Did Pakistan's ISI fund 911 leader Atta?

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KI11Ak02.html

Exert from http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/mahmoud_ahmed.htm

Also from http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html

Schedule of Pakistan's Chief of Military Intelligence Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad, Washington, 4-13 September 2001



Summer 2001: ISI Chief Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad transfers $100,000 to 9-11 Ringleader Mohamed Atta.

4 September: Ahmad arrives in the US on an official visit.

4-9 September: He meets his US counterparts including CIA Head George Tenet.

9 September: Assassination of General Massood, leader of the Northern Alliance. Official statement by Northern Alliance points to involvement of the ISI-Osama-Taliban axis.

11 September: Terrorist Attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. At the time of the attacks, Lt General Ahmad was at a breakfast meeting at the Capitol with the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees Sen Bob Graham and Rep Porter Goss. Also present at the meeting were Sen. John Kyl and the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., Maleeha Lodhi.

12-13 September: Meetings between Lt. General Ahmad and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Agreement on Pakistan's collaboration negotiated between Ahmad and Armitage. Meeting between General Ahmad and Secretary of State Colin Powell

13 September: Ahmad meets Senator Joseph Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Which brings us back to General Mahmoud Ahmad having breakfast with Bob Graham and others on the morning of 9-11.

On May 16, shortly after the New York Post bomb was dropped, Michel Chossudovsky informs us that Condoleezza Rice held a press conference to address the issue. At this press conference something very interesting happened: an Indian journalist asked Ms. Rice a question and in the public transcripts of this interview, it went as follows:

Q: Are you aware of the reports at the time that (inaudible) was in Washinton on September 11. And on September 10, $100,000 was wired from Pakistan to these groups here in thie area? And while he was here, was he meeting with you or anybody in the administration?

Rice: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not meeting with me.

Now, what was excluded in the publicly released transcripts of this press conference? What was actually IN those brackets where we see the word "inaudible"?

Here is the copy of the Federal News Service, May 16, 2002, Special White House Briefing:

Q: Are you aware of the reports at the time that THE ISI CHIEF was in Washington...

Back up now - feets don't fail me - this is a real clue here and we have Michel Chossudovsky to thank for this one.

WHY is this being hidden by the media? WHY is the designation of the individual who was in Washington being covered up in this stupid little gaffe - this "(inaudible)" when it was clearly audible and heard by others and recorded?

WHO is being concealed?

The ISI Chief: General Mahmoud Ahmad of Pakistan. Remember our little collection of FACTS from Michel Chossudovsky?

1) The purported 9-11 ringleader - Mohammed Atta - according to ABC news, was financed by "unnamed sources in Pakistan." According to Agence France Presse and the Times of India, an official Indian intelligence report informs us that the 9-11 attacks were funded by money wired to Mohammed Atta from Pakistan, by Ahmad Umar Sheikh, under orders from Pakistani intelligence chief General Mahmoud Ahmad. The report said: "The evidence we have supplied to the U.S. is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of terrorism."

2) General Mahmoud Ahmad was in the U.S. on September 11. He arrived on the 4th on a "routine visit." It was confirmed by news sources that Ahmad met with a number of U.S. officials.

Colin Powell,
Richard Armitage,
Marc Grossman,
CIA Director George Tenet,
Senator Bob Graham, chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee,
Senator John Kyl, Senate Intelligence Committee,
Rep. Porter Goss, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,
Senator Joseph Biden, Chariman of Foreign Relations Committee.

And we come back to that most interesting item: On the morning of September 11, General Mahmoud Ahmad was having breakfast with Florida's senator, Bob Graham - chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Also present at breakfast was Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S. Maleeha Lodhi. There were other members of the Senate and House Intelligence committees present. And that leads us right back to the Oval Office of the White House. Suddenly, all the pieces begin to fall into place.

When the news [of the attacks on the World Trade Center] came, the two Florida lawmakers who lead the House and Senate intelligence committees were having breakfast with the head of the Pakistani intelligence service. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, Sen. Bob Graham and other members of the House Intelligence Committee were talking about terrorism issues with the Pakistani official when a member of Goss' staff handed a note to Goss, who handed it to Graham. "We were talking about terrorism, specifically terrorism generated from Afghanistan," Graham said.

