Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

India-Pakistan

ISIS Module Case: NIA Searches House Of Accused Shamil Nachan In Maharashtra, Gets 'Incriminating Material'

2023-08-18

[OneIndia] The NIA on Thursday searched the house of Shamil Saquib Nachan, arrested last week in the Pune ISIS module case, near here and recovered "incriminating material" that reveals the terror organization's "conspiracy to disrupt peace and communal harmony in the country", officials said.

A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials searched Nachan's residence at Padgha in Thane district, the agency said in a statement.

Nachan, a member of ISIS's sleeper cell, was arrested by the NIA on August 11 from his house in Padgha. He was found involved in the fabrication and testing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and participating in IED assembly and training workshops for commission of terrorist acts, it said.

Nachan was the sixth person to be arrested in the Pune-based ISIS module case, it said.

The NIA officials searched Nachan's residence and recovered several mobile phones, hard disks and some hand-written documents that are being examined and analysed, the central probe agency added.

"A host of incriminating material exposing the terrorist organization's conspiracy to disrupt peace and communal harmony in the country was seized," it said.

Nachan had been working with the other accused persons arrested in the case - Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, Mohammed Imran Khan
...aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
, Mohammed Yunus Saki, Simab Nasiruddin Kazi and Abdul Kadir Pathan - along with some other suspects, as part of a bigger conspiracy to trigger violence across various parts of the country by fabricating and exploding the IEDs, it added.

Khan and Saki were nabbed by the police in Kothrud area of Pune city last month while stealing a cycle of violence, but another suspect Shahnawaz Alam managed to escape.

Investigation revealed that the duo was wanted by the NIA in a March 2022 Rajasthan terror plot case, and they were the alleged members of the al-Sufa outfit who beat feet from Ratlam after NIA made some arrests in the case.

The NIA said in its statement that investigation in the Pune ISIS module case revealed that Nachan and other members of an ISIS sleeper cell had assembled IEDs at a house in Kondhwa in Pune, where they had also organised and participated in a bomb (IED) assembly and training workshop last year.

They had even carried out a controlled explosion at this location to test an IED fabricated by them, it added.

The conspiracy was aimed at committing terrorist acts with the aim to disturb the peace and communal harmony of the country, the agency said.

The accused had plans to wage a war against the Government of India in furtherance of the ISIS agenda to spread terror and violence.

Link

Home Front: WoT

US court approves extradition of 26/11 attack accused Tahawwur Rana to India

2023-05-19

[OneIndia] A US court has approved the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian businessman of Pak descent, to India where he is sought for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Ten terrorists laid siege to the city and kept many hostage in various hotels and a Chabad House before killing 166, including the rabbi, his wife, and several of their children. The siege lasted nearly 60 hours before the police gunned down the terrorists. The lone surviving terrorist, Ajmal Kasab sang like a canary, was found guilty and subsequently hanged a few years later at a jail in Pune.

Rana was arrested in the US on an extradition request by India for his role in these attacks in which 10 Pak gunnies laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing over 160 people, including six Americans, at iconic and vital locations of Mumbai. The US court consented to the Indian request, through the US Government for his extradition.

"The Court has reviewed and considered all of the documents submitted in support of and in opposition to the Request and has considered the arguments presented at the hearing," US Magistrate Judge of the US District Court of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, Judge Jacqueline Chooljian, said in a 48-page court order dated May 16, which was released Wednesday.

Link

Home Front: WoT

26/11 attack accused Tawahhur Rana to remain in US custody

2021-06-25

[OneIndia] Pakistain origin, Canada businessman, Tahawwur Rana,

... Captain Tahawwur Hussain Rana, retired, is former military doctor who served in the Pakistani Army. He moved to Canada in 1997, then became a citizen, finding work providing immigration services. In 2011 he was sentenced to 14 years for aiding an abortive LeT plot to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten for publishing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad...

an accused in the Mumbai 26/11 attack will remain in the United States as a federal judge in Los Angeles weighs whether he will be extradited to India or not.

