Rana Headley Trial Updates.

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'Rana's US trial may unmask Pakistan's links to terrorists'


WASHINGTON: The trial of Pakistan-born Canadian businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana for his role in the Mumbai terror attack starting in Chicago on Monday. This could unmask Pakistan's links to terrorists, according to US media reports.

Although only Rana is on trial, it's the story of his Pakistani American high-school friend David Headley, who has turned prosecution witness after pleading guilty to his own role in the November 2008 attack, proving damaging for Islamabad.

"What he discloses could deepen suspicions that Pakistani spies are connected to terrorists and could potentially worsen relations between Washington and Islamabad," the 'New York Times' reported.

Two years before terrorists struck Mumbai, "Headley began laying the groundwork for the attack, financed, he claims, by $25,000 from an officer in Pakistan's powerful ISI."

"Headley told Indian investigators that the officer, known only as Major Iqbal, 'listened to my entire plan to attack India.'

"Another officer with the intelligence service, the ISI Directorate, assured me of the financial help," Headley was quoted as saying by the 'Times'.

"The US government's view of Headley — like so much else surrounding the ISI — was murky," said an unnamed American official cited by the 'Times'. "No agreement exists in Washington on whether the ISI guided Headley and the attacks on Mumbai. It's not very clear," the official was quoted as saying.

The Wall Street Journal said Headley is expected to testify that the ISI was directly involved in plotting 26/11, carried out by LeT.
 

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Dr. Tuhawwar Rana's Trial in Chicago as Tweeted by Colin Freeze

Colin Freeze's direct tweets from the Chicago courtroom on May 23, 2011. He is the national security correspondent for Canada's national newspaper The Globe and Mail.


