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India-Pakistan
Ex-Pakistan spy chief knew of 9/11: Report
2006-09-28
Pakistan’s spy agency ISI chief in 2001 Lt Gen Mahmood Ahmed according to a commentary published here, was “at all times” aware of exactly where Osama bin Laden was located, as his agents tracked every move of his and the ISI was also aware of the planning for September 11.

Arnaud de Borchgrave writes in The Washington Times that Gen Ahmad was even accused of authorising British-born Pakistani terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to make a $100,000 transfer to Mohamed Atta, the operational chief of the September 11 conspiracy, a charge that met vehement denials.

Omar Sheikh was tried and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl in 2002, “but his ISI links spared him the gallows.

There was little doubt some elements of the ISI knew the outlines of the aerial plot against the US and the evidence was turned over to the September 11 Commission three days after its report had gone to press. It was never made public.”

According to de Borchgrave, who has often come up with “colourful” theories, including his assertion once that Bin Laden was living in Peshawar, “Gen Ahmed arranged to be in Washington the week of Al Qaeda’s big terrorist attack, presumably to take the Bush administration’s pulse and gauge probable reactions.”

After seeing Armitage, he called Gen Musharraf in Islamabad and translated the “either-you’re-with-us-or-against-us” threat to mean that Bush planned to ‘bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age” unless Gen Musharraf complied with Washington’s wishes.

De Borchgrave writes that Gen Ahmed clearly miscalculated. Not only did Gen Musharraf acquiesce to US demands, but he also dispatched General Ahmad to Kandahar with orders to get Mullah Mohammed Omar to hand over Bin Laden.

The delegation was made up of six religious leaders and six ISI officers. General Ahmed ignored his orders and advised Mullah Omar to “hang tough and refuse to surrender Bin Laden.”

He reported back to General Musharraf on October 6, 2001 that his mission had failed to persuade the Taleban. The US invasion got underway the next day.

The Washington Times columnist believes that “heated denials notwithstanding, Taleban and Al Qaeda now have privileged sanctuaries in North and South Waziristan where they no longer have to duck when they see a Pakistani soldier.

Several thousand foreign guerrillas — mostly Uzbeks, Tajiks and Arabs who made it out of the Tora Bora battle in December 2001, or stayed on after the Soviets abandoned Afghanistan in 1989, and married local girls — are also home free.

A year ago, when this reporter was in Waziristan, a score of trainers in suicide and roadside bombing techniques had arrived from Iraq. Today, suicide attacks in Afghanistan are almost as commonplace as in Iraq.

Mehmood, who prematurely retired from the Army has since settled in Lahore and was not available for comment, The News daily reported.

In an interview to CBS show 60 Minutes in Washington last week, Musharraf had said that the former US assistant secretary of state Armitage had threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age”.

His comments were based on a report to him by Ahmed about the American stand on Pakistan's role in the war against terrorism after the 9/11 strikes.
Posted by:john

#26  What Genghis did to kill off that cult was to invade and kill every single person. At the end of his venture, no more assassins.

In light of just how intractable Islam has proven to date, this is why I continue to predict the Muslim holocaust. If the only bets were, "do nothing" and "the Muslim holocaust", I wouldn't put a plug nickle on "do nothing".
Posted by: Zenster   2006-09-28 22:29  

#25  Casino, the movie. Cornfields, baseball bats...
Posted by: Frank G   2006-09-28 22:19  

#24  Rolling Gen Mahmood Ahmed in a carpet and kicking him to death (as Hulagu Khan did to the last Caliph) might deter others...

Posted by: john   2006-09-28 22:04  

#23  It strikes me that Islam at large is functioning a lot like the cult of the assassins. Conspiracy and underhanded dealings that result in thousands of our dead. What Genghis did to kill off that cult was to invade and kill every single person. At the end of his venture, no more assassins.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2006-09-28 21:47  

#22  ...If true, the nthere is only one option: Perv needs to hand this guy over, and hand him over NOW. No excuses, no arguments. If he doesn't we should work on the assumption that Pakistan is just as hostile as Afghanistan or Iraq was...and act accordingly.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2006-09-28 19:52  

#21  So, why are we not moving forces (from Korea)into Waristan ?
Take out anyone moving at night and anyone with a weapon, then we'll go door cave to cave and demonstrate our Orik. I guarantee the Pakis won't mind.
Further, this kind of developement will allow India to glass Pakiland with our blessings and a little incentive.
Posted by: wxjames   2006-09-28 19:51  

#20  Ahmed, I swear on your mustache
Posted by: Captain America   2006-09-28 18:10  

#19  Islamabad delenda est.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2006-09-28 17:57  

#18  The delegation was made up of six religious leaders and six ISI officers.

