Felix Sater and Al Qaeda
Felix Sater's contributions to the US intelligence community are now well-documented in released U.S. government records and related media articles. Yet nothing has been published to-date placing any of this newly released information in a single story for the American public to digest regarding his role in assisting to supply a vast amount of intelligence on bin Laden and Al Qaeda before and after the tragedy of 9/11.
This is especially true since Spring of 2018 when Buzzfeed News reported for the first time Felix Sater supplied Osama bin Laden's satellite phone number, as well as turning Mullah Omar's personal secretary (who was in the cave with bin Laden) into an asset for the U.S. government.
Even after it was officially confirmed when Sater's 5k1 pre-sentencing letter was unsealed by the Judge in August of 2019, there is no mainstream media article out there reviewing prior 9/11 records, media reporting, the 9/11 Commission Report and doing any kind of follow-up to these interesting new facts and details to place it into any historical context.
As this is being written, it has now been 18 months since this information was released by the US government, or rather the Judge in Sater's case, Judge Leo Glasser.
Let's See If We Can Form A Clearer Picture,
Shall We?
1996
Back in 1996, Bin Laden was barely a blip on our radar. The end to the Soviet-Afghan War had been followed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Russia had become like the Wild Wild West with no regulations at all, no banking systems, just complete and unbridled capitalism waiting to be exploited.
By February of 1996 (through May 1998), the CIA unit assigned to Osama Bin Laden kept requesting to receive the "raw" electronic collection (or SIGINT signals intelligence) against Al Qaeda, but were continually told no. Their complaint was the transcript summaries were taking too long and not providing enough intel. At one point, the National Security Act of 1947 was used, with the claim it provided their agency "control" of this raw signals intelligence and did not want to pass it on to the CIA.
From The Atlantic, Dec 2004 issue, 'How Not To Catch A Terrorist':
Key dates and ten specific events are detailed between mid-1996 to late-1999 which were looked at as failures leading up to 9/11 and taking bin Laden seriously.
The majority of these examples provided by Michael Scheuer from his letter to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees (only some are shown here in this research -- please click link to article to see all).
By May of 1996, Osama Bin Laden has left Sudan and returned to Afghanistan.
May 1996 - 9/11 Commission Report [p.63]
"And Bin Laden may have no longer felt safe in Sudan, where he had already escaped at least one assassination attempt that he believed to have been the work of the Egyptian or Saudi regimes, or both. In any case, on May 19, 1996, Bin Laden left Sudan -- significantly weakened, despite his ambitions and organizational skills. He returned to Afghanistan.
Between mid-to-late 1996, CIA"s Bin Laden unit had intel on Al Qaeda seeking nuclear weapons.
By December of 1996, a "CIA officer detailed to another" agency overseas learned of a "communications conduit used by Bin Laden and Al Qaeda." This agency "refused to exploit the conduit," even going so far as to threatening "legal action against the Agency officer who advised of its existence."
Between late 1996 (through June 1999), there was repeated and formal requests for military assistance to plan operations against Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Only after 18 months had passed did they receive two personnel with only Iran experience.
Starting late 1996 (through 9/11) - 9/11 Commission Report [p.67]
"US intelligence estimates put the total number of fighters who underwent training in Bin-Laden-supported camps in Afghanistan from 1996 to 9/11 at 10,000 to 20,000."
1996, then President Bill Clinton - 9/11 Commission Report [p.101]
"When announcing his new national security team after being reelected in 1996, President Clinton mentioned terrorism first in his list of several challenges facing the country."
Bin Laden funding after leaving Sudan - 9/11 Commission Report [p.170]
"When Bin Laden lived in Sudan from 1991 to 1996, he owned a number of businesses and other assets. Those could not have provided significant income, as most were small or not economically viable. When Bin Laden left in 1996, it appears that the Sudanese government expropriated all his assets: he left Sudan with practically nothing. When Bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan, he relied on the Taliban until he was able to reinvigorate his fundraising efforts by drawing on ties to wealthy Saudi individuals that he had established during the Afghan War of the 1980s."