Day One


1. Trial expected to expose links between Pakistani spy service and Mumbai attackhttp://t.co/nB7PRZB /via @globeandmail @colinfreeze
2. Bomb sniffing German shepherd at entrance of Chicago court where Tahawwur #Rana is going on trial this am... I'll be Tweeting.
3. About 50 reporters assembled for Chicago court media briefing prior to the opening today's #Rana trial.Trial expected to expose links between Pakistani spy service and Mumbai attack - The Globe and Mail
4. Finally inside #Ranatrial in Chicago. Tight security. US Marshals briefed media re:protocol. Things will happen soon ... Trial expected to expose links between Pakistani spy service and Mumbai attack - The Globe and Mail
5. Rana enters nodding at family, some in hijabs. He's much thinner, his hair whiter than I recall seeing him, in court 1+ year ago. #Ranatrial
6. Jury enters. Multicultural cross-section of working class Chicago. How will lawyers argue the murky, twisty Mumbai plot to them? #Ranatrial
7. Prosecutors make it simple. This is a case about two terrorist plots. One that succeeded (Mumbai) on that failed (Denmark). #Ranatrial
8. Prosecutor to jurors: "You'll hear from David Headley... He's gonna give a rare insider's account of planning these atrocious attacks."
9. Prosecutor: Tahawwur Rana was David Headley's "best friend in the world." (@ProPublica reports today DH gave TR big big loan.) #Ranatrial
10. USDOJ tells jurors of key figure: Major Iqbal (MI). "Headley understood MI to be an officer in Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate..."
11. USDOJ: ISI's Major Iqbal and terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba trained Headley tasked him with Mumbai recce of Taj/ trains harbour etc #Ranatrial
12. USDOJ: Rana was warned to stay away from Mumbai.Afterward, he was heard saying dead gunmen "should get Pakistan's highest military honour."
13. USDOJ: Pakistan's Consul General in Chicago was a "classmate" of Rana/Headley. They duped him to get visas.
14. USDOJ: When Lashkar wouldn't fund Denmark plot, Rana/Headley turned to al-Qaeda aligned Ilyas Kashmiri. #Ranatrial
15. USDOJ opening ends. Jurors have been given a War-and-Peace-sized cast of shady characters. Rana smiles and nods at family. #Ranatrial
16. Awaiting Rana's defence. USDOJ concluded with "not every player carries a weapon." Terrorist supporters "equally as critical." #RanaTrial
17. Please read this moving account of the Mumbai Massacre from Canadian survivor Helen Connolly.Eyewitness: As trial begins, Canadian recalls surviving 2008 Mumbai massacre - The Globe and Mail #Ranatrial
18. Defence begins: "David Headley is a master manipulator who made a fool of Doctor Rana." #Ranatrial
19. Defence:"Headley was living multiple lives with multiple people and he was very good at it." #Ranatrial (3 wives & wrking 4 ISI/LeT/USDEA!!)
20. Defence: Rana was a model student at Pakistan Military boarding school. Classmate Headley flunked out. #Ranatrial
21. Defence: Best buds. Rana put his house when Headley got busted for smuggling heroin in 1990s.Headley later loaned Rana $100,000. #Ranatrial
22. Rana's bio: Star Student. Pak Army doctor. Served in first Gulf War w/ coalition. Gets altitude sick when assigned to mountains. #Ranatrial
23. ... Rana goes to Germany to heal, goes AWOL. Immigrates to Canada. Moves to Chicago to start businesses. #Ranatrial
24. Defence paints Rana as Headley's dupe. Relies on Rana's travels to India during Mumbai Massacre as proof he was not in the loop. #Ranatrial
25. Jurors look shellshocked. Trying to absorb twisty roles of Rana/Headley/Iqbal/Kasmiri/LeT/ISI/USDEA/Pasha/Mumbai/Denmark/etc. #Ranatrial
26. Defence opening is over. First witness -- likely David Headley -- expected after a break. #Ranatrial
27. David Headley takes a seat in the witness box and exchanges a meaningful look with his former best friend ... #Ranatrial
28. Headley doesn't faintly resemble a South Asian. Only vaguest traces of an accent speak to his Pakistani heritage.
29. Headley-Rana shared quarters in Pakistani miltary boarding school. Students used to talk about India/Indians there... #Ranatrial\
30. Headley: "I disliked them (Indians). Dismembered Pakistan. ... My junior school was bombed (in 71 war)" etc. #Ranatrial
31. Headley lived in Lahore in 2000 when he first made contact with Lashkar-e-Taiba. "I went to a meeting. I listened to speeches." #Ranatrial
32. LeT head gave a speech at a house with 200+ people. "He said one second spend conducting jihad was superior to 100 years praying."#Ranatrial
33. Headley says LeT wages jihad to avenge civilian deaths and to force India to comply with UN resolutions re: Kashmir.#Ranatrial
34. Why does LeT wage Jihad? "They felt it was an obligation," Headley says. All LeT members are Salafis, he says.#Ranatrial.
35. Why does LeT wage Jihad? "They felt it was an obligation," Headley says. All LeT members are Salafis, he says.#Ranatrial
36. Headley graduated through a series of training camps. First, Koranic studies. Then small arms training. AK47s etcs. ...#Ranatrial
37. Headley then learned spy and commando techniques. Deap drops. Safehouses. Hostage rescue. Breaching. Etc. #Ranatrial
38. Headley wanted to fight Indians in Kashmir but "I was told they (LET) would find something better and more suitable for me." #Ranatrial
39. By 2003 Headley attended LeT lunches with LeT Leader Hafez Saeed and operations commander "Zeki"...#Ranatrial
40. Headley suggested LeT sue US govt for designating it a terror org. LeT leaders Zeki said "he would have to consult with ISI..." #Ranatrial
41. "These groups operate under the umbrella of the ISI ... They coordinate with each other.": Headley #Ranatrial
42. Headley says he changed his name in 2005 so "nobody would be able to tell I was a Muslim or a Pakistani." Says he briefed LeT. #Ranatrial
43. "Pasha" -- Headley accomplice -- was a Pakistani Major retired early after he refused to seal off the Tora Bora border in 02 (!) #Ranatrial
44. Headley was arrested near Peshawar in 2005. "I said I was Pakistani they didn't believe me. They thought I was a foreigner." #Ranatrial
45. An ISI figure sprung Headley, and put him in touch with "Major Iqbal" (alleged co-conspirator) for the first time. #Ranatrial
46. Eyewitness: As trial begins, Canadian recalls surviving 2008 Mumbai Massacre Eyewitness: As trial begins, Canadian recalls surviving 2008 Mumbai massacre - The Globe and Mail /via @globeandmail @colinfreeze
47. Headley says he came up with immigration-office front but ISI's "Major Iqbal" gave the plan his blessing. #Ranatrial
48. "He thought it was very suitable for the work he wanted me to do," said Headley. He told LET handlers he was now with ISI too #Ranatrial
