26/11 Mumbai attacks: Trial and related developments

[Pintu]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-after-Mumbai-attacks/articleshow/6315408.cms

Iconic Taj hotel fully reopens after Mumbai attacks
IANS, Aug 15, 2010, 04.56pm IST

MUMBAI: Nearly 21 months after the palace wing of the Taj Mahal Palace was destroyed in the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, the restored heritage suites opened their doors to guests on Sunday - much grander than ever.

Paying a befitting tribute to the spirit and resilience of the nation, the iconic Taj chose Independence Day to begin a new chapter in its history.

Complete with multimedia systems and an emergency escape route, the wing has now upped its luxury quotient.

Occupying the sixth floor, the property is spread across 5,000-odd square feet. The palace wing will also feature a couple of new accommodation offerings in the form of duplex suites.

Guests in the palace wing will get to experience the attentive and personalised 'Palace Butler Service' where the butler will discreetly and efficiently guide them in the hotel.

The Palace Lounge will be a private retreat, exclusively for residents of the palace wing, for a cup of perfectly brewed tea or coffee; an evening cocktail or after hour chocolate and cognac.

High-end technology and interactive multimedia systems at the touch of a button ensure that the guest's experiences are wired for efficiency and comfort. Taj Club rooms and suites come with chauffeur-driven luxurious Jaguar transfers.

The restaurants have also been renovated, including Sea Lounge and Golden Dragon. The Taj Ballroom, the Harbour Bar and Wasabi by Morimoto are accompanied by inspired cuisine from a team of acclaimed chefs.

Another added feature to the rooms and suites are the special levers that allow guests to open the window in an emergency. Upping the security quotient, special access control elevators are installed on the premises, allowing only guests to operate them with a valid key.

Internationally acclaimed designers like Lissoni Associati from Milan, BAMO from San Francisco, DesignWilkes from Malaysia and James Park Associates from Singapore carried out the extensive restoration of the heritage wing of the hotel.

On December 16, 1903, the Taj opened its doors to its first 17 guests. Over the years, the hotel has played perfect host to maharajas and princes, presidents and legends, performers and world figures, offering them the ultimate in luxury, fine dining and impeccable service.

While the adjacent tower wing was left unscathed in the 26/11 attack, the heritage wing was extensively damaged. It has been repaired at an estimated cost of Rs 175 crore.

 

[Pintu]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...HC-through-video-link/articleshow/6314548.cms

Kasab may be produced before HC through video link
PTI, Aug 15, 2010, 12.15pm IST

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Government may seek permission of the Bombay High Court to produce convicted terrorist Ajmal Kasab through video link when confirmation of his death sentence in the 26/11 terror attack case comes up for hearing on a day-to-day basis next month.

The court proceedings are expected to last for three months and producing Kasab before the High Court every day amid tight security will be an uphill task for the administration, official sources said on Sunday.

The authorities will have to take utmost precaution in bringing Kasab from Central prison at Arthur Road here to the High Court in south Mumbai every day by deploying several policemen enroute and also to escort him, they added.

"We may approach the High Court at an appropriate time for video conference facility to ensure presence of Kasab during the proceedings," said Government Counsel Ujjwal Nikam.

Currently, Kasab is lodged in an isolated cell in the Central Prison and heavily guarded by Indo-Tibetan Border Security men.

22-year-old Kasab was found guilty of killing 166 people along with nine other terrorists who came from Karachi in Pakistan to execute terror attacks here.

The trial was conducted in a special court within the premises of the Prison. Kasab's cell and the barrack housing the court had turned into a fortress with bomb and bullet-proof reinforcements.

The trial court awarded capital punishment to Kasab while acquitting two others, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, on conspiracy charges. The state has filed an appeal challenging their acquittal.

Maharashtra state legal services committee has already appointed two lawyers, Amin Solkar and Farhana Shah, to defend Kasab at state's expense. Both have informed the High Court that they would soon file an appeal against death sentence imposed on Kasab.

 

[ajtr]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-after-Mumbai-attacks/articleshow/6315408.cms

Iconic Taj hotel fully reopens after Mumbai attacks
IANS, Aug 15, 2010, 04.56pm IST

How much i wish Tatas make memorial in the memories of 26/11 victims at their hotel premises.

 

[ajtr]

ISI chief met Lakhvi in jail after 26/11: Headley to NIA

 

[ajtr]

NIA tight-lipped over identity of Indian aides of Headley​

NEW DELHI: The identity, status and the numerical strength of Indian aides of terror suspect David Coleman Headley have been kept as a closely guarded secret by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which has also sought the co-operation from a court here to maintain total secrecy.

The NIA has told a designated court here that the Indian suspects, who had helped Headley and others to plot and carry out terror attacks in Delhi, Mumbai and other parts of the country between 2005-09, hailed from Kerala and Mumbai.

The agency informed the court about it while seeking to conduct the lie-detection test of the suspects for which it was asked to take the consent of those whose names have been given in a sealed cover.

