An FBI informant who shared his home with two of the 9/11 hijackers has been accused in civil court of being “co-opted” by Saudi Arabian intelligence to help carry out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
That informant, Dr. Abdussattar Shaikh, was presented in the 9/11 Commission Report as “an apparently law-abiding citizen with friendly, long-standing contacts among local police and FBI personnel.” Shaikh was recruited as an informant in 1994, according to his handler.
But according to plaintiffs suing Saudi Arabia for its role in 9/11, at some point Dr. Shaikh was “hired” by Saudi intelligence agent and Omar al-Bayoumi to house the two hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar.
“It was a plan that had been carefully and meticulously developed by Bayoumi in conjunction with other Saudi officials,” a plaintiffs’ lawyer argued at a July 31 court hearing, according to the Florida Bulldog.
The Saudi government denied that al-Bayoumi hired Dr. Shaikh, reportedly arguing in a court filing that “there is no evidence he had anything to do with [the hijackers] moving into Shaikh’s house.”
Dr. Shaikh’s FBI handlers have also defended the man. His handling agent, Steven Butler, told the 9/11 Commission that Shaikh was “duped” by the hijackers, while former San Diego FBI chief William Gore recently told the Florida Bulldog that Shaikh was “one of the finest guys I ever met.”
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