View Full Version : Chicago Man Charged in Mumbai Terror Attacks
The Reaper
12-07-2009, 11:53
Guess what faith he is?
TR
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579645,00.html
Chicago Man Charged in Mumbai Terror Attacks
Monday, December 07, 2009
CHICAGO — A Chicago man accused of planning an armed attack on a Danish newspaper was charged Monday with conducting surveillance on potential targets in the Indian city of Mumbai before terrorist attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people.
David Coleman Headley, 49, was charged in a 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim people in India and Denmark, to provide material support to foreign terrorist plots and another offenses.
Federal prosecutors also announced charges against a retired major in the Pakistani military, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, for allegedly taking part in the plot to attack the Danish newspaper out of anger over 12 cartoons published in 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world.
According to the charges, Headley, a U.S. citizen, attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan earlier in this decade operated by Lashkar e Taiba — a group that specializes in violent attacks on targets in India.
Headley, formerly named Daood Gilani, and Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Raha, 48, were charged in October with planning an attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten. The new charges add Syed to the list of defendants.
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said the investigation "remains active" and a team of prosecutors and FBI agents will keep seeking charges against other people responsible for the attacks.
Warrior-Mentor
12-07-2009, 12:04
Guess what faith he is?
TR
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579645,00.html
Chicago Man Charged in Mumbai Terror Attacks
Monday, December 07, 2009
CHICAGO — A Chicago man accused of planning an armed attack on a Danish newspaper was charged Monday with conducting surveillance on potential targets in the Indian city of Mumbai before terrorist attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people.
David Coleman Headley, 49, was charged in a 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim people in India and Denmark, to provide material support to foreign terrorist plots and another offenses.
Federal prosecutors also announced charges against a retired major in the Pakistani military, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, for allegedly taking part in the plot to attack the Danish newspaper out of anger over 12 cartoons published in 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world.
According to the charges, Headley, a U.S. citizen, attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan earlier in this decade operated by Lashkar e Taiba — a group that specializes in violent attacks on targets in India.
Headley, formerly named Daood Gilani, and Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Raha, 48, were charged in October with planning an attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten. The new charges add Syed to the list of defendants.
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said the investigation "remains active" and a team of prosecutors and FBI agents will keep seeking charges against other people responsible for the attacks.
You stumped me TR. :munchin
PedOncoDoc
12-07-2009, 15:58
I was going to go with Zoroastrian, but now I'm not too sure... :rolleyes:
incarcerated
12-07-2009, 22:31
Mr. Headley was first noted by us here:
http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=292654&postcount=17
Gotta be Baptist or Jehovah Witness :D
Source is here (http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-terror-threat13-2009dec13,0,7524129,print.story).Terror probe leads FBI to India, Pakistan
On tips from a U.S. man, agents make an urgent trip after learning of possible Mumbai-style attacks. Also, U.S. charges implicate the involvement of ex-Pakistan military officers.
By Josh Meyer
December 13, 2009
Reporting from Washington
FBI agents made an urgent trip to India and Pakistan last week after they learned of plotting for Mumbai-style terrorism attacks while investigating a Chicago man's case, according to current and former U.S., Indian and European counter-terrorism officials.
The man, David Coleman Headley, was recently charged with being a longtime clandestine operative for Lashkar-e-Taiba and another Pakistan-based militant group affiliated with Al Qaeda.
The alleged plots, believed to be in the works for months, were aimed mostly at locations frequented by Americans, Israelis and other Westerners, such as hotels or synagogues, according to the officials. India's National Defense College and other government sites were scouted as possible targets as well, according to the officials and FBI affidavits recently unsealed in Chicago.
The investigators say that Headley, who is now cooperating with the FBI, spent much of the last few years scouting targets not only for last year's Mumbai siege in which 166 people died, including six Americans, but also for future attacks in India and one in Denmark.
Authorities allege that he did so at the direction of two senior operatives of Pakistani militant groups who had also been members of Pakistan's military.
The Justice Department last week filed criminal terrorism charges against a third former Pakistani army officer, still in Pakistan, in the Denmark plot.
On Dec. 9, Headley pleaded not guilty to the charge that he worked with Lashkar-e-Taiba to plan the Mumbai attacks.
The accusations implicating former Pakistani military officers are almost certain to exacerbate tensions in the region. Washington and India contend that Pakistan's military maintains close ties to Lashkar and other militant groups and has used them for attacks on India. Pakistan has long denied those accusations and demanded proof.