1996, Mullah Mohammed Omar - 9/11 Commission Report [p.436] described as the leader of Taliban from 1996-2001
September 1996, Felix Sater heads to Moscow, no shit, to sell Viagra - "Scorpion and the Frog: High Times and High Crimes book, (book link) [p.254]
*Keep in mind in this book written about their stock fraud Felix is under the pseudonym "Lex" and this is written from the perspective of Salvatore Lauria, Felix's partner in the stock fraud scam and who also later followed Felix to Bayrock
"We also made connections with pharmacists who could supply us with large quantities of Viagra. The Russian wealthy knew about the drug for men who had trouble getting or sustaining an erection. Even Senator and Presidential candidate Bob Dole had discussed the sexual dysfunction that had hurt his pride and marital pleasure. He told how he had started taking Viagra and redeveloped the sexual abilities he had when much younger. He even did a TV commercial on it. This had led many men, including the Russian generals, to try Viagra, convinced they would be super studs in bed. But Viagra was not readily available in Moscow.
We found a pharmacy connection, and even before I left for Moscow I had been sending 'care packages' of Viagra to Gene and Lex. When I went over, I packed as many containers of Viagra to Gene and Lex. When I went over, I packed as many containers of Viagra as I could. We gave them to the generals and other dignitaries who wanted them. They were selling for $60 a pill there so they were considered quite valuable. That was why, when the Russians were getting into new areas of business, they were willing to consider using us to do bond offerings for some of their banks.
Gene's father was well known as a major businessman with extensive agricultural holdings through which he subsidized farmers. And as I've said, Lex's father was a notorious, politicaly connected gangster who was high up on the food chain. Thanks to these parents and connections they had made on their own, Gene and Lex were able to set up meetings with the chairmen of top banks at a time when certain Russian banks were floating bonds in the U.S. and London.
I didn't realize the full extent of Gene and Lex's connections until I arrived. I got off the plane, recovered my luggage, and found an official car waiting for me. It was the style you see rolling Manhattan streets on the way to the United Nations-- a black Mercedes-Benz with flags on the hood, as if I were a head of state or diplomat. Moscow was like the Wild West to me. You saw gangsters in their fleets of Mercedes cars and trucks. You saw the business elite and top government officials in luxury limousines. Then you saw everybody else, who basically had nothing."
[p.260] There was also this telecommunications deal. Sater was a consultant for AT&T.
"At the same time, Lex was also working a deal to bring both AT&T bulk long distance service and prepaid phone charge cards to Russia. He figured that with the democracy movement and an improved economy, people would be calling America a lot, and communication was the business to be in. So he was working both the arms and telephone angles while Gene approached the banks to see if he could float a bond for them. We were all busy and we loved it."
Note: This establishes both Gene and Felix had connections in Russia (Felix through his father, Gene through family business there) but further below how Gene (Gennady) also earned the respect of certain Russians during 1993 on a visit there. If the book is accurate, Gene Klotsman also already had established ties to Boris Yeltsin and was going to Russia seeking out a deal involving the purchase of Shearson Lehman. It is unclear at what point in the midst of all of this the Defense Intelligence Agency tapped Felix on the shoulder for his help.
In October of 1993, there was a constitutional crisis in Russia. There was basically a political standoff between the then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian Parliament which was resolved by military force.
As you will see by the following old media article from 1993 followed by the excerpt from the Scorpion and the Frog book regarding Gene being there in Moscow and surrounding the White House when it happened, it will make sense how he'd earned a high level of status in Russia for defending democracy there as a Russian-American without having so much as a loaded weapon.
October 5, 1993 - The Guardian, 'Yeltsin Crushes Revolt'
"After a grisly 10-hour gun battle in which tanks punched holes in the front of the White House, all but an unknown number of last-ditch snipers surrendered. The indiscriminate exchanges of fire left hundreds injured and an unknown number dead. The assault set fire to the riverside front of the building and reduced whole floors to rubble. At 4.50pm local time 300 people, many of them deputies, came out with their hands over their heads, and walked in single file down the steps to waiting buses. Gunfire still crackled overhead.
Earlier in the day, a brief but fierce exchange took place about 200 yards along the embankment, and tank artillery was blamed for starting a fire at the Mezhdunarodnaya hotel. Two hours after the assault began, Mr Yeltsin appeared on television and laid the blame firmly on Mr Rutskoi's and Mr Khasbulatov's shoulders.
