing to know the truth. Michael Loria, USA TODAYSeptember 11, 2025 at 7:01 PM 240 NEW YORK – After decades of litigation, a federal judge is allowing a lawsuit to go forward against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the Gulf state's potent...
- - 9/11 families say this US ally helped the hijackers. They're suing to know the truth.
Michael Loria, USA TODAYSeptember 11, 2025 at 7:01 PM
240
NEW YORK – After decades of litigation, a federal judge is allowing a lawsuit to go forward against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the Gulf state's potential involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels marks a significant step forward for the relatives of victims of the Sep. 11, 2001, attacks who have been trying to bring the kingdom to court since 2002. The judge's ruling out of the Southern District of New York federal court in Manhattan comes after he deemed that lawyers for Saudi Arabia failed to explain a remarkable set of instances where Saudi employees had dealings with the hijackers and also possessed potential attack plans.
One of the Saudi officials in San Diego set up a pair of hijackers with an apartment, recorded a video of high-profile government sites in Washington, DC, and was found to have a drawing with longhand calculations demonstrating how a plane could reach a particular target on the horizon, according to court records.
"A lot of people think, '9/11, that was 24 years ago, hadn't we gotten to the bottom of that,' and the answer is literally the opposite," said Brett Eagleson, who lost his dad in the attacks. "There still remain all of these loose ends and paths that lead back to Saudi Arabia."
The families hope to sue for damages and a chance to learn the truth, saying that a trial will bring to light the full story of how the 9/11 terrorist attacks were planned.
"There's so much more to the story," Eagleson said. "We've been saying for 20 years that the Saudi government was explicitly involved. If not the king himself, then elements within the government."
The Saudis, Omar al Bayoumi and Fahad al Thumairy, had dealings with Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar, a pair from Saudi Arabia who were part of the crew that hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and crashed it into the Pentagon, killing all 64 people on the flight and 125 people on the ground.
Bayoumi and Thumairy are both currently in Saudi Arabia, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. They are not charged with any crimes.
What do the Saudis say?
Lawyers and embassy officials for the kingdom did not return requests for comment.
At a court hearing last year, lawyers for Saudi Arabia argued that the connection between the hijackers and Bayoumi and Thumairy were purely coincidental. Thumairy was stationed in the United States as part of the Gulf state's Ministry of Islamic Affairs and helped run a mosque in Los Angeles, court filings say. Bayoumi was a longtime accountant of the country's civil aviation agency who was in the United States in order to further his education, according to lawyers for the kingdom.
Kingdom lawyers said that Bayoumi and Thumairy helped Hazmi and Mihdhar, but not because they were terrorists. They were simply helping fellow Saudis as they would have for any Saudi Arabian newcomer to the United States, the lawyers argued.
Daniels, however, was unimpressed with the Saudi lawyers' answers, the transcript shows, repeatedly asking them what proof they had that the San Diego-based Bayoumi had cosigned a lease for anyone else but the hijackers.
The kingdom "argues that no one at the Saudi government directed Bayoumi or Thumairy, or anyone else to assist the hijackers," Daniels wrote in a 45-page ruling. "However, the Court finds this assertion lacking force in comparison to multiple pieces of circumstantial evidence creating the reasonable inference" that the pair were coordinating with senior Saudi officials when helping the hijackers.
Lawyers for the kingdom also said in the hearing that even the evidence linking Bayoumi and Thumairy to the hijackers doesn't prove they acted at the behest of their government.
Even if "Bayoumi and Thumairy themselves knew the hijackers' plans and assisted them," said kingdom lawyer Michael K. Kellogg at the 2024 hearing, "that would still not make them agents of Saudi Arabia, which is a declared enemy of al-Qaida."
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia but was expelled from the nation in 1991 and had his citizenship revoked in 1994 due to his extremist activities.
What does the evidence show?
Some of the strongest evidence supporting the claims of the victims' families was only recently obtained, according to Don Migliori, an attorney for the group.
New evidence includes a video of Washington, DC, that Bayoumi shot in 1999, and a handmade drawing of a plane with calculations. Both were discovered in his possession by Scotland Yard in 2001 and only recently turned over to the families trying to bring the lawsuit. Bayoumi had moved to the United Kingdom shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks.
The drawing shows a sketch of an airplane and contains multiple calculations and notes, court records show. Among Bayoumi's notes were the following lines: "h=hight the plane from the earth in mile" and "d distance from the plane to the hurrizen."
Bayoumi told police that the drawing was done out of simple interest in the topic, court records show. Kingdom lawyers said at the hearing that they believe it had to do with his son's math homework.
The video that Bayoumi shot lasts over an hour long and showcases iconic Washington sites, including the White House and the Capitol.
Lawyers for 9/11 families say that the video is not a memento but actually a showcase of potential targets for terrorist attacks.
Bayoumi narrates during the video, saying at one point near the National Mall: "They say that our kids are demons. However, these are the demons of the White House." At another point he says, "In front of the Congress. There is no Power nor Strength except through Allah," according to court filings.
How did the Saudis help the hijackers in California?
Hijackers Hazmi and Mihdhar made fast friends in California after arriving in January 2000.
Hazmi and Mihdhar went to Thumairy's mosque shortly after arriving and witnesses later placed them in the imam's company, court records show. Thumairy has said he does not remember them and never helped or instructed anyone to help the pair of newcomers to American soil.
Bayoumi met the hijackers around February 2000, court filings show. He said their first meeting at a Los Angeles Halal restaurant was a chance encounter sparked by hearing the pair speak Arabic, court records show.
The hijackers traveled days later to San Diego where Bayoumi acted as the cosigner for an apartment in the complex where he lived, according to court records. Bayoumi has said that he hoped to earn a referral fee and that helping newcomers is typical in the Islamic community, although kingdom lawyers could not provide evidence of similar help Bayoumi provided.
According to court filings, the 9/11 Commission was aware of the hijackers dealing with Bayoumi and Thumairy and viewed them as coincidental. But a judge in the case deemed that the kingdom lawyers did not properly explain why Bayoumi and Thumairy made frequent calls with each other and Bayoumi called Saudi embassy officials at key points during the hijackers' stay in the United States.
'Until I take my last breath I will be fighting for justice'
Daniels' ruling out of the federal court in Manhattan marks a significant achievement for the families of victims, according to Migliori, the attorney for the group with Motley Rice.
Suing Saudi Arabia simply wasn't possible for years because there was no legal avenue to sue a foreign sovereign in the U.S. courts.
In 2016, Congress enacted the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which narrowed immunity protections for foreign nations and effectively allowed the families to bring a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia.
Evidence, including the plane drawing and Washington video, was turned over in 2022 by British authorities that helped propel the case forward. Attorneys for the families said additional evidence from Scotland Yard is being processed.
Relatives of victims said that they persist with their efforts over the decades because of the pain that lingers.
"More than anything until I take my last breath I will be fighting for justice for him so that's why this ruling means so much," said Mary Geraghty, whose husband, Battalion Chief Edward Geraghty, died attempting to rescue people from the towers. "We're so far removed as a nation from what happened that day. But for me I close my eyes and I'm right back there. The horrific death and suffering they endured. How could anyone walk away from that?"
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lawsuit aims to prove Saudi involvement in 9/11 attacks
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