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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
...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.
Related:
Tahawwur Rana: 2016-03-24 Donated 60-70 lakh Pakistan rupees to LeT, says David Headley
Tahawwur Rana: 2016-02-12 ISI, LeT funded terror operations in India: Headley
Tahawwur Rana: 2013-01-24 US court to sentence David Headley today
Related:
Tahawwur Hussain Rana: 2012-11-30 Mumbai attacks plotter faces US sentencing in January
Tahawwur Hussain Rana: 2011-07-25 Bangladesh link to Mumbai blasts tests ties
Tahawwur Hussain Rana: 2011-06-11 India says US Mumbai attacks acquittal 'no setback'
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Home Front: WoT
Mumbai attacks plotter faces US sentencing in January
2012-11-30
[Dawn] A US national who used his Western appearance to carry out surveillance ahead of the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege will be sentenced on Jan 17, a judge ruled Wednesday.

David Coleman Headley, 52, formally admitted to 12 terror charges in March 2010 after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty or to allow him to be extradited to either India, Pakistain or Denmark to face related charges.

He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

The Mumbai siege, which began on Nov 26, 2008 and lasted nearly three days, saw 166 people killed and was the deadliest cut-thoat onslaught on Indian soil since independence.

The United States came under fire in India for reaching the deal with Headley, but prosecutors said it was well worth it given the valuable intelligence he provided in order to save his own skin.

Headley also testified against his childhood friend, Pakistain-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was convicted on two terrorism charges last year.

Rana, 51, faces up to 30 years in jail for helping the banned cut-thoat group 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...
 (LT) plan an attack on a Danish newspaper that sparked outrage by publishing blasphemous cartoons.

However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
 a jury found there was insufficient evidence that Rana was involved in the Mumbai attacks -- even though Headley described how he had used Rana's immigration services business as a cover while conducting surveillance in India's financial capital. Rana will be sentenced on Jan 15.
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India-Pakistan
Bangladesh link to Mumbai blasts tests ties
2011-07-25
DHAKA - The suspected mastermind of the serial bomb blasts that last week killed at least 19 people in Mumbai and injured over 130 more is in Bangladesh, according to Indian media reports.

Abdullah Khan, of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), probably orchestrated the blasts and his movements had been tracked over the past few months, the Times of India quoted investigators as saying in a July 17 report.

If proven true, that report and others like it may stifle the progress that India and Bangladesh have made in improving ties over the past two years.

Given Bangladesh's track record at fighting terrorism since 2009, a coordinated manhunt between the two countries to track down Khan, who goes by the aliases of Khurram Khaiyam and Nata, could turn out be a blessing in disguise for India's developing neighbor.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was one of the first leaders to offer condolences to her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, in a letter expressing her "deep shock and concern over the death of innocents" in three consecutive explosions that took place during the Indian financial capital's rush hour at the crowded Zaveri Bazar at 6:54pm, the Opera House a minute later and at the suburb of Dadar at 7:04pm local time on July 13.

Soon after the explosions, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the timing of the blasts showed a coordination that made it "quite obvious that some terror element is involved in the attack".

Mumbai police said they suspected the bombs to be the work of the IM, although Chidambaram declined to speculate who was behind them. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan denied that there had been any intelligence failure.

Abdullah Khan is now "operating the IM module which is assigned to maintain liaison with the Bangladesh-based Harkat Ul Jihad Al Islami (HuJI) and, in a joint venture, has recruited a few new cadres for their outfit", according to the Times of India article. "Investigators said even six months ago, he [Khan] was stationed in Nepal and used to shuttle between Bangladesh and Pakistan."

On July 18, rediff.com reported that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India arrested Riazul Sarkar from Bihar in connection with the Mumbai serial blasts. The report quoted intelligence bureau sources as saying Sarkar "may have links with HuJi in Bangladesh", although it added that the agency didn't have many details about the alleged link.

The report also mentioned that the National Investigation Agency, India's top unit to combat terror, was homing in on IM members across India and was already questioning a suspected operative known as Haroon, who is in a Kolkata jail after being arrested in June.

An Intelligence Bureau (IB) source referred to a change of tactics by the IM after the terror strike on multiple targets, including five-star hotels, by 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, left 166 people dead and many injured.

"After 26/11, with Pakistan under the scanner for their role in sheltering handlers and perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage, the IM had started conducting training camps in Bangladesh," the source told the Deccan Chronicle in a July 18 report.

