The Mystery of the 9/11 Anthrax Attacks + WTC Building 7

In late 2002, Dina Lesman, an investigator on the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after 9/11, compiled a disturbing set of connections. A San Diego man named Omar Bayumi had helped two Saudi nationals find an apartment and open bank accounts nineteen months before they flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. An associate of Bayumi’s received a check from the Saudi ambassador; the associate’s wife received checks from the ambassador’s wife. On the night of September 10, 2001, a Saudi interior ministry official named Salah Al-Husain checked into a Marriott in Herndon, Virginia, where three of the hijackers were also staying. The FBI interviewed him; agents believed he was lying, but before they could press him, he passed out—possibly feigning it—and was out of the country as soon as the air travel ban lifted. In Pakistan, investigators found a phone book belonging to an al-Qaeda operative containing the unlisted number for the company that managed the Saudi ambassador’s estate in Colorado. Lesman wrote up her findings. Soon after, her chapter was classified in full. When the 838-page Joint Inquiry report came out, 28 pages—containing much of her work—were blank.

The Anthrax Letters and the Ames Strain