[1] As the DG ISI, Mahmud actively supported the sponsorship of the Islamic fundamentalism by endorsing the Talibans in Afghanistan under its emir Mullah Omar in 2000.

[2] Despite helping Gen. Pervez Musharraf's usurp power from the civilian government, Lt-Gen. Ahmad was notably forced to retire from his commission when his involvement surfaced in alleged financing of the Hamburg cell led by Mohamed Atta, an al-Qaeda operative in 2000-01.

: 310 [13] In July 1999, he provided the briefing to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over the troop deployments, eventually giving a go-ahead for the military operation.

[18]: contents After the martial law in 1999, Lt-Gen. Ahmed was subsequently appointed as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and his tenureship was marked with alleged terror financing of al-Qaeda and sponsoring the Talibans in Afghanistan.

[22] In 2001, Lt-Gen. Ahmad regularly visited the United States where he consulted with The Pentagon and CIA officials in the Bush administration in the weeks before and after terrorist attacks took place in New York on 11 September 2001.

[23] In fact, he was with U.S. Republican Congressman Porter Goss and U.S. Democratic Senator Bob Graham in Washington, D.C., discussing Osama bin Laden over breakfast, when the attacks of September 11, 2001 took place in New York, United States.

On September 16, Musharraf sent a delegation to the Taliban with the mission to convince them to hand over Osama bin Laden which included Lieutenant General Mahmood, and other religious figures.

On 9 October 2001, the Pakistani and the U.S. news media reported that "U.S. authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohamed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the insistence of Lt-Gen.

[30][31] After this termination, Ahmed critiqued President Pervez Musharraf's policy on siding with the United States, without effectively addressing the issue of containing the terrorists organizations.

: 184 [6] After this termination, Ahmed publicly came out against President Pervez Musharraf's policy of siding with the United States, without effectively addressing the issue of containing the terrorists organizations.