IM terrorists find it easier to penetrate India from Bangladesh through West Bengal with support from the HuJI, the source said in the report.

The source also speculated that since one of the IM founders, Amir Raza, is from Kolkata, his awareness of "the topography of West Bengal" makes it more convenient for him to coordinate movements along the border.

LeT members had planned a simultaneous attack with the 26/11 atrocities in Mumbai, in the shape of a strike on the US Embassy and Indian High Commission in Bangladesh. However, as two of the three terrorists who had ordered the attack, India-born US citizen David Coleman Headley and Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, had been arrested in Chicago in October 2008, and the third, Pakistani-born Abdur Rahman Sayeed was arrested in Pakistan around the first week of November, Bangladesh detectives foiled the plot. Mufti Harun Izahar and two associates from Chittagong were arrested, along with three Pakistani LeT members.

In November 2009, Indian authorities also arrested two Indian nationals and LeT members - T Nasir and Sharfaraz - who crossed the border into India from Bangladesh. The pair were part of the 15-member squad that failed to attack the US Embassy and Indian mission in Dhaka, the authorities said at the time.

In a bid to combat such cross-border terrorism, organized crime and the drug trade, during Hasina's visit to India in January 2010, Bangladesh and India decided to form a coordination committee comprising representatives of law-enforcing agencies and the two countries' intelligence wings to "deal with international terrorism and drug smuggling, investigation and completion of trial in such crimes". The agreement has yet to be ratified by either country. But the continued movement of terrorists across the border makes it highly likely that it will be signed off during a planned visit to Bangladesh by Manmohan in September.

The signing of the initial agreement and the arrest of numerous high-profile terrorists was behind the United States in August 2010 lauding Bangladesh's efforts "to deny domestic and transnational terrorists safe haven and targeting opportunities in Bangladesh". Bangladesh and India now have to join hands to apprehend suspected IM terrorists. At stake are bilateral ties between the neighbors, whose cooperation framework has the potential to improve livelihoods significantly and save lives in both countries.
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India-Pakistan
India says US Mumbai attacks acquittal 'no setback'
2011-06-11
[Dawn] India on Friday said it would press on with attempts to try a Pakistain-born Canadian citizen over the 2008 Mumbai attacks, despite a US jury finding him not guilty of involvement.

"I do not see it as a setback as our case is still under investigation," said the country's internal security secretary, U K Bansal, referring to Tahawwur Hussain Rana's acquittal in a Chicago court.

Rana was accused of allowing his immigration business to be used as cover for his friend David Coleman Headley to scout out potential targets in India's financial and entertainment capital before the attacks.

Headley testified against him but a jury on Thursday found there was insufficient evidence to convict.

Federal Sherlocks are preparing a case against both Rana and Headley, with a view to trying them in India, Bansal told news hounds in New Delhi.

"When the probe is over, we will produce the evidence in the court," he said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

A total of 166 people were killed and more than 300 maimed when 10 heavily-armed gunnies belonging to the banned, Pakistain-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) stormed Mumbai on November 26, 2008.

The sole surviving gunman, Pak national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, was convicted of 'waging war' against India, murder, attempted murder and terrorism offences at a trial in Mumbai last year and sentenced to death.

Two Indian nationals who were on trial alongside him were acquitted of providing information to the attackers about targets, with their defence teams insisting that it was Headley who provided reconnaissance details.

But the trial judge ruled that implicating Headley was not admissible.

Rana still faces up to 30 years in jail, as the Chicago jury convicted him of helping the LeT to plan an attack on a Danish newspaper for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Headley was locked away in 2009 and has admitted 12 terror charges after prosecutors agreed not seek the death penalty or allow him to be extradited to either India, Pakistain or Denmark to face related charges.
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India-Pakistan
Kayani may have sheltered Binny
2011-05-09
NEW DELHI: The US is turning the heat on Pakistan's ISI as it tries to establish the identity of those who sheltered Osama bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad. And, going by reports in the US media and assessments made by Indian experts, the needle of suspicion is pointing at not just ISI boss Shuja Pasha but also two of his predecessors, one of whom is none other than Pakistan army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.