49. Headley says ISI's Maj. Iqbal tasked him to set up in Mubai and befriend influential people "who live in military facilities." #Ranatrial
50. Headley and Maj. Iqbal conspired to radicalize Rana. Gave him Salafi teachings, Jihad tapes, to enlist his help, Headley says. #Ranatrial
51. Rana was not initially OK with attacks on non-combattants, Headley testifies. Rana said Koran precludes such attacks. #Ranatrial
52. Headley's LeT handlers told him to "prostrate lightly" during prayers lest he get a mihrab (forehead scar) and blow his cover. #Ranatrial
53. This is key Headley testimony about Rana. The whole trial turns on this ... #Ranatrial ...
54. Setting up Mumbai firm"I explained to him I had been drafted, as it were, by the ISI, ... But I still had contacts with Lashkar." #Ranatrial
55. "I asked if he would allow us to use his office as a front ... He agreed." #Ranatrial
56. "I was instructed too take general video of the city (Mumbai) .... I took many many hours.". Headley now being shown pix of Taj. #Ranatrial
57. "An immigration consultant is a person of great influence in India," Headley says. Before recce mission he was 2 cozy up 2 important people.
58. In 06 Headley tells Rana of ISI $ backing. "I told him that Major Iqbal would be providing me with $25,000...." #Ranatrial
59. Headley rented Mumbai apt. from an elderly couple. Presented himself as "South Asian Regional Director" for Chicago consultancy. #Ranatrial
60. What happened when clients turned up at the Mumbai consultancy? "I sometimes spoke to them myself. ... #Ranatrial.
61. "... I sometimes arranged conference calls with Dr. Rana ... I would see if it was worthwhile." #Ranatrial
62. Rana was financially beholden to Headley at time of the conspiracy. Owed him up to $50,000 at the time from a 2001 era debt. #Ranatrial
63. After 3 months in India in late 2006, Headley returned to Pakistan to brief ISI Maj. Iqbal and LET Sajid Mir. It was Jan. 2007... #Ranatrial
64. Headley's ISI and LET handlers BOTH told him to recce 2nd floor of Taj Hotel. Why? "Defence contractors and scientists" met there #Ranatrial
65. Headley says he spoke to his ISI and LET handlers in separate meetings, but each always knew what he told the other. #Ranatrial
66. (We really haven't heard enough about Maj. Iqbal's bonafides. Headley doesn't say much about him save for the fact he's ISI.) #Ranatrial
67. (This trial is a Twitter epiphany for me. Had just over 1,100 followers this a.m. Now closing in on 2,000...) #Ranatrial
68. Before break Headley said he had gotten to know Shiv Sena figures in a bid to "get friendly with their leadership." Spy basically #Ranatrial
69. Rereading Helen Connolly as I stare a David Headley glare a the jurors as they come back in ... http://t.co/45Xa4RZ/via @globeandmail
70. USDOJ: Why were you seeking (Chicago consutlancy) business cards ? Headley: "To authenticate my cover." (Feared being stopped and searched)
71. March 2007 Headley: "I made some video of the Oberoi hotel. Very good hotel as well. Less status than the Taj."
72. May 2007 -- Headley returns to Pakistan. Gives new Taj video to Major Iqbal. "I briefed him ...I told about meeting Raja Rege..." #Ranatrial
73. Headley had been inside Shiv Sena complex took footage. ISI's Major Iqbal "was pretty amazed I got inside ...It was a bid deal." #Ranatrial
74. Headley returned to US to tell Rana about he was doing videotaped recce oof sites in Mumbai. #Ranatrial Zeroed in on exits and entrances.
75. In May 07 Headley's one year visa toooo India expired. He went back to Chicago got a 5-year visa. #Ranatrial
76. Rana "helped me get my (5 year) visa," Headley says. (Despite posing as an immi consultant, Headley never got anyone a visa) #Ranatrial
77. In 07 ISI Maj. Iqbal tasked Headley to go back to Taj a third time, for "more detailed" video and try for conference schedules. #Ranatrial
78. Headley told Maj. Iqbal / Sajid Mir he had struck out on acquiring Taj conference schedules. "No big deal." Forked over more videos.
79. Headley went to LET HQ. Group's military chief showed him 2-foot styrofoam Taj mockup."He envisioned a few men going in and opening fire..."
80. LET told Headley not to "take his (Mumbai) friends in his heart. Specific mention of a "Rahul." Still his enemies.. #Ranatrial
81. LET showed Headley videos of 02 anti-Muslim mob violence in Gujarat; hundreds slain. USDOOJ: Did it motivate your jihad? H: Yes. #Ranatrial
82. March 08. Headley meets his LET handlers again. This time there is "a navy frogman" with them. "They were looking at sea charts." #Ranatrial
83. LET's original plan was to land the gunmen in boats at The Gateway of India landmark. Headley nixed that. Unfeasible and unsafe. #Ranatrial
84. "The frogman agreed with me," Headley says. #Ranatrial
85. Planners nixed proposal to boat gunmen in a few miles from city. Too dumb to hail taxis. "These boys would not be sophisticated" #Ranatrial
86. Headley says he was told to visit the BhaBha Nuclear Research Centre in India by Maj. Iqbal.
87. The original plan was "egress" not suicide. Stick the gunmen in a safehouse or get them to buses or trains after, Headley says. #Ranatrial
88. LET "gave me a global positioning device. Any location I wanted to save on that device, they showed me how to do it." Headley #Ranatrial
89. There was also a plan to ship in extra weapons/bombs in Mumbai, stash it for a future group, Headley says. #Ranatrial
90. ISI Major Iqbal's email address was apparently [email protected]. Used a NYC mobile too (646 area code.) #Ranatrial
91. "All calls between Pakistan and the United States all -- most -- of them are monitored Headley says. #Ranatrial(End run around FISA/NSA?!)
92. Headley seems to be a man without any emotion or contrition. Very calm factual and terse . "I recommended bringing ordinance," etc.
93. The plotters disagreed about whether they should stash weapons in Mumbai. Some saw attacks as a one-off, others as a vanguard. #Ranatrial
94. In spring 08 Headley says he gave Rana lowdown on Mumbai plan. "That seems to a shift from the original plan" R. "Yes it was," H #Ranatrial
95. "I told (Rana) I discussed these things with Major Iqbal, whatever I had done in India." #Ranatrial
96. Headley says he told Rana that LET's e-foot styrofoam moockup of the Taj was a "terrible" mockup. Rana laughed. Allegedly. #Ranatrial
97. Trial closes with an interesting bit about nuke plant recce. I find this interesting b/c FBI was interested in Rana's interest I nukes ...
98. Headley says he told Rana he had been tasked to visit nuke plant once. Rana is said to have replied there's an IndoPak treaty ... #Ranatrial
99. Making any such aggression illegal. Headley says the nuke plant recce was pure surveillance not foor any attack.
100. That's it for the trial today. I'll be back tomorrow at 930 am Chicago time.