The in-person extradition hearing of Rana at the request of the Indian government was held in the court of magistrate judge, Jacqueline Choolijan who on Thursday ordered the defence attorneys and prosecutors to file additional documents by July 15.

The United State government, in multiple submissions before the court, has made a declaration in support of the "United States' Surrebuttal in Support of its Request for Certification of Extradition.

Rana is sought in India in connection with his involvement in the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.

Rana, a childhood friend of prime convict David Coleman Headley,

...a.k.a. David Headly and Dawood Gilani, they became friends when they were at Pakistani military school together...

was re-arrested on June 10, 2020 in Los Angeles on an extradition request by India for his involvement in the Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.

...that was former drug trafficker Mr. Headly’s big project...

He has been declared a runaway by India.

Headley, 60, was made an approver in the case, and is currently serving a 35-year prison term in the US for his role in the attack. Rana has opposed his extradition to India, arguing that he has already been convicted by a US court in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown

reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown

...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
The United States government asserts that the premise of Rana's argument is incorrect because the Indian substantive charges are not considered lesser included offenses of their conspiracy charges.

As per the India-US Extradition Treaty, the Indian government has requested the formal extradition of Rana, and the United States has initiated this extradition proceeding. The US government has argued that Rana meets all the criteria warranting certification of his extradition to India.

These are: the court has both personal and subject matter jurisdiction, there is an extradition treaty between the United States and India that is in full force and effect, and the crimes for which Rana's extradition is sought are covered by the terms of the treaty.

In his previous court submission on February 4, Rana's attorney had argued that Rana's extradition is barred under Article 6 of the United States-India extradition treaty because he had previously been acquitted of the offences for which his extradition is sought, and under Article 9 of the treaty because the government has not established probable cause to believe that Rana committed the alleged offences.

Link

India-Pakistan

Donated 60-70 lakh Pakistan rupees to LeT, says David Headley

2016-03-24

[Indian Express] Convicted American terrorist David Coleman Headley told a special court Wednesday that he donated 60-70 lakh

... 1 lakh = 100,000...

Pak rupees

...and there are 103.8 Pakistani rupees to US$1, so you can do the math, dear Reader.

to Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
(LeT). Headley, an approver in 26/11 attack case, was being cross-questioned by the lawyer of accused Syed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal for the first time.

Appearing in the special TADA court via video conferencing from ~~some holy man's guesthouse~~ an undisclosed location in US, Headley told defence advocate Abdul Wahab Khan that he made the donation in 2006. Asked if the money was used to fund the Mumbai attack, Headley replied, "It was donated by me for many things, different things."

When Khan put the question to him in other forms, he said: "That would be impossible because the last donation was made in 2006 and the attacks had not been planned then."

Asked if he had disclosed this to the US government, he said, "I don’t remember... Maybe."

After having established that Headley visited Pakistain once for drug smuggling between 1992 and 1998, Khan asked him how he invested the proceeds of the criminal activity.

"I had purchased a few shops in the UAE in 2004," Headley said.

Headley lost his cool briefly when Khan suggested that he invested in real estate using his income from the LeT. "I never received any income from the LeT. I gave LeT funds myself," he said.

After Headley admitted to investing in property in Pakistain, Khan asked again, "Did you invest in Pakistain using income from the LeT or the drug business?"

"Urdu mein samjhaaon aapko?," bristled Headley.

"Punjabi mein samjhao," Khan smiled back.

Headley shot back. "Your client is fighting for his life. You have to be serious... It is not a joke."

When Khan repeated the question, Headley said: "My answer is that it is nonsense."

Khan complained to Judge G A Sanap, who admonished Headley. "You have to be very polite," he said.

"I am telling him in the language he understands," replied Headley.

Nikam objected to the question, "He is irritating the witness," he said.

Earlier, Khan took Headley back to 1988, when he was first placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
for drug smuggling. He had entered into a plea bargain and served three-and-half years in prison.