Mr Yeltsin said:
'We have not been preparing to make war. We were thinking it was possible to make a deal and preserve peace in the capital. Those who began to fire against this city and unleashed this bloodshed are criminals. All that was and still is going on in Moscow was an armed revolt planned in advance,' he said. 'It was organised by Communists seeking revenge, by fascist leaders and some of the former lawmakers. There can be no forgiveness, because they lifted their hand against peaceful people.'
After parliamentary supporters were seen to fire the first shots on Sunday, breaking through police lines and launching a bloody attack on the Ostankino television centre, which left 69 dead, Mr Yeltsin wanted to justify his use of heavy armour to crush the rebellion."
Scorpion Frog book [p.250]
"Gene's planned get-together in Russia was a strictly capitalistic meeting to discuss the possible acquisition of Shearson Lehman, which was up for sale. There was no set price, though Gene had learned that an offer of $780 million would likely be accepted. He felt he could raise money with the help of Yeltsin and a man they called the Russian Godfather, who was put in jail weeks after Gene had wined and dined him. There were plenty of very wealthy Russians, some of them from the old Communist system where stealing had been a way of life for the privileged, and some of them new millionaires becoming rich under the democracy movement. Yeltsin knew all of them or could find people to help, and Gene planned to cut him in for a piece of the action.
Gene had flown to Moscow and gotten a room in a hotel next to the parliament building known as the Russian 'White House.' He went to bed unaware that a take-over plot had begun. Then members of the State Committee called a press conference. The plot's leaders came across as drunk and incompetent.
Next came equally ineffectual aggression during which the plotters and their dwindling supporters tried to take control of the White House. However, normal precautions to neutralize the enemy were ignored. Foreign television crews were unrestricted in their movements. Satellite TV, which could be used by everyone from foreign powers to the pro-democracy followers, was never jammed. No one thought to take control of the telephone system. And when tanks were sent into the streets, passers-by walked over to the young tank crewmen asking why they would even consider using weapons on their fellow citizens. The soldiers listened to them and most decided not to fight.
To do it right, the plotters should have arrested Yeltsin, but again the State Comittee had no sense of how to seize control. Then the conspirators delegated Pavel Grachev, Commander of Soviet Airborne-General Forces, to run military operations in Moscow, never realizing that he did not support them. With no one to stop him, Yeltsin drove to the White House, entered, rallied his associates, and went out to lead a crowd of tens of thousands of citizens gathered outside. Then the loyalists began constructing makeshift barriers of old trucks, rubble, and anything else they could find to protect the White House, and the fledgling Democracy it represented from attack.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, Yeltsin walked from the White House and climbed onto a tank stationed at the side of the road and denounced the State Committee members. The State Committee went ahead with their attack on the White House, using tanks run by soldiers willing to obey orders. When gunfire erupted outside his hotel room, Gene rolled to the floor, grabbing his cellphone and sliding under his bed. He called me just as the citizens loyal to the democracy movement were urged by Yeltsin to fight against the plotters.
'I'm under the bed right now!' Gene told us, and we could hear gunfire in the background. Then Gene told us he was going out to join the battle and help. 'I'm going out there to defend Democracy,' Gene told us. 'I have to go now.' Then he hung up. He told us later that he had gone downstairs in the hotel and found everyone on emergency footing, and since he wanted to help defend the Russian government, he was given an automatic rifle. He went out to back the loyalists before he discovered that the assault rifle was empty. He had a gun with no bullets in it, but he joined the defense line around the White House anyway.
He told us that the tanks moved around Moscow's Garden Ring Road and thousands of loyalists, including Gene with his empty assault rifle, held fast against the tanks. Three of the resisters were accidentally killed by confused tank drivers who no longer were certain what to do.
Gene and the others, including many children, formed a human chain around the White House. The men supporting the Communist coup either faltered, decided to help the pro-democracy movement, or refused to cooperate further and the revolution was over in a matter of hours. Gene surprised everyone with his bravery yet he was never able to consummate his business deal. Shearson Lehman was later sold to American Express for approximately $1 billion. However, the pro-democracy forces remembered the courage of the Russian-American, living in the United States, who had left his hotel to join them in the streets. It was a reputation that mattered when he went back much later with Lex, and I joined them as our business collapsed.