Steppenwolf: Dr. Tuhawwar Rana’s Trial in Chicago as Tweeted by Colin Freeze
 

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Terror Trial Witness Ties Pakistan to 2008 Attacks


CHICAGO — The government's leading witness in a high-profile terrorism trial told jurors here Monday that the group behind the 2008 attack on Mumbai, India, had ties to Pakistan's intelligence service.

In testimony that prosecutors said offered a "rare look" inside a major terrorist plot, David C. Headley said he had trained with the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba between 2002 and 2005 in preparation for scouting locations to attack in India. In 2006, Mr. Headley said, he met a member of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency who offered to provide financial support for that surveillance.

In testimony so painstaking that the judge and some jurors seemed to nod off at the mundane details of a plot that left 163 people dead, Mr. Headley described how he changed his name and used his American passport to portray himself alternately as a tourist or a businessman, concealing his Muslim faith and his Pakistani roots so he could travel easily across borders. He said he provided hours of video of potential targets in Mumbai to his handlers in both ISI and Lashkar.

"I understood these groups operated under the umbrella of the ISI," he said, referring to Lashkar. "They coordinated with each other."

In her opening statements, the federal prosecutor, Sarah Streicker, echoed that comment, saying that both Lashkar and Mr. Headley's ISI contacts wanted him to "conduct surveillance on targets in India."

Mr. Headley's testimony comes at a time of deepening concerns about Pakistan's links to Islamic militants, less than a month after the United States discovered Osama bin Laden hiding out in a prominent Pakistani garrison town. Ms. Streicker did not make clear on Monday whether the government believed the Mumbai attack was plotted at the highest levels of ISI, or had the support of only a handful of rogue agents.

Still, by presenting Mr. Headley as its lead witness, the government was at least tacitly supporting his story and asking jurors to convict a defendant based largely on his testimony.

The defendant is a Chicago businessman, Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of providing support for the Mumbai attacks. In court on Monday, Mr. Rana appeared in a drab olive sport coat and smiled dolefully at members of his family seated in the front row, as if trying to console them.

Prosecutors say Mr. Rana, who runs an immigration service here, allowed Mr. Headley to portray himself as an executive of the company and open an office in Mumbai as a cover for his terrorist activities.

Defense attorneys said that Mr. Rana had no idea Mr. Headley, a friend with whom he attended an elite Pakistani military academy, was plotting with terrorists and that he had been duped. One of Mr. Rana's lawyers is Charles Swift, who successfully represented Bin Laden's driver in the landmark Supreme Court case that struck down the military commissions President George W. Bush had established to try Guantánamo Bay detainees.

In his opening statement on Monday, Mr. Swift talked more about Mr. Headley, who pleaded guilty in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, than he did his own client, describing Mr. Headley's history of deceit, including multiple marriages and working as an informer for the Drug Enforcement Administration while he was trafficking heroin into the country from Pakistan.

Mr. Swift said Mr. Headley was working as a D.E.A. informer when he started training with Lashkar, balancing his work for the militants, ISI and the D.E.A. the same way he balanced three wives.

"David Headley was living multiple lives," Mr. Swift said. "And he was very good at it."

Wearing a rumpled sweat suit and with his gray hair shaved close to his head, Mr. Headley appeared far from swashbuckling. He spoke so softly that the judge asked several times for him to keep his voice up. His answers often seemed more coached than spontaneous. And he became testy with prosecutors in a way that sometimes made it hard tell which side he was on.

Still, the case is likely to hinge on whether the jury believes his account.

On Tuesday, the defense is expected to begin its effort to poke holes in his credibility.

Calling Mr. Headley a "master manipulator," Mr. Swift told the jury that this trial is not the first time the witness has pleaded guilty in order to avoid severe sentences. Court records show he previously pleaded guilty and testified against friends in two drug convictions more than a decade ago.

