Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

India-Pakistan

Canadian national wanted for 2008 Mumbai terror attacks extradited to India

2025-04-11

[IsraelTimes] A Pakistani-born Canadian businessman accused of helping to orchestrate the 2008 attacks in Mumbai,

…ten terrorists rampaged through 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 horror lasted nearly 60 hours before Mumbai police gunned down the bad guys. 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...

one of India’s deadliest, arrives in New Delhi after the US extradited him in the first such transfer in a terrorism case.

Tahawwur Rana,

Mr. Rana is accused by the Indian government of participating in the planning and execution of the Lashkar terrorist attacks in Mumbai by collaborating with his childhood friend David Coleman Headley, also known as "Daood Gilani," and others. He was convicted in 2011 of providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, which planned the Mumbai terror attack and for supporting a never-carried-out plot to attack a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed (PTUI!) in 2005. Specifically, he was accused of allowing David Coleman Headley to open a branch of his Chicago-based immigration law business in Mumbai as a cover story and to travel as a representative of the company in Denmark…

64, a doctor-turned-businessman, is extradited in connection with the November 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people, including 6 Israelis at the city’s Chabad center.

“The National Investigation Agency on Thursday successfully secured the extradition…after years of sustained and concerted efforts to bring the key conspirator…to justice,” says NIA, India’s anti-terror agency.

He is accompanied back by Indian security agencies after his petitions challenging the extradition were rejected by the US Supreme Court.

Rana’s extradition is a “great success” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s diplomacy, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday.

“It is the responsibility of the Indian government to bring back all those who have abused the land and people of India,” he posted on X.

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Home Front: WoT

Trump says US will extradite Mumbai 2008 Terror Attack suspect to India

2025-02-16

[KhaamaPress] On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump

...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania...
announced that the United States would extradite a suspect involved in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks to India for trial.

Ten terrorists rampaged through 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 horror lasted nearly 60 hours before Mumbai police gunned down the bad guys. 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.

Trump did not disclose the identity of the suspect but Rooters reported that the individual is a Canadian-Pak citizen. The U.S. president made the announcement after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House.

In a joint presser, Trump expressed his satisfaction in confirming the extradition of one of the criminal masterminds behind the horrific Mumbai terror attacks, stating that this person would face justice in India.

The 2008 Mumbai attacks, carried out by four gangs, targeted luxury hotels, train stations, and a Jewish center. The attack resulted in 166 deaths and over 300 injuries, lasting three days.

India has stated that the attacks were carried out by the Pakistain-based 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...>
group, though Pakistain denied involvement at the time. Reports indicate that the suspect being extradited is Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian-Pak businessman who was previously sentenced to 14 years in prison in the U.S. for supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba.

This move strengthens the U.S.-India relationship as both countries work together to combat terrorism. The extradition is a significant step in holding individuals accountable for their involvement in international terrorism, demonstrating a shared commitment to justice and security.

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India-Pakistan

Tried to prevent Mumbai attacks, but US authorities didn't bother: David Headley's ex-wife

2012-04-18

The estranged wife of admitted Pakistani American terrorist David Coleman Headley claims she tried to prevent the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack by going to US authorities abroad, but they did not bother.

"So I went to them and I then started saying ~~all sorts of crazy~~ stuff, I said he's going to bomb everything, he's a criminal. They didn't bother," Faiza Outalha was quoted as saying by Chicago's WLS-TV/DT.

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Headley, who has confessed to his role in scouting targets for the Mumbai in a plea deal with the US government was an avowed terrorist when he married Outalha, according to the television station that tracked her to Morocco.

"I'm covering my face right now, yes, because I'm afraid that people really could look at, see my face and pursue me or come and try to harm me," she was quoted as saying.

"It was love at first sight, you know, and we just married and, you know, it was so quick," Outalha said. "He betrayed me in every way, many lies, he's been lying to me, I mean the marriage, he fooled me to this marriage."

Headley, alias Daood Gilani, claims he worked with officials from Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency to survey attack sites in India, even while on a Mumbai honeymoon with his new wife.

Indian authorities have sent a formal request to Morocco to hand over Outalha in the continuing investigation of the Mumbai attacks. If she cooperates, they hope that Outalha will offer information about the LeT founder and leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, for whose successful prosecution US announced a $10 million bounty two weeks ago, WLS-TV said.