Nadeem Kiani, a spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, downplayed the significance of any role by former military officers in Lashkar terrorism strikes or plots, saying, "A former army officer doesn't represent the army."
He added that the Islamabad government had been actively cooperating with the United States and India in the various investigations. Any evidence showing that former Pakistani officers were involved with terrorists "should be shared with Pakistan, and we will look into it," Kiani said.
U.S. officials believe that the FBI investigation now has documented such ties, citing phone intercepts, travel records, credit card purchases and other information in the Headley investigation.
In the recently unsealed court documents, authorities say Headley traveled widely through India with a video camera posing as an American Jew. After each surveillance mission, they allege, he took a circuitous route to Pakistan to brief his Lashkar handlers and turn over the tapes before heading back home to Chicago.
Various sources of information appear to have corroborated the FBI's findings.
"There have been a number of intelligence reports indicating [Lashkar] activities that might suggest further attacks" in India, one South Asia-based Western official confirmed.
In response, the Israeli National Security Council's counter-terrorism bureau recently issued two "highly concrete" travel warnings about possible Lashkar terrorist attacks in India with Israelis and Westerners as targets. One mentioned synagogues, Chabad Houses and popular Israeli tourist spots in the coastal state of Goa.
Indian authorities have been on high alert since getting briefed by U.S. officials. Last month, the current threat level was a prime topic of discussion during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with President Obama in Washington, U.S. officials said.
The initial leg of the FBI trip to Mumbai and then New Delhi was based, in part, on orders from the White House that agents share as much information from the investigation as possible with India about when and where such an attack may occur.
Information was also shared about the role Headley and his alleged co-conspirators in the United States, Pakistan and Europe may have played in the Mumbai attacks of Nov. 26, 2008, when 10 heavily armed gunmen rampaged throughout India's financial capital, targeting luxury hotels, transportation centers, a hospital and a Jewish community center.
The trip by agents of the FBI's Chicago field office was also designed to help India fill in the still-significant gaps in what it knows about the Mumbai massacre and the growing global threat posed by Lashkar, also known as LET, the officials said.
The agents' purpose on the last leg of the trip was more politically delicate: to present Pakistan with new hard evidence that Lashkar is plotting attacks from its soil despite the Islamabad government's promises to crack down on the group -- and that Lashkar is doing so with the help of some former and possibly current high-ranking military officers.
The FBI alleges that Headley was trained by Lashkar operatives in 2002 and told to change his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 so he could travel without attracting suspicion. Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means Army of the Pure, has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government.
Headley, 49, was arrested Oct. 3 before boarding a plane in Chicago, intending to travel to Pakistan. He was initially charged with plotting terrorist attacks in Denmark. His friend, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, who ran an immigration consulting business that employed Headley, was later charged with terrorism conspiracy in the alleged plot against the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten, which previously published controversial cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
Authorities are now scrambling to determine whether Headley and Rana had other co-conspirators in the United States and overseas.
"There's something missing, which is what he was trying to do here," one senior U.S. counter-terrorism official said of Headley, the son of a Pakistani diplomat and an American-born mother. Headley converted to Islam later in life. "He travels under the radar, he looks white, and he's older," unlike most would-be jihadists, who are usually half his age.
"Clearly, now we know in hindsight that he's in contact with known LET contacts," said the official.
Headley also was working at the direction of Ilyas Kashmiri, a leader of another militant group who sits on Al Qaeda's shura, or leadership council, said the official.
(U.S. authorities do not believe Headley was connected to five students from Virginia who were arrested last week in Pakistan and accused of trying to join a Pakistani militant group. According to Pakistani police officials, the students also tried to link up with Lashkar, but the security-conscious group rebuffed them because they didn't have the proper sponsors.)
Headley spent as much as a year total in India, including stays at five-star hotels and membership at an ultra-luxury gym frequented by Bollywood movie stars, according to interviews and the U.S. court documents.
"Where did he get the money for all of this?" asked Bahukutumbi Raman, the former head of counter-terrorism for India's foreign intelligence agency. "He got it from LET, of course, but the FBI should be asking questions about the role of the ISI," or Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency.
The FBI affidavits filed in support of the Headley and Rana prosecutions mark the first time U.S. authorities have accused former Pakistani military officials by name of being involved in terrorism.
