Said to be a Pakistani-American, David Headley of Chicago, Illinois, has been charged with alleged involvement in planning last year’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, the United States Justice Department (DOJ) said Monday.
The November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, killed 175 people, including six Americans. DOJ alleges he helped plan the Mumbai attacks aka 26/11 and 11/26.
Headley, already faced charges alleging that he planned attacks against a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet.
David Headley changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 to ‘avoid suspicion’ as a militant operative, it has been alleged.
It has also reported that Headley attended terrorism training camps in Pakistan and conspired with members of the group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) to carry out attacks in Denmark and India.
He has agreed to cooperate with authorities investigating both terror plots.
At the time of his October 3 arrest in Chicago, he was on his way back to India to plan a second attack, a source close to the investigation told CNN.
He remains in federal custody, with no date set for his arraignment, the Justice Department said. According to one media report, Headley had become ‘double agent’ or a ‘rogue agent’ on the loose.
A retired major in the Pakistani military, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, also was charged with conspiracy in planning to attack the newspaper in Denmark. So was Tahawwur Hussain Rana, whom U.S. authorities identify as a Pakistani native and Canadian citizen who lives mainly in Chicago.
Headley said he worked for First World Immigration Services, a company owned by Rana, though authorities have said in court papers that surveillance showed that he "performs few services" for the company.
Both Headley and Rana studied at Cadet College Hasan Abdal and were friends. (MAMOSA)
Dont believe any thing any more,
sounds like an old story, narrated by Bush and Blair
the one we heard before THE Iraq attack, ”ummmmmmm we are away from an attack by WMD WITHIN 45 mins REMEMBER….?”
Headley is NOT a Pakistani-American. He is an American or US Citizen by birth. Though his father was from Pakistan, his mother is from USA or is American. Headley was born in Washington DC and raised in Pakistan till he was 17. See this :
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/world/asia/08terror.html
An interesting aspect of Headley’s life is in that NY Times article: “In 1998 he was convicted of smuggling heroin into the United States, but avoided a long jail sentence by cooperating with the authorities. He later conducted undercover operations in Pakistan for the Drug Enforcement Administration.”
So he was an operative of US government, at least in the past !