Mahmoud Ahmed, director general of Pakistan's intelligence service was "very empathetic, sympathetic to the people of the United States," Graham said.

Goss could not be reached Tuesday. He was whisked away with much of the House leadership to an undisclosed "secure location". Graham, meanwhile, participated in late-afternoon briefings with top officials from the CIA and FBI." [Stuart News Company Press Journal, Vero Beach, FL, September 12, 2001 as quoted by Michel Chossudovsky]

.....In fact, the News of Pakistan reported the visit BEFORE September 11:

ISI Chief Lt. Gen. Mahmoud's week-long presence in Washinton has triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council. Officially, he is on a routine visit in return for CIA Director George Tenet's earlier visit to Islamabad. Official sources confirm that he met Tenet this week. He also held long parleys with unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon. But the most important meeting was with Marc Grossman, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. One can safely guess that the discussions must have centred around Afghanistan ... and Osama bin Laden. What added interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time Ziauddin Butt, Mahmoud's predecessor, was here, during Nawaz Sharif's goernment, the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy within days. [Amir Mateen, News Pakistan, September 10, 2001 as quoted by Michel Chossudovsky]

Nawaz Sharif was overthrown by General Pervez Musharaf. General Mahmoud Ahmad, who became the head of the ISI, played a key role in the military coup. [Michel Chossudovsky]

It was in the news (even if the major media sources deliberately ignored it), so how come Condoleezza Rice didn't know about it?

The existence of an ISI-Osama-Taliban-CIA-US government axis is a matter of public record. However, what was NOT expected - obviously - was the revelation by Indian intelligence - that the $100,000 bux was paid to Mohammed Atta on the orders of the guy having breakfast with Bob Graham - the same guy who was meeting with all the likely conspirators.

The Bush administration's relations with pakistan's ISI - including the week of meetings and "consultations" with General Mahmoud Ahmad prior to September 11 - raise not only the issue of "cover-up" but of DIRECT COMPLICITY. At the very least, this suggests that key individuals within the U.S. military-intelligence establishment knew about the attack in some detail and failed to act. At worst, it suggests that the many irregularities noted about the behavior of Bush and his gang prior to, during, and following the 9-11 attacks were indicative of direct participation in the planning of the events, even to the "piggy-backing" of the drone plane attack on the Pentagon to divert suspicion away from the U.S. military.

What is crystal clear, however, is that this war is not a "campaign against international terrorism." It is a war of conquest with devastating consequences for the future of humanity. and the American people have been consciously and deliberately deceived by their government. [Chossudovsky]

Another interesting note is the comment that the last time the ISI chief of Pakistan was in Washington, the "domestic politics turned topsy turvy within days." Did the CIA help General Pervez Musharraf to overthrow Nawaz Sharif and now the favor was being returned? Just a little matter of the transfer of $100,000 bux - thirty pieces of silver to betray the American people?

Now, let's back up just a short while before the September 11 attack. Michel Chossudovsky reveals that, on September 9, the leader of the Northern Alliance, Commander Ahmad Shah Masood, was assassinated. The Northern Alliance informed the Bush administration that the ISI of Pakistan was implicated in the murder.

However, if you do a web search for articles on this matter, you will find that the Western Media repeatedly says that Masood was assassinated by "Arab militants" - very often specifically naming Al Qaeda.

What is omitted is the official statement: A "Pakistani ISI- Osama - Taliban axis" [was responsible for] plotting the assassination by two Arab suicide bombers. [...] "We believe that this is a triangle between Osama bin Laden, ISI, which is the intelligence section of the Pakistani Army, and the Taliban." [The Northern Alliance Statement released on September 14, 2001, quoted by Reuters News Service on September 15, 2001]

So, the complicity of the ISI in relation to Osama and the Taliban IS a matter of Public Record and is also in the Congressional transcripts.