In 1998, Headley was again arrested by Drug Enforcement Authority while attempting to smuggle narcotics into the US from Pakistain. Headley deposed that he entered into a plea bargain once more and served 15 months in jail.

The second jail term was followed by five years of supervised release. Headley said he had violated terms of the plea agreement to not indulge in criminal activity by joining LeT.

Asked whether 26/11 attack convict Dr Tahawwur Rana had been in touch with LeT turbans prior to 26/11, Headley replied, "I don’t remember. I will refer to the notes tomorrow and let you know."

Headley deposed that he had told Rana about his involvement in the attacks conspiracy "4-5 months before the end."

Headley also told court that Rana’s chief concern was that terror activities should not be carried out from his office in Tardeo, which Headley was running.

Link

India-Pakistan

ISI, LeT funded terror operations in India: Headley

2016-02-12

[Daily Excelsior] Making fresh disclosures on the brazen 26/11 attacks, Pak-American terrorist David Coleman Headley today exposed how ISI and LeT majorly funded terror operations in India and financed him from time to time and that Pakistain native Tahawwur Rana visited Mumbai before the terror strikes.

Resuming his deposition before a court here today via video-link after a day's break due to a technical glitch at the US end yesterday, the LeT operative also said that RBI has turned down a request to open a bank account for their office in India.

Giving details of his funding, he said, "Before coming to India in September 2006, he received USD 25,000 from ISI's Major Iqbal."

Link

Home Front: WoT

US court to sentence David Headley today

2013-01-24

Chicago: A court here on Thursday will announce the quantum of punishment for Pakistani-American David Headley, a key plotter in the deadly 2008 Mumbai terror attacks staged by Pakistan based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

US federal prosecutors have sought 30 to 35 years in prison for Headley, who has pleaded guilty to his role in the 26/11 attacks that killed 160 people.

Headley, 52, son of a Pakistani father and an American mother, had changed his given name of Dawood Gilani to scout targets in Mumbai without arousing suspicion.

Ahead of Headley's sentencing, Gary Shapiro, the acting US Attorney in Chicago, in a memo to the federal district court on Tuesday said that the 30-35 year sentence recommended by the prosecution for Headley was fair.

"While his criminal conduct was deplorable, the uniquely significant cooperation which he provided to the government's efforts to combat terrorism supports the government's recommendations," he said.

Headley could receive up to life in prison.

Prosecutors had agreed not to seek the death penalty for Headley in exchange for his plea after he promised in 2010 to cooperate with US authorities.

US Attorney General Eric Holder noted at the time that he had provided extensive "valuable intelligence about terrorist activities".

Headley was the star witness against his Pakistan-born boyhood friend Tahawwur Rana, who was sentenced last week to 14 years in prison for aiding an abortive LeT plot to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten for publishing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Pakistani held for backing Lashkar

2011-09-03

[Dawn]

A man of Pak origin has been nabbed and charged in the US with supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba, FBI officials said on Friday.

Jubair Ahmad, 24, of Woodbridge, Virginia, allegedly received religious training from the terrorist group as a teenager in Pakistain and later attended one of its training camps.

Jubair came to the United States in 2007 with his family. He`s been under investigation for two years, ever since the US Federal Bureau of Investigation got a tip that he might be connected to the group, the officials said.

The US State Department has designated Lashkar-e-Taiba as a terrorist group.

An affidavit submitted in a Virginia court claims that in September 2010, Jubair produced and uploaded a propaganda video to YouTube on behalf of LeT, after communications with a person named "Talha".

In a subsequent conversation with another person, Jubair identified Talha as Talha Saeed, the son of LeT leader Hafiz Mohammed Saeed.

Talha and Jubair allegedly communicated about the images, music and audio that Jubair was to use to make the video. The final video contained images of LeT leader Hafiz Saeed, so-called jihadi deaders and armoured trucks exploding after they were hit by improvised bombs.

In October 2010, Talha allegedly contacted Jubair and requested that he revise the LeT propaganda video, giving Jubair specific instructions.

