From the Memory Hole, lest we forget:
Prior to the 9/11 attacks, the head of Pakistan’s ISI, General Mahmud Ahmed, ordered Omar Sheikh to wire $100,000 to the lead hijacker, Mohammed Atta–a report that has been confirmed by the director of the FBI’s financial crimes unit, Dennis Lormel.
General Mahmud, who is portrayed in Musharraf’s book as a close military advisor and a strong ally during the 1999 coup, maintained simultaneous relationships with the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the governments of both Pakistan and the United States.
In fact, General Mahmud (who allegedly ordered Omar Sheikh to finance the 9/11 attacks) was in Washington the week of 9/11 for, as one Pakistani report put it, “mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council.
As the attacks were occurring, General Mahmud was actually meeting with members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and according to Senator Bob Graham, who attended the meeting, General Mahmud had just received a gift (a book about the American Civil War) from Rep. Porter Goss–then Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a former CIA agent who would go on to become CIA Director in 2004.
But the demon General has been punished, right?
In fact, as The New Yorker reported, following his forced resignation from the ISI General Mahmud “resurfaced in Pakistan as the head of a subsidiary of a prominent business consortium, a position that required government backing.”
To me this is yet another brush stroke in an ever clarifying picture that shows that it has been a longstanding ‘American’ policy to take over both drug routes (Sibel E. etc.) and oil patches across Asia (common knowledge). Despite all the distraction and supposed polarization of our domestic, political drama our policy as evidenced by our acts has been very consistent in this area of the world, across administrations, even generations.
And it’s not about fighting ‘terror’ at all, as I am sure you’ll agree.