Newly Declassified FBI/CIA Files Reveal Two Saudi Government Operatives “May Have Served as an Advance Team” for 9/11 Hijackers — Official Narrative in Tatters as Timeline Shifts Back to 1998

For over two decades, the American people have been told a carefully curated story about the September 11th attacks.

Now, newly declassified FBI and CIA records are shredding the “official narrative,” revealing that Saudi government operatives may have been on U.S. soil as early as December 1998, three years before nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered.

Exclusive reporting from veteran national security journalist Catherine Herridge exposes that two Saudi government employees, Mutaeb al-Sudairy and Adel al-Sadhan, were not mere tourists.

Instead, they were caught on video in 1999 surveying Washington, D.C. landmarks later listed as potential al-Qaeda targets, including the White House and Capitol.

The Gateway Pundit reported in 2024 that in the CBS video, Omar al-Bayoumi, who the FBI says was a Saudi operative, was seen casing the US Capitol in Washington, DC, the likely target of the Flight 93 operation that was thwarted that day by American passengers and heroes.

The video was found by British police during a raid on Bayoumi’s UK apartment days after the 9/11 attacks.

According to ProPublica, Bayoumi was joined on the trip by two Saudi clerics, Adel al-Sadhan and Mutaeb al-Sudairy.

They were so-called propagators, emissaries of the Islamic Affairs Ministry sent to proselytize abroad. U.S. investigators later linked them to a handful of Islamist militants.

Former FBI veteran and Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, William R. Evanina, confirmed to Herridge that the two were here in the US for a reason.

Catherine Herridge:
The FBI says they may have served as an advance team for the 9/11 hijackers.

William R. Evanina:
I think, based upon these documents and the videos, it’s pretty clear that they were here for that particular reason. The question would be: at whose behest? Was it from the Saudi government, or were they working for Al Qaeda directly and just happened to be Saudi employees?

Catherine Herridge:
Filmed two years before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the video shows Saudi government employees Mutai Al-Sudairi, behind the wheel, and Adel Mohamed Al-Sadhan, hiding behind a roadmap. Along with a third Saudi, they filmed Washington, D.C. landmarks later identified by Al Qaeda terrorists as potential 9/11 targets.

The declassified record states: “The FBI assesses that the two Saudis may still maintain ties to Al Qaeda.” Sounds like the two Saudis had long-standing ties to Al Qaeda.

William R. Evanina:
Sounds very clear to me that they still possess ties, which means they once did possess ties.

Catherine Herridge:
Exclusive reporting and declassified intelligence and law enforcement records reveal the Saudi government employees, Al-Sadhan and Al-Sudairi, may have served as an advance team to vet those who would later assist hijackers in Southern California. The explosive lead was buried in thousands of pages of once-secret government records.

Yet this information, obtained in the fall of 2001, was withheld from the 9/11 Commission.

The declassified files show the Saudis videotaping U.S. landmarks in Washington, D.C. in 1999, including the White House and Capitol, exactly when Osama bin Laden’s inner circle was drawing up the list of potential targets. Evanina called it anything but a tourist video.

Catherine Herridge:
We asked you to review these classified documents. Are they significant documents?

William R. Evanina:
I think they are. I think they really predate what we’ve known about 9/11 and the support networks domestically here in the U.S. for the hijackers.

Catherine Herridge:
Based on these new records and some of the video evidence, is there enough here to draw a direct connection between 9/11 and the Saudi government?

William R. Evanina:
I think we’re closer. I think it’s clear that we now have individuals who came here prior to 9/11 who were official Saudi employees. Now, were they official Saudi employees working on behalf of this plot, or were they also Saudi employees serving the needs of Al Qaeda?

Catherine Herridge:
Are the two Saudis overlooked key players in the 9/11 plot?

William R. Evanina:
I think that’s a good question. I think these two individuals, who are now named, provide new investigative leads for the FBI and our intelligence services to go back and put more pieces together in this really complicated puzzle.

WATCH:

Shock ‘9/11 Casing’ Video

June 1999: Saudi Government Employees Film Washington DC Landmarks, Some Later Identified As 9/11 Targets

White House, US Capitol, and other sites…

“This is the Watergate. This is where Monica is. And Sheikh Clinton!” https://t.co/hnLMqRd64T pic.twitter.com/7qNxfT1vIQ

— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) September 9, 2025

As Catherine Herridge reported, it took nearly two decades and pressure from 9/11 families suing Saudi Arabia for these highly secretive records to be declassified.

Investigators found evidence that Al-Sadhan and Al-Sudairy arrived in California 13 months before the first two hijackers landed in Los Angeles.

They didn’t come empty-handed. They later received financial assistance, secured driver’s licenses and housing, gained spiritual guidance, and even located flight schools for the hijackers.

Herridge asked Evanina what the records revealed about this “advance team.”

Declassified intelligence reports tie the two Saudis to a broader network:

• Fahad Al-Thumairy, tied to the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles, a reputed Islamic fundamentalist.
• Anwar Al-Awlaki, the American cleric who later became a top Al Qaeda leader before being killed in a CIA drone strike.
• Omar Al-Bayoumi, described by Evanina as the “fixer, the facilitator, the leader” of a surveillance cell.

Bayoumi wrote to Saudi officials that there was “complete cooperation and advanced coordination” in place. Soon after, he was arrested in England, where records revealed a 2000 welcome party for two hijackers in San Diego.

Two hijackers appear on the tape. More explosive still, court records identified Mohamed Al-Qahtani, a Saudi religious official, in the room with them.

William R. Evanina:
I think these records clearly depict not only the advance team coming here to the United States, but setting up shop, coordinating with Imams on the West Coast and on the East Coast, facilitating the care, feeding, and housing of the hijackers.

Catherine Herridge:
The hijackers — many of them did not speak English, had never been to the United States before. Could they have lived under the radar without this support network?

William R. Evanina:
I highly doubt it. If you were going to initiate this type of sophisticated plot, you don’t even want to take that chance. So it was critically needed to have a support network here.

Catherine Herridge:
The intelligence reports include phone and financial analysis, interviews, and travel patterns, concluding Al-Sadhan and Al-Sudairi lived at the same address in San Diego where the hijackers would later stay. Other common links include Fahad Al-Thumairy, a well-known figure at the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles, reputed to be an Islamic fundamentalist. American cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, who became a major Al Qaeda leader after 9/11, was later killed in a CIA drone strike. As well as this Saudi, the FBI said there’s a 50/50 chance he had advanced knowledge of 9/11.

Catherine Herridge:
Omar al-Bayoumi — what was his role?

William R. Evanina:
I think he was clearly the fixer, the facilitator, the leader of this potential surveillance cell. I think the two Saudis came here to vet him.

Catherine Herridge:
After helping Al-Sadhan and Al-Sudairi in Southern California, Bayoumi sent letters to Saudi government officials. Bayoumi said of the men: “There is complete cooperation and advanced coordination.”

Catherine Herridge:
What does that tell you?

William R. Evanina:
I think they are exactly what they say they are. I think they sent those messages back to the leaders who needed to know that the facilitation of the support network in California was strong, workable, and coordinated among the key people who needed to make it happen.

WATCH:

BREAKING: Newly Declassified FBI/CIA Reports Reveal Two Saudi Government Employees “May Have Served As An Advance Team” For 9/11 Hijackers

These records challenge the official 9/11 narrative shifting the timeline back to December 1998, almost three years before al-Qaeda… pic.twitter.com/okSx1QNIi9

— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) September 9, 2025

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