Mahmud Ahmad

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This article is about the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence. For the Ethiopian singer, see Mahmoud Ahmed.
Mahmud Ahmad
Allegiance Flag of Pakistan Pakistan
Service/branch Pakistan Army
Years of service 1965–2001
Rank Lieutenant General
Unit Artillery
Commands held DGMI (Military Intelligence)
Commandant National Defence College
X Corps (Rawalpindi)
DG Inter-Services Intelligence
Battles/wars Indo-Pakistan War of 1965
Indo-Pakistan War of 1971
Kargil War
Awards Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military)

Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmad is a former head of Inter-Services Intelligence, the principal intelligence body of Pakistan. He along with other generals were successful in overthrowing the elected government of Nawaz Sharif, in the 1999 coup d'etat to bring General Pervez Musharraf to power. He was serving as the Corps Commander Rawalpindi at that time. After the coup, General Mahmud was transferred as the Director General ISI, replacing Lieutenant General Ziauddin Butt, who was Sharif's choice to replace General Musharraf as the army chief before the coup. He himself was replaced by Lieutenant General Jamshed Gulzar Kayani as the Rawalpindi Corps commander.

In 1995, when Lt Gen Ali Kuli Khan was appointed X Corps Commander by then army chief Gen. Abdul Wahid Kakar, Mahmood Ahmed took over from him as DGMI. Mahmud was promoted to Lt Gen in June 1998, and posted by Gen. Jehangir Karamat, then COAS, as Commandant, National Defence College. On taking over as the COAS in October, 1998, Gen. Musharraf brought him as Commander X Corps. He was posted, after the coup, as DG, ISI, in place of Lt.Gen. Ziauddin.[1]

General Mahmud was known to visit the United States regularly during his time as the head of ISI consulting senior officials in the U.S. administration in the weeks before and after 9/11. In fact, he was with Republican Congressman Porter Goss and Democratic Senator Bob Graham in Washington, discussing Osama bin Laden over breakfast, when the attacks of September 11, 2001 happened. He was immediately called into meetings with American officials where demands of Pakistani cooperation were made and he was told to convey this to the Pakistani government.

On October 10, 2001, The Wall Street Journal's blog "OpinionJournal" quoted an unsourced article from the Indian Times linking Mahmud to the 911 terror attacks. The article claimed that Mahmud had ordered Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh — the convicted mastermind of the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl — to wire US$100,000 from Dubai to one of 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta's two bank accounts in Florida. This article has become a controversial source in many 9/11 conspiracy theories claiming a link between Mahmud Ahmad, the U.S. Government, and the 9/11 attacks. There has been no further confirmation of this article by any of the parties involved in its reporting. He conceded to 7 demands made by Colin Powell on the 12th September 2001.

General Mahmud Ahmad opposed the US invasion of Afghanistan, arguing that the Taliban, for all its faults was still better for Pakistan. He was retired from his role in the ISI on 8 October 2001, just prior to the US invasion of Afghanistan. He was replaced by Lieutenant General Ehsan ul Haq as the Director General ISI.

[edit] References

  1. ^ B. Raman "Gen. Pervez Musharraf: His past and present" Strategic Affairs, July 1, 1999

[edit] External links

Military offices
Preceded by
Lt. General Ziauddin Butt		 Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence
1999–2001		 Succeeded by
Lt. General Ehsan ul Haq
v • d • e
Military of Pakistan
Joint Services
Army
Air Force
Navy
Wars