"I am convinced," Mr. Swift told the jury, "that the lies and manipulations stop here."


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/world/asia/24headley.html
 

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Pakistan tied to terror at Canadian's trial


The Pakistani-American who spent months casing Mumbai ahead of the 2008 terror attacks told a jury Monday that Pakistan's spy service supports the terrorist group he worked with on the deadly siege.

David Coleman Headley testified at the terror trial here of Tahawwur Rana, a 50-year-old Pakistani-Canadian who co-owns a house in Kanata with his family. He told the court that Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) provided financial, military and moral support to the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

"I assumed these groups operated under the same umbrella -they co-ordinated with each other," Headley told the jury.

He described his path to terrorism and the bloody 60-hour siege of India's largest city that left 166 people dead, including two Canadians and six Americans, in several busy hotels, a train station, hospital and synagogue.

Rana, who was born in Pakistan but obtained Canadian citizenship in 2001, is accused of using his immigration services firm in Chicago to provide a cover story for Headley's scouting work and to serve as a conduit for communication with militants.

His trial began weeks after the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2 by U.S. special forces, which raised questions about whether Pakistani authorities knew the al-Qaeda leader was in their country and about their commitment to fighting militant groups.

Headley has been a friend of Rana's since the two attended the same military academy as high schoolers in Pakistan.

He described his relationship with an ISI handler identified as "Major Iqbal" who gave him $25,000 to help cover the cost of his surveillance work.

"I told him what kind of (terrorist) training I did and he mentioned he was part of Lashkar," said Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani so he could hide his Pakistani heritage.

He testified that after he told Iqbal of a plot he was working on in 2003, Iqbal asked him "to do something that was more important, which was intelligence work for the ISI."

Headley formally admitted to 12 terrorism charges in March 2010 after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty or to allow him to be extradited to India, Pakistan or Denmark to face related charges.

Rana, who faces the possibility of life in prison, and Headley were also charged with participating in a second plot with Pakistani militants. That plot, never carried out, allegedly targeted a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that angered many Muslims.

Rana's trial is likely to add fuel to a diplomatic crisis over the United States' suspicions of official Pakistani complicity with terrorism.

However, while U.S. prosecutors named ISI officers as co-conspirators in the Mumbai attacks, it is not yet clear whether they were acting independently or with the approval and aid of senior officials.

The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and an American woman, Headley admitted to spending months scoping out sites for the Mumbai siege and plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist. He spent two years scouting Mumbai, even taking boat tours around the city's harbour to identify landing sites for the attackers, and befriending Bollywood stars as part of his cover.

The attacks stalled a fragile fouryear peace process between the two South Asian neighbours and nuclear-armed rivals that was only resumed in February.

Rana insisted after his 2009 arrest that he was a pacifist "duped" by his old friend.

In opening statements Monday, his lawyers tried to undermine Headley's credibility and insisted that Rana thought he was helping the ISI, not terrorists.

"Headley is a master manipulator who made a fool of Dr. Rana," defence attorney Charlie Swift told jurors. "The question is that, at the end of this case, will David Headley make a fool out of all us. I'm confident he won't."

But prosecutors said Rana knew exactly what he was doing, and told jurors they would hear secret recordings in which Rana praised the Mumbai attackers.

"In a complicated and sophisticated attack, not everyone carries a weapon," said U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker. "But support people are just as important."

None of the other co-conspirators are in U.S. custody and a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to say whether the U.S. government would be seeking their extradition or even knows their whereabouts.

Rana was born in Pakistan but immigrated to Canada in 1997. He was a medical assistant in the Pakistan army before immigrating to Canada. He lived primarily in Chicago, but maintained a home with his father and a brother in Kanata and ran a number of small businesses in Canada and the U.S.


Pakistan tied to terror at Canadian's trial
 

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Headley in plot to kill Thackeray

Chicago, May 24
Mumbai attacks co-accused David Headley, who scouted Shiv Sena headquarters, today testified there was a plot involving his handlers in Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI and terror outfit LeT to assassinate Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

Giving his testimony on the second day of the trial of 26/11 co-accused Tawahhur Rana, a Canadian of Pakistani origin, Headley, a Pakistani-American, talked about the hatred against Shiv Sena among his Pakistani handlers. As many as 166 persons were killed in the November 2008 attack in Mumbai. Headley, who has pleaded guilty, also told the jury how he gave details about the potential landing sites in Mumbai to his Pakistani handlers.

According to Headley, his Pakistani handlers Maj Iqbal of ISI, Sajid Mir of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Pasha, Rana and himself shared their hatred towards Shiv Sena and they thought it is a terrorist outfit.

During the first hour of the testimony on the second day, federal prosecutors are trying to prove that Headley had direct communication with Rana and his handlers in Pakistan Major Iqbal, Sajid and Pasha.