Jubair allegedly revised the video and posted it on Oct 16, 2010.

In August 2011, FBI agents interviewed Jubair, but he denied any involvement with the October 2010 video.

If convicted, Jubair faces a maximum potential sentence of 15 years in prison on the material support charge and eight years in prison on the charge of making false statements in a terrorism investigation.

In June, a Pakistain-born Chicago businessman was found guilty of providing support to Lashkar-e-Taiba in the 2008 Mumbai assault but not guilty of taking part in the attack.

Tahawwur Rana, 50, a former Pakistain Army doctor with Canadian citizenship, was also found guilty of conspiring to attack a Danish newspaper; a plot hatched by the myrmidon group but never carried out.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Court unseals Mumbai terror trial documents

2011-07-22

[Dawn] A federal court has released previously sealed documents from a recent trial in Chicago related to the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India in 2008.

The US District Court in Chicago opened 26 documents Wednesday from the trial of businessman Tahawwur Rana. They are primarily motions attorneys filed before and during Rana's trial. More documents will be released later.

A month ago, jurors cleared the Pak-born Canadian of involvement in the Mumbai siege. The 50-year-old was convicted of lesser charges, including providing material support to the Pak bad boy group blamed in those attacks.

Defense attorneys have said the documents slated for release were unlikely to provide many details not already made public.

Rana is currently in jail awaiting sentencing.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Conviction in Danish cartoon attack plot

2011-06-11

[Al Jazeera] A US federal jury has convicted a Chicago businessman of helping plot an attack against a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

But the jury in the US state of Illinois cleared Tahawwur Rana of the most serious terrorism charge of co-operating in the deadly 2008 rampage in the Indian city of Mumbai.

The jury reached its split verdict after two days of deliberations on Thursday, finding Rana guilty of providing "material support to terrorism" in Denmark.

He was also found guilty of providing support to the Pakistain group that claimed responsible for the three-day siege in India's largest city that left more than 160 people dead, but he was found not guilty of taking part in the attack itself.

The jurors declined to talk to the media to explain their decision, which defence attorneys described as conflicting.

Rana, a Canadian national who has lived in Chicago for years, faces up to 30 years in prison on the two charges.

"We're extremely disappointed. We think they got it wrong," defence attorney Patrick Blegen told news hounds.

Connecting the dots
At the centre of the trial was testimony by the government's star witness, David Coleman Headley, a longtime friend of Rana who previously pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork for the Mumbai attacks and planning to attack the Danish paper in retaliation for printing the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, as is prohibited in Islam. That plot was never carried out.

Headley's testimony was closely watched worldwide because it provided a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Pak group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which took credit for the Mumbai attacks, and the alleged co-operation with Pakistain's top intelligence agency, known as the ISI.

Defence attorneys spent much of their time trying to discredit Headley, who they claimed duped his friend from a Pak boarding school.

They attacked Headley's character, saying he initially lied to the FBI, lied to a judge and even lied to his own family, claiming that he implicated Rana in the plot because he wanted to make a deal with prosecutors, something he had learned after he became an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration after two heroin convictions.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, claimed that Rana, 50, knew exactly what he was doing when he helped Headley.

Rana, who did not testify, was on trial for allegedly allowing Headley to open a branch of his Chicago-based immigration law services business in Mumbai as a cover story while Headley conducted surveillance before the attacks in November 2008.

He was also accused of letting Headley, whose co-operation means he avoids the death penalty and extradition, travel as a representative of the company in Copenhagen.

Evidence
Prosecutors used a recorded phone call recorded between Rana and Headley on September 7, 2009, as the centrepiece of their evidence against Rana. In the call, the men discussed the Mumbai attacks and Headley talked about future targets, including the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told news hounds after the verdict that he was gratified by the jury's decision and disagreed with defence attorneys who said the verdict was conflicting because he was convicted of supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba but acquitted of charges that he helped in the Mumbai attacks.

"There's lots of ways you could explain it, but I haven't spoken to the jury," Fitzgerald said. "There was clearly evidence that he knew he was working with Lashkar."