However, what we see on the surface is that General Mahmoud, the head of the ISI, was having breakfast with Bob Graham in Florida on the morning of September 11, and that a couple of days later - with full awareness of the connections between ISI and Taliban - including the assassination of Masood just two days earlier - the Bush Administration announced that it would "directly cooperate" with Pakistan's ISI. Isn't that just a little bit like asking the fox to watch the henhouse? How did they DO that?

It was simple. The Western Mass Media, in full support of the Bush Reich (as is evident throughout the events of the past 14 months) remained completely silent on the role of Pakistan's ISI, even to the extent of inserting an (inaudible) in the published text of the question asked of Condoleezza Rice on May 16, 2002. It was NOT a coincidence that this question was addressed by an INDIAN journalist. So it was that the cover-up of ISI's position in the Taliban-Osama axis was underway and America declared Pakistan to be the "friend and ally" of America in those dark days following 9-11. And how did they explain it?

U.S. officials had sought cooperation from Pakistan [precisely] because it is the original backer of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic leadership of Afghanistan accused by Washington of harboring bin Laden. [Reuters, September 13, 2001 as revealed by Michel Chossudovsky]

Never mind, of course, that just two days before 9-11, ISI was implicated in the assassination of Masood. Of course, not everybody was asleep on this one. At a State Department Briefing on September 13, a journalist asked Colin Powell:

[Does] the U.S. see Pakistan as an ally or, as the "Patterns of Global Terrorism" pinted out, "a place where terrorist groups get training." Or is it a mixture?

Powell's reply: We have provided to the Pakistani government a specific list of things we think would be useful for them to work on with us, and we'll be discussing that list with the President of Pakistan later this afternoon. [Michel Chossudovsky]

"Patterns of Global Terrorism" just happens to be the U.S.'s own publication... and the journalist was quoting it... This document confirms that the government of President Pervez Musharraf was part of the international terrorism "axis" saying:

Credible reporting indicates that Pakistan is providing the Taliban with material, fuel, funding, technical assistance, and military advisers. Pakistan has not prevented large numbers of Pakistani nationals from moving into Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban. Islamabad also failed to take effective steps to curb the activities of certain madrasas, or religious schools, that serves as recruiting grounds for terrorism.

In April of 2001, the U.S. declares Pakistan to be a "state sponsor" of terrorism, declares in its own publication that "The states that choose to harbor terrorists are like accomplices who provide shelter for criminals. They will be held accountable for their "guests'" actions, and on September 11, the head of the ISI - ostensibly one of those individuals who one might think is being described above- has breakfast with Bob Graham after a week of closed door "consultations" with all kinds of fun folks in Washington. In short, the Bush Reich was hunkered down in a huddle with those who were directly - right up until two days before the 9-11 attacks - aiding and abetting "international terrorism" - and then they go and announce, two days after the attack on the World Trade Center, that "U.S. officials had sought cooperation from Pakistan [precisely] because it is the original backer of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic leadership of Afghanistan accused by Washington of harboring bin Laden" !!!?

What happened to: "The US Government has a long memory and will not simply expunge a terrorist's record because time has passed" and "The United States is committed to holding terrorists and those who harbor them accountable for past attacks, regardless of when the acts occurred" ????

Dubya announced on September 13th that the Pakistan government had agreed "to cooperate and to participate as we hunt down those people who committed this unbelievable, despicable act on America."

Watch it Georgie: Your nose is growing.

On the same day, September 13, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf agreed with Washington that General Mahmoud Ahmad would be sent to meet with the Taliban and negotiate with them to turn over that bad, bad boy, Osama bin Laden. So, our good buddy General Ahmad, being sufficiently fortified by his breakfast with Bob Graham, left immediately to "deliver the ultimatum" to the Taliban - and no doubt some cash and a pat on the back.

At American urging, Ahmad travelled [...] to Kandahar, Afghanistan. There he delivered the bluntest of demands. Turn over bin Laden without conditions, he told Taliban leader Mohammad Omar, or face certain war with the United States and its allies. [Washington Post, September 23, 2001, referenced by Michel Chossudovsky]

Yeah right.

