On 7 August 1998 TNT truck bombs exploded outside the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The first suspect caught and questioned by the FBI gave them the contact number he had used in connection to the bombings. That telephone number was in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. The FBI reported:
“... the would-be suicide bomber, al-Owhali, ran away from the bomb truck at the last minute and survived. However, he had no money or passport or plan by which to escape Kenya. Days later, he called a telephone number in Yemen and thus arranged to have money transferred to him… “
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On 6 and 13 August 1996 the US embassy in Yemen sourced one year’s supply of industrial quantities of TNT component chemicals for the Hayel Saeed Anam Group headquarters at PO Box 5302 Taiz Yemen, via JOC.com ‘Export Opportunities’ page.
06 August 1996 Export Opportunities .pdf file, including key TNT chemical Toluene for HSA Group
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Backgroud: In 1982 a director of the multi-billion dollar family owned Hayel Saeed Anam (HSA) Group of Yemen gave his power of attorney to Ahmed Idris Nasreddin. Eritrean born (tbc) Nasreddin was a prominent businessman in Nigeria and his business partner was Egyptian-born Youssef Nada. In 1984 Nasreddin used the HSA Group director’s power of attorney to establish a Swiss shell financial company called MIGA (Malaysian Swiss Gulf & African Chamber).
In August 2002 former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill described Nada and Nasreddin as "supporters of terrorism" involved in "an extensive financial network providing support to Al Qaeda and other terrorist-related organizations.” US Assistant Treasury Secretary Juan Zarate described MIGA as "a very good example of an investment company that is used as a shell to hide and move money."
Here’s the evidence that the HSA Group has long and established links to terrorism financing:
That HSA Group terror funding link is detailed by Fox News here (click here to open .pdf file)
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HSA Group activities in 1997: In March 1997 three family members of the HSA Group became directors of a Cayman Islands financial shell company called Atlantic Investments. One of those directors used the HSA Group HQ address of PO Box 5302 Taiz Yemen to register his interest. This is recorded in the Paradise Papers here.
In April 1997 executives of the HSA Group’s London office (Longulf Trading, est. 1977) visited the Converting Machinery Manufacturers Exhibition at McCorrmick Place in Chicago. They purchased approximately $3,000,000 worth of printing equipment for a vague third party (they made up a company name on the spot) at an undisclosed location in Yemen. I know this because I was working at the exhibition and demonstrated my employer’s print machinery to the Longulf / HSA executives before they purchased one for list price. Because I was also the technician who went to Yemen to install this machine in September 1997 I know its destination was the HSA Group HQ at PO Box 5302 Taiz. The 'vague third party' was a new built factory building in the HSA Group HQ compound called YemPak - a Yemen-Pakistan abbreviation I was told during the installation. Also present at the exhibition was my employer’s US salesman Dave Dean. Dean is ex-US Special Forces (MACV-SOG) and was trained in HALO parachuting by infamous CIA contractor Billy Waugh in 1970s Vietnam. In his 2004 autobiography Billy Waugh admits training Al Qaeda fighters in 1990s Yemen, fighters Waugh admits were intent on attacking the USA.
In May 1997 the HSA Group made a massive financial investment in Britain, purchasing the three leading cardboard packaging companies and merging them to create one industry giant - Cepac Limited. Cepac is registered at Companies House linked here. The HSA Group family member who is Cepac & Longulf’s director is Dirhem Abdo Saeed, who is also an honourary Vice-President of the London based British-Yemeni Society.
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Al Qaeda in Yemen: Also in 1997, US diplomat Barbara Bodine became Yemen’s new ambassador. In a 2012 PBS interview Bodine said:
"When I got there in 1997, there was already an Al Qaeda presence.
We knew about it. The Yemenis knew about it. Everyone knew about it."
"Numbers [are] always impossible to know, but these people were primarily foreign nationals. One of the best ways to describe the presence is that they were largely warehousing lower-level people in peripheral areas.”
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My 1997 visit to Yemen: During a September 1997 business trip I visited the Hayel Saeed Anam Group headquarters compound at PO Box 5302 Taiz Yemen (Location: 13.586, 44.033), where I trained two men in a nearly empty factory (warehouse) who told me they were Pakistani (foreign nationals) chemistry graduates. The setup was exactly as US Ambassador described Al Qaeda’s 1997 presence in Yemen - warehousing foreign nationals. During the course of the machine installation, the Pakistani machine operators asked me about visiting New York as tourists. I gave them a travel warning of a hijacked civilian airliner departing Logan airport Boston being used as a missile to strike the World Trade Center (WTC). I said I expected the same group that bombed the WTC in 1993 would attempt to do that. I was then introduced to ’the Engineer' (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) and taken to a meeting at ‘The Base’ seventeen miles north of the HSA Group HQ, just one mile from Al Qa’idah town (Location: 13.744, 44.154). My experiences in 1997 Yemen are detailed here.
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The 1998 US Embassy Bombings in Kenya and Tanzania:
Conclusion
I have determined (details here) that my 1997 business trip to Yemen was setup by Dave Dean, my employer’s ex-Special Forces US salesman. Dean’s sales agency specialised in "offering equipment, chemistry, electronics and supplies for the rotogravure industry”, as detailed in this .pdf file link (click here to view). I know from working with Dean that he had a very good working knowledge of the explosive chemicals used in the printing industry, including key TNT chemical toluene.
Is it possible that Dean helped source/supply the industrial quantities of TNT component chemicals for Khalid Shekh Mohammed’s hosts and financiers, the Hayel Saeed Anam (HSA) Group? I think it is highly likely.
There should be a paper trail starting at the US Embassy to follow to find out. I think it is very likely Dave Dean did help supply the explosive chemicals that I believe the Pakistani chemistry graduates I met in 1997 Yemen used to make TNT that was used in the 1998 US embassy bombings that killed hundreds and seriously injured thousands in Kenya and Tanzania.