Ever since Headley was arrested in US, there has been a lot of talk regarding the Karachi Project, considered to be one of the most ambitious projects staged by the ISI where it plans to combine Pakistani forces and home-grown terrorists to launch a spate of terror attacks on India, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Though Indian and American authorities have refused to give details regarding the interrogation of arrested Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley, sources in investigating agencies have revealed that the probe team was taken aback by the fluency with which the Pakistani American spoke Hindi.Headley's fluency in Hindi indicates his preparedness for the terror strike in Mumbai, say sources.
Mumbai attack co-accused David Headley on Thursday told a US court that a Pakistani Navy man was present during discussions with his ISI handler Major Iqbal on landing sites and arrival of Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists by sea.
In revelations that clearly show Inter Services Intelligence's role in the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley has told his interrogators that the Pakistani intelligence agency had paid Rs 25 lakh to Lashkar-e-Tayiba to purchase a boat, which terrorists used to travel from Karachi.
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.
'I am convinced Headley was working for the Americans, for the FBI. I had nicknamed him agent Headley,' Rahul said in an interview to UK's Channel 4.
A team of the National Investigation Agency is probing whether Pakistani born American citizen and Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley visited Ajmer after the terror attack on Mumbai last year. Headley was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in early October from Chicago on charges of plotting terror attacks in India and Denmark. The NIA team has already searched a number of hotels in Pushkar, 15 kms from Ajmer, and taken possession of the records
It has been two years since the horrific 26/11 attacks shook Mumbai and India, but there are still plenty of lose ends in the case thanks to the fact the Pakistani spy agency Inter Services Intelligence and Lashkar-e-Tayiba relied on operatives from around the globe to execute the dastardly attacks, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
The National Investigation Agency has finished the paperwork needed to question Tawwahur Rana, who was sentenced to a 14-year jail term for providing support to Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has written to his United States counterpart Hillary Clinton requesting for extradition of Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist and Mumbai terror accused David Headley and his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana.
As the country prepares to pull out of Afghanistan next year, a United States military report in New York has warned that some of the Pakistan-based militant groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, backed by "elements" in Pakistani security establishments, will "reorient to and invest more broadly in the conflict in Kashmir" post the 2014 American drawdown.
The United States administration on Friday said the 35-year sentence without parole imposed on Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist David Headley, one of the Mumbai terror attack plotters, marks another step in its efforts to bring to justice those responsible for 26/11.
There is still some possibility of extraditing Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist David Headley to India, if the Mumbai terror attacks convict violates his plea agreement, a US federal attorney has indicated.
Continuing its efforts to expose the role of state actors in Pakistan and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief in 26/11 attacks, India has again sent a fresh Letters Rogatory to Morocco for questioning of Faiza Outalha, Pakistani- American terrorist David Headley's estranged wife, after its earlier request was returned due to technical reasons.
India has sent a formal request to Morocco for examination and recording of statement of Faiza Outalha, Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley's estranged wife, to get more evidence against him as well as Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed.
Pakistani American terror operative David Headley's 'valuable information' to Federal Bureau of Investigation, mapping out Lashkar-e-Tayiba's hierarchy and providing organisational structure of the Pakistan-based terror outfit responsible for the Mumbai attacks, is of interest not only to America but also other countries, according to US prosecutors.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar to take strong action against terrorist groups particularly Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Haqqani network, which is blamed for last week's deadly attack on American embassy in Kabul.
The United States on Tuesday said bringing to justice the perpetrators of 26/11 was still an "unfinished business" which was high on its priority list, days after Pakistani American Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist David Headley was sentenced to 35 years in jail by a Chicago court.
A "remorseful" Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist David Headley made a last ditch effort to have his sentence reduced by writing an emotional letter to the judge claiming he is a changed man and was sorry of his past doings.
Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist David Headley, who "unquestionably contributed" to the Mumbai attacks that claimed 166 lives, was sentenced by a Chicago court
Days after Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley implicated Inter-Services Intelligence in the Mumbai attacks during his testimony in a United States court, Interior minister Rehman Malik has described him as a convict who has "no credibility and cannot be trusted."
'Headley and his counsel agreed to the meetings (with the Indian investigators) and Headley answered the Indian investigators' questions over the course of seven days of interviews. There were no restrictions on the questions posed by Indian investigators,' said a statement from the US Justice Department
India is all set to ask the United States and Pakistan to extradite nine persons involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that include Pakistani- American terrorist David Headley, Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed and two Inter-Services Intelligence officers.
The National Investigation Agency will soon file a charge sheet against Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley, a mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
'As Rana is not an Indian citizen, our leverage on the US system -- whether it's their judiciary or the executive -- is very limited in that sense.'
The arrest of Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, that busted an LeT plot to carry out terror strikes in India, has been classified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as its second biggest case for the year 2009.
Did Pakistani-American terror suspect David Headley try to eliminate his woman 'friend' -- a former woman hotel executive -- who could provide vital evidence to investigators?
Describing it as "frivolous", the Bombay high court on Wednesday rejected a defence lawyer's petition seeking removal of Ujjwal Nikam as special public prosecutor in the 26/11 attacks case.
"Indeed, nearly all of the jihadi groups operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, LeT, and others have joined together in an extended terrorist network that shares the same goals, including destabilising Afghanistan and destroying the Pakistani state," said Congressman Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Ambiguous replies about his travels abroad aroused the suspicions of airport officials and led to the arrest of Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative, David Headley, charged with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks.
There has been a huge cover-up of the LeT iceberg in India that helped David Headley and Tahawwur Rana plan the 26/11 terror strike, says B Raman
Pakistan has handed over another dossier on Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley to India seeking more information about his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik met Interior Minister Rehman Malik in Islamabad, briefing him over the latest development concerning the issue.Headley, an American citizen of Pakistani origin, was arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in October 2009.
Faiza Outlaha, the estranged wife of arrested Pakistani American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative and 26/11 conspirator David Coleman Headley, is likely to be questioned by the National Investigating Agency; and for that a request has been sent out to Morocco, the country where she resides.
The trial of Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana who is accused with David Coleman Headley for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks began in Chicago on Tuesday.
Although three years have gone by since the National Investigation Agency was formed, the report card for India's premier agency probing cases of terror does not look all that good. But the bigger question that we must ask is whether the agency has been allowed to function in a manner that it ought to have, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, coordinator for counter-terrorism at the United States department of state, has made it abundantly clear that his office will not influence law enforcement authorities via any diplomatic lobbying to provide India with direct access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley. Pakistani-American Headley was part of the conspiracy for the horrific terror attacks that shook Mumbai on November 26, 2008 and left 166 people dead.
Lisa Curtis, erstwhile Central Intelligence Agency South Asia analyst and ex-senior Congressional staffer on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has said that the arrest and findings from the investigation of Chicago-based Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative John Coleman Headley, has awakened US officials to the gravity of the threat of the LeT and other Pakistan-based terrorist groups.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja allowed an application by the NIA seeking permission to examine Mohammed Aslam who was arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell from the national capital in August 2009.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-origin American citizen charged with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks, could face the 'maximum statutory penalty' of life imprisonment or death if convicted.This was contained in additional charges unsealed at a Chicago court, which is hearing the case against 49-year-old Headley, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in October, along with LeT operative Tahawwur Hussain Rana.
It was not only Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley's two wives, but also five other sources who had provided tip offs to the United States intelligence authorities about his anti-India plans, a news report said on Saturday.