Of course the "negotiations" failed. They were intended to fail. How can you have a war if Osama gets turned over??? If he had been extradited, there would have been no pretext for the "war against terrorism." There would be no pretext for the current beating of the drums of war against Iraq. Heck, if Osama had been turned over, there would be no possibility that we could all be terrorized with the regular and repeated Osama Is Under Your Bed routine.

Well, everything was going along just swimmingly - the conspirators had everything under control... until... On Sunday, October 7th, just prior to the bombing of Afghanistan, General Ahmed was removed as head of ISI.

What happened to our good Breakfast Buddy?!

Apparently, at some point in the days before the bombing of Afghanistan, something extremely devastating occurred. We get a "hint" in the following:

As to September 11th, federal authorities have told ABC News they have now tracked more than $100,000 from banks in Pakistan, to two banks in FLORIDA, to accounts held by suspected hijack ring leader Mohammed Atta. As well, this morning, Time Magazine is reporting that some of that money came in the days just before the attack and can be traced directly to people connected to Osama bin Laden. It's all part of what has been a successful FBI effort so far to close in on the hijackers' high commander, the money men, the planners and the mastermind. [Statement of Brian Ross reporting on information conveyed to him by the FBI, ABC News, This Week, September 30, 2001, referenced by Michel Chossudovsky]

Now, just what the heck happened here? This statement was made on September 30, and it alludes to the fact that "just days before" the 9-11 attack took place, money was sent from a bank in Pakistan to two banks in FLORIDA.

The statement by ABC news makes the most intriguing remark that the money trail leads right to the "hijackers' high commander, the money men, the planners and the mastermind."

And we already know that General Mahmoud was having breakfast in Florida on the morning of 9-11 and that he had been in Washington and other places since September 4th. Again we notice that Florida is the "center of action" of a LOT of very strange things. It was the center of action for the rigging of the election that put Bush in the White House. It was where Bush was physically located at the time of the 9-11 attacks. It was where the hijackers were said to have lived and trained. It also happens to be the state that is governed by Dubya's brother Jeb. Lot of coincidences going on there, don't you think?

But again, the ABC report was important for what it omitted: it made NO mention whatsoever of the ISI or General Mahmoud Ahmad.

But apparently, Bob Graham's grits n' grub partner was NOW an embarrassment and had to be ditched in a hurry!

Why?

Because on the 9th of October the Times of India sez:

While the Pakistani Inter Services Public Relations claimed that former ISI director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad sought retirement after being superseded on Monday, the truth is more shocking. Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahmoud.

Senior government sources have confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed ISI chief. While they did not provide details, they said that Indian inputs, including Sheikh's mobile phone number, helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link.

A direct link between the ISI and the WTC attack could have enormous repercussions.

The US cannot but suspect whether or not there were other senior Pakistani Army commanders who were in the know of things. Evidence of a larger conspiracy could shake US confidence in Pakistan's ability to participate in the anti-terrorism coalition. Indian officials say they are vitally interested in the unravelling of the case since it could link the ISI directly to the hijacking of the Indian Airlines Kathmandu-Delhi flight to Kandahar last December.

Ahmad Umar Sayeed Sheikh is a British national and a London School of Economics graduate who was arrested by the police in Delhi following a bungled 1994 kidnapping of four westerners, including an American citizen. [quoted by Michel Chossudovsky]

In other words, India's intelligence service had information about the money exchange that could implicate Bush and Co and was probably "blackmailing" the U.S.

Note added 2004: We also notice that India and Israel have been buddying up recently, so it is obvious that India's blackmail is paying off.

According to the FBI files, Mohammed Atta was "the Lead Hijacker" and the "head conspirator." They carefully avoided talking about General Ahmad or the ISI. And Western news articles also seem to have avoided the fact that Sheikh was a Brit with a degree in ECONOMICS.