Their numbers, addresses and the status as to whether they are in custody or not have not been disclosed in open court as these details have been provided to the court in a sealed cover.

The court asked the NIA to get the consent of the accused for the test in writing and file them on record.

However, it was not known, how much time has been granted to the agency to get their consent before the court.

The move to conduct the lie detection tests assumed significance as the NIA has recently secured NBWs against two Pakistani officers Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali along with Lashkar operatives Sajid Majid, Syed Abdur Rehman and Illyas Kashmiri for getting the Red Corner Notices issued by the Interpol.

Besides them, the NIA, in the FIR filed on November 11 last year, has made American of Pakistani origin Headley, Tawahoor Rana, Canadian national also of Pakistani origin, who are now in the custody of FBI, Mumbai terror mastermind Hafiz Sayeed, LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as accused.

The nine accused are wanted in connection with terror attacks in Mumbai, Delhi and other places since 2005.

 

[ajtr]

Rana's Kochi links to be traced soon​

Ajay Kanth | First Published : 25 Aug 2010 02:58:52 AM ISTLast Updated : 25 Aug 2010 11:07:47 AM IST
KOCHI: The purpose of LeT suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana's visit to Kochi will be unfolded soon as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is learnt to have unearthed certain leads that will help it trace the links Rana and his friend David Coleman Headley, a LeT operative, had in Kochi.
While a senior official with the NIA remained tight-lipped on revealing the names of the persons in Kerala suspected to have links with Rana, sources in the NIA said there had been certain developments in the investigation.
Certain suspects will be questioned soon in connection with Rana's visit to Kochi, sources said. It was in November 2008 that Rana, who was running a Canada-based immigration firm, visited Kochi.
Though there were a lot of speculations on the purpose of his visit to Kochi, the NIA was not able to ascertain any lead to find the exact reason for Rana to opt for Kochi rather than any other city in South India for his recce.
"We cannot say at this moment whether Rana had any links with Malayalis. He had visited Kochi and we are probing it," a senior NIA official said.
However, reports from Delhi said the NIA had filed a petition, which had the names of certain suspects from Kerala and Mumbai, before a local court in Delhi seeking permission to conduct lie-detection tests on them. The names were submitted in a sealed envelope before the court to ensure that the identity of the persons remained secret.
NIA sources said they were able to trace certain 'missing links' after they launched a probe into the terror-related cases in Kerala which included the Kalamassery bus burning case and the Kashmir terrorist recruitment case.
The interrogation of Headley by a team of NIA officials in the US had reportedly given the NIA vital information on the network both Headley and Rana had managed to create in various parts of India.

 

[Pintu]

26/11 case: Pakistan not satisfied with India's replies on Headley - India - The Times of India

26/11 case: Pakistan not satisfied with India's replies on Headley
PTI, Sep 7, 2010, 04.30pm IST

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is not satisfied with India's replies to its questions on LeT operative David Headley, detained in the US in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks, according to a media report on Tuesday.

"The Indian response to our queries is hardly relevant," a senior official was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

Legal experts have examined the latest Indian dossier containing answers to questions posed by Pakistani investigators on Pakistani-American national Headley.

The interior ministry had last month sent about 50 questions to Indian authorities about Headley's role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

The questions related to his nine visits to India and meetings with people there. India was asked if Headley had been under surveillance during the visits.

The replies to Pakistani queries were handed over to Pakistan's high commissioner to India Shahid Malik on Friday.

There has been no official word from the government on the latest Indian dossier.

Foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said the material provided by India was still being looked into.

India had earlier dismissed Pakistan's questions on Headley, the son of a late Pakistani broadcaster and an American woman, as "delaying tactics".

The latest development on Headley came days after interior minister Rehman Malik acknowledged that the trial of seven Pakistani suspects linked to the Mumbai attacks had stalled in a Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism court.

He said it was necessary to form a commission that could go to India to record the statement of two key witnesses to take the trial forward.

India had suggested that the two witnesses - a magistrate who recorded the statement of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai attacker, and a police officer - could testify via video-conferencing.

Since this is not permitted by Pakistani laws, Malik said a decision was made to approach the anti-terrorism to form the commission.

Though Malik told the media last week that prosecutors would approach the court to seek the formation of the commission on Monday, said that authorities were yet to take any step in this regard.

 

[Sridhar]

Post-26/11, ISI chief told CIA his 'rogues' carried out attack: Book

'Obama's War' gives an insight into the actions of Bush administration during and immediately after Mumbai attacks.