Kayani was the ISI chief when Osama is said to have shifted to the Abbottabad mansion in 2005. Pasha is now said to be under pressure to quit as the ISI failed to detect Osama's presence for almost three years under him.
'failed' is not the word I would have used...
Kayani's successor in the ISI, Nadeem Taj who took over in October 2007, is the third and an equally strong suspect. Known as the most rabid anti-US and anti-India boss the agency has had in the recent past, Taj was eased out of ISI after a 10-month tenure in 2008 allegedly under pressure from the US.
The new boss not being any better than the old boss...
"In any enquiry regarding collusion between the ISI and Osama bin Laden since 2005, which enabled OBL to live in Abbottabad, the main suspicion has to be on Nadeem Taj followed by Pasha and Kayani," security expert B Raman said.

It was during Taj's tenure as ISI chief that the agency used David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana for reconnaissance missions in India and during which the July 2008 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul took place. It is significant that Taj was heading the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad before taking over as ISI chief.

The US has sought information about those senior officials who worked closely with militants in the past and Taj's name is likely to figure right at the top. As former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal put it, though, it is inconceivable that Osama continued to live right under the nose of the military establishment without the knowledge of Kayani who headed ISI in 2005.

"Kayani would have known and so would have Pasha. One can't dispense with reason and logic simply because there is no documentary evidence to prove it," Sibal told TOI. He added that he did not see anything relevant coming out of the US exercise to identify those who helped Osama hide in Abbottabad because the Pakistanis were not going to give any "self-incriminating" information to the US.

The New York Times earlier reported about the growing suspicion in the US security establishment that at least somebody in ISI was aware of Osama's whereabouts.
As in, all of them...
It said the US was frustrated as even in the past, Pakistani military and intelligence had failed to identify those ISI officials who had worked closely with Osama since the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. "There are degrees of knowing, and it wouldn't surprise me if we find out that someone close to Pasha knew," it quoted a US official as saying.

Former CIA officer Art Keller was also quoted as saying that, at best, it was a case of willful blindness on the part of the ISI. "Willful blindness is a survival mechanism in Pakistan," Keller said, adding that Osama wouldn't have ventured into Abbottabad if he did not have any assurance of protection.
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India-Pakistan
India comes up with six new names in Mumbai case
2010-07-05
[Dawn] The government has started examining a list of six suspects given by New Delhi during talks between the two foreign secretaries in Islamabad last week.

Most of the suspects have been identified by their aliases and cover names.

"A list of six more suspects -- Sajid Mir, Maj Abdur Rehman, Brig Riaz, Abu Kafa, Abu Qama and Abu Hamza -- has been given by India," a security official said.

The names of the alleged handlers and controllers of the attack's perpetrators emerged from interrogation by India of American suspect David Coleman Headley, who is being tried in the US for a plot to attack offices of a Danish newspaper that published blasphemous caricatures in 2005.

Indias National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to again get access to Mr Headley for further questioning.

According to the sketchy details provided by the Indians about the new suspects, Sajid Mir is allegedly an ex-armyman and the international operations commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

He is supposedly the 'Individual A' in the Headley affidavit and 'Individual B' in another suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana's affidavit submitted in a US court and is associated with both LeT and Ilyas Kashmiri. He is also reportedly wanted by the US and Australian law-enforcement agencies.

Maj Abdur Rehman alias Pasha, as per the Indian information, retired from the army in 2007 and had been arrested by Pakistani security agencies in September last year for his suspected involvement in the Headley case. He was, however, released.

The third military man pointed out by the Indian side, Brig Riaz, is allegedly an ex-official of the SCO, the army wing dealing with telecommunications.

The other three -- Abu Kafa, Abu Qama and Abu Hamza -- have been identified by their aliases and were allegedly the handlers of the Mumbai attackers.

Abu Kafa is also the alias of Mazhar Iqbal, one of the seven suspects currently being tried by the Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court in the Mumbai case.

An investigator said it was practically unworkable to find the people identified only by their aliases or cover names.

Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram, who last week held talks with Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad, asked Pakistan to rigorously follow up leads that had emerged from Headley's questioning and arrest other suspects in the Mumbai carnage.

The Indian minister had also cautioned that substantive progress in the trust-building process, initiated after a meeting between the prime ministers' of both countries in Bhutan in April, would not be possible unless the Mumbai case was resolved.

He had hinted that India would expect forward movement from Pakistan on the issue before the July 15 meeting of the foreign ministers.