But it seems that there was more to this little "link" than met the eye. Agence France Press confirmed the report:

A highly-placed government source told AFP that the "damning link" between the General [Mahmoud Ahmad] and the transfer of funds to Atta was part of evidence which India has officially sent to the U.S. "The evidence we have supplied to the U.S. is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of terrorism," the source said. [ref. Michel Chossudovsky]

Whoa! Talk about your not-very-veiled threat here!

So, what happened to that awful General Ahmad who was having breakfast with Bob Graham, and then was caught paying money to Mohammed Atta? Was he a "rogue general" or a "double agent" who was chowing down on grits and eggs, biscuits and gravy, with that good ole boy Bob Graham, all the while he was using his cell phone to transfer the big payoff to the guys just down the road so they would get those jets fired up and on target?

Well, he was appointed to the position of Governor of Punjab. Nice cushy retirement for a job well done! And even though Pakistan apparently REWARDED their "rogue general," the U.S. continues to scratch Pakistan's back.

The Times of India wasn't done playing cat and mouse with the U.S. On the 11th of October, Michel Chossudovsky points out that the following appeared:

The United States could well consider naming Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) a foreign terrorist organisation judging by the revelations spilling out now about its nefarious activities that have not only troubled India but also jeopardised Washington's battle against terrorism. [...]

Pakistanis are apt to snicker at the frequent Indian invocation of ISI for all its problems. But recent disclosures of the spy agency's dirty tricks is earning it the mistrust of even its mentors in Washington. Following last week's expose showing the money trail of the September 11 terrorist attacks leading to Pakistan with possible ISI connections comes the disclosure now that renegade ISI operatives visited Kandahar last month to help the Taliban prepare its defences and strategy against US attacks.

The clandestine visit, which came after the September 11 carnage, was reportedly made in defiance of military ruler Pervez Musharraf's orders. It was this skunk works which resulted in the replacement of the ISI chief earlier this week, according to Ahmed Rashid, author of a well-received book on the Taliban.

"Senior retired army officers said Gen. Musharraf was infuriated when informed of the officers' trip because it could have jeopardized Pakistan's relations with the United States and Britain. There is no suggestion that Gen. Ahmad knew about the trip either, but he nevertheless resigned as ISI chief," Rashid, whose work is highly respected in western circles, wrote in an article published simultaneously in London's Daily Telegraph and The Washington Times. [...]

Indian intelligence agencies have long mapped the ISI operations, ascribing to it everything from terrorism to drug-running, and even subverting Pakistan's own democracy. Indian officials have also noted that several former ISI chiefs have been given important diplomatic assignments, including ambassadorships to key European countries, to enable Islamabad advance its nuclear program. Former ISI chiefs like Hamid Gul and Javed Nasir have grown old preaching the destruction of India and pontificating about its imminent collapse. [...]

Washington has been far more credulous about the ISI and has frequently entertained both former and incumbent spymasters, evidently under the illusion that the maverick organisation is still beholden to the CIA for the close ties developed during the "golden" 1980s decade. That was when the two organisations worked hand in glove to arm the Afghan Mujaheddin ("Mooj" in CIA parlance) against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. [...]

Although the two agencies fell out in the early 1990s amid reports of financial skullduggery by the ISI and a spat over weapons inventory, especially missing Stinger missiles, Washington continued to engage important Pakistani spooks. It was mandatory for all new ISI chiefs to pay their respects - in appearance at least - to Langley and Foggy Bottom, home of the CIA and the State Department respectively. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief chief spymaster Gen. Ziauddin was in Washington a fortnight before he (Sharief) was deposed and Musharraf's chief spook Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed was also here on the day of the terrorist attack and he (Ahmed) was sacked thereafter. [...]

Why the Bush administration continues to consort with the ISI, when there is probably enough material to proscribe it, is something of a mystery.

Well, it's not really too hard to figure it out. When ABC news reported:

... federal authorities have told ABC News they have now tracked more than $100,000 from banks in Pakistan, to two banks in FLORIDA ... some of that money came in the days just before the attack and can be traced directly to people connected to Osama bin Laden... the hijackers' high commander, the money men, the planners and the mastermind...

...they were telling the truth. They are all members of the same CULT.