Questioning his links with the Sena, the prosecutors are bringing in communication between Headley and Reggie (the PRO of Uddhav Thackeray, son of Bal Thackeray), which Headley describes as an effort to penetrate into Shiv Sena. Rajaram Rege is Shiv Sena's Public Relations Officer.

Headley testified he shared his communication with Reggie with Rana, Major Iqbal, Sajid and Pasha.

Headley was asked about several e-mails he sent to Rana, Major Iqbal and Sajid - all basically to confirm that Rana and he were in direct communication with all of them.

The e-mail sent to Sajid indicated that Bala (Bal Thackeray) would be travelling with Reggie's boss (Uddhav) to the US and that he could be assassinated "over here" (in US).

Headley said he and Sajid discussed that they wanted to kill Shiv Sena people. "We have discussed. This man (Reggie) was very important and would have given us access to this organisation (Shiv Sena)," he said. — PTI


The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Main News
 

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Headley a liar: Rana's wife

Chicago: The wife of Tahawwur Hussain, who is accused of supporting Headley in the Mumbai attack planning, has accused the latter of being a liar. "As a friend of my husband I knew him. But this is very shocking this is not the person I know. He was different. I don't know he has like so many faces. Now we know what he has done," said Samraz Rana, in an interview to a TV channel. She said her husband was innocent. "When we heard about the 26/11 attack, we were shocked. We wept. We have our families in India," she said.:confused::confused::mad2::mad2::mad2: liar liar
 

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Headley kill the following for the benefit of India;

1-Laloo Prasad Yadav
2-Mamta Banerjee
3-Digvijay Singh
4-Mulayam Singh
5-Mayawati
6-Karunanidhi
7-Rahul Vinci
 

SHASH2K2

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Headley kill the following for the benefit of India;

1-Laloo Prasad Yadav
2-Mamta Banerjee
3-Digvijay Singh
4-Mulayam Singh
5-Mayawati
6-Karunanidhi
7-Rahul Vinci
where is sharad pawar? God father of Dawood .
 

SHASH2K2

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Take some from Punjab also Raja and Cloud
Raja has already been sacrificed to save DMK. kind of rule we have seen in punjab I am sure few deserve to die as martyrs to that birds shit on their statues after sahadat .
 

Blackwater

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Raja has already been sacrificed to save DMK. kind of rule we have seen in punjab I am sure few deserve to die as martyrs to that birds shit on their statues after sahadat .
Not that raja . Raja from punjab i.e maharaja patiala capt amrinder singh and cloud is badal
 

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Witness: Pakistani Intel Officer Ordered Hit on Mumbai Jews


An officer in Pakistan's intelligence service chose a Jewish center as a target for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and then helped launch a new plot against Denmark, according to the star witness in a terror trial in Chicago.

In his second day of testimony, David Coleman Headley, a confessed Pakistani-American terrorist, revealed more details about close ties between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) and the Lashkar-i-Taiba terror group, which allegedly carried out the attacks that killed 166 people [3], including six Americans.

Headley said his ISI handler, a man known only as Major Iqbal, made key decisions and was a mastermind of the plot along with Lashkar chiefs. Major Iqbal deployed him on the last of five reconnaissance missions in India to scout targets that Iqbal said would definitely include the Chabad House, a Jewish community center where gunmen later killed three American rabbis, Headley testified. The pregnant wife of one of the rabbis was also killed.

"Major Iqbal told me the Chabad House would be added on whatever list [of targets] there was because it was a front office for the Mossad," Israel's intelligence agency, Headley said. He added that Major Iqbal "seemed upset the [Mumbai] airport was not included" as a target.

Nothing suggests that the claim about the Mossad was true.

Headley described in understated tones how terrorist leaders congratulated him for his work casing luxury hotels and other targets chosen to ensure Americans and Jews would die. Asked his reaction to the three-day televised slaughter [4], he responded: "I was pleased."

The 50-year-old businessman has pleaded guilty to conducting months of crucial reconnaissance in Mumbai and for the Denmark plot. He is the star witness in the trial of his accused accomplice, Tahawwur Rana, in Chicago federal court. U.S. prosecutors have also indicted Major Iqbal and three Lashkar chiefs, all but one of whom remain fugitives.

Pakistani officials deny any links to terrorism. They say Headley's allegations are not credible because of his past as a drug dealer and DEA informant.

But the slaying of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani military town has worsened longtime suspicions of Pakistan and the stakes are high in a case built largely on a witness with an admitted pattern of duplicity. The damage to the U.S.-Pakistani relationship could be profound if the trial produces powerful evidence that Pakistani officers took part in a plot to kill Americans.