Based on wiretaps and Headley's cooperation, prosecutors have charged retired Pakistani army Maj. Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed with being a key facilitator of Headley's alleged terrorism plot in Denmark.
The FBI documents allege, in great detail, how Rehman acted as a conduit between Headley and the leaders of Lashkar and to Kashmiri. Kashmiri is a former Pakistani special forces commando, U.S. officials believe.
In court documents and interviews, they identify another retired Pakistani army officer, Maj. Haroon Ashiq, as having kidnapped affluent people to raise money for Kashmiri's group and having killed a rival army major general who had threatened to expose links between the army and militant groups.
And potentially of most concern, authorities alleged that Headley's Lashkar handler in the plotting for Mumbai was another former Pakistani army senior officer. He is not identified by name in the court documents, but U.S. and Pakistani officials said that he is Sajid Mir, a top Lashkar operative who they believe orchestrated Headley's role in all of the India plots, including last year's attack in Mumbai.
Such disclosures may prove embarrassing for Pakistan, but probably not enough to force the Pakistan military to sever its ties with Lashkar and other militant groups, some current and former officials said.
"LET is an extremely dangerous group and well-connected to the Pakistan government," said one Justice Department counter-terrorism official. "There is a civil war going on, and it's not clear if our side is going to win."
frostfire
12-14-2009, 21:47
Anyone else watched the CNN special on Mumbai terror attack?
I don't normally watch CNN and caught it by accident. I thought it was very elaborate and even included the foiled attempts in USA and Canada, and how the system fail to put away for good these people with obvious murderous intent. There was an interview of two muslim organizers who are absolutely enamored with OBL and literary said verbatim "a muslim's job is to terrorize." The interview segment was whole and unedited so nothing was taken out of context. Might as well say, "put me on permanent watch list, FBI and Americans." The ones that are worrisome are those who operate in the open through deceit 24/7, 365.
If anything, one can hope that such presentation is enough to wake up most, if not all sheeple.
Ambush Master
12-14-2009, 22:00
These types of instances need to become STICKIES at the TOP of every Forum out there!!!
The Political Corectness (PC) that has engulfed our Society is not just going to, but IS KILLING US!!!!
When, or I should say, WHAT is it going to take to wake these people up?!?!?!
If anything, one can hope that such presentation is enough to wake up most, if not all sheeple.
In my sample audience, most people I know are in 'Sleep Mode' unless it is Dancing of the Stars, Oprah, NASCAR, Bass Masters or kids sports.......Ahhh, nothings going to happen, you need to quit thinking about that S@%t.
incarcerated
03-18-2010, 22:51
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031805407.html
U.S. citizen David Coleman Headley admits role in Mumbai attacks
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 19, 2010
An American man who scouted targets for the deadly 2008 Mumbai terrorist strike pleaded guilty Thursday to a dozen criminal charges and agreed to help prosecutors and intelligence analysts probing other likely targets overseas.
David Coleman Headley, 49, could spend the rest of his life in prison in exchange for prosecutors not pursuing the death penalty. National security experts consider Headley, who was arrested in a Chicago airport in October, one of the most dangerous and knowledgeable terrorist operatives they have apprehended on American soil....
The plea hearing in a Chicago federal courtroom offered new details on the Mumbai plot that killed more than 160 people, including six Americans. An earlier mission was aborted, court papers said, because of choppy waters in the city's harbor. Headley acknowledged attending training camps sponsored by the Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-i-Taiba and changing his name from Daood Gilani to avoid scrutiny in India. He made five trips to Mumbai, where he videotaped possible targets and used a global-positioning device to help the plotters, who went on to attack the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, a Jewish cultural center and a train station in November 2008, prosecutors said.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the plea was a way to achieve justice and secure intelligence about terrorist activities, using "every tool available to defeat terrorism, both at home and abroad."
Headley also outlined his role in a plan to kill a cartoonist and other employees at a Danish newspaper that had published derogatory drawings of the prophet Muhammad. He allegedly met twice last year with a retired Pakistani military official, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, and Ilyas Kashmiri, who was in direct contact with senior al-Qaeda leaders. Both men are charged with Headley in the case, but neither is in U.S. custody.
Kashmiri allegedly told Headley that the attackers should behead the newspaper employees and throw their heads out the building windows to draw a response from Danish authorities, court papers said. The "elders," or al-Qaeda leaders, expressed interest in a rapid strike, according to the plea agreement.