Excerpt from Skullduggery podcast interview, Aug 2019 - audio clips below
It is unclear at what point between late 1996 (when Sater is asked to inquire about a telecommunications deal) he was asked by the DIA/Blane to help them obtaining some intel, but all of this centered around connections to Shmykov, and Evgeny Shmykov (former GRU intel guy turned advisor and arms dealer) being the one to point Milton Blane, the guy working for the DIA, in Felix's direction.
As Sater described in the interview, it was Lord Charles Spencer Churchill who had asked him to originally inquire into this telecommunications deal someone he knew had invested in.
"His nickname was 'Nutty,' which helped distinguish him from a multitude of forbears also named Charles. He was a relative of Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales. And he was a Vanderbilt through his grandmother, American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, daughter of William Kissam and Alva Vanderbilt."
First media reports of Bin Laden Using Sat Phones
It is also by late 1996 Time magazine first reported Bin Laden's use of satellite phones to keep in communication with his growing world network.
December 1996, Washington Post, August 2018
"A search of media databases shows that Time magazine first reported on Dec. 16, 1996, that bin Laden 'uses satellite phones to contact fellow Islamic militants in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.' Taliban officials provided the information, with one official — security chief Mulla Abdul Mannan Niazi — telling Time, 'He’s in high spirits.'”
**Reminder as covered above: This was also the month "a CIA officer detailed to another Intelligence Community (IC) agency and serving overseas" learned of the "availability of a communications conduit used by Bin Laden and al-Qaeda" but the other IC agency refused to exploit the conduit and threatened legal action against the Agency officer who advised of its existence. "The CIA was forced to devise its own ability to exploit the communications conduit and secured about half of the available material. The other IC agency was able to secure the other half, but refused to share it. This capability was later lost because of an August 1998 leak to the media by the U.S. military."
1996 High-Level Recap:
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February - CIA unit assigned to Osama Bin Laden kept requesting to receive the "raw" electronic collection (or SIGINT signals intelligence) against Al Qaeda, but were continually told no
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May - Osama Bin Laden left Sudan and returned to Afghanistan
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Mid-to-late 1996 - CIA"s Bin Laden unit had intel on Al Qaeda seeking nuclear weapons
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Aug/Sept 1996 - White Rock/State Street business crumbled; Felix, Gene, and Sal all head to Russia; Felix is asked to look into a telecommunications deal in Russia and contacted Evgeny Shmykov for help -- instead was asked to join their telecommunications company they planned to start
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Late 1996 - met Milton Blane/DIA and started assisting DIA (unclear if 1996 or early 1997)
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Late 1996 - CIA Bin Laden unit started formally asking for military assistance in operations but were not provided any for another 18 months
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December - CIA officer detailed to another agency overseas learned of a "communications conduit used by Bin Laden and Al Qaeda." This agency "refused to exploit the conduit," even threatened "legal action against the Agency officer who advised of its existence"
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December - CIA Bin Laden unit is made aware of a "communications conduit" but is only able to secure half the intel
1997
By 1997, we've established Sater has already been recruited by the DIA , or really close to it, and the storage locker with the docs waiting to be opened is still months away. He is in Russia and has an established relationship with Evgeny Shmykov, the man who was then acting as advisor and arms dealer to Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance.
"Well, first of all remember that Russia had a war in Afghanistan prior to our war in Afghanistan, and at that war we were supplying the mujahideen which were fighting the Soviets, and in 97-98, I was working on a telecommunications deal in Russia. Telecommunications in Russia was pretty much controlled by their GRU, which is their military-intelligence arm. So I ran across all of these people, and one of the guys happened to have been an advisor and arms dealer to Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was the head of the Northern Alliance. Ahmad Shah Massoud, if you remember, was the guy who was killed by Al Qaeda two days before 9/11 because he was pro-American and bin Laden knew that after 9/11 the US would use him as a proxy to wage war. So they decided to cut the head off at the top and they assassinated him two days before 9/11. I was introduced to, well, the guy that I knew in Russia who was working on the deal with me was very close to him. He was a Senior Advisor."