"A lot of explanatory power has been put in the hands of David Headley, an undoubtedly flawed individual," said Stephen Tankel, author of a forthcoming book Storming the World Stage: the Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba. "The US government clearly has confidence in Headley's testimony and has been able to support it with strong evidence related to his communications with men he asserts were ISI officers"¦.It will be interesting to see if the prosecution introduces further evidence independent of Headley that these men were in the ISI, as that would seal an already strong case for official involvement at some level."

On Tuesday prosecutors presented details about the apparent involvement of serving intelligence officers. Headley testified that Major Iqbal and Lashkar used him as a shared operative as he tried to infiltrate Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu political party in India.

An email from Major Iqbal to Headley showed the officer trying to balance the twin missions of collecting military intelligence and developing terrorist targets. Asked by Headley if he should try to cultivate a Shiv Sena public relations official he had befriended, Iqbal responded that he was not sure if the potential Indian source would be productive for espionage, but said he might still be worth pursuing for Lashkar, which he called "your organization."

"What all advantages can we get from this person except strengthening our cover," Iqbal wrote. "Will this all be generating worthwhile information related to military or forces"¦If he is of any use to your organization, you are at liberty to handle even without my information or as you desire."

The testimony Tuesday also indicated that Iqbal was at least aware of a terrorist plot to strike the heart of Europe. Headley described a meeting in late 2008 in which Iqbal and Sajid Mir, his Lashkar handler, came together to his house in Lahore for the first time. Until then, the two had coordinated the American's missions in tandem but separately.

During the sit-down, Mir told Headley he would be sent to Denmark to scout for an attack on the Jyllands Posten newspaper, which had enraged Muslims by printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed.

"We were all angry about it," Headley testified. "Major Iqbal said he was surprised such an attack had not taken place already."

Headley went to Denmark in January 2009, posing as an immigration consultant in visits to newspaper advertising representatives in Copenhagen and Aarhus. Two months later, however, Lashkar put the Denmark plot on hold. Major Iqbal cut off contact with Headley, instructing him to lay low because Pakistani authorities had put heat on Lashkar after the Mumbai attacks.

Soon, another ISI officer named Major Sameer Ali contacted Headley to try to recruit him for new operations and remained in touch with him until at least August, according to Headley's testimony and e-mails between the two presented in court. The mention of Major Ali in the trial brings the number of ISI officers Headley has described meeting to at least six, according to testimony and a report on Headley's interrogation by Indian investigators.

Headley met with Ali and a Colonel Shah in the ISI that April in Lahore, according to investigators, though that information was not presented in court Tuesday.

By then, however, Headley had shifted allegiance to al Qaeda and away from the ISI, urged on by a friend and former Pakistani military officer known as Pasha who had left Lashkar for al Qaeda.

"He said they were conducting the ISI's jihad and we should conduct God's jihad," Headley said.

When Pasha was arrested by the ISI a few months later, Headley wrote to Major Ali inquiring about his friend's fate, according to testimony. Headley said Pasha had once worked with a colonel in the ISI, which he referred to in an e-mail as "your department." Major Ali responded on August 4, 2009 to inform him of the release of the al Qaeda operative, who remains a fugitive indicted in the Chicago case.

"Your friend that u asked about has reached home," Major Ali reassured Headley.

Even if the trial paints a convincing portrait of ties between ISI officers and terrorists, the analysis must be careful and measured, experts say.

"To date there is no evidence the ISI leadership was aware of the Mumbai attacks, or at least of their scope and scale, which suggests Major Iqbal and possibly others were acting without sanction," Tankel said. "Whether they were given excessive autonomy or were engaging in outright rogue behavior is a very important question and it will be interesting to see if the trial provides an answer."

Witness: Pakistani Intel Officer Ordered Hit on Mumbai Jews - ProPublica
 

SHASH2K2

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WASHINGTON: He's acquiring the status of mythic villain, and Bollywood scriptwriters may soon caricature him in the mold of Mogambo and Shakaal, among their more famous screen scoundrels.

But the way David Headley aka Daood Gilani describes him, Major Iqbal was not given to loud laughs or corny dialogues. A serving ISI officer, he was a cold, calculating operational mastermind of the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attack who handled its logistical aspects, including forking out the money, choosing targets, and liaised with other shadowy ISI operatives and terrorist outfits.

From the time US Department of Justice attorneys named the mysterious "Major Iqbal" in their indictment following Headley's disclosure during investigations that he was his principle ISI handler, investigators have struggled to get a fix on him. Who did Major Iqbal report to? Where is he now? What is his full and real identity? And most importantly, will Pakistan identify and extradite him – or will it hide him as it has done with many wanted terrorists?

In his testimony on Tuesday, Headley revealed that "Major Iqbal" was also known by the name "Chaudhery Khan." Exhibits presented by the prosecution showed Headley corresponded with him using a Yahoo ID. It was Khan aka "Major Iqbal" who recruited him, walked him through the Mumbai plot, and set him on his way with $ 25,000 to begin surveillance and identifying targets in Mumbai.

