Two Pakistani men who were arrested for their alleged links to the attempted Times Square bombing in New York City have admitted to playing a role in the botched attack and are unrepentant for their actions. One of them angrily accused Pakistani interrogators of 'siding with the infidels', a senior intelligence official said. The pair is among six men officials arrested in Pakistan for alleged ties to Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American arrested in the United States.
The Pakistan government has detained a co-owner of an upscale catering company in Islamabad and at least four others in connection with the botched Times Square bombing plot for which Pakistani-American terror suspect Faisal Shahzad has been arrested in the United States, a media report said in Washington on Saturday. The suspects, including Salman Ashraf of 'Hanif Rajput Catering Service', were taken into custody following the May 1 Times Square terror plot.
Terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana, indicted on charges of being involved in the Mumbai terror attacks, will be arraigned in a court in Chicago next week. The arraignments of Rana and Headley were initially scheduled for Wednesday, but have now been rescheduled. While Pakistani-Canadian citizen Rana will be arraigned on January 25, Pakistani-American Headley's arraignment has been set for January 27.
Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American, accused in the Times Square bombing plot, wanted to fight in Afghanistan, alarming his father, a retired Vice Marshal in PAF, who sought help from friends to "manage" his son, a leading American newspaper has reported.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is a terrorist organisation, even if it has not been officially designated yet, a top United States official has told his lawmakers. The US now says that the Pakistani Taliban was responsible for the failed Times Square bomb attempt on May 1, in which a Pakistani-American, Faisal Shahzad, 30, has been arrested by federal authorities.
Headley has been charged with conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. The FBI charges also allege he had made several trips to India prior to the attacks to scout for terror targets and then shared the information with conspirators in Pakistan.
'Anybody can claim anything,' Pakistan army spokesperson Major General Athar Abbas said. 'I do not think the Pakistani Taliban has the capacity to carry out attacks overseas because the army has destroyed their facilities.'
The United States will inform India by next week about possible dates, most likely in this month, for giving direct access to Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley.
Residents of Mohib Banda, Shahzad's ancestral village in Pubbi area of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province, said members of the 30-year-old's family believed he had been implicated in a "false" case.
India-born US Federal Attorney Preet Bharara, spearheading the prosecution of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, now has another high-profile terrorism case in his hands -- the Times Square bombing plot involving Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad.
Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American arrested in connection with the failed Times Square car bomb attack, has admitted he had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.
Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley, who confessed to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks, had a dual personality that enabled him to switch between a Westerner and a devout Muslim and evade suspicion, according to his maternal uncle. "It could not have been more different between the two worlds. In one world, where he wants to be Pakistani, he was considered to be an American. With Americans, he was being seen as a Muslim. So he had to get used to a duality of life."
David Coleman Headley, the American Lashkar-e-Tayiba suspect in the Mumbai terror attack case, did not disclose his Pakistani-origin while seeking an Indian visa, raising no alarm bells at the Indian Consulate in Chicago. Headley, who was earlier called Dawood Gilani, gave 'Headley' as his last name at birth in his visa application and wrote his father's name as 'William Headley', according to reliable information.
Rahul Bhatt, son of Bollywood film director Mahesh Bhatt, was questioned by investigators to probe his association with suspected Lashkar terrorist David Headley during the Pakistani-American terror suspect's stay in Mumbai.
United States prosecutors have taken strong objection to Pakistani-American Mumbai terror attack suspect Tahawwur Rana's assertion that he believed in the principles of non-violence advocated by Mahatma Gandhi, claiming that he 'admired and supported mass murderers'. While seeking a bond, defendant Rana had argued that he believes in non-violence.
India will seek direct access to Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley under a bilateral agreement signed in 2005 and a communication is being sent to the US to allow its investigators to question him. The draft letter was being examined by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram after it was prepared by Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam and officials of National Investigation Agency, official sources said in New Delhi.
Determined to seek the extradition of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley and access to him, India will raise the issue with US at the official-level during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's four-day visit to the US.
Indian investigators will soon get access to terror suspect David Headley as United States authorities are working out the logistics of where and when they can question the Pakistani-American in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks, an official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday. "In the plea agreement, Headley did agree to meet with Indian authorities. I think right now we are just trying to work out the logistics and scheduling of that," said FBI.
Pakistani-American Leashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley on Tuesday said that he made a "fool" of Tahawwur Husssain Rana by involving him in the 26/11 Mumbai attack conspiracy.
US has said that it is yet to take a decision on Lashkar operative David Coleman Headley's extradition to India, said Robert Blake, the Obama Administration's point man for South Asia, especially India-Pakistan relations.
