FBI indicts Headley for 26/11

NEW DELHI: David Coleman Headley, aka Daood Gilani, has now been formally charged for conspiracy in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai last year — to deliver, place, discharge and detonate explosives and other lethal devices in, into, and against places of public use in India. The FBI on Monday indicted Headley on six counts, unveiling new charges against him even as FBI officials were in India to probe Headley’s contacts and movements in the run-up to the attacks.

The FBI has also formally charged a retired Major of the Pakistan army, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, with taking part in the plot against a Danish newspaper. Indian officials said the army officer was closely linked to the ISI. Rehman has been arrested by Pakistan; if the charges are upheld on trial, it would be the first smoking gun that the ISI is involved in exporting terror. The US is likely to seek Rehman’s extradition from Pakistan or at least the right to interrogate him, but it’s still unclear whether Headley can be extradited to India for trial.

Headley cooperating with US authorities: FB

Terror suspect David Headley, who has been formally charged by a US court, also faces charges for the death of six Americans. According to the FBI chargesheet, Headley conducted extensive surveillance of targets in India for more than two years before the November 2008 attack that killed 170 people, including six US citizens. He changed his name to Headley around Feb 16, 2006 after he was told by his Pakistan handlers in the LeT that he would be used to scope out terror targets in India.

Headley was named in a 12-count information with six counts of conspiracy on the Mumbai attacks. According to US reports, Headley’s colleague, Tahawwur Rana, is suspected to have paid for Headley’s India trips and his stay here, but he is yet to be charged. Headley, said the FBI report, is “cooperating” with the US authorities, something he has done in the past when pulled up on a drug trafficking charge in 1998.

Rehman teamed up with Ilyas Kashmiri and a leader in the Lashkar-e-Taiba to personally plan the terror attack on a Danish newspaper, Jyllands Posten, in a project codenamed the Mickey Mouse project. Headley attended LeT training camps in Pakistan in 2002, April, August and December 2003. Headley was in India on five different occasions in 2006, 07 and 2008. He was asked to conduct video surveillance and take photographs of all the targets including the Taj, Oberoi, Leopold Cafe, Nariman House, CST Terminus. After every trip to India, Headley travelled to Pakistan with fresh information.

In March 2008, Headley even took boat trips in and around Mumbai to discuss potential landing sites for the terrorists landing in Mumbai. According to an FBI press statement, the charges against Headley, now include the six conspiracy counts, which could give him a life term several times over.