- Felix Sater
By the time 1996 came to a close, Gary Schroen, then CIA Chief of Station in Islamabad, Pakistan, had requested a meeting with Ahmad Shah Massoud which had been accepted. NPR, 2004
Book Excerpt: Ghost Wars
"In the tattered, cargo-strewn cabin of an Ariana Afghan Airlines passenger jet streaking above Punjab toward Kabul sat a stocky, broad-faced American with short graying hair. He was a friendly man in his early fifties who spoke in a flat midwestern accent. He looked as if he might be a dentist, an acquaintance once remarked. Gary Schroen had served for twenty- six years as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine services. He was now, in September 1996, chief of station in Islamabad, Pakistan. He spoke Persian and its cousin, Dari, one of Afghanistan's two main languages. In spy terminology, Schroen was an operator. He recruited and managed paid intelligence agents, conducted espionage operations, and supervised covert actions against foreign governments and terrorist groups. A few weeks before, with approval from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, he had made contact through intermediaries with Ahmed Shah Massoud, the celebrated anti-Soviet guerrilla commander, now defense minister in a war-battered Afghan government crumbling from within. Schroen had requested a meeting, and Massoud had accepted.
They had not spoken in five years. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, as allies battling Soviet occupation forces and their Afghan communist proxies, the CIA had pumped cash stipends as high as $200,000 a month to Massoud and his Islamic guerrilla organization, along with weapons and other supplies. Between 1989 and 1991, Schroen had personally delivered some of the cash. But the aid stopped in December 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved. The United States government decided it had no further interests in Afghanistan."
Further down:
"There were reasons to be skeptical about the value of such a liaison with Massoud. Most CIA officers who knew Afghanistan admired Massoud's canniness and courage, but episodes such as the $500,000 Salang Highway payment signaled that Massoud's innate independence could make him an unpredictable ally. Also, while Massoud was not a radical Islamist of bin Laden's type, he had welcomed some Arab fighters to his cause and maintained contacts in extremist networks. Could Massoud and his intelligence service become reliable partners in tracking and confronting bin Laden? Opinion within the CIA was divided in September 1996. It would remain divided for five years to come, even as the agency's secret collaborations with Massoud deepened, until a further September when Massoud's fate and America's became fatally entwined.
Langley had provided Gary Schroen with no money or formal orders to open a partnership with Massoud on terrorism. The CIA unit that worked on bin Laden had supported his visit, and its officers encouraged Schroen to discuss the terrorism issue with Massoud. But they had no funding or legal authority to do more. Schroen did have another way, however, to revive the agency's relationship with Massoud: Stinger missiles."
So just so we're super clear, the chronology isn't clearly nailed down as far as when Sater had this meeting with Evgeny and his buddies, when they offered him a part in the telecommunications deal, when he was recruited by the DIA, in contrast with when this CIA Section Chief was meeting with Massoud regarding a common enemy: Bin Laden and the Taliban. But it all definitely took place between late 1996 and into 1997. And Evgeny was an arms dealer and advisor to Massoud at this point in time.
March 1997, Reporters and film crew who interviewed Osama bin Laden reported they were searched for tracking devices. From Slate:
"On Aug. 20, 1998, the day President Clinton bombed Bin Laden in Afghanistan, then-CNN producer Peter Bergen appeared on his network as a talking head. He had interviewed Bin Laden in Afghanistan in March 1997 and portrayed the Bin Laden gang as technologically savvy, saying:
'They scanned us electronically to make sure we didn’t have any kind of tracking device; they’re very concerned about anybody who might meet bin Laden, might have some tracking device from some intelligence agency. These people are fairly sophisticated. The guy has a fair amount of money. He communicates by satellite phone, even though Afghanistan in some levels is back in the middle ages and a country that barely functions. Bin Laden has been able to function fairly well there.'"
By this point Milton Blane had told Sater about a new Russian missile defense system they were concerned about in 1997, an anti-satellite system they worried could jam the United States radar-jamming capabilities, that they might be able to fly all the way to American cities jamming our defense capabilities. Felix proceeded trying to bribe Russian military operatives and get scientists and go to closed military cities to find him any information at all this Russian weapons system.
The release of Senate Report Volume 5 confirmed Sater's level of access to Russia contacts. [p.410-413]
"Sater began using his existing network, largely in Russia, to establish a network of contacts including intelligence officers, military operatives, and personnel at military research facilities in various countries. Sater explained that he was in contact with 'mostly GRU [Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate] guys.'"