Six others were charged in absentia in the case, including an ISI member known only as "Major Iqbal'' and Headley's Lashkar handler Sajid Mir.

While much of Headley's testimony had been heard before in the context of the indictment in this case and a report released by the Indian government last year, he did reveal a few new details.

Kashmiri's 'stronghold approach'

Among them was that another man, Ilyas Kashmiri, who US officials believed to be al-Qaeda's military operations chief in Pakistain, had plotted to attack US defence contractor Lockheed Martin.

Kashmiri was reported killed on June 3 by a dronezap

inside Pakistain.

While US officials have not confirmed the death, Pak officials say they are sure Kashmiri is dead.

Headley said he worked with Kashmiri in the plot against the Danish paper, describing how the al-Qaeda leader wanted a "stronghold approach".

One plan included taking hostages in the building and killing them quickly by beheading them.

"He said we should throw out the heads of the hostages from the windows," Headley said of Kashmiri, speaking in a monotone and seemingly detached voice. "He said shoot them first and then behead them later, so there wouldn't be a struggle.''

Link

Home Front: WoT

Attorney: Rana knew he was helping in Mumbai plot

2011-06-09

[Arab News] A recorded phone call in which a businessman praises the gunnies who carried out the 2008 attacks in Mumbai is proof he was "playing on the same team" as an admitted terrorist and longtime friend who helped lay the groundwork for the deadly three-day siege, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

Assistant US Attorney Victoria Peters told jurors during closing arguments that it was clear Tahawwur Rana knew and helped his friend, David Coleman Headley, as he took video surveillance in Mumbai before the attacks that killed more than 160 people, including six Americans.

Headley was the government's star witnesses in the federal terrorism trial and testified for five days about working for both Pakistain's main intelligence agency, known as the ISI, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pak terrorist group that took credit for the siege on India's largest city.

The trial has been followed closely around the world, especially because it happened on the heels of the late Osama bin Laden
... who no longer exists...
's May 2 killing in Pakistain by US forces. The fact that the Al-Qaeda leader had been living in an army garrison town outside the Pak capital for years raised suspicions that the Pak government knew, or even helped hide, Bin Laden. Pak officials have denied the accusations.

Peters zeroed in on a Sept. 7, 2009, phone call between the men where they discussed the Mumbai attacks and Headley talked about future targets, including a Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad ((PTUI!)), angering many Mohammedans. That plot was never carried out.

She showed an English transcript of the conversation, which took place in Urdu during a car ride and was recorded by the FBI, showing that Rana had praised the Mumbai gunnies, saying they should be honored.

"Rana and Headley were playing on the same team," Peters said. "These two old friends don't just talk about past accomplishments, they talk about future goals." Rana, a Pak-born Canadian who has lived in Chicago for years, did not testify at his trial. He is accused of providing cover for Headley by letting him open a branch office of his immigration law services business and pose as a representative as he carried out surveillance for the Mumbai attacks and the Danish plot.

Peters led the courtroom through a timeline of more than a dozen e-mails and recorded conversations in the case, including brief ones exchanged between Rana and ISI member known only as "Major Iqbal," whom Headley testified gave him orders on the Mumbai plots.

Peters said Rana, who printed business cards for Headley and arranged some of his travel, had knowledge of all the plots and all those involved. She asked jurors to appeal to their common sense.

"Rana knew Headley's main purpose," Peters said. "He was not a dupe, he was not a fool." Rana has pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to three counts: conspiring to provide material support to terrorism in India, Denmark and to Lashkar-e-Taiba, which the US has designated as a terrorist organization. Rana could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Headley and Rana met as teens at a Pak boarding school and have stayed in touch.

Defense attorneys have tried to paint Headley as lacking in credibility and have focused questioning on how Headley initially lied to the FBI as he cooperated, lied to a judge and even lied to his own family. They claim he named Rana in the plot because he wanted to make a deal with prosecutors and had to provide another arrest. Headley's cooperation means he avoids the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistain and Denmark.

