Ho ospitato per la seconda volta l'ex Agente Speciale dell'FBI Ken Williams (a questo link si trova la prima intervista) per parlare di quanto emerso nell'ultimo anno sul ruolo di Omar al-Bayoumi nella pianificazione degli attentati, grazie alle indagini giornalistiche di 60 Minutes e Florida Bulldog.
2025/07/16
2025/07/12
L'omicidio del Rabbino Meir Kahane - nuovo video con Adam Fitzgerald
In questo nuovo video, io e Adam Fitzgerald raccontiamo la storia dell'omicidio a New York del Rabbino Meir Kahane da parte del terrorista egiziano El Sayyid Nosair. L'omicidio di Kahane fu il primo attentato di al-Qaeda negli Stati Uniti.
2025/07/05
New English FAQ Section Available
At the moment, only the latest sections that were added to the original Italian FAQs are available:
- Who's Who of the Planners of 9/11
- The involvement of Saudi Arabia
- Who's Who of the Saudi operatives who helped the hijackers
- The Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden
Please note that the blog's right-hand column is only visible in the desktop version of the site, not in the mobile version.
2025/06/23
What We’ve Learned About Omar al-Bayoumi Over the Past Year
La versione in italiano è disponibile qui.
In the past year, thanks to two major journalistic investigations, documentary evidence has emerged regarding Omar al-Bayoumi's role in the planning of the attacks, revealing that the former Saudi agent did not merely provide logistical support to the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, but played a much broader role.
Last April 27, the program 60 Minutes aired a thirteen-minute report (a preview of which was released in 2024) showing a video shot by al-Bayoumi himself in the summer of 1999 in Washington, in which he films several of the most famous monuments. The material was filed in court as part of the lawsuit brought by the victims' families against Saudi Arabia. The video (available in full and without voiceovers at this link) shows al-Bayoumi filming the US Capitol, questioning the security of the building, and the Washington Monument, the obelisk in front of the Lincoln Memorial visible from above due to its shape and height. Speaking with the camera operator, and clearly also addressing the recipients of the video, al-Bayoumi also refers to a "plan". All this reveals a previously unknown aspect, namely that al-Bayoumi also collaborated in planning the hijacking of United 93, which the terrorists intended to crash into the US Capitol. In the 60 Minutes report, former FBI Supervisor Richard Lambert confirms that al-Qaeda made the decision to target the Capitol within 90 days of al-Bayoumi recording this video.
The 60 Minutes segment also includes an excerpt from al-Bayoumi’s deposition in the same lawsuit, in which he is asked about the meaning of the aeronautical calculations found at his home in Birmingham. His explanation is as ridiculous as it is implausible. Al-Bayoumi claims they are school memories and his attempt to recall a formula studied back then. Considering that, as recently explained on this blog, that formula likely served to calculate the descent speed needed to hit a ground target based on the horizontal distance from a known reference point, it becomes clear why al-Bayoumi was also interested in the Washington Monument even though it was not among the terrorists' targets.
In addition to what was broadcast by 60 Minutes, the online newspaper Florida Bulldog also reported that Scotland Yard made a second batch of documents on al-Bayoumi available to the New York court (in addition to what was already disclosed in 2022). On al-Bayoumi’s computer, British police found an image file saved as helicopters.psp in which a message was hidden using steganography:
Al-Bayoumi therefore conducted a dry run of bringing a knife on board a plane to see if it would be detected. The link between the airport's metal fence and the actual attacks is not immediately clear, but it is still a detail related to airport security.
Al-Bayoumi is therefore not a well-meaning person who simply wanted to help his fellow countrymen, as also reported in the 60 Minutes video by former FBI Special Agent Danny Gonzalez. He helped no one except two hijackers. And it is equally obvious that he did not merely assist al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi in California, but that al-Qaeda assigned him multiple tasks in organizing the attacks.
In the past year, thanks to two major journalistic investigations, documentary evidence has emerged regarding Omar al-Bayoumi's role in the planning of the attacks, revealing that the former Saudi agent did not merely provide logistical support to the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, but played a much broader role.
