| Notes |
In September 1976, an extraordinary secret meeting took place at the luxurious Mount Kenya Safari Club resort, nestled in the highlands of Kenya. The venue, an exclusive retreat partly owned by Saudi billionaire and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, provided the group both seclusion and a fitting code name. There, Count Alexandre de Marches, convened with General Nematollah Nassiri (Iran’s SAVAK), General Kamal Hassan Aly (Egypt’s Intelligence), General Ahmed Dlimi (Morocco’s Intelligence) and Sheikh Kamal Adham (Saudi Arabia’s Intelligence). Prince Turki Al Faisal, who would soon succeed his uncle Kamal Adham as Saudi intelligence chief, later recounted that the Safari Club was formed in the shadow of the waning role of American intelligence in the 1970s, as a Saudi-French-Egyptian led effort to coordinate the allies to counter communism.
At the Mount Kenya conclave, the five principals signed an official charter establishing their alliance. |