Since 1999 and 2000 onwards, Pakistan's intelligence community had been tracking and monitoring Mahmood whose bushy beard advertised his deep attachment to the Afghan Taliban. After the September 11 attacks in the United States, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) launched a criminal investigation against him, leveling charges of unauthorized travel to Afghanistan. Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, later described intelligence reports of his meeting with Al Qaeda as ""frustratingly vague"." When asked by Pakistani and American investigators about the nature of Ummah Tameer-e-Nau's (UTN) work and discussions, Mahmood said that he had nothing to do with the al-Qaeda and was only working on humanitarian issues like food, health and education. Investigators from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were astonished and surprised when finding out that Mahmood knew nothing of nuclear weapons as