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India-Pakistan

Mumbai attacks were 'brilliantly' executed, says accused

2011-05-26

A Chicago businessman accused in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks told the U.S. government's star witness -- an admitted American terrorist -- that the rampage that killed more than 160 people was orchestrated "brilliantly," according to testimony on Wednesday.

David Coleman Headley
aka Syed Daood Gilani
returned to the stand for third day in the trial of his longtime friend Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of providing cover for Headley as he conducted surveillance for the attacks where gunmen arrived by boat and stormed the city for three days.

"'Tactically, this was done brilliantly'," Rana said, according to Headley's testimony.

Headley, a Pakistani-American who pleaded guilty in plotting the attacks, is the government's top witness in a trial that comes at a fragile time in U.S.-Pakistan relations. So far, Headley's testimony has detailed how a Pakistani militant group blamed in the attacks and Pakistani intelligence coordinated in plotting and funding the attacks. The proceedings also come just weeks after Navy SEALs found Osama bin Laden hiding outside Islamabad, raising concerns that Pakistan may have been protecting the world's most wanted terrorist.

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India-Pakistan

Headley alleges more Pakistan militants, ISI links

2011-05-25

Big news on the Mumbai attack in, of all places, Chicago.
CHICAGO The federal governments star witness at a Chicago terrorism trial revealed more potentially damaging details on Tuesday alleging close cooperation between a Pakistani militant group and the countrys top intelligence agency, telling jurors that he frequently exchanged emails and met with members of both groups a month before the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

David Coleman Headley returned to the witnesses stand for a second day in the terrorism trial of a Chicago businessman accused of collaborating in the three-day siege of Indias largest city giving a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and how he was recruited by a member of Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as ISI, to take part in the Mumbai plot.

Headley told jurors Tuesday that he met with both his handlers from Lashkar and ISI in Pakistan in October 2008 one month before the Mumbai rampage that killed more than 160 people including six Americans and his Lashkar contact, Sajid Mir, said militants had unsuccessfully tried to do the attack in September but crashed their boat leaving Pakistan. They also talked for the first time about a separate plot to attack a Danish newspaper that in 2005 had printed cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, he said.

I suggested we only focus on the cartoonist and the editor, Headley testified of a later meeting with Mir. He said, All Danes are responsible for this.

As the governments first and main witness in the trial of his longtime friend Tahawwur Rana, Headleys testimony outlining links between the ISI and Lashkar could inflame tensions between Pakistan and India and place even more pressure on the already frayed US and Pakistani relations.
I'm guessing the Indians are taking notes...
It also could add to the questions about Pakistans commitment to catch terrorists and the ISIs connections to Pakistan-based terror groups, especially after Osama bin Laden was found hiding out earlier this month in a military garrison town outside of Islamabad.
I don't think there are any questions at all...
Headley pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork for the Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people including six Americans, and he agreed to testify against Rana to avoid the death penalty, making him one of the most valuable US government counterterrorism witnesses.

Headleys testimony is a nail in the coffin of US-Pakistani strategic cooperation, said Bruce Riedel, a former White House adviser on Middle Eastern and South Asian issues. Until now his commentary has gotten very little attention outside India, now it will finally get the attention it deserves here.

The Pakistani government has denied the ISI orchestrated the Mumbai attacks, and a senior ISI official said Tuesday that the agency has no links to the terrorists behind the rampage. When asked about the testimony being heard in Chicago, the official said it is nothing.
"Lies! All lies!"
On Tuesday, Headley testified that details of planning for the attacks were known by an ISI officer known only by the alias Major Iqbal and Mir. Iqbal said a list would be provided to Headley of possible targets and later he would receive it from Mir. The three men met together in Pakistan in October 2008 where Mir told Headley about the failed attempt on Mumbai. The meetings continued.

In a few weeks if everything went well, they were going to launch a second attempt, Headley testified.

Prosecutors showed emails between the three men some of them forwarded to Rana detailing points on the Mumbai attacks and the aftermath. They wrote in code from ever-changing email addresses including some that came from transliterated Urdu words into English and others from seemingly innocuous phrases like the email handle Get Me Some Books, that Mir used at one time.

When the attacks happened, Headley, who was born Daood Gilani, testified that he got a text message from Mir asking him to turn on the television.

I was pleased, he told jurors, but later he started to worry. I was concerned if our plan had been leaked out.