Last April 27, the program 60 Minutes aired a thirteen-minute report (a preview of which was released in 2024) showing a video shot by al-Bayoumi himself in the summer of 1999 in Washington, in which he films several of the most famous monuments. The material was filed in court as part of the lawsuit brought by the victims' families against Saudi Arabia. The video (available in full and without voiceovers at this link) shows al-Bayoumi filming the US Capitol, questioning the security of the building, and the Washington Monument, the obelisk in front of the Lincoln Memorial visible from above due to its shape and height. Speaking with the camera operator, and clearly also addressing the recipients of the video, al-Bayoumi also refers to a "plan". All this reveals a previously unknown aspect, namely that al-Bayoumi also collaborated in planning the hijacking of United 93, which the terrorists intended to crash into the US Capitol. In the 60 Minutes report, former FBI Supervisor Richard Lambert confirms that al-Qaeda made the decision to target the Capitol within 90 days of al-Bayoumi recording this video.
The 60 Minutes segment also includes an excerpt from al-Bayoumi’s deposition in the same lawsuit, in which he is asked about the meaning of the aeronautical calculations found at his home in Birmingham. His explanation is as ridiculous as it is implausible. Al-Bayoumi claims they are school memories and his attempt to recall a formula studied back then. Considering that, as recently explained on this blog, that formula likely served to calculate the descent speed needed to hit a ground target based on the horizontal distance from a known reference point, it becomes clear why al-Bayoumi was also interested in the Washington Monument even though it was not among the terrorists' targets.
In addition to what was broadcast by 60 Minutes, the online newspaper Florida Bulldog also reported that Scotland Yard made a second batch of documents on al-Bayoumi available to the New York court (in addition to what was already disclosed in 2022). On al-Bayoumi’s computer, British police found an image file saved as helicopters.psp in which a message was hidden using steganography:
For your information, I have taken a knief [sic] and bag on board and there were no security checks whatsoever. Also, the perimeter fence that goes around the tarmac was not electricuted [sic]
Al-Bayoumi therefore conducted a dry run of bringing a knife on board a plane to see if it would be detected. The link between the airport's metal fence and the actual attacks is not immediately clear, but it is still a detail related to airport security.
Al-Bayoumi is therefore not a well-meaning person who simply wanted to help his fellow countrymen, as also reported in the 60 Minutes video by former FBI Special Agent Danny Gonzalez. He helped no one except two hijackers. And it is equally obvious that he did not merely assist al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi in California, but that al-Qaeda assigned him multiple tasks in organizing the attacks.
Cosa è emerso nell'ultimo anno su Omar al-Bayoumi
The English version is available here.
Nell'ultimo anno sono state pubblicate, grazie a due importanti inchieste giornalistiche, delle prove documentali riguardo al ruolo di Omar al-Bayoumi nella pianificazione degli attentati, da cui emerge che l'ex agente saudita non si limitò al supporto logistico ai dirottatori del volo American Airlines 77 che si schiantò contro il Pentagono, ma ebbe un ruolo ben più ampio.
Lo scorso 27 aprile la trasmissione 60 Minutes ha trasmesso un servizio di circa tredici minuti (di cui era stata anticipata un'anteprima nel 2024) in cui ha mostrato un video realizzato dallo stesso al-Bayoumi nell'estate del 1999 a Washington in cui riprende vari tra i monumenti più famosi. Il materiale è stato depositato in tribunale nell'ambito della causa intentata dalle famiglie delle vittime contro l'Arabia Saudita. Il video (disponibile integralmente e senza voci sovraimposte a questo indirizzo) mostra al-Bayoumi riprendere lo US Capitol, interrogandosi sulla sicurezza del palazzo, e il Washington Monument, l'obelisco di fronte al Lincoln Memorial visibile dall'alto per via della sua forma e della sua altezza. Parlando con l'operatore della videocamera, ed evidentemente anche ai destinatari del video, al-Bayoumi fa anche riferimento a un "piano". Tutto ciò rivela un aspetto fino ad allora non conosciuto, cioè che al-Bayoumi collaborò anche nella pianificazione del dirottamento del volo United 93 che avrebbe dovuto schiantarsi contro lo US Capitol nelle intenzioni dei dirottatori. Nel servizio di 60 Minutes, l'ex Supervisore dell'FBI Richard Lambert conferma che al-Qaeda prese la decisione di colpire il Campidoglio nei 90 giorni successivi a quando al-Bayoumi registrò questo video.