However, a diplomat said: "Islamabad is committed to proceeding with the Mumbai trial, but to expect everything to be pegged on the Mumbai issue is unfair and against the spirit to normalise bilateral ties." He urged India to look at the trust-building process from a larger angle rather than just through the Mumbai prism.
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Home Front: WoT
Pak-origin Chicago cab driver indicted for supporting al-Qaeda
2010-04-02
A Pakistani-origin cab driver, with suspected links to HuJI chief Ilyas Kashmiri, was on Friday indicted on charges of providing material support and funds to terror group al-Qaeda.

A federal grand jury returned the indictment against Raja Lahrasib Khan, who is being held in federal lock-up Metropolitan Correctional Centre without bond. The indictment charges the same two counts of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation that were charged in the complaint filed against Khan after his arrest by FBI last week.

Khan was scheduled to appear in a Chicago court on April 7 for a preliminary hearing, when the government would have shown some of its evidence against him. However, due to the indictment that hearing now stands cancelled. No date for an arraignment has been set yet.

"In the next couple of days, an arraignment will be scheduled before the assigned judge in US District Court in Chicago, and the indictment effectively cancels the preliminary hearing that was scheduled for April 7 before Magistrate Judge Soat Brown," US Attorney's office spokesman Randall Samborn said.

According to the two-page indictment, "about November 23, 2009 at Chicago, Khan did knowingly attempt to provide material support and resources, namely property (funds) and currency, to a foreign terrorist organisation, namely al Qaeda, which was designated by the US Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organisation... knowing that al-Qaeda had engaged and was engaging in terrorist activity".

Khan's attorney, who was hoping to challenge the government's evidence during the April 7 hearing, said he was "disappointed" that Khan was indicted before being given a chance to contest the evidence.

"I am really disappointed that the government made a tactical decision to avoid the preliminary hearing so as to deny us the opportunity to contest the evidence. Instead they chose to go via a secret grand jury. We are very disappointed and continue to look forward to the day when we can contest this evidence in an open and public forum," Khan's attorney Thomas Durkin told PTI.

Khan, who claims to have known al-Qaeda operative Ilyas Kashmiri for 15 years, was arrested from downtown Chicago on March 26 as he was waiting in his cab for customers. His arrest comes five months after Chicago residents David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested by the FBI on terror charges. Headley has since pleaded guilty to his role in the Mumbai 26/11 attacks. Kashmiri has also been indicted along with Headley and Rana on terror charges.

At a court hearing on March 30, Judge Brown had granted government's motion to keep Khan in detention pending trial. Durkin had then said he would try to put together a plan under which release on bond could be possible, calling the government's complaint against Khan as "an incredibly one-sided document".

According to a 35-page affidavit submitted in court at the time of his arrest, Khan told an undercover law enforcement agent that he sent money to Kashmiri, whom he referred to as 'Lala', several times in the past. The money was allegedly used by Kashmiri, leader of extremist group Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami in Pakistan with links to al Qaeda, to purchase weapons.

Khan had sent a money transfer of approximately USD 950 in November last year from a currency exchange here to 'Individual A' in Pakistan. He had also discussed attacking a stadium in the US this summer and allegedly told the undercover agent that he had met Kashmiri most recently in 2008 in Miran Shah in northwest Pakistan. Khan was then told by Kashmiri that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin laden was "healthy" and giving orders to Kashmiri.

Khan came to the US in 1975 and became a naturalised citizen in 1998. He has three children from his previous marriage and has been married to an American since 1994.
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India-Pakistan
U.S.-India cooperation in the war on terror hits a roadblock
2010-03-26
BY B RAMAN

Cooperation between U.S. and Indian intelligence agencies has been a hallmark of the post-9/11 era, and rightly so: The two democracies both understand the existential fight the war on terror presents. But just as the U.S. expects India to be a good partner in the fight, so too does India expect the same of America.

That's why the case of David Coleman Headley, a Chicago-based American citizen of Pakistani origin who allegedly facilitated the Nov. 26, 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, matters. Mr. Headley traveled to India five times, reportedly to scout targets for Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET). He and his accomplice, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, were arrested by the FBI in October during an investigation into a plot of the LET and other Pakistan-based terrorists to attack a Danish newspaper. Their alleged links to the Mumbai attacks were discovered during the FBI interrogation.