At this time, Headley said, he was also in more frequent contact with Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, whom prosecutors identified as retired Pakistani military with links to Major Iqbal. Syed was referred to as Pasha.

Rana, who attended medical school in Pakistan, was only brought up periodically throughout testimony, with Headley saying that he debriefed all his plans with Rana. He said they discussed the Mumbai attacks afterward and what they considered a successful mission against Indians.

Dr. Rana said, They deserved it, Headley said.

Rana, a Canadian citizen who has lived in Chicago for years, is accused of giving Headley cover during his time in Mumbai by allowing him to set up a branch of his Chicago-based immigration services business. His name is the seventh one on the federal indictment, and the only defendant in custody. Among the six others charged in absentia are Mir, Iqbal and Pasha.

Rana, who has pleaded not guilty, is also accused of helping arrange travel and other help for Headley, who planned the separate attack that never happened on the Danish newspaper. Defense attorneys have told jurors their client was taken advantage of by his friend and did not know what was in store. But prosecutors have said Rana was not duped and knew of the plans, both in Mumbai and Denmark.

Defense attorneys were expected scrutinize Headleys credibility as a witness, saying he has been motivated to change his story and that he was working for the US government even as he said he was working for Lashkar and ISI.

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Home Front: WoT

Pakistan's Other Terror Ties

2011-05-10

Its bad enough that Islamabad is suspected of aiding bin Laden. Now comes trial testimony that will suggest that the ISI helped plan the Mumbai attacks.

Americas relationship with Pakistan, now revealed as the final home of Osama bin Laden, is about to be pushed even closer to the breaking point.

A terrorism trial set to open next week in Chicago is expected to feature testimony from a confessed Pakistani-American terrorist who will link the central Pakistani spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, to the planning of the 2008 terrorist siege of Mumbai, Indias largest city, in which 170 people were killed, including six Americans.

Lawyers and law-enforcement officials involved in the case tell The Daily Beast that trial testimony will suggest that the ISI has sheltered terrorist leaders on Pakistani soilpossibility including bin Laden, who hid out down the road from the homes of senior ISI officers in the city of Abbottabad, home to Pakistans equivalent of West Point. Whats more, the trial will surface claims that Pakistani government spies actively trained, equipped and funded terrorists who target American citizens abroad.

The confessed Pakistani-American terrorist is David Headley, a 50-year-old Chicago man whose mother was American and who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 in what he now admits was an effort to avoid suspicion as he traveled. Headley is scheduled to testify as part of a plea bargain struck last year that spared him the death penalty and deportation to India, where he might also have faced execution

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India-Pakistan

US confirms contacts with Mumbai plotter's wives

2010-10-20

[Dawn] Two wives of an American man who helped plot the 2008 Mumbai attacks warned US officials about him but did not have enough specific information for the officials to act on, the US State Department said on Monday.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that one wife of David Headley contacted US embassy officials in Islamabad in late 2007 to say she believed he was plotting an attack, while two years earlier another wife told investigators in New York she thought he was a member of a Pak cut-thoat group.

State Department front man P.J. Crowley on Monday confirmed that both women had sought to pass information, but said that while it was investigated it was not enough to warrant action such as a specific warning to the Indian government.

"There was concern expressed by both spouses. At the same time, the information was not specific," Crowley told a news briefing.

"The fact is that, while we had information and concerns, it did not detail a time or place of the attack," he said.

The Times reported that Headley was at one period married to three wives at once, including the two who spoke to authorities.

Crowley declined to discuss details of the information involved, and said the United States and India had extensive cooperation on security matters both before and after the Mumbai attacks.

Headley pleaded guilty in March to a dozen US terrorism charges related to the Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed, and to a plot to attack a Danish newspaper that had published blasphemy cartoons in 2005.

He admitted to scouting the targets for the cut-thoat group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and agreed to help investigators and give testimony against others in exchange for a promise that he would not be extradited to India, Pakistain or Denmark.

US authorities regularly receive tips about possible terrorism plots.

Headley, who spent his childhood in Pakistain and whose father was Pak, changed his name in 2005 from Daood Gilani to make travel through security easier. He was jugged about a year ago at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport as he was trying to leave for Pakistain.

The 2008 attacks in Mumbai, in which six Americans were among the dead, lasted for three days and further escalated tensions between India and neighboring Pakistain, where LeT Orcs and similar vermin are based.