"Mr. Headley is about the most unreliable witness that has ever trod into a courtroom and that will become clear in closing argument," Rana attorney Charles Swift told news hounds. Defense attorneys were expected to make their closing arguments later Tuesday.

Six others are charged in absentia in the case, including Ilyas Kashmirei, who was believed to be Al-Qaeda's military operations chief in Pakistain. He was reportedly killed Friday in a US missile strike.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Mumbai terror trial defence done after two witnesses

2011-06-08

[Dawn] Testimony in the trial of a Chicago businessman accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks wrapped up swiftly Monday as defence attorneys called only two witnesses before resting their case.

Tahawwur Rana is accused of providing cover for longtime friend David Coleman Headley, who has admitted to laying groundwork for the rampage on India's largest city. Headley pleaded guilty and was the government's star witness, spending five days on the stand detailing how he worked with both Pak intelligence and a Islamic exemplar group as he scoped sites ahead of the attacks.

Attorneys put on only a brief defence Monday, calling a computer forensics expert and an immigration attorney -- but not Rana -- after federal prosecutors rested their case earlier in the day.

"I waive the right," Rana said when asked by US District Judge Harry Leinenweber whether he wanted to testify.

"Got nuttin' t'say."

Closing arguments are expected Tuesday in the trial.

Jurors did hear Rana's words earlier Monday during testimony from the prosecution's final witness, an FBI agent who questioned him in October 2009. Prosecutors played short video clips of statements from Rana, who had agreed to speak with FBI Sherlocks for nearly six hours after his arrest.

Rana could be heard in the clips recounting names and affiliations of others charged in the case, including members of the Pak intelligence agency known as ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic exemplar group blamed in the attack.

But it was unclear from the statements whether Rana knew of the Mumbai plot ahead of time. Defence attorneys and prosecutors did not comment Monday.

Rana, a Pak-born Canadian, has pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."

That's "Wudn't me, eh?", of course.

to providing a cover story as Headley carried out surveillance for the Mumbai attacks and the planned an attack on a Danish newspaper that in 2005 published cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. That attack never happened.

Rana owns several Chicago area businesses, including an immigration law services center with offices worldwide. Prosecutors allege Rana allowed Headley pose as a business representative and open a Mumbai office while doing his video surveillance.

Attempting to show that Rana sought to establish business in Mumbai long before Headley traveled there, defence attorneys called a Canadian immigration attorney who testified that he conducted seminars about Rana's business in Mumbai in 1997 and that Rana had placed ads in five Indian newspapers at the time.

Though Rana is on trial, much of the focus has been on Headley, an admitted terrorist who was born in the US and lived most of his life in Pakistain. Headley and Rana met as teens at a Pak boarding school.

Headley detailed through emails, phone conversations and testimony that he took orders from both the ISI and Lashkar ahead of the Mumbai attacks, and that everything was communicated with Rana.

He also testified about communications with Ilyas Kashmirei, believed to be al Qaeda's military operations chief in Pakistain and one of six others charged in the Mumbai case in absentia. Kashmirei was reportedly killed Friday in a US missile strike, but US officials haven't confirmed the death.

Headley's testimony revealed that Kashmirei, leader of a Pak terrorist group called Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, had wanted to attack US defence contractor Lockheed Martin because he was angry about US drone attacks inside Pakistain.

Kashmirei's name came up just briefly Monday as attorneys and the judge discussed jury instructions without jurors present. Leinenweber raised the possibility removing Kashmirei's name from some court documents, but no action was taken.

"What the jury is looking at now is Dr. Rana," said defence attorney Charles Swift. "Much of the world is following this trial not because of Dr. Rana, but it's now time to focus on Dr. Rana, not on Ilyas Kashmirei, not on all the other people."

Others charged in the case include an ISI member known only as 'Major Iqbal' and Headley's Lashkar handler Sajid Mir.

