Lt. General Sami Sadat is the Chairman of the Board for FrontlineWATCH LLC. He serves as our leading national security and counterterrorism expert with a significant advisory role in global intelligence. General Sadat formerly served as the Commanding General of the Afghan National Special Operations Corps. In 2020, he commanded the Afghan National Army’s 215th Maiwand Corps in Southwestern Afghanistan, and in 2019, he also served as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). During his tenure with JSOC, General Sadat initiated an program that allowed for hundreds of operations to be conducted that released Afghan Security Forces who had been held prisoner in Taliban villages. These operations allowed for the release of over 500 Afghan prisoners in Taliban controlled areas. At JSOC, General Sadat was the architect of the Combined Situational Awareness Room concept that allowed for all branches of the US and Afghan military to work in an integrated command center. This allowed for 2019 to be one of the worst years for the Taliban on the battlefield.
General Sadat has served as Chairman of the Board for the Delta Group which has companies based in Dubai where he led those family businesses based in Afghanistan and the Middle East for several years. He also served as the senior director of the Afghan intelligence services, and as director of covert action programs from 2014 to 2016. General Sadat took charge of the elite clandestine counterterrorism unit where he led US and Afghan joint clandestine counterterrorism operations until 2018, with his team running operations ment to target Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These operations were successful leading to the recovery of Haidar Gailani, son of the former prime minister of Pakistan, from Al Qaeda. In 2017, a team operation killed Saifullah Akhtar, also known as Qari Saifullah Bokhari, leader of the Harakat Jihad of Pakistan. Saifullah was the one who carried out the assassination of former prime minister of Pakistan; Benazir Bhutto. As a result of counterterrorism operations led by General Sadat, and his team, many Al Qaeda related terror leaders were captured or killed.
General Sadat is a graduate of the Joint Services Comman and Staff College at the Defense Academy; U.K. Class of 2011 (ACSC 14). He also studied at the Polish Defense Academy where he completed the Battalion Command Course, and he attended the NATO Military Academy in Munich, Germany. In addition, he holds an MA in Strategic Management and Leadership for the U.K. Charter Management Institute. Aside from testifying before the US Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs (witness testimony), he was also a panelist at Stanford University Hoover institution in conversation with H.R. McMaster. General Sadat is a best selling author of “The Last Commander: The Once and Future Battle for Afghanistan,” which was released in 2024. Prior to that in 2022, the National Geographic film, “Retrograde,” directed by Oscar nominated and Emmy winning Matthew Heineman, chronicled the last battles fought by General Sadat and the Afghanistan National Army. General Sadat is a devoted husband and father to his family. He has never stopped fighting for a free Afghanistan.