Il servizio di 60 Minutes contiene anche un frammento di una deposizione dello stesso al-Bayoumi nell'ambito della stessa causa in cui risponde sul significato dei calcoli aeronautici trovati nella sua casa di Birmingham, la spiegazione che dà è tanto ridicola quanto poco credibile. Sostiene infatti al-Bayoumi che si tratti di reminiscenze della scuola e del tentativo di ricordare una formula studiata ai tempi. Considerando che, come spiegato recentemente su questo blog, è probabile che quella formula servisse a valutare la velocità di discesa per colpire un obiettivo al suolo sulla base della distanza orizzontale da un riferimento noto, si capisce per quale motivo al-Bayoumi fosse interessato anche al Washington Monument nonostante non fosse tra gli obiettivi dei terroristi.
Oltre a quanto trasmesso da 60 Minutes, anche il giornale online Florida Bulldog ha riportato che Scotland Yard ha reso disponibile al tribunale di New York un secondo lotto di documentazione su al-Bayoumi (oltre a quanto già reso noto nel 2022). Sul computer di al-Bayoumi la polizia inglese ha trovato un file immagine salvato come helicopters.psp in cui era nascosto con la tecnica della steganografia il messaggio:
Tralasciando gli errori di battitura la traduzione sarebbe:
Al-Bayoumi ha quindi compiuto un dry run di portare un coltello con sé in aereo, per verificare se fosse stato scoperto. Non è immediatamente chiaro quale sia il legame tra la recinzione metallica della pista e gli attentati per come si sono compiuti, ma è un dettaglio che riguarda comunque la sicurezza aeroportuale.
Al-Bayoumi non è quindi una persona di buona volontà che ha voluto solo aiutare i suoi connazionali, in quanto, come riportato anche nel video di 60 Minutes dall'ex Agente Speciale dell'FBI Danny Gonzalez, non aiutò nessun altro oltre a due dirottatori. Ed è altrettanto ovvio che non ebbe solo il ruolo di assistere al-Mihdhar e al-Hazmi in California, ma che al-Qaeda gli assegnò vari incarichi nell'organizzazione degli attentati.
Nell'ultimo anno sono state pubblicate, grazie a due importanti inchieste giornalistiche, delle prove documentali riguardo al ruolo di Omar al-Bayoumi nella pianificazione degli attentati, da cui emerge che l'ex agente saudita non si limitò al supporto logistico ai dirottatori del volo American Airlines 77 che si schiantò contro il Pentagono, ma ebbe un ruolo ben più ampio.
Lo scorso 27 aprile la trasmissione 60 Minutes ha trasmesso un servizio di circa tredici minuti (di cui era stata anticipata un'anteprima nel 2024) in cui ha mostrato un video realizzato dallo stesso al-Bayoumi nell'estate del 1999 a Washington in cui riprende vari tra i monumenti più famosi. Il materiale è stato depositato in tribunale nell'ambito della causa intentata dalle famiglie delle vittime contro l'Arabia Saudita. Il video (disponibile integralmente e senza voci sovraimposte a questo indirizzo) mostra al-Bayoumi riprendere lo US Capitol, interrogandosi sulla sicurezza del palazzo, e il Washington Monument, l'obelisco di fronte al Lincoln Memorial visibile dall'alto per via della sua forma e della sua altezza. Parlando con l'operatore della videocamera, ed evidentemente anche ai destinatari del video, al-Bayoumi fa anche riferimento a un "piano". Tutto ciò rivela un aspetto fino ad allora non conosciuto, cioè che al-Bayoumi collaborò anche nella pianificazione del dirottamento del volo United 93 che avrebbe dovuto schiantarsi contro lo US Capitol nelle intenzioni dei dirottatori. Nel servizio di 60 Minutes, l'ex Supervisore dell'FBI Richard Lambert conferma che al-Qaeda prese la decisione di colpire il Campidoglio nei 90 giorni successivi a quando al-Bayoumi registrò questo video.
