Dec 2, 2010
Despite
the 9-11 Commission's mandate to provide a “full and
complete accounting” of the attacks of September 11, many key
points were omitted from the final report. One of these important
omissions attempted to cover up the role of Pakistan and whether or
not Pakistani intelligence helped to fund the 9-11
attacks.
Ties between Washington DC and the
Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI have been documented in
media reports before and after the September 11th attacks. In March
2001, Pakistani regional expert and member of the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars, Selig Harrisson, said “the CIA
still has close links with the Pakistani intelligence service ISI.”
Just one day before the attacks, a Pakistani newspaper in Islamabad
reported that the head of the ISI was meeting with
unspecified members of the Pentagon, National Security Council, and
CIA Director George Tenet.
On May 18th, 2002 the Washington Post reported
that:
"On the morning of Sept. 11, Porter
Goss and Bob Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general
named Mahmud Ahmed -- the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan's
intelligence service. Ahmed ran a spy agency notoriously close to
Osama bin Laden and the Taliban."
Specific details of that meeting
have still not been released and may never have been
recorded.
In 2001, various media outlets
(CNN, Fox News, ABC, and AP) reported that $100,000 was wired
from Pakistan to Mohammed Atta, the 9-11 lead hijacker. A "senior
law enforcement source" told CNN that the paymaster was
believed to be Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was working for the
Pakistani ISI at the time.
Several media outlets reported in 2002 that the US
government believed Saeed Sheikh to be an asset of the ISI, and
that senior ISI officers knew him well. Also reported was the
allegation by Indian
intelligence that General Mahmud Ahmed ordered the
wire transfer and that Indian intelligence claimed they had
assisted the FBI during the investigation. Various mainstream
Indian papers reported this in 2001 along with a mainstream
Pakistani newspaper. In the West - the Wall Street Journal
and Agence France Press picked up on the
story in October.
On October 7th 2001, Mahmood Ahmed
was fired from his role at the
ISI. The official explanation was
because he was too close to the Taliban. This claim has been met
with criticism by some analysts given the fact that there were
several pro-Taliban officers that kept their jobs.
During the 9/11 Commission
hearings, the Family Steering Committee asked the Commissioners to
investigate the ISI connection. However, the commission did little
to "follow the money" and the 9/11 Commission Report made no
mention of these allegations. Furthermore, the commission made the
absurd statement that the
question of who financed the terrorist attacks was "of little
practical significance" [and that it had] "seen no evidence that
any foreign government--or foreign government official--supplied
any funding."