Given Mr. Headley's potentially vital role in one of the most extreme terrorist acts in India's history—an attack that lasted four days and killed 166 people—India understandably wants to extradite him for questioning. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake said Saturday during a trip to New Delhi that extradition won't happen, but Indian officials will eventually "get access" to Mr. Headley.

This is a remarkable double standard. When Al Qaeda terrorists Abu Zubaidah, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Abu Faraj al-Libi were arrested in Pakistan, and when Jemmah Islamiyah's Hambali was arrested in Thailand in the years following 9/11, U.S. intelligence officials insisted on taking them into U.S. custody to interrogate them on the future plans of their organizations and on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.

When Messrs. Headley and Rana were arrested, Indian authorities didn't insist on extradition, which they knew might be hard to do under U.S. law. They simply wanted Indian investigators to be given immediate access to the terrorists on U.S. soil. Given the growing antiterror cooperation between the two countries, an Indian investigative team traveled to the U.S. to question Mr. Headley after hearing of his arrest. They were taken by surprise when the FBI declined to grant them access and sent them back empty-handed.

Since then, the FBI has been dragging its feet in response to repeated Indian requests to interrogate Mr. Headley—even in U.S. territory. The plea bargain that the FBI and Mr. Headley agreed to last week has created strong suspicions in India that the FBI wants to avoid a formal trial of Mr. Headley. There are even wild rumors that Indian investigators are being prevented from interrogating him because he was a deep penetration agent working for U.S. intelligence.

India isn't asking for much. Its intelligence officers are mature professionals. Their interest will be in questioning Mr. Headley on his role in the Mumbai attacks, LET's terrorist plans, its India-based sleeper cells, and the role of the Pakistani state in the attacks.

U.S.-India intelligence cooperation has been tested over the past few years, first in 2004 with accusations that an Indian intelligence officer, Rabinder Singh, had been recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency. (He was granted asylum in the U.S. just before he was about to be arrested by Indian counterintelligence officers.) The second blow came in 2006 with the discovery of another alleged CIA mole in India's National Security Council Secretariat, which is part of the Prime Minister's Office.

The rift forming over access to Mr. Headley is a serious problem. The intelligence communities of the two countries, which have a long history of cooperation, managed to get over the trust deficit created by the CIA's alleged penetration. It's time to get over this one, too.

Mr. Raman served in India's external intelligence agency from 1968 to 1994 and on the government of India's National Security Advisory Board from 2000 to 2002. He is currently director of the Institute for Topical Studies in Chennai.
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India-Pakistan
US suspect in Mumbai siege, Danish plot pleads guilty
2010-03-19
[Dawn] The charming Pakistani-American man accused of scouting out the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege and plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in a Chicago court.

David Coleman Headley, 49, admitted to using a friend's immigration company as a cover for surveillance activities in India and Denmark on behalf of two different Pakistan-based terrorist groups.

The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and American woman, Headley reportedly befriended Bollywood stars and even dated an actress during his lengthy surveillance trips.

In a plot that reads like a movie thriller, Headley spent two years casing out Mumbai, including taking boat tours around the city's harbor to scope out landing sites for the attackers who killed 166 people, including six Americans.

Charging documents also indicated Headley was so eager to kill a Danish cartoonist who sparked outrage with cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed that he began working seriously on that plot two months before the bloody 60-hour Mumbai siege which began on November 26, 2008.

India and Washington blamed the deadly rampage on Pakistan's banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The attacks stalled a fragile four-year peace process between the two nuclear-armed south Asian rivals.

Headley -- who said he began working with LeT in 2002 -- also had Bollywood and one of India's most sacred Hindu temples in his sights as he began plotting a second India attack during a March 2009 surveillance trip.

Prosecutors said the potential targets also included the National Defense College, Chabad Houses in "several cities" in India Prosecutors and Shiv Sena, a political party in India with roots in Hindu nationalism.

Headley told prosecutors after his October arrest that he changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 so he could "present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani," charging documents said.

Indian media have reported that Headley befriended Bollywood stars and developed a reputation as a fitness fanatic while staying in an expatriate enclave in south Mumbai near the US consulate during five lengthy surveillance trips.

He reportedly lived a more devout Muslim life in Chicago with his wife and children and prosecutors said he attending LeT terror training camps in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003.

Headley began working with an Al-Qaeda-linked group in Pakistan called Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami on the Danish plot after LeT became distracted with the final planning for the Mumbai attack, charging documents said.

