This appeared today at the 9/11 Timeline:

Around 1997-September 11, 2001: Hijackers Almihdhar and Alhazmi Supposedly Work for Saudi Intelligence

After 9/11, an unnamed former CIA officer who worked in Saudi Arabia will tell author Joe Trento that hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar were allowed to operate in the US unchecked (see, e.g., Early February-Summer 2000 and Late May-December 2000) because they were agents of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency. “We had been unable to penetrate al-Qaeda. The Saudis claimed that they had done it successfully. Both Alhazmi and Almihdhar were Saudi agents. We thought they had been screened. It turned out the man responsible for recruiting them had been loyal to Osama bin Laden. The truth is bin Laden himself was a Saudi agent at one time. He successfully penetrated Saudi intelligence and created his own operation inside. The CIA relied on the Saudis vetting their own agents. It was a huge mistake. The reason the FBI was not given any information about either man is because they were Saudi assets operating with CIA knowledge in the United States.” [Stories That Matter, 8/6/2003]

Entity Tags: Khalid Almihdhar, Nawaf Alhazmi, Saudi General Intelligence Directorate, Central Intelligence Agency
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a97aandasaudiintelligence#a97aandasaudiintelligence

It could well be limited hangout, but I think it's closer to the truth than what we are currently being told. Trento first made this claim in a little-known 2003 article, but it's included in his new book and might get more play now.