Musharraf suggests 9/11 paymaster was British agent

http://www.democraticunderground.com...x121000#121025

Paul Thompson
9/27/2006

Pakistan President Musharraf's new book is being serialized in the London Times. Here's a curious excerpt referring to Saeed Sheikh, one of the 9/11 paymasters, an ISI agent, and the killer of reporter Daniel Pearl:

"It is believed in some quarters that while Omar Sheikh was at the LSE he was recruited by the British intelligence agency MI6. It is said that MI6 persuaded him to take an active part in demonstrations against Serbian aggression in Bosnia and even sent him to Kosovo to join the jihad. At some point he probably became a rogue or double agent."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...374550,00.html

There have been other suggestions to this effect, that Saeed was a Western double agent. Note for instance this entry of mine:

1999: 9/11 Funder Offered Deal to Turn Informant
9/11 paymaster Saeed Sheikh, imprisoned in India from 1994 to December 1999 for kidnapping Britons and Americans, meets with a British official and a lawyer nine times while in prison. Supposedly, the visits are to check on his living conditions, since he is a British citizen. (Los Angeles Times, 2/8/2002) However, the London Times will later claim that British intelligence secretly offers amnesty and the ability to “live in London a free man” if he will reveal his links to al-Qaeda. The Times claims that he refuses the offer. (Daily Mail, 7/16/2002; London Times, 7/16/2002) Yet after he is rescued in a hostage swap deal in December, the press reports that he, in fact, is freely able to return to Britain. (Press Trust of India, 1/3/2000) He visits his parents there in 2000 and again in early 2001. (Vanity Fair, 8/2002; BBC, 7/16/2002; Daily Telegraph, 7/16/2002) He is not charged with kidnapping until well after 9/11. Saeed’s kidnap victims call the government’s decision not to try him a “disgrace” and “scandalous.” (Press Trust of India, 1/3/2000) The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review later suggests that not only is Saeed closely tied to both the ISI and al-Qaeda, but may also have been working for the CIA: “There are many in (Pakistani President) Musharraf’s government who believe that Saeed Sheikh’s power comes not from the ISI, but from his connections with our own CIA. The theory is that ... Saeed Sheikh was bought and paid for.” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 3/3/2002)

Coincidentally, today there's also a UPI article that supports connections between the ISI and the 9/11 plot, with this same Saeed Sheikh as a pivotal character. This is old news but there are some new details sprinkled in here and there:

Armitage's interlocutor Sept. 13, 2001, was Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad, the pro-Taliban chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. At the time of 9/11, ISI had 1,500 agents distributed throughout Afghanistan. The Taliban regime was entirely dependent on the Pakistani lifeline.

At all times, Ahmad knew exactly where Osama bin Laden was located. His agents tracked his every move. ISI was also aware of the planning for 9/11. Gen. Ahmad was even accused of authorizing British-born Pakistani terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to make a $100,000 transfer to Mohammed Atta, the operational chief of the 9/11 conspiracy, a charge that met vehement denials.

"Sheikh Omar," as he became known, 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 ISI knew the outlines of the aerial plot against the U.S. and the evidence was turned over to the 9/11 Commission three days after its report had gone to press. It was never made public.

http://www.upi.com/InternationalInte...5-074525-1833r

So, if Saeed Sheikh was a key figure in the plot and may have been a British or US double agent at the same time, what does that mean?