Mohammed Alkhereiji • Arab News Staff

JEDDAH, 5 August 2003 — Osama Bassnan, the Saudi citizen mentioned in the congressional report on Sept. 11 attacks, has said he and fellow Saudi Omar Al-Bayoumi were merely casual acquaintances.

The two men and their families frequented the same mosque in Claremont Mesa Boulevard in San Diego, California, where the two men’s wives socialized more frequently.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, Bassnan said he planned to bring a lawsuit against those responsible for his and his wife’s arrest last October. He was held for a period of 85 days, which Bassnan claims was a source of anguish.

The US congressional report states that Omar Al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassnan were crucial to understanding the events leading up to the Sept. 11 plot, largely because of Al-Bayoumi’s extensive contacts with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Khalid Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi, after they settled in San Diego in early 2000.

There is no definitive evidence that Bassnan knew the hijackers, but the report describes him as a close associate of Al-Bayoumi.

It claims that both Omar Al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassnan were in contact with two of the Saudi terrorists three years ago in San Diego.

Bassnan said that while in prison he taught his fellow inmates how to cook traditional Saudi dishes. Most inmates used to call him “Osama Bin Laden,” he added.

Meanwhile, US authorities plan to reinterview Al-Bayoumi, US Attorney General John Ashcroft said in Washington on Sunday. Officials want to question Al-Bayoumi, for a second time in light of new information, Ashcroft said in an interview on ABC’s This Week.

“As we develop information, sometimes we’ll learn something that we need to go back and ask someone that we might not have thought important before,” Ashcroft said.