Il servizio di 60 Minutes contiene anche un frammento di una deposizione dello stesso al-Bayoumi nell'ambito della stessa causa in cui risponde sul significato dei calcoli aeronautici trovati nella sua casa di Birmingham, la spiegazione che dà è tanto ridicola quanto poco credibile. Sostiene infatti al-Bayoumi che si tratti di reminiscenze della scuola e del tentativo di ricordare una formula studiata ai tempi. Considerando che, come spiegato recentemente su questo blog, è probabile che quella formula servisse a valutare la velocità di discesa per colpire un obiettivo al suolo sulla base della distanza orizzontale da un riferimento noto, si capisce per quale motivo al-Bayoumi fosse interessato anche al Washington Monument nonostante non fosse tra gli obiettivi dei terroristi.
Oltre a quanto trasmesso da 60 Minutes, anche il giornale online Florida Bulldog ha riportato che Scotland Yard ha reso disponibile al tribunale di New York un secondo lotto di documentazione su al-Bayoumi (oltre a quanto già reso noto nel 2022). Sul computer di al-Bayoumi la polizia inglese ha trovato un file immagine salvato come helicopters.psp in cui era nascosto con la tecnica della steganografia il messaggio:
For your information, I have taken a knief [sic] and bag on board and there were no security checks whatsoever. Also, the perimeter fence that goes around the tarmac was not electricuted [sic]
Tralasciando gli errori di battitura la traduzione sarebbe:
Per vostra informazione, ho portato un coltello e una borsa a bordo dell'aereo e non ci sono stati controlli di sicurezza di alcun tipo. Inoltre, la recinzione perimetrale che circonda la pista non era elettrificata.
Al-Bayoumi ha quindi compiuto un dry run di portare un coltello con sé in aereo, per verificare se fosse stato scoperto. Non è immediatamente chiaro quale sia il legame tra la recinzione metallica della pista e gli attentati per come si sono compiuti, ma è un dettaglio che riguarda comunque la sicurezza aeroportuale.
Al-Bayoumi non è quindi una persona di buona volontà che ha voluto solo aiutare i suoi connazionali, in quanto, come riportato anche nel video di 60 Minutes dall'ex Agente Speciale dell'FBI Danny Gonzalez, non aiutò nessun altro oltre a due dirottatori. Ed è altrettanto ovvio che non ebbe solo il ruolo di assistere al-Mihdhar e al-Hazmi in California, ma che al-Qaeda gli assegnò vari incarichi nell'organizzazione degli attentati.
2025/06/14
Nuovo episodio della serie con Adam Fitzgerald
In questo nuovo episodio della serie, io e Adam Fitzgerald parliamo dell'attentato contro le Khobar Towers in Arabia Saudita nel 1996 e delle nuove prove in possesso di Scotland Yard riguardo a Omar al-Bayoumi, come riportato da The Florida Bulldog.
2025/05/17
The Aeronautical Calculations Found in al-Bayoumi’s Birmingham Residence
The Italian version of this article is available here.
Note: In the most recent video of the series with Adam Fitzgerald, I gave an incorrect explanation of the equation found in Omar al-Bayoumi's notes. What follows is the correct explanation. I apologize to the viewers of the video.
Among the notes found in the house where Omar al-Bayoumi was staying in Birmingham after 9/11, there was a handwritten page with what appears to be aeronautical calculations to estimate the distance between an aircraft and a ground object when the object appears on the horizon. The reported formula is:
In al-Bayoumi's original text, the closing parenthesis is missing, but this is clearly a mistake. According to what was verified by the FBI in one of the documents declassified following Executive Order 14040 by former President Joe Biden, the formula may be the application of the Pythagorean Theorem to the right triangle (shown in the diagram below, which is highly out of scale for clarity) formed by:
The sides of the triangle are:
Starting from the equation where the area of the square built on the hypotenuse equals the sum of the areas of the squares built on the two legs, we obtain:
By substituting the value 4000 for Earth's radius (approximately 3,963 miles), we arrive at the equation written by al-Bayoumi. At this point in the calculations, al-Bayoumi replaces d2 with the values 5000 and 2500, which correspond to values of d of about 70 and 50 miles respectively, and writes the following equations.