Crowley said the United States would continue to press Pakistain to do more to crack down on cut-thoat groups, some of which are believed to have close ties to Pak intelligence agencies.

"As we've noted many times, Pakistain has taken aggressive action within its own borders. But clearly, this is an ongoing threat, then, and more needs to be done," he said.

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India-Pakistan

Squaring off in US: Preet Bharara vs Pakistani-Americans

2010-05-05

WASHINGTON: The arrest of a Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad by US law enforcement authorities in connection with the Times Square terror plot will once again put the focus on Preet Bharara, the India-born US Federal Attorney, who is already under attack in some Pakistani quarters for allegedly carrying out a "witch-hunt" against Pakistanis in the US.

This is America. We all eventually come from elsewhere, even the Native Americans. Get over it.

Bharara, 41, who is one of the 93 US Attorneys appointed the US President, heads the US Attorney's office for the Southern District in New York, which covers Manhattan, where the attempted bombing took place, and JFK Airport, where terror suspect Faisal Shahzad was arrested.

Bharara, who was born in Ferozepur, Punjab, and moved to the US with his parents when he was only two, grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Harvard in 1990 and Columbia Law School in 1993 (which are also President Obama's alma mater), before embarking on a legal and political path where he was marked as a rising star very early in his career.

Obama appointed him US Attorney in the summer of 2009, and in the months since, he has handled several high-profile prosecution cases including that of Ponzi scammer Bernie Madoff and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

But in a vicious attack some weeks back, a Pakistani newspaper accused Bharara of carrying out a witch-hunt against Pakistanis in the US because of his "ideological beliefs" going back to the sub-continent's partition days.

The Nation newspaper also alleged that Bharara appointed a "like-minded controversial Indian who is also known for his hatred and venomous propaganda against Pakistan, Anjan Sahni, as Chief of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit soon after he assumed the charge of US Federal Attorney of New York."

But there is very little in Bharara's life or career that points to any prejudice or bias. In fact, among the prosecutions he is handling is one against the Galleon Group, where defendants include Sri Lankan Raj Rajaratnam and Indian-Americans Anil Kumar and Rajiv Goel. Although a Democrat (he worked on New York Senator Charles Schumer's staff before being appointed US Attorney), he has earned praise across party lines.

Bharara's father is a Sikh and his mother is Hindu and they both moved from what became Pakistan to the Indian side during partition. But his father-in-law is a Muslim who moved in the other direction and his mother-in-law is from Palestine and is of Jewish origin.

A Jewish Palestinian? Possibly the journalist means she was born during the time of the British mandate, out of which Israel and Jordan were carved, but moved away before Israel was brought into being by the United Nations. In those days the residents were defined as Arabs and Palestinians, where the Palestinians were the Jews. The Arabs then insisted as vehemently that they were not Palestinians as they now insist that they are. Possibly the mother-in-law converted to Islam, and the journalist does not want to pollute her with the title of Israeli. Ignorance and prejudice combine in such amusingly unlikely ways.

In a statement following Shahzad's arrest, Bharara said "the dedicated agents, detectives, and prosecutors on this case will continue to follow every lead and use every tool to keep the people of New York City safe," and pledged that "we will not rest until every terrorist, whether homegrown or foreign-based, is neutralized and held to account."

Shahzad is not the first Pakistani-American to be arrested in the US in connection with terrorism. Besides the infamous Daood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley, there have been several recent cases where Pakistani-Americans have been apprehended, including one involving Chicago cab driver Raja Lahrasib Khan in March this year.

In fact, almost every terror plot unearthed in the United States, going back to World Trade Center I attack in 1993 and the 9/11 catastrophe, has its footprints and fingerprints of its so-called ally Pakistan, and not the usual American suspects such as Iran or Syria, much less outliers such as Cuba and Venezuela.

More recently, US experts have warned of attempts by al-Qaida and their terror affiliates to use US citizens of Pakistani origin, who meld easily into American society (such as David Headley, and now Faisal Shahzad) for terrorist attacks.

The warnings led to Washington instituting extra scrutiny for fliers from Pakistan and 13 other "countries of interest," but a TSA directive this effect was withdrawn after a major tantrum by Pakistan that its nationals were being unfairly singled out.

Perhaps it's time to quietly reinstate it. They're Democrats, after all. They needn't be open and transparent.

