Ex-Pakistan spy chief knew of 9/11: Report
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Web posted at: 9/28/2006 4:28:0
WASHINGTON - 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.
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