Under the terms of the deal, Headley can secure a reduction in his prison sentence for ongoing cooperation with authorities and intelligence analysts in the United States and overseas. He will not be extradited to India, Denmark or Pakistan for the conduct described in the court papers, Justice Department officials said....
incarcerated
03-20-2010, 17:21
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62J0FC20100320
India to get access to U.S. man on Mumbai attack
Matthias Williams
NEW DELHI
Sat Mar 20, 2010 10:47am EDT
(Reuters) - Indian investigators will get access to the Chicago man who pleaded guilty to helping plan the 2008 Mumbai attacks, but he will not be extradited to India on current charges, a U.S. official said on Saturday.
New Delhi wants to interrogate David Headley, who admitted this week in a U.S. court to scouting targets for the rampage in India's financial center, which killed 166 people and derailed a peace dialogue between India and Pakistan....
Ret10Echo
05-03-2010, 04:37
Update.....
Mumbai gunman convicted in India
A Pakistani national has been convicted over his role in the deadly Mumbai (Bombay) attacks by an Indian court.
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, 22, the sole surviving gunman, was found guilty on charges including murder, waging war on India and possessing explosives.
The attacks in November 2008 left 174 people - including nine gunmen - dead, and soured ties between India and neighbouring Pakistan.
India blames Pakistan-based militants Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks.
After initial denials, Pakistan acknowledged that the attacks had been partially planned on its territory and that Qasab was one of its citizens.
AT THE SCENE
Prachi Pinglay BBC News, Mumbai As the judge read out his verdict, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab kept his head down. He did not say anything during the entire proceedings.
The courtroom was bristling with journalists. More than 100 reporters were present in the high-security facility, craning their necks to see how Qasab was reacting.
When the first indication came that Qasab was going to be found guilty, there was a gasp. There was an even bigger reaction when the judge acquitted the two Indians also charged alongside Qasab.
As he continued reading, people became restless and the judge had to exhort the room to keep calm. More comes tomorrow when the judge hears arguments about sentencing.
The prosecution is seeking the death penalty for Qasab.
Two Indian men - Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed - who were accused of helping the gunmen plan the attacks, were acquitted by the presiding judge at the court in Mumbai.
Qasab's 271-day trial was conducted amid tight security in a specially-made court on the jail premises in Mumbai where he was being held.
Over the past 14 months, the trial witnessed a number of twists and turns.
Qasab originally denied the charges against him but last July, in a dramatic outburst in court, he admitted his role and asked to be hanged. His plea was not accepted and the trial continued.
In November, the main lawyer representing Qasab - who was arrested on the first day of the attacks - was removed from the case after the judge said he was delaying proceedings.
Late last year, Pakistan charged seven people in connection with the attacks, including the suspected mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who is alleged to head Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/8657642.stm
Looks like our court system has helped another scum bag get out of the hot seat... :mad::mad:
Now we end up paying health care, room, & board for this AH for the next 30 years.. We probably will end up footing the bill for the lawyers... :mad::mad:
Hurdles to Headley access cleared.. Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, May 2, 2010, 02.56am IST
NEW DELHI: US has agreed to provide Indian investigators "unqualified access" to 26/11 accused David Coleman Headley, who has pleaded guilty on 12 counts nine of which relate to the terror attack on Mumbai, in bargain for a promise that he would not be given death sentence or extradited to India.
Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam told TOI about this development after what he described as an "overwhelmingly successful" trip to US where he met several officials and convinced them to allow investigators to question Headley in connection with the Mumbai attack and alleged conspiracies he had hatched during his several visits to India putting many places under terror threat.
This would mean that it is now for the government to constitute a team of investigators and the moment they land in US, they will be provided access to interrogate Headley.
Importantly, Washington also agreed to provide all details of conspiracies, which Headley is suspected to have hatched during his numerous trips to India, as and when the US authorities come to know of them through his interrogation. "There will be complete sharing of information between US and India on Headley," Subramaniam said.
This would help the investigating agencies to construct a complete picture of Headley's alleged activities, which they are not yet sure of. They fear that these could have included plans to set up several sleeper terror cells to be activated later.
Interestingly, the SG had, prior to his visit to US, concluded that Headley's plea agreement, under which he will be spared death sentence and extradition to India, conflicts with the extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties between the two countries.