Defence attorneys have hammered on Headley's reliability, talking about how he initially lied to the FBI even as he said he was cooperating, lied to a judge and even to his own family. They claim he implicated Rana in the plot because he wanted to make a deal with prosecutors. Headley's cooperation means he avoids the death penalty and extradition.

Still, experts have said the US government clearly has confidence in his test.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Ilyas Kashmiri plotted to attack Lockheed Martin: Headley

2011-06-02

[Dawn] An American admitted terrorist who is the US government's star witness in the trial of a Chicago businessman accused in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks said Tuesday that another bad turban with ties to al Qaeda had once plotted to attack US defence contractor Lockheed Martin.

David Coleman Headley, who has pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork in the three-day massacre that left more than 160 dead in India's largest city, testified for five days in the trial of his longtime friend, Tahawwur Rana, in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and extradition.

Rana has pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to accusations that he provided Headley cover as the Pak-American conducted surveillance in India before the attacks. Rana, a Canadian national who has lived in Chicago for years and owns an immigration services business, has pleaded not guilty.

Though Rana is on trial, it was Headley's testimony that was closely watched for any clues in the fight against global terrorism, especially in the wake of the May 2 killing of the late Osama bin Laden
... who is no more...
by US forces outside Pakistain's capital city and amid suspicions that the country's government may have known or helped hide the former al Qaeda leader.

On Tuesday, Headley told jurors that in August 2009, he used one of Rana's work computers in Chicago to begin researching details about Lockheed Martin and its CEO for Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pak terrorist leader who has ties to al Qaeda.

"He had people who had conducted surveillance," Headley said of Kashmiri.

Headley said Kashmirei was angry over the US drone attacks inside Pakistain and wanted to target the defense contractor. Kashmiri leads the bad turban group Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, which has launched attacks in India and Pakistain, including a 2006 suicide kaboom against the US consulate in Bloody Karachi that killed four people, according to the State Department.

Headley did not provide details about the plot, which was not carried out, but said Rana did not know about it.

Rana's defense attorneys have tried to discredit Headley, who spent days detailing for prosecutors how he took orders from the Pak intelligence agency, known as the ISI, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the bad turban group blamed in the Mumbai attacks. Headley also has pleaded guilty to plotting an attack against a Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which angered many Mohammedans. Rana also is charged in that plot, which was never carried out.

The defense's main focus has been to portray Headley as a liar who has lived multiple lives. Attorneys have asked Headley to detail how he worked as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration after two heroin convictions while also first becoming involved with Lashkar.

Under defense questioning, Headley has admitted that he lied in his initial statements to law enforcement when he said Rana had no knowledge of his plans. On Tuesday he admitted that he had sought a psychiatrist for a "mixed personality disorder" diagnosis, but did not disclose that treatment when asked by the judge in the case. He also acknowledged that he omitted details about his second wife when he spoke to his first wife.

Defense attorneys showed clips of Headley's initial statement to Sherlocks, which showed a stark contrast to the man who has been speaking in a soft and nearly monotonous voice while appearing unaffected by days of questioning. In the video, a visibly agitated and fast-talking Headley keeps asking prosecutors if they had made any other arrests yet in the case.

Still, experts have said undermining Headley's credibility is a challenge for the defense. His testimony has involved numerous emails and transcripts of phone calls with others listed in the indictment.

"He's certainly an imperfect individual, but the fact that the US government put him up there and put him up there first, seems to suggest a reasonable level of confidence in what he has to say," said Stephen Tankel, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has written a book on Lashkar.

Besides Rana, six others are charged in absentia, including Kashmiri, a man known only as 'Major Iqbal,' who Headley said was an ISI major, and Sajid Mir, Headley's Lashkar-e-Taiba handler.

Headley said he started working with Lashkar in 2000. He testified that the group and Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence agency operate under the same umbrella, though Pakistain has repeatedly denied the allegation. Headley said Lashkar and ISI coordinated in planning the attacks and that Rana was apprised of developments.

Rana and Headley, who are both 50, were schoolmates at a Pak military boarding school and have remained in touch.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More