India is likely to press for a clarification from the US on why there was no mention in David Headley's passport that he had changed his name in a detailed questionnaire to be sent to that country after Washington handed over a one-page report on the issue.
Faisal Shahzad, the man behind the failed Times Square bombing plot, is seen in a new video footage along with Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, with the two shaking hands and hugging each other. After his arrest, the Pakistani American had claimed that he had met Mehsud and a host of other radical leaders, but investigators had then said they were yet to verify his claims. The video that has emerged shows a man who appears to be Shahzad shaking hands with Mehsud.
Why did Pakistan sign a cease-fire without acquiring Kashmir, which was the sole purpose of the 1965 War, asks Ahmad Faruqui.
Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley's plea bargain, under which he confessed to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks, throws light on close links between the Al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, according to former Central Intelligence Agency expert Bruce Riedel.Headley's story showed in clear contours the close relationship between Al Qaeda and the Pakistani militant group LeT, Riedel, who led the review of the Obama administration's Af-Pak strategy,said.
As extradition of terror accused David Headley from the United States is likely to be a difficult process, India will press for immediate direct access to him for its investigators.Top government sources said as extradition of the 49-year old Pakistani-American, who has admitted to plotting the audacious Mumbai terror attack, appeared to become a difficult process, the immediate priority of the Indian investigators was direct access to him to know details about terror plots.
As Pakistan took exception to Home Secretary G K Pillai's recent remarks on Inter Services Intelligence's role in Mumbai attacks, India on Friday said that there is no acrimony between the two sides on the issue.
In a volte-face, the United States has said no decision has been taken on providing India direct access to 26/11 accused David Headley.
William said he was in disbelief that his own nephew was connected with the massacre in Mumbai. Headley wrote letters to his uncle from a Chicago jail, addressing him as "Dear Uncle Billy (Mama)". William said Headley had communicated to him that he was doubtful he would be let off, after he was arrested on terror charges in October last year. In a letter dated December 18, 2009, Headley wrote to his uncle that "despite his heritage, he is now a 100 per cent Muslim."
Dismissing concerns about the plea agreement between the United States government and Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said the deal was not a 'setback' for India's probe into the terror attack on Mumbai. Headley, who was arrested in October last year in Chicago by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has pleaded guilty to charges of planning and helping carry out the attack on Mumbai.
Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, pleaded guilty on Thursday before a United States court. Headley, 49, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's joint terrorism task force on October 3, 2009, told US District Judge Harry Leinenweber that he wanted to change his plea to guilty, in an apparent bid to get a lighter sentence.
The Indian government will be 'satisfied' if Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, who pleaded guilty in a United States court to his involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, is awarded a life sentence, Home Secretary G K Pillai said on Friday. "The US attorney general has advised a sentence of life imprisonment. If he gets a sentence of life imprisonment, I don't think the government of India will be unsatisfied," he said.
Law enforcement sources rubbished allegations that Headley was a double agent for US intelligence and that this was why he was not being made available for interrogation by Indian intelligence.
Official access for Indian investigators probing the Mumbai terror attack to Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley will help prove to the world Pakistan's involvement in the 26/11 strikes, the Bharatiya Janata Party has stated."It (consequences of his pleading guilty before a United States court) is a mixed bag. As we cannot get extradition, it is a loss. But, at the same time, we can get official access," BJP said.
Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley had participated in terror camps being run by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Pakistan, despite promises by the then president Parvez Musharraf in 2002 to the George W Bush administration, that all such facilities will be shut down. Headley, a LeT operative arrested in October 2009 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had attended five such training camps run by the terror outfit between 2002 and 2003, according to Headley's plea agreement.
A top United States intelligence official has said that the probe in the Mumbai terror siege is an 'excellent example' of cooperation between India and the United States, even as Indian authorities are smarting over the US administration's refusal to hand over Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley on charges related to his involvement in the 26/11 attack.
In a volte-face, Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, pleaded guilty on Thursday before a US court in Chicago.
Concerned over reports that Mumbai terror suspect David Headley may enter into a plea bargain with prosecutors in Chicago, Indian security establishment feels that it would lend credence to suspicions that he may have been working for the Americans.
Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative charged with conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike, will plead guilty before a United States court on Thursday, five months after he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Obama, who called Zardari on Tuesday evening, held a "detailed conversation covering several important subjects," said an official statement.
The 2007 raid at Islamabad's Lal Masjid, where Faisal Shahzad often prayed when visiting his home, was the "triggering event" that drove the Pakistani-American to terrorism, culminating into the failed Times Square bombing plot.
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