In al-Bayoumi's notes follow numbers and sums that are hard to decipher. What is noticeable is the appearance of the numbers 52 and 76, which are close to the d values in the above calculations, and also this sum appears:
20 is the distance in miles between the Pentagon and Dulles Airport from which American Airlines Flight 77 departed; 245 is the distance traveled from the departure airport at the moment the terrorists took control of the aircraft. Al-Bayoumi's calculations thus result in the distance between the aircraft and the target at the time of hijacking. It is therefore likely that the hijackers were instructed to begin their assault when flying over a predetermined visible point on the ground, which the FBI identified as possibly:
Returning to the equation for calculating altitude, it is therefore likely that the terrorists used the same approach: they may have used this formula to calculate altitude after estimating horizontal distance from their target based on what they were flying over when the Pentagon appeared on the horizon. Starting from altitude and horizontal speed, they could then calculate the vertical speed to enter into the flight instrumentation in order to strike the Pentagon.
It should be noted that the formula used is very rudimentary, for example because it does not take into account atmospheric refraction, i.e., the deviation of light due to air density variation. In any case, the terrorists on American Airlines 77 did not care about absolute precision, only about hitting a point somewhere on a huge building like the Pentagon.
Note: In the most recent video of the series with Adam Fitzgerald, I gave an incorrect explanation of the equation found in Omar al-Bayoumi's notes. What follows is the correct explanation. I apologize to the viewers of the video.
 |
| Source: New York Times |
Among the notes found in the house where Omar al-Bayoumi was staying in Birmingham after 9/11, there was a handwritten page with what appears to be aeronautical calculations to estimate the distance between an aircraft and a ground object when the object appears on the horizon. The reported formula is:
d=√(h(h+8000))
In al-Bayoumi's original text, the closing parenthesis is missing, but this is clearly a mistake. According to what was verified by the FBI in one of the documents declassified following Executive Order 14040 by former President Joe Biden, the formula may be the application of the Pythagorean Theorem to the right triangle (shown in the diagram below, which is highly out of scale for clarity) formed by:
- the aircraft (P)
- a ground object when it appears on the horizon (G)
- the center of the Earth (C)
The sides of the triangle are:
- Earth's radius (r) plus aircraft altitude (h)
- distance between the aircraft and an object on the horizon (d)
- Earth's radius (r)
 |
| Source: FBI. |
Starting from the equation where the area of the square built on the hypotenuse equals the sum of the areas of the squares built on the two legs, we obtain:
r2+d2=(r+h)2
r2+d2=(r+h)(r+h)
r2+d2=r2+h2+2rh
d2=h2+2rh
d=√(h2+2rh)
d=√(h(h+2r))
By substituting the value 4000 for Earth's radius (approximately 3,963 miles), we arrive at the equation written by al-Bayoumi. At this point in the calculations, al-Bayoumi replaces d2 with the values 5000 and 2500, which correspond to values of d of about 70 and 50 miles respectively, and writes the following equations.
2500=h2+8000h
h2+8000h=5000
In al-Bayoumi's notes follow numbers and sums that are hard to decipher. What is noticeable is the appearance of the numbers 52 and 76, which are close to the d values in the above calculations, and also this sum appears:
225+20=245
20 is the distance in miles between the Pentagon and Dulles Airport from which American Airlines Flight 77 departed; 245 is the distance traveled from the departure airport at the moment the terrorists took control of the aircraft. Al-Bayoumi's calculations thus result in the distance between the aircraft and the target at the time of hijacking. It is therefore likely that the hijackers were instructed to begin their assault when flying over a predetermined visible point on the ground, which the FBI identified as possibly:
- Kanawha River, 245 miles from Dulles Airport
- Elk Fork Lake, 225 miles from Dulles Airport
- Ohio River, 231 miles from Dulles Airport
- Interstate 77, 230 miles from Dulles Airport
Returning to the equation for calculating altitude, it is therefore likely that the terrorists used the same approach: they may have used this formula to calculate altitude after estimating horizontal distance from their target based on what they were flying over when the Pentagon appeared on the horizon. Starting from altitude and horizontal speed, they could then calculate the vertical speed to enter into the flight instrumentation in order to strike the Pentagon.
It should be noted that the formula used is very rudimentary, for example because it does not take into account atmospheric refraction, i.e., the deviation of light due to air density variation. In any case, the terrorists on American Airlines 77 did not care about absolute precision, only about hitting a point somewhere on a huge building like the Pentagon.
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