"One of Sater's primary contacts providing information at this time was Evgeny Shmykov."
1997, then President Bill Clinton - 9/11 Commission Report [p.109]
"By 1997, officers in the Bin Laden unit recognized that Bin Laden was more than just a financier. They learned that al Qaeda had a military committee that was planning operations against U.S. interests worldwide and was actively trying to obtain nuclear material. Analysts assigned to the station looked at the information it had gathered and 'found connections everywhere', including links to the attacks on U.S. troops in Aden and Somalia in 1992 and 1993 and to the Manila air plot in the Philippines in 1994-1995."
For some reason even though much of 1997 the CIA Bin Laden unit was preparing for an operation set for late-summer, days before the officer who "knew the issue cold" was ordered back to headquarters.
1997 - 9/11 Commission Report [p.110-111]
"By the fall of 1997, the Bin Laden unit had roughed out a plan for these Afghan tribals to capture Bin Laden and hand him over for trial either in the United States or in an Arab country."
"... in late 1997 and the spring of 1998, the lead U.S. agencies each pursued their own efforts against bin Laden. The CIA's Counterterrorist Center was developing a plan to capture and remove him from Afghanistan. Parts of the Justice Department were moving toward indicting Bin Laden, making possible a criminal trial in a New York court."
1998-1999
Jan 1998 - Storage locker in New York is opened containing the documents related to the offshore accounts used in the stock fraud scam.
In the Skullduggery interview, Felix explained how the fact he was already helping the Defense Intel Agency and the CIA with hunting down Stinger missiles complicated matters approximately a year later (January 1998) when the storage locker back in the US was opened and the documents on the offshore accounts from the stock fraud case were put n the FBI's hands.
[audio clip]
Feb 1998 - A Declaration of War, 9/11 Commission Report [p.47]
April/May 1998 - As already shown earlier, within weeks of Osama bin Laden issuing this fatwa against the United States, the bin Laden unit was disbanded within the CIA.
Reminder:
The Agency’s Bin Laden unit was ordered disbanded and reduced to a small branch. This was done, so far as I know, without the knowledge of the DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] … When DCI found out about this plan, he intervened in mid-May 1998. By doing so, the DCI preserved the unit and dodged the bullet of having to explain to the American people why the Agency thought Bin Laden was so little of a threat that it had destroyed the Bin Laden unit weeks before two U.S. embassies were demolished. Needless to say, the on-again, off-again signals about the unit’s future status made for confusion, distraction, and much job-hunting in the last few weeks before al-Qaeda’s August 1998 attacks in East Africa.
Leslie Caldwell's Felix Sater Sentencing Letter (dated Oct 2009) detailed the fact at some point between January of 1998 when the storage locker was opened, and when Felix's future handler (thru at least 2005) FBI Agent Leo Taddeo called him in Russia to start asking questions about their now-defunct stock business back in the States, Felix has visited the U.S. embassy in Moscow.
"Through a Russian contact, Felix arranged to meet a high ranking U.S. military intelligence officer and former military attache at the U.S. embassy in Moscow ... began to gather sensitive intelligence information for the U.S. government."
Further down is where this letter written by Caldwell appears to refer to Blane's request for intel on the anti-missile system where he was able to covertly enter a closed Russian military installation, located the missile system, and relayed the intel to Blane.
"Specifically, the Officer asked Felix to help the U.S. purchase a particular high-end anti-missile system from Russia. Through Russian contacts, Felix was able to enter covertly a closed Russian military installation, where he located the missile system, and provided details to the Officer."
Felix Sater's 5K1 letter also touches on the fact it was during the spring and summer of 1998 he was traveling to Central Asia seeking intel on Stinger missiles the US government didn't want to see fall into the hands of al Qaeda.
"...during the spring and summer of 1998, Sater traveled to Central Asia where he gathered and passed on information to United States sources about the Northern Alliance's desire to resell Stinger missiles to the United States government as well as information about the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden, among other things."
Aug 8, 1998 - Washington Post, US Embassy Attacks in Africa
"Powerful terrorist car bombs exploded just minutes apart outside U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania yesterday, killing at least 81 people -- including eight Americans -- and injuring more than 1,600. With dozens more Kenyans possibly buried in the rubble of a building next to the embassy, authorities said they fear the death toll could rise much higher.
