Landlord who rented California apartment to 9/11 terrorists speaks for 1st time about being duped: I bought into everything

A California woman who unknowingly provided rental housing to a pair of Saudi 9/11 hijackers is speaking out about the way the pair ingrained themselves, by being “very, very friendly,” into the unsuspecting community of neighbors.“I would have cookies and tea with them,” admitted Holly Ratchford, who managed the San Diego-area Parkwood Apartments where the hijackers lived, in her first public comments on her brush with terror.“It wasn’t like they were just someone that came into the office and rented from us,” she told the BBC.Ratchford rented units in the complex where she also lived to Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who were part of the five-man terror team that hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and horrifically crashed it into the Pentagon, killing 184.She was introduced to the pair by a Saudi national, Omar al-Bayoumi, who moved into the complex in 1999 — and whose government connections are central to a lawsuit by 9/11 victims’ families who blame the Saudi government for being complicit in the terror attacks, which will be marked by their 25th anniversary next month.Years later, she still recalls how the terrorists blended in.

“There was absolutely nothing unusual about them.They were nice, they were polite,” she said.al-Bayoumi also appeared to snow her, claiming to be a student while covering up his government ties, which some investigators believe lined up with involvement in Saudi intelligence.

“I bought into everything that he told me,” Ratchford said.“I really thought that’s how he was.”al-Bayoumi had a townhouse by the pool in the complex, and would regularly attend pool parties Ratchford hosted, the outlet reported.“He was always so bubbly and smiling,” she said, calling him “very, very friendly.”According to her account, al-Bayoumi vouched for his two terrorist buddies when they at first tried to rent a one-bedroom apartment from Ratchford by paying in cash, saying he knew them from his mosque.“It...