Last month, the SG had a detailed discussion with home ministry officials on the Headley dossier and concluded that his plea agreement conflicts with the extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties between India and US.
What helped the SG pitch India's case strongly before the US authorities, including the Attorney General, was that as against six American lives that were lost in 26/11, the toll of Indians in the barbaric terrorist attack stood at 153. Subramaniam stressed that India's sovereign rights entitle it to try Headley first, considering that his role in 26/11 was not that of a mere accessory.
dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com .
Looks like our court system has helped another scum bag get out of the hot seat... :mad::mad:
Now we end up paying health care, room, & board for this AH for the next 30 years.. We probably will end up footing the bill for the lawyers... :mad::mad:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty
And so it goes...
richard
Ret10Echo
05-06-2010, 07:33
Mumbai gunman sentenced to death
The only gunman captured alive after the 2008 Mumbai attacks has been sentenced to death by an Indian court.
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, a Pakistani citizen aged 22, was found guilty on Monday of many charges, including murder and waging war on India.
When sentencing, the judge said there was no chance of his rehabilitation. Qasab has the right to appeal.
The attacks left 174 people dead, nine of them gunmen. Relations between India and Pakistan have still to recover.
India blamed Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attack.
After initial denials, Pakistan acknowledged the attacks had been partially planned on its territory and that Qasab was one of its citizens.
'Cruelty incarnate'
Judge ML Tahaliyani said "he should be hanged by the neck until he is dead", adding he had lost his right to "humanitarian treatment".
Security to get into the court was extremely tight. Afterwards, lawyers and policemen expressed relief that they would no longer have to attend this specially-built courtroom in a jail.
Outside the court, there were crowds of people celebrating the sentence. Demonstrators held up placards saying, "hang him", and people set off firecrackers in jubilation.
The BBC's Prachi Pinglay, in the courtroom in Mumbai (Bombay), said Qasab shook his head when asked if he wanted to make a statement. He was later seen wiping his face and talking to a policeman.
Prosecuter Ujjwal Nikam appeared in front of the court smiling and giving the victory sign.
"I'm very happy with the judgement. I have been successful in my attempt to put a balm on the wounds of the victims," he said.
During the trial Qasab had been branded a "killing machine" and "cruelty incarnate" by the prosecution.
"Today's sentencing sends the message that keeping Qasab alive would be a crime in itself," Mr Nikam added as crowds outside the court chanted "victory to Hindustan".
Qasab's lawyer had called for leniency, saying his client had been brainwashed by a terrorist organisation and could be rehabilitated.
He said no decision had been made yet on whether to appeal against the sentence, the Associated Press news agency reported.
In India the death penalty is carried out by hanging, but it is rarely used and most death sentences are commuted to life imprisonment.
Only one person has been executed since 1995. A security guard was hanged in 2004 for the rape and murder of a schoolgirl.
The BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi said if Qasab decided to appeal, the legal process could take years.
Our correspondent said Qasab could, as a last resort, appeal to the president for clemency, which would take even more time.
'Mastermind' in custody
Qasab was the only attacker caught alive in the three-day assault by 10 gunmen on hotels, a railway station, a restaurant and a Jewish centre in Mumbai.
Late last year, Pakistan charged seven people in connection with the attacks, including the suspected mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who is alleged to head the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
But progress with those charges has been slow partly because of legal technicalities in Pakistan, correspondents say.
In the US, an American man of Pakistani origin has pleaded guilty to scouting targets in Mumbai for the attacks.
David Coleman Headley is alleged to have made five extended trips to Mumbai between 2006 and 2008. India has said it will ask for access to Mr Headley in connection with the attacks.
DJ Urbanovsky
05-06-2010, 11:22
This.
Segments of our society have become more concerned with not offending people than representing the true nature of things. When did we become so hypersensitive?
I think some of the problem lies in our use of language, specifically corporate doublespeak, and the tendency to use large, important sounding words in an effort to sound more intelligent. You know, like "leveraging our core competencies."
Anybody notice how the talking heads are now calling all bombs "weapons of mass destruction?" Even pipebombs. It's retarded.
These types of instances need to become STICKIES at the TOP of every Forum out there!!!
The Political Corectness (PC) that has engulfed our Society is not just going to, but IS KILLING US!!!!
When, or I should say, WHAT is it going to take to wake these people up?!?!?!