Headley says "Major Iqbal" disclosed to him that a previously scheduled attack on Mumbai in September 2008 had to be abandoned after terrorists deployed for the purpose lost their moorings -- and their boat. He also advised Headley to befriend influential people "who live in military facilities" in India, and while he was thrilled with the advances the Pakistani-American made in infiltrating Shiv Sena, he was disappointed that Headley did not scout the Mumbai airport as a target.

Headley also revealed that his principle ISI handler directed that the Jewish community center Chabad House be added to the list of targets because he believed it was being used as a front for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. Chillingly, his associate Sajid Mir, who is also believed to be ISI official, told Headley that they had no compunctions killing women at Chabad House because Israeli women served in their army on account of mandatory draft.

In the rogue's gallery of Pakistani masterminds of 26/11, "Major Iqbal" clearly emerges as the operational chief. While Headley says he is an ISI official, the US chargesheet, while naming him as a defendant, does not mention his ISI affiliation, though this has been identified in both US and Indian case files.

US officials have declined to reveal if, when, and how they will get Major Iqbal (and other defendants named in the case, including Ilyas Kashmiri and Sajid Mir). While Kashmiri is widely reported to be on the lam (a reported drone strike killing him last year turned out to be false), Pakistan is not even acknowledging the existence of Major Iqbal aka Chaudhery Khan, on its rolls.

Nor is Washington pressing -- at least publicly -- for his extradition, possibly because of political and diplomatic sensitivities. This is also likely why his ISI affiliation was not put on record in the indictment despite Headley's disclosure.

Pakistani officials earlier this week created some wiggle room for Islamabad by suggesting that Iqbal may have been a rogue officer who was acting on his own and is no longer with the agency – the same kind of alibi the country's establishment created to explain A Q Khan's nuclear proliferation and other infractions. "ISI and serving officers did not provide support to David Headley, and ISI had nothing to do with the Mumbai attack," an unnamed Pakistani official told the Wall Street Journal.

Separately, another official suggested to a news agency that would be many "Iqbals" in the Pakistan military and it unlikely that even if Headley's accounts were true, the person would have given his real name. Neither official remotely indicated that Pakistan was interested in pursuing the case at its end.

But internal memos within the beltway, as disclosed in recent WikiLeaks cables, leave no doubt that Washington considers ISI a terrorist entity. Only, political compulsions prevent it from acting on it, a handicap that may also help Pakistan save "Major Iqbal." It's a complex script that may be beyond Bollywood. Scriptwriters may just have to leave it to Mossad to deliver justice.​
 

Parthy

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Rana wanted top Pakistan military honours for 26/11 attackers

Apparently gloating over the mayhem the Pakistani attackers were creating in Mumbai, Tahawwur Rana, a co-accused had proposed that nine of the ten LeT militants who carried out the carnage should be decorated with Pakistan's highest military award, Nishan-e-Haider.

This was stated by David Headley, another prime accused in the Mumbai case in his testimony before the Chicago district court on the third day of the trial of his childhood friend, Rana, a Pakistani Canadian.

Headley said that Rana had told him that nine of the ten Mumbai attackers who died should be given Nishan-e-Haider. The sole exception being Ajmal Kasab, who had been captured by Indian security forces.

Rana, Headley said had also praised Sajid Mir, his Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) handler for the attack on the Chhahbad House calling him Khalid bin Walid, one of the greatest Generals in Islamic history.


Nishan-e-Haider, is Pakistan's highest military decoration given to personnel, regardless of rank, for extraordinary bravery in combat.



Rana wanted top Pakistan military honours for 26/11 attackers - The Times of India
 

Energon

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This news should come of no surprise considering the ISI created these groups in the first place. However given the ground reality it is obvious that there will be no accountability. Pakistan has at this point been implicated in virtually every crime related to terrorism, and yet the global community has no option but to perpetuate the farce.

Realistically the only way forward to mitigate threats is for susceptible nations to strengthen their own intelligence outfits and develop a well organized and professional law and order systems. This has worked wonders in New York
 

S.A.T.A

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The headley saga merely corroborates the truth that the Islamic republic of Pakistan and its state institutions is an implacable enemy of India,our national policy on Pakistan,if we had one to begin with,must entirely focused on completely eliminating its sovereign existence.even when feigning tolerance to its sovereignty,our only objective must be its destruction.
 

Blackwater

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Pakistani Army is shameless. They will hide behind technicalities and denials and will continue to perpetrate state sponsored terrorist activities until India pulls up it socks and show these terrorists their place.

Firstly, India should start by declaring Pakistan as a terror sponsoring nation and should cut-off all ties and punish them on all fronts - economic, military, diplomatic and even water.



Inko pathar se na maro in bhekhario ko. They are already on the verge of disintegration and we should not disturb them in this process..
 

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