"Always Smiling, Very Friendly": Woman Recalls Saudi Tenant Linked To 9/11 Hijackers

A former property manager in San Diego has spoken publicly about her interactions with Omar al-Bayoumi, the Saudi national accused of helping two of the 9/11 hijackers before the attacks.

Holly Ratchford managed Parkwood Apartments in San Diego in the late 1990s. Bayoumi moved into the complex with his family in September 1999 and soon became a familiar face there. Ratchford remembers him as friendly and sociable. "He was always so bubbly and smiling and just very, very friendly," she told the BBC.

But months later, Bayoumi brought two men to her office who were looking for an apartment. They were Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who would later become two of the 19 men who hijacked four planes during the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Ratchford said she saw the two men regularly after they moved in. She said she even had tea and cookies with them and described them as friendly. She also told the FBI that Bayoumi paid their rent when they fell behind on payments.

The connection only became clear to Ratchford after the September 11 attacks. About 16 months after the hijackers had moved out, a woman contacted her asking for a rental reference. Ratchford later learned that the woman was a journalist who told her that Hazmi and Mihdhar were among the men involved in the attack on the Pentagon.

The FBI subsequently interviewed Ratchford. She handed over Bayoumi's lease documents, which became part of the investigation into his relationship with the hijackers.

According to retired FBI investigator Richard Lambert, investigators later found that people connected to Bayoumi helped the two men obtain California driver's licences, apply to flight schools, receive money transfers and arrange dental treatment. Lambert described Bayoumi as being at the centre of a network connected to the hijackers.

During questioning in the UK after the attacks, Bayoumi initially denied knowing the hijackers. He later admitted helping two men named Nawaf and Khalid but claimed his contact with them was limited.

He said he had met them in Los Angeles and later helped them find accommodation in San Diego. He also claimed that he largely avoided them after they moved into the apartment. However, Ratchford rejects this version, saying that Bayoumi had been actively involved in helping them and continued to interact with them.

Later, FBI investigators found that Bayoumi received about $90,000 a year from companies linked to the Saudi Defence Ministry. His pay reportedly increased after Hazmi and Mihdhar arrived in San Diego and fell after they left the US.

Investigators also found documents and writings linked to Bayoumi that they believed showed anti-American and jihadist views. However, he was never prosecuted in connection with the 9/11 attacks.

Bayoumi was arrested in Birmingham, UK, shortly after 9/11 but was released after seven days. The US Department of Justice decided not to seek his extradition. He later returned to Saudi Arabia.

In an August 2025 ruling, US District Judge George B Daniels said he denied that Bayoumi was simply an innocent person who happened to help the hijackers. In 1999, he filmed the US Capitol in Washington, DC, from several angles. During the recording, he referred to a "plan". Lawyers representing the 9/11 families have argued that the video could show that he was surveilling a potential target.

"All the Court can conclude from the video is that Bayoumi visited Washington DC and that he filmed the city," the judge ruled.

The judge said there was a reasonable inference that the assistance Bayoumi provided to the hijackers in connection with their apartment was not merely an act of kindness and may have been carried out on instructions from the Saudi government.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied that Bayoumi was a Saudi agent or that he knew about the 9/11 attack beforehand. They have also said the footage was simply a tourist video. In its August 2025 judgment, however, the New York court said the video itself only established that Bayoumi had visited Washington and filmed the city.

The case is now with the US Court of Appeals, which will hear oral arguments in October.