He was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport in October as he was on his way to deliver 13 surveillance videos he obtained after pretending to be interested in buying ads in Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's highest circulation daily.

Headley was later charged in the Mumbai attacks, as was his old friend from military school in Pakistan, Tahawwur Hussain Rana.

Rana, who owns the Chicago-based First World Immigration Services that Headley allegedly used as a cover, insists he is a pacifist who was "duped" by his friend. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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Home Front: WoT
US suspect in Mumbai siege, Danish plot to plead guilty
2010-03-17
The charismatic Chicago man accused of scouting out the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege and a plot to kill a Danish cartoonist plans to plead guilty to terrorism charges, his lawyer said Tuesday. David Coleman Headley, 49, is accused of helping two different Pakistan-based terrorist groups and using a friend's immigration company as a cover for surveillance activities in India and Denmark.

The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and American mother, Headley reportedly befriended Bollywood stars and even dated an actress during his lengthy surveillance trips to Mumbai.

Charging documents also indicated Headley was so eager to kill a Danish cartoonist who sparked outrage with cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed that he began working seriously on that plot two months before the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Headley, who has been cooperating with prosecutors since his October arrest, is set to appear in a Chicago federal court at 1830 GMT Thursday for a change of plea hearing, court documents showed. It remained unclear whether Headley would plead guilty to all or just some of the 12 charges laid against him in Chicago, some of which carried possible death penalty.

Headley's attorney confirmed a plea deal was in the works but declined to say to which charges his client would admit. "I am really reluctant to go into the specifics of what he's pleading to," defense attorney John Theis told AFP. "I expect that there will be a plea agreement," he added. "And the details of that are what is being negotiated, so I can't comment on anything." Prosecutors declined to comment on the deal.

Headley was initially arrested on terror charges related to a plot to attack Denmark's highest circulating daily, Jyllands-Posten, which triggered a furor in the Muslim world by publishing 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005. Headley was later charged in the Mumbai attacks, as was his old friend from military school in Pakistan, Tahawwur Hussain Rana.

Rana, who owns the Chicago-based First World Immigration Services that Headley allegedly used as a cover, insists he is a pacifist who was "duped" by his friend. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Headley also initially pled not guilty to the charges but has long been expected to eventually reach a plea deal with prosecutors.

In an alleged plot that reads like a movie thriller, Headley is accused of spending two years casing out Mumbai, even taking boat tours around the city's harbor to scope out landing sites for the attackers, who killed 166 people, including six Americans.

Headley said he changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 so he could "present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani," charging documents said.

Indian media have reported that during his five lengthy trips to Mumbai Headley befriended Bollywood stars and developed a reputation as a fitness fanatic while staying in an expatriate enclave in south Mumbai near the US consulate.

Indian security analysts believe he could be the vital missing link in the bloody 60-hour siege that began on November 26, 2008.

Ever since the attacks, there has been much speculation but no answers about whether the 10 heavily-armed gunmen had specialist help to land undetected by sea and strike their targets with such precision.

India and Washington blamed the deadly rampage on Pakistan's banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The attacks stalled a fragile four-year peace process between the two nuclear-armed south Asian rivals. Headley allegedly told investigators he had been working with LeT since 2002.

He began working with an Al-Qaeda-linked group in Pakistan called Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami on the Danish plot after LeT became distracted with the final planning for the Mumbai attack, charging documents alleged.

Headley allegedly told prosecutors he pretended to be interested in buying ads in Jyllands-Posten so he could tour the newspaper's offices in Copenhagen and Arhus "in preparation for an attack," the documents said.

Prosecutors say Headley was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport as he was on his way to deliver 13 surveillance videos to Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami in the Danish plot.
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India-Pakistan
2 Pak Army officers gave Headley $25,000 for India trip: FBI dossier
2009-12-26
The FBI dossier on David Coleman Headley, the Lashkar-e-Toiba operative charged in United States with helping plan the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes, states that two serving Pakistani Army officers, Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali, were actively involved in handling Headley, directed the terror plots, and that Major Iqbal handed him $25,000 before sending him to India.

