KHOBAR TOWERS RUSSIAN REVENGE FOR THE EXFILTRATION OF DUDAYEV

25 June 1996
The Khobar Towers bombing was a Russian precision retaliatory tactical nuclear strike on the elite USAF “PJ” Pararescue unit officially known as the 71st Rescue Squadron, for the April 1996 exfiltration of Chechen “President” Dudayev. Five of the nineteen killed in the Khobar Towers attack were PJ's who came from 45th Space Wing and 71st Rescue Squadron (Grant 50-51). They are HC-130 pilot Captain Christopher J. Adams, HC-130 navigator Captain Leland T. Haun, MSgt. Michael G. Heiser Communications System Operator, SSgt. Kevin J. Johnson Rescue HC-130 aircraft flight engineer and HC-130 loadmaster A1C Justin R. Wood (Grant 50-51).  The 45th Space Wing is the most secretive wing of the USAF. They are tasked with the most sensitive rocket payloads. They are the wing that places spy satellites into space for the National Reconnaissance Office.  

Being the best in the world in pararescue, the elite PJ unit was tasked with the special mission and exfiltrated Chechen “President” Dzhokhar M. Dudayev from Chechnya with a C-130 via the Fulton Air Recovery System (STARS). STARS is a means of exfiltration developed during the Cold War. The USAF has had a long history of flying C-130's into Russia/USSR to infiltrate and exfiltrate agents (Agee 83). Numerous C-130's were shot down by the Soviet Air Force during the Cold War(Glenshaw). 

The Khobar Tower attacks take place 2 months from the day the cover story was published in the Western Press.

The Cover Story 
On the 21st of April 1996 Dudayev, the world has been told, was killed in a missile strike, while trying to make a satellite phone call fully exposed, under no cover, in an open field (Gordon). Dudayev's being in the field is in line with him being exfiltrated using the STARS system. He needed to be in an open field in order to be safely rescued.

But it also makes no sense that he would be communicating from an open field. Satellite telephones work deep inside buildings and even to a certain depth underground or underwater. It makes more sense to communicate the time and location of the rendezvous then Dudayev would just wait to be picked up. 

The official Russian news service Interfax reported him dead despite, contradictory reports of him still being alive by Chechen “deputy prime minister” Khasan Khzuyev, no corpse having been shown to the press and reports of multiple grave sites (Gordon). The exfiltration of Dudayev was a play to influence the 1996 Russian election. (Side note 

It gave Yeltsin a victory in Chechnya. There was significant political pressure on Yeltsin to act in Chechnya and he faced a coup if he did not act (Nikolaev 12). The faked death of Dudayev helped to push American asset Yeltsin to victory in the upcoming election. 

In the months after the attack CIA officer Harold James Nicholson would be arrested for espionage for passing information on Chechnya to the Russians. He more than likely revealed the identities and whereabouts of Dudayev’s exfiltration team to the Russians. And, later that year, the CIA released a document in house detailing how tactical nuclear weapons were likely to be used in an unsanctioned manner by Russian Special Forces not loyal to Yeltsin. There had already been a half dozen tactical nuclear attacks by this point. 

The American Response to Khobar Towers would come in September of 1999 with a wave of bombings known as the Russian Apartment Bombings. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombings

Notes:

[04 April 2024] It is more likely that the Russians had intelligence that Dudayev was hiding in the barracks. So they hit the barracks. He either survived the attack and was then moved to Florida. Or he was already in Florida.

It’s 625 miles from Incirlik USAF air base to Grozny. It’s 2000 miles from Khobar USAF Air Base. 

On or about 26 June 1996, Defense Secretary Perry has a meeting with the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov to backchannel communicate with Russia.  

Bibliography
Agee, Philip. Inside The Company. Bantam Books, 1975.

CIA report “Prospects for Unsanctioned Use of Russian Nuclear Weapons”

"Fulton Surface-To-Air Recovery System". En.Wikipedia.Org, 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system

Gordon, Michael R. "Chechen Rebels Say Leader Died In Russian Air Attack". The New York Times, 25 April 1996, p. A8, https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/25/world/chechen-rebels-say-leader-died-in-russian-air-attack.html. Accessed 22 Feb 2019.

Grant, Rebecca. "Death in the Desert". AIR FORCE MAGAZINE, 2006, pp.48-54 http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2006/June%202006/0606Desert.aspx. Accessed 22 Feb 2019.

Nikolaev, Yu. V. The Chechen Tragedy. Nova Science, 1996.

Glenshaw, Paul. "Secret Casualties Of The Cold War". Www.Airspacemag.Com, 2017, https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/secret-casualties-of-the-cold-war-180967122/. Accessed 2 Nov 2020.