Was 26/11 conspirator David Headley working for CIA, ISI or LeT? Did he know more about the Ishrat Jahan module? Five years since the terror attacks and we are yet to find clear answers on the many mysteries regarding this man. Vicky Nanjappa reports
David Headley dominated the discussions between the CIA and their Indian counterparts on Monday.
Pakistan-born American citizen David Coleman Headley and Canadian citizen Tahawur hussain Rana were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Philadelphia airport. The FBI believed that the duo were Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives who were tasked with spreading terror in India.
Security experts wonder if the home ministry's outburst against the US is directed at seeking David Headley's extradition.
Days before United States President Barack Obama's maiden India visit, US envoy Timothy Roemer told CNN-IBN in an interview that the controversy over the confessions of David Coleman Headley will not affect the ties between the two countries.
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
Senior analyst B Raman on how India should react to 26/11 accused David Headley's testimony in co-accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana's ongoing trial in a Chicago court.
Indian fell vindicated when Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley testified that the ISI had trained him in terror. But on Tuesday, Headley did a U-turn as he gave a clean chit to Pakistan's spy agency. Hoping to nail the ISI in the 26/11 case, Indian intelligence agencies say that Headley's changing versions come as no surprise to them. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
International pressure in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks led Lashkar-e-Tayiba to abandon its plan to attack a Danish newspaper in retaliation to the publication of a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed, David Coleman Headley told a court on Wednesday.
The NIA, which has been on the trail of American terror operative David Coleman Headley, had been hoping to piece together the terror jig-saw by gaining independent access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed, who are alleged to have masterminded the Mumbai carnage.
India on Wednesday requested the United States to provide it access to the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks accused David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, visiting External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said.
David Coleman Headley, the Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative is being deposed before a Mumbai court on Monday through video conference.
India has asked Morocco to extradite the estranged wife of David Coleman Headley, the alleged mastermind of November 2008 Mumbai terror attack, as she is believed to have information and answers to key questions related to the incident.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said that there was no confusion over the issue of Indian investigators getting direct access to Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley or not.
Sources said David Headley revealed that three ISI officers -- Major Haroon, Major Sameer Ali and Major Iqbal -- were associated with the 26/11 terror plot.
Speaking at a hearing of the Foreign Relations Committee, Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "There are mixed signals here that are very, very troubling and that the United States needs to be able to have alternatives for carrying out its foreign policy in that region."
'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
While the Lashkar-e-Tayiba leadership made plans for fool-proof attacks in Mumbai, the ten men involved in the carnage made a number of mistakes thus leaving crucial clues behind for Indian intelligence agencies, according to court documents.
According to these documents, unsealed after Chicago Tribune petitioned before the court, Major Iqbal, said to be an ISI officer, also gave him Indian currency notes for his operation in India.
Headley also said that LeT boss Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind behind the November 2008 attack that killed 166 persons, motivated him for carrying out a 'jihad'. Saeed told him that the satisfaction of one second of 'jihad' is equal to "100 years of worship."
Pakistan national Major Iqbal, who has been indicted by United States federal prosecutors for his involvement in the Mumbai terrorist attack, was a serving Inter Services Intelligence officer, a media report said on Wednesday.
Evidently on the strength of continuing information provided by Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative and Pakistani American David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, who was an integral protagonist in the conspiracy that led to the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, four new Lashkar handlers of Headley have been chargesheeted in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
On the fourth anniversary of 26/11 Mumbai terror strike, US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman says Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley's extradition to India is under consideration in an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN
Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, who pleaded guilty to plotting the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and conducting reconnaissance for likely targets, will have to undergo a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. According to United States attorney office's spokesperson Randall Samborn, life imprisonment without probation is the maximum sentence that Headley can get."Probation means no jail term, but I said he's not eligible for probation so that's irrelevant," said Samborn.
A federal grand jury on Thursday returned a superseding indictment adding Chicago native Tahawwur Rana, Pakistan-based terrorist leader Ilyas Kasmiri and a retired major in the Pakistani military Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, to charges filed last month against Pakistani American and Laskhar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley.
In the first of a four-part series ProPublica's Sebastian Rotella reveals how David Coleman Headley turned from a United States Drug Enforcement Administration to a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative, who played a key role in launching the most dreadful terror attack on Indian soil on November 26, 2008, and how America botched up chances to stop him.
A recent ProPublica investigation termed Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative and 26/11 accused David Coleman Headley as a double agent working for both the American Central Intelligence Agency and the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence.
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.
The LeT was more interested in a spectacular operation in India than in Denmark. The 313 Brigade was more interested in a spectacular operation in Denmark than in India. It was the FBI's successful monitoring of the plans for an attack in Copenhagen which led to Headley's arrest and the subsequent discovery of his role in India, says B Raman
The Indian establishment may get a leverage while talking to American officials on bilateral efforts of counter-terrorism while the media splashes scary details about what Headley did in India, points out Sheela Bhatt
Insisting that it had shared with India terror-related inputs it deemed were 'potentially credible' to its national security, the United States on Saturday said it was looking into media reports that Federal Bureau of Investigation had prior knowledge of David Coleman Headley's links with terror groups in Pakistan.
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.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, who has pleaded guilty to charges of his involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, would testify against his Pakistani handlers Illyas Kashmiri and Sajid Mir, a United States attorney has said.
Observing that those who died in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks deserve justice, federal prosecutors have urged the jury of a Chicago court to convict Tahawwur Hussein Rana as there is overwhelming evidence of his involvement. There was overwhelming evidence of Rana not only having knowledge of but also assisting and providing material support to his childhood friend David Coleman Headley in carrying out the attack in November 2008.
The verdict on Tahawwur Hussain Rana is expected by Wednesday. While India is eagerly awaiting the Chicago court's decision, investigators have chalked out a plan to ensure that a strong case is prepared against Pakistan and its Inter-Services agency in the 26/11 case. India may also push for Rana's extradition. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The verdict in the trial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, co-accused in the Mumbai terror attacks with David Coleman Headley, is likely to come in earlier than expected as the Chicago businessman is unlikely to testify at his own trial. Rana's attorney Patrick Blegen said his client's defence team was still making a final decision, but that it was unlikely Rana would take the stand.
Mumbai attack co-accused David Coleman Headley on Wednesday testified he had conducted a surveillance of the German Bakery in Pune and identified Chabad houses in Delhi, Pushkar and Pune as potential bombing targets.
David Coleman Headley, the star witness in the Chicago trial of the Mumbai terror suspect Tahawwur Hussein Rana has credibility problem because of his dubious past in which he apparently worked as a double agent, according to experts.
Mumbai attacks co-accused David Coleman Headley has testified that he received espionage training against India from Pakistan's spy agency Inter Services Intelligence.
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