Sources said the Headley dossier shared with India also states that Abdurrehman Syed, a Lashkar commander, was attached to 6 Baloch of the Pak Army. He joined the Lashkar in 2002. It is believed that Syed and another Lashkar commander, Sajid Mir, with whom Headley was in regular touch, were part of a reconnaissance mission to India in April, 2004. The FBI learnt that Headley made as many as eight trips to India as a Lashkar operative between September 2006 and July 2008 and once after the Mumbai terror attacks -- in March 2009 -- for reconnaissance of potential targets. Headley was said to have joined the Lashkar in 1999, motivated by speeches of Lashkar founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

After his initiation, Headley underwent training from 2002 to 2004. He wanted to go to Kashmir but Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Lashkar operations commander, had other ideas. It was on Lakhvi's direction that Headley visited India eight times for reconnaissance work.

Unlike Headley, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, his alleged accomplice, visited India only once -- a week before the Mumbai terror attacks.

Headley surveyed 30 potential targets and submitted details and photographs to his handlers. These included:
  • Hotels Taj and Oberoi, Leopold Cafe, Nariman House and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
  • He was specifically told to do a recce of the Ruby Room, Crystal Ballroom at the Taj
  • Shiv Sena headquarters
  • Siddhivinayak temple
  • Maharashtra Assembly
  • Bombay Stock Exchange
  • Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
  • World Trade Centre, Mumbai
  • National Defence College, New Delhi.
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Home Front: WoT
Mumbai terror suspect had Bollywood, temple in sights
2009-12-16
[Dawn] A Chicago man accused of planning the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege also had Bollywood and one of India's most sacred Hindu temples in his sights, US prosecutors said Monday.

David Coleman Headley, 49, is accused of being a scout for two different terrorist groups who used a friend's immigration company as a cover for his surveillance activities.

The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and American mother, Headley reportedly befriended Bollywood stars and even dated an actress during his lengthy surveillance trips to Mumbai.

Nearly a year after the bloody 60-hour siege which began November 26, 2008, Headley was allegedly recorded discussing five future targets.

Prosecutors said the targets included: Bollywood; the Indian temple Somnath; the National Defense College in Delhi; Shiv Sena, a political party in India with roots in Hindu nationalism; and a Danish newspaper which sparked a furore in the Muslim world by publishing 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested in October on terror charges related to the plot to attack Denmark's highest circulating daily, Jyllands-Posten, and kill an editor and the cartoonist.

Headley -- who prosecutors say is cooperating with investigators -- was charged last week with spending two years casing out Mumbai, even taking boat tours around the city's harbor to scope out landing sites for the attackers.

Rana, who owns the Chicago-based First World Immigration Services that Headley allegedly used as a cover, insists that he is a pacifist who was 'duped' by his friend.

But prosecutors said Monday that the Pakistani-born Canadian national knew about the Mumbai attacks days before they occurred and released fresh details from a secretly recorded conversation to support their claims.

While Rana has not been charged in the Mumbai attack, which left 166 people dead and hundreds wounded, prosecutors said 'the investigation into Rana's conduct continues.'

'Rana's own statements, made in what he believed to be a private conversation, belie his argument to this court that he believes in non-violence,' prosecutors wrote in a 10-page memo in support of Rana's detention pending trial.

They cite a September 7 conversation recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in which Rana 'asked Headley to pass Rana's compliments directly to the specific Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) member they both knew who had coordinated the (Mumbai) attacks.'

Headley allegedly told Rana that he was going to ask this LeT member to target the National Defense College in Delhi 'first,' to which Rana responded that he agreed and allegedly said 'they should be really commended. I appreciate them from my heart.'

Rana allegedly also told Headley that he learned about the upcoming Mumbai attacks during a November 2008 meeting with retired Pakistani military officer Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed in Dubai.

'It is clear from the conversation and extrinsic corroboration that Rana was told just days before the Mumbai attacks that the attacks were about to happen,' prosecutors wrote.

Syed, who has also been charged in the Danish newspaper plot, is accused of having ties to LeT and being Headley's direct link to Ilyas Kashmiri, who the Department of Justice said is the operational chief of a terrorist organization called Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami (HuJI), which has links to Al-Qaeda.

India and Washington blamed the deadly Mumbai rampage on Pakistan's banned militant group LeT. The attacks stalled a fragile four-year peace process between the two nuclear-armed south Asian rivals.

Syed's alleged foreknowledge of the attack could expand the scope of the investigation to HuJI. He has not been charged with helping to plot that attack.

Rana is scheduled to appear in a Chicago court at 2030 GMT Tuesday for a detention hearing.
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