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Terror Networks

US official: India to question US terror convict

2010-03-20

Indian investigators will be able to question a Chicago man who pleaded guilty to scouting targets for the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, a senior U.S. official said Saturday. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake said investigators probing the 2008 Mumbai terror attack would gain access to ~~Daood Gilani, aka~~ David Coleman Headley to learn more about his involvement, although he would not be extradited to India.

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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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Home Front: WoT

2 Chicago Men Indicted on Terrorism Charges for Mumbai Attack

2010-01-15

CHICAGO -- Two Chicago men were indicted Thursday on charges they planned a violent attack on a Danish newspaper and helped lay the groundwork for the November 2008 terrorist rampage killed 166 people in the Indian city of Mumbai. Businessman Tahawwur Rana and his associate David Coleman Headley already had been charged with assistance to terrorism but the 12-count indictment expanded allegations against Rana to include the Mumbai attacks. Both are in federal custody in Chicago.

Retired Pakistani military officer Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed and reputed terrorist leader Ilyas Kashmiri -- described as having been in regular contact with al-Qaida's No. 3, Sheikh Mustafa Abu al-Yazid -- also were charged in the new indictment. Abdur Rehman and Kashmiri are accused of being involved with the plans to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten, which in 2005 printed 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world.

Officials say the defendants were linked to the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, translated as Army of the Pure, which has long been involved in violent conflict with India over the disputed Kashmir territory. The Indian government has blamed the group for the Mumbai attacks and the U.S. government has designated it as a foreign terrorist organization.

Headley, 49, formerly named Daood Gilani, is the son of a Pakistani father and an American mother. He has authorized the government to disclose that he is cooperating in the investigation, prosecutors said. His attorney, John Theis, declined to comment Thursday.
Changed his name but not his spots ...

Nah, just used his "American name". I've got a Hebrew name as well as the English one that's on my birth certificate and passport. "Sarah bat Moshe v'Rifka", for the curious -- the last time I used it was during the bat mitzvah of trailing daughter #2. Likewise a childhood playmate of the trailing daughters whose Chinese name is, as I recall, Ping Qua, but whose American name -- the one on her birth certificate -- is Gina.

Rana, 49, is a Pakistan-born Canadian national who has based his First World Immigration Service company and other businesses in Chicago for more than a dozen years. A message seeking comment was left for his attorney, Patrick Blegen. Blegen has called Rana a legitimate businessman who was duped by Headley and denies the charges against him.

Kashmiri has been described as a leader of the terrorist group Harakat-ul Jihad Islami. The indictment marks the first appearance in the case for al-Yazid, described as a leader of Al Qaeda's activities in Afghanistan.

The indictment alleges Headley attended terrorism training camps run by Lashkar in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003. He is accused of conducting surveillance of Mumbai targets in five trips over two years preceding the 2008 attacks.

Headley received approval from Rana in June 2006 to open a Mumbai branch of First World Immigration Service as a cover for his surveillance activities, according to the indictment. It said Rana directed a First World employee to prepare documents supporting the story and showed Headley how to get a visa for travel to India.

The indictment said Headley photographed and videotaped potential targets, including the Taj Mahal Hotel and other sites later attacked with firearms, grenades and improvised explosive devices by 10 terrorists who stormed through the city, killing dozens and wounding hundreds more, including Americans.

Headley also is accused of conducting surveillance at Jyllands Posten newspaper offices in the Danish cities of Copenhagen and Aahus. Rana allegedly sent a January 2009 e-mail to the newspaper pretending to be interested in placing an ad for First World, the indictment said.

The following month, Abdur Rehman allegedly took Headley to meet with Kashmiri in the Waziristan region of Pakistan. Kashmiri reviewed Headley's surveillance and suggested using a truck bomb on the paper, according to the indictment. That May, Kashmiri told Headley to meet with unnamed contacts in Europe who would provide money, weapons and manpower for the attack, the indictment said. But Headley was arrested while the plans still were under way, it said.

Headley is charged with 12 counts. Six charge a conspiracy to murder and maim people in India and provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The maximum punishment is the death penalty. Rana is charged with three counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, with a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Kashmiri and Abdur Rehman are charged with conspiracy to murder and maim people in Denmark. They would face a possible death penalty if they were to be brought to the United States and convicted.

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