Families of September 11 victims urge Lutnick to help extradite Saudi national

Washington: The families of some of the victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks who worked for the bond trading company of Howard Lutnick, now the commerce secretary, are urging him to help extradite a Saudi Arabian national potentially involved in the attacks as he prepares to engage in economic talks with the kingdom.

In a letter to Lutnick, obtained by The New York Times, the families representing the hundreds of employees at the company, Cantor Fitzgerald, who died in the attack cited recently unsealed evidence showing that Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi intelligence agent, had ties to the attackers.

Lutnick is himself a relative of a victim of the terrorist attack; his brother, who also worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, died. And Cantor, with offices that spanned the 101st to the 105th floors of the World Trade Center's North Tower, lost more employees than any other firm affected by the attacks.

The letter comes as Lutnick plans to accompany President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia as part of an upcoming trip to the Middle East. The families urged Lutnick to make the case that al-Bayoumi be brought to justice in any discussions about strengthening the United States' economic partnership with the kingdom. The relatives wrote that his appointment "gives us renewed hope" to determine the full truth about the attacks and who was responsible.

"You are in a unique position to emphasize that any such partnership must begin with accountability and justice, ensuring that Omar al-Bayoumi is handed over to the United States to face justice in an American court," read the letter, which had more than 150 signatories.

"This issue transcends politics; it is a matter of principle," the letter continued. "It is about honoring the lives we lost, and whether the country that sent them to their tragic deaths will ever be held accountable."

Commerce Department officials declined to comment. A person with knowledge of Lutnick's thinking said he had seen the letter and deeply appreciated the family members' thoughts.

Lutnick, who was serving as the firm's CEO at the time of the attack, lost 658 employees, including his best friend. In a social media post last year, he recounted how he was dropping his son off for his first day of kindergarten when his phone kept ringing and disconnecting as his brother, Gary, tried to call to say goodbye.

Cantor Fitzgerald continued to support the families affected by the attacks, giving them $180 million. It also paid for their health care for 10 years and set up a relief fund.

"I promised to take care of all the families," he wrote. "They became part of my family."

There was dissent within the firm over how a settlement allocation from American Airlines over the aircraft that slammed into the World Trade Center's North Tower, causing it to collapse, Fox Business reported. Lutnick told the company's executives in 2014 that the money was to be largely disbursed among partners at the firm, as opposed to family members of those killed. It is unclear whether that was how the money was ultimately disbursed. Lutnick declined to comment to Fox Business for its article at the time.

For years, information about al-Bayoumi's potential involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks was obscured.

Last summer, a trove of evidence seized by British authorities from the home of al-Bayoumi tying him to the Sept. 11 al-Qaida hijackers was made public for the first time.

More than a week after the attacks, British police officers raided the home of al-Bayoumi, who had met two of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Los Angeles shortly after they arrived in early 2000. Among the items the officers seized was a pad on which al-Bayoumi had sketched an airplane in blue ink, above which he had written a mathematical equation.

British authorities turned the material over to the FBI for its investigation of the attacks. But it remains unclear what happened to the drawing after that. It was not shared with the 9/11 Commission, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and experts responsible for writing the definitive account of the attacks. In its 2004 report, the commission called al-Bayoumi "an unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement with Islamic extremists."

None of the new evidence from al-Bayoumi's home conclusively proved that the Saudi government enabled the attacks, but it adds to a growing circumstantial case.

The families cited a report broadcast on "60 Minutes" last month, revealing that al-Bayoumi filmed the Capitol before the attacks.

In the letter, the families pointed out that such information had been in the FBI's hands weeks after the attack but was withheld from the American public and the Sept. 11 commission for years.

"That betrayal is staggering," the letter said. "But now we have an opportunity for a fresh start."