As U.S. disaster relief units and anti-terrorism specialists were rushed to the two East African capitals, President Clinton angrily vowed to bring justice to those who committed the 'cowardly attacks.'
The slain Americans -- including five embassy employees and a child -- were among the 74 people killed in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, State Department officials said. Two of the Americans were identified as Arlene Kirk, 50, of South Bend, Ind., and Army Sgt. Kenneth R. Hobson II, 27, of Nevada, Mo.
Fourteen Americans were reported injured in the Nairobi blast, while five were listed as missing. The total number of injured was put at nearly 1,650.
In the blast outside the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital, officials said that at least seven people were killed and 72 injured -- none of them Americans. U.S. authorities said the bombs exploded within five minutes of each other in cities approximately 450 miles apart and that the attacks were clearly coordinated.
There were no claims of responsibility by any previously known terrorist organization, although suspicion initially focused on an Egyptian branch of Islamic Jihad because of threats against American installations made earlier in the week."
Aug 18, 1998 - Washington Post, embassy attacks linked to al Qaeda
"A suspect in the Aug. 7 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi reportedly described to Pakistani authorities an international terrorist and paramilitary network aimed at American interests abroad that has been orchestrated and financed by Osama bin Laden, a rogue Saudi millionaire and Islamic militant based in Afghanistan.
According to notes taken by Pakistani intelligence officials who spent a week questioning the man -- identified by them as Mohammed Sadiq Howaida and by U.S. officials as Mohammed Saddiq Odeh -- he told them that bin Laden controls a network of 4,000 to 5,000 militants from a number of Muslim countries. From among these, the suspect said, bin Laden has sent operatives to take part in armed actions abroad, including the 1993 hit-and-run attacks on U.S. forces in Somalia. He called the Somalia operation his group's biggest triumph.
The Pakistani officials, who spoke to a Post correspondent in Karachi this week and shared their notes on condition of anonymity, said Odeh described bin Laden as possessing a large arsenal of surface-to-air missiles, mortars, rockets and tanks that are stored all over Afghanistan. He said the organization operates full-time in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, Ethiopia and Somalia, as well as in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
Aug 21, 1998 - Washington Post, U.S. strikes back
"American cruise missiles struck without warning yesterday at paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan and a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant that U.S. intelligence identified as a chemical weapons facility. President Clinton described the synchronized blows as retaliation for the twin bombings this month of U.S. embassies in Africa and an effort to preempt further terrorist attacks.
'Today, we have struck back,' Clinton said in a surprise announcement at the Massachusetts island resort of Martha's Vineyard, where he cut short his vacation and returned to Washington for a late afternoon conference with his national security team in the White House situation room.
Clinton described the training complex in Khost, Afghanistan -- 94 miles southeast of Kabul and just inside the border with Pakistan -- as "one of the most active terrorist bases in the world." He said it was 'operated by groups affiliated with Osama bin Laden,' a Saudi expatriate whose public declarations and shadowy history have placed him at the center of suspicion since the Aug. 7 destruction of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Yesterday's use of military force was distinguished not only by its scale, among the largest of the Clinton presidency, but by the nature of its target: a stateless confederation of terrorist groups, without strict hierarchy, government or territory. A high-ranking intelligence official said of bin Laden: 'He's a transnational actor in and of himself.'
Senior administration officials involved in planning yesterday's attacks said they signaled the start of what one called "a real war against terrorism," emphasizing that "this is not a one-shot deal here." A high-ranking intelligence official said "the prospect of retaliation against Americans is very, very high."
Before Felix signs his cooperation agreement with the FBI in December of 1998, (signed by Andrew Weissman of the future Mueller team) Bloomberg published an article about the gym locker which was opened in Manhattan due to unpaid rental fees. Inside the locker were documents related to the pump-and-dump scheme. However, we know from the government's DOJ 5k1 letter regarding his cooperation (not made public for another two decades), these documents did not make much sense to the FBI until Felix explained to them what they meant as part of his cooperation.
The 5k1 letter is parsed through in more detail on this page, however here is an excerpt of this fact.
Nov 1998 - 'The Case of the Gym Bag that Squealed', Bloomberg
Felix Sater's name went public, but by the following month he signed the cooperation agreement with the FBI and his files were sealed. After this point, he generally went by the name "Felix Satter."