Interestingly, there were only six people in the delegation.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2006-09-28 17:57  

#17  thx ed
Posted by: RD   2006-09-28 17:49  

#16  "down-zila"

ROFL!
Posted by: .com   2006-09-28 17:48  

#15  Gawd amighty, I'd forgotten that Jello-Bob was the Chairman. A fierce one he.
Posted by: 6   2006-09-28 17:47  

#14  At the time of the attacks, ISI Director Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed is at a breakfast meeting at the Capitol with the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Senator Bob Graham (D) and Representative Porter Goss (R) (Goss is a 10-year veteran of the CIAÂ’s clandestine operations wing). The meeting is said to last at least until the second plane hits the WTC. [Washington Post, 5/18/2002]
Posted by: ed   2006-09-28 17:42  

#13   his assertion once that Bin Laden was living in Peshawar

Haha! I laugh. Peshawar is too down-zila. Lahore.
Posted by: 6   2006-09-28 17:33  

#12  So much wetwork to do.

Should these allegations prove true, nukework is indicated. I have zer-fucking-oh qualms about glassing over any country that had detailed foreknowledge of 9-11. Pour encourager les autres.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-09-28 17:27  

#11  jebus John, is that in the 9-11 report?
Posted by: RD   2006-09-28 17:25  

#10  And to think that we were going to leave them stones.
Posted by: Perfesser   2006-09-28 17:24  

#9  Yes, Lt. Gen. Ahmed was having breakfast with Graham and Goss.
Posted by: ed   2006-09-28 17:22  

#8  And that is why I think flight 93 was targetting the White House, not Congress.

IIRC General Ahmed was having a breakfast meeting with Porter Goss and Lindsay Graham on 9/11.

So the Whitehouse was the target...

and Ahmed is one cold, calculating SOB...
Posted by: john   2006-09-28 17:02  

#7  Amen.
Posted by: RD   2006-09-28 16:54  

#6  Attack the US, destroy a major city center, get billions in US aid and weapons, rescue dying economy. Anything wrong with that picture?
Posted by: ed   2006-09-28 16:52  

#5  Of course the Pakistanis knew about 9/11 since they funded much of it. The ISI, the Taliban and Al Qaeda are intertwined like snakes at an orgy.

“Gen Ahmed arranged to be in Washington the week of Al Qaeda’s big terrorist attack, presumably to take the Bush administration’s pulse and gauge probable reactions.”
Exactly. And that is why I think flight 93 was targetting the White House, not Congress.

Pakistan must burn to the ground before this war can be finished.
Posted by: ed   2006-09-28 16:47  

#4  That's at least three Pak generals who knew about the planned 9/11 attacks...

Posted by: john   2006-09-28 16:44  

#3   The True Face of Jehadis: Inside Pakistan's Network of Terror by Amir Mir

The murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002 was masterminded by Sheikh Omar Saeed, a double agent of the ISI and JeM who was previously involved in terrorist attacks on high-profile targets in India. Musharraf himself admitted that Pearl had been "over-intrusive" in his investigations. Saeed had foreknowledge of the September 11 terrorist strikes and immediately informed Lieutenant-General Ehsanul Haq, then ISI director and corps commander for Peshawar. Saeed's capture spurred ISI higher-ups to intervene and obstruct his interrogation findings from being made public. Holding him in an isolated cell "helps Musharraf keep a key witness out of American, British and Indian hands".

Al-Qaeda's Abu Zubaydah, captured in 2002, claimed that the late head of the Pakistani air force, Mushaf Ali Mir, had prior knowledge of the September 11 terrorist plot. Mir had allegedly struck a deal with al-Qaeda in 1996 to supply arms and offer protection, a pledge that was renewed in 1998 in the presence of Saudi intelligence boss Prince Turki. Mir's plane crashed in 2003 without explanation and it is speculated that the US forces carrying out anti-Taliban operations had shot it down near Kohat because of his links with al-Qaeda.

Investigations into the September 11 plot revealed that ISI's then-head, hardliner pro-Taliban Lieutenant-General Mahmood Ahmad, ordered Sheikh Omar Saeed to wire US$100,000 to Mohammad Atta, the chief hijacker. In October 2001, Musharraf forced Ahmad into retirement after the FBI displayed credible evidence of his involvement in the terror attacks and knowledge that he was playing a "double game". So frustrated was the FBI with the calculated blockading of counter-terrorist operations by the ISI that it formed its own secret Spider Group of former Pakistani army and intelligence operatives to monitor fundamentalist activities through the length and breadth of Pakistan.
Posted by: john   2006-09-28 16:43  

#2  So much wetwork to do.
Posted by: .com   2006-09-28 16:36  

#1  The Paki intel chief sat on knowledge of a sneak attack on the US planned in Pakistan, and you're worked up because the US than threatened you?

You're lucky you still have a capital, bub.
Posted by: mojo   2006-09-28 16:34  

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