General Mahmoud Ahmad

One of the most fervent claims recently by the truthers has been that the US was financing the 9/11 hijackers, through the rather far-fetched route of Pakistani ISI chief Mahmoud Ahmad. They can only make this claim though, by lying about the evidence. For example, from this recent post on 9/11 Blogger:

According to the FBI and as confirmed by various news reports at the time , Pakistani ISI General Mahmoud Ahmad instructed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the alleged assassin of Daniel Pearl, to wire $100,000 to alleged lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in the summer of 2001.

There is no basis for the claim that this was "according to the FBI" at all. A Lexis Nexis search for Mahmoud Ahmad and FBI comes up with absolutely zero hits. A web search also shows nothing more than conspiracy theory websites making this claim.

Additionally, this was not "confirmed by various news reports at the time". This entire story originated in an October 10th, 2001 article in the Times of India. The only thing even approaching any other news report was a citation by the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web Today, which did nothing more than reference the original Times of India article.

Besides, even if Ahmad had supported Al Qaeda, given the shadowy world of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan, that is hardly out of the question, the idea that this ties the operation directly to the US is nebulous at best. The general was hardly an unabashed supporter of the US, in fact he supported the Taliban and opposed the US invasion of Afghanistan, and was fired for this. From the Washington Post, October 7th, 2001:

Musharraf's sudden overhaul, which included pushing the country's intelligence chief, Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad, into "premature retirement," was intended to rid his security agencies of top officers unwilling to abandon their support of militant Islamic groups and to prevent them from undercutting orders to sever Pakistan's ties with the Taliban, the sources said.

Musharraf's decision last week to aid the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism has angered militant Muslim groups here, many of which have long-standing ties to Pakistan's military and intelligence services. Reflecting concern that Islamic clerics and senior officers could try to destabilize his two-year-old military government, the self-appointed president pushed out at least five prominent officers.

If their evidence is so iron clad, than why do they continously have to lie about it?