"A 'Marina Shap' failed to pay the rent on her cubicle at Manhattan Mini-Storage in the SoHo section of New York. When the manager opened the bin last January, however, he found an intriguing assortment of knickknacks: Two 9-millimeter pistols, a 12-gauge shotgun, and, the FBI asserts in a court filing, 'various documents in a box and gym bag.' The fluke discovery of the guns was hardly earth-shattering in gun-happy New York. But the documents drew the attention of the FBI's Russian organized crime squad. According to a sealed criminal complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn and obtained by BUSINESS WEEK, the FBI maintains that the mini-storage document trove sets forth a tale of stock manipulation and money laundering. Allegedly involved are more than 30 foreign shell companies and bank accounts that, the complaint maintains, were used to launder the proceeds from illegal stock sales during 1994 and 1995.
The feds are charging that the stock scheme involves two individuals--Gennady 'Gene' Klotsman and Felix Sater--who they say ran a now-defunct micro-cap brokerage, White Rock Partners & Co., which later changed its name to State Street Capital Markets. Both are charged with stock manipulation and money laundering."
1997-1999 High-Level Recap: to be completed
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2000
The USS Cole bombing was a suicide attack by the terrorist group al Qaeda against the USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy, on 12 October 2000, while she was being refueled in Yemen's Aden harbor. Seventeen U.S. Navy sailors were killed and 39 injured in the deadliest attack against a United States naval vessel since the USS Stark incident in 1987.
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack against the United States. A U.S. judge has held Sudan liable for the attack, while another has released over $13 million in Sudanese frozen assets to the relatives of those killed. The United States Navy has reconsidered its rules of engagement in response to this attack. On February 13, 2020, the government of Sudan agreed to compensate families of the sailors who died in the bombing.
2001
In early May of 2020, 53 transcripts were released as part of the Mueller investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, including Felix Sater's testimony transcript from December, 2017. Within this transcript, there is additional detail and confirmation regarding Sater's extensive assistance with Al Qaeda leading up to and after 9/11. [transcript link]
As you can see from the below excerpts taken from this transcript, the level of intelligence he provided was vast and extensive:
Sater also details this work further by stating "under a Presidential directive, providing information regarding the location of high-risk single missiles initially issued to the Mujahedeen prior to their pending acquisition by al-Qa'ida; providing intelligence on the location of hidden al-Qa'ida terrorist training camps, including information regarding the location of Osama Bin Laden and elements of his command structure; information I provided, including the personal satellite phone numbers of Osama Bin Laden, was relevant to the bombing of al-Qa'ida training camps in 1998 by President Clinton, as well as "Assembling a team of mercenaries comprised of ex-SpecNat (ph) and Afghanistan Northern Alliance fighters in an effort to kill Osama Bin Laden in one of his terrorist training camps"
Another transcript below from his transcript 2017:
"He was one of the few people in the cave hiding with Bin Laden and Mullah Omar after the 9/11 attacks."
Felix Sater also highlights in this testimony transcript his work "identifying key al-Qa'ida and Taliban leadership and taking efforts in coopting them into betraying the Taliban and al-Qa'ida and to begin assisting the United States; providing crucial assistance in coopting and turning the personal secretary of Mullah Omar, the head of the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden's protector into a U.S. intelligence asset."
Russian Money Laundering
Bank of New York / Mogilevich
This section is a complete work in progress.
9/11 Financial Money Laundering Angle -
If you are interested, this link above will direct you to read an "unpublished" unsure-how-accurate 9/11 Commission Report dated 2008. I have provided the source of where the report is found and provided a summary of its contents reporting names such as Boris Yeltsin, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Dick Cheney, the Bush family, Adnan Khashoggi, X, banks like X, and speculation regarding gold and money laundering to the tune of trillions. While this report appears to be well-researched and sourced, it it is again incumbent upon the reader to review the information and make their own judgments (or lack of judgment) accordingly.
While it is unclear whatsoever if Felix Sater would have been aware of any of this information, speculating any of it is true, what we do know is his partner Gene Klotsman in the stock fraud whom he was associating himself with in Moscow in 1997-1998 during this Wild Wild West period was friends with Boris Yeltsin, who is named in this report.