Former manager breaks silence on man who helped 911 hijackers settle in US

Nearly 25 years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a former California apartment manager has spoken publicly for the first time about one of the men who helped two of the hijackers settle in the United States.

Holly Ratchford managed the Parkwood Apartments in San Diego in the late 1990s, where Omar al-Bayoumi was one of her tenants.

Bayoumi later became a central figure in investigations into the 9/11 plot after helping hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar settle in San Diego before they took part in the attacks.

“It’s almost impossible for me to wrap my head around who he said he was, and who he really is. I still struggle with that. He was always so bubbly and smiling. Just very, very friendly. Whenever I had parties, he would come and be a part of the activities. I enjoyed going over,” Ratchford told the BBC.

However, Ratchford disputes Bayoumi’s long-standing claim that he barely knew the two men and only helped them out of charity after meeting them by chance in Los Angeles.

According to Ratchford, Bayoumi specifically asked for an apartment close to his own unit so the two men could live nearby. When al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar failed to meet the apartment’s standard background and income requirements, Bayoumi co-signed their lease and acted as their legal guarantor.

She also said she saw Bayoumi with the two men together several times over a period of months and described their relationship as friendly.

On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four commercial airliners in a coordinated terrorist attack. Two planes crashed into New York City’s World Trade Centre, destroying the twin towers, while a third struck the Pentagon. The fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers.

Bayoumi had moved to Birmingham, UK, before the attacks. The FBI tracked him down and arrested him with the assistance of British anti-terrorism police on September 21, 2001.

During initial interrogations, Bayoumi denied knowing any of the hijackers before later admitting that he had acted as a financial guarantor for two men named Nawaf and Khalid, who were subsequently identified as al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar.

He maintained that his contact with the pair was brief and coincidental, saying he helped them secure accommodation in San Diego before cutting ties with them.

Ratchford’s account comes as thousands of families of 9/11 victims pursue a $1 trillion (Sh129.44 trillion) lawsuit against the government of Saudi Arabia.

Last year, a federal judge ruled that evidence suggested Bayoumi may have been working with Saudi officials when he assisted the hijackers. Bayoumi and the Saudi government have denied any involvement in the attacks.

US documents show Bayoumi received about $90,000 (Sh11.65 million) a year from companies linked to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense, despite appearing to perform little or no work. Investigators found that his pay increased sharply after the hijackers arrived in San Diego and fell after they left.

For Ratchford, discovering that her former tenants were involved in the 9/11 attacks changed her life.

Shortly after federal agents interviewed her, she quit her job and moved to a remote desert area in the western United States.

The legal case concerning Saudi Arabia’s alleged links to the attacks is currently before a US appeals court.