Less than a month after the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan's spy agency chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha had admitted before the CIA that the terror strikes had ISI links but claimed it was not an "authorised" operation but carried out by "rogue" elements, according to a new book. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) later received reliable intelligence that the ISI was directly involved in the training for Mumbai, says the book entitled 'Obama's War' written by investigative American journalist Bob Woodward.
According to the book, the then President George W Bush during his meetings with his top aides had said the terrorist attack on Mumbai was just like 9/11.
"President Bush called his national security team into the Oval Office as Mumbai sorted through the blood and rubble. You guys get planning and do what you have to do to prevent a war between Pakistan and India, Bush told his aides. The last thing we need right now is a war between two nuclear-power states," Woodward says in his book which hit the stands on Monday.



Giving an insight into the thinking and actions of the Bush administration during and immediately after the Mumbai attacks, Woodward writes that an "upset Bush asked his aides about contingency plans for dealing with Pakistan," given his policy of "zero tolerance" for terrorists and their enablers.
"This is like 9/11, he (Bush) said," Woodward wrote. "The United States military did not have 'war' plans for an invasion of Pakistan. Instead, it had and continues to have one of the most sensitive and secret of all military contingencies, what military officials call a 'retribution' plan in the event of another 9/11-like attack on the US by terrorists based in Pakistan," the book says.
Under this plan, the US would bomb or attack every known al-Qaeda compound or training camp in the US intelligence database. "Some locations might be outdated, but there would be no concern, under the plan, for who might be living there now. The attribution plan called for a brutal punishing attack on at least 150 or more associated camps," Woodward says.
According to Woodward, within 48 hours of the Mumbai attack, the then CIA Director Mike Hayden contacted Pakistan's envoy to the US, Hussain Haqqani.
"CIA intelligence showed no direct ISI links, Hayden told him. These are former people who are no longer employees of the Pakistani government," he wrote.
"Bush informed the Indians himself. He called Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with whom he had a strong personal relationship. My intelligence shows that the new Pakistani government is not involved, Bush said," Woodward writes.
"In a call to Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of the Pakistani ISI, Hayden said, "We've got to get to the bottom of this. This is a big deal'," the book says.
He urged Pasha to come clean and disclose all. On the day after Christmas, Pasha flew to the United States, where he briefed Hayden at CIA headquarters, the author writes.
"Pasha admitted that the planners of the Mumbai attacks – at least two retired Pakistani Army officers -- had ISI links, but this had not been an authorised ISI operation. It was rogue. There may have been people associated with my organisation who were associated with this," Pasha said.
"That's different from authority, direction and control," Pasha is quoted as saying by Woodward.
According to Woodward, Pasha provided details that fit with the picture developed by US intelligence.
"Hayden told Bush he was convinced it was not an official Pakistani-sponsored attack, but it highlighted the problem of the sanctuaries in Pakistan. The ease of the planning and execution, the low cost, and the alarming sophistication of the communications system that LeT had used were all troubling," he said.
The author says the Mumbai terrorists spoke with handlers back in Pakistan with satellite phones that went through a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service in New Jersey, making the calls difficult, if not impossible to trace and routed them in a way that also concealed the locations of those talking.
"The FBI was horrified by the low-cost, high-tech operation that had paralysed Mumbai. American cities were just as vulnerable. A senior FBI official responsible for thwarting similar attacks in the United States said, Mumbai changed everything," the book says.
In his book, Woodward writes that the open secret is that LeT was created and continues to be funded by the Pakistani ISI.
"The intelligence branch of the Pakistani military uses LeT to inflict pain and hardship on India, according to US intelligence. These gunmen had, quite possibly, committed an act of war," Woodward says.


Post-26/11, ISI chief told CIA his 'rogues' carried out attack: Book


ISI involved in 26/11, chief Pasha told CIA shortly after attacks: Book

PTI, Sep 27, 2010, 12.48pm IST
WASHINGTON: Less than a month after the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan's spy agency chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha had admitted before the CIA that the terror strikes had ISI links but claimed it was not an "authorised" operation and carried out by "rogue" elements, according to a new book.

However, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) later received reliable intelligence that the ISI was directly involved in the training for Mumbai, says the book entitled 'Obama's War' written by investigative American journalist Bob Woodward.

According to the book, the then President George W Bush during his meetings with his top aides had said that the terrorist attack on Mumbai was just like 9/11.

"President Bush called his national security team into the Oval Office as Mumbai sorted through the blood and rubble. You guys get planning and do what you have to do to prevent a war between Pakistan and India, Bush told his aides. The last thing we need right now is a war between two nuclear-power states," Woodward says in his book which hit the stands today.

Giving an insight into the thinking and actions of the Bush Administration during and immediately after the Mumbai attacks, Woodward writes that an "upset Bush asked his aides about contingency plans for dealing with Pakistan," given his policy of "zero tolerance" for terrorists and their enablers.

"This is like 9/11, he (Bush) said," Woodward wrote. "The United States military did not have 'war' plans for an invasion of Pakistan. Instead, it had and continues to have one of the most sensitive and secret of all military contingencies, what military officials call a 'retribution' plan in the event of another 9/11-like attack on the US by terrorists based in Pakistan," the book says.

Under this plan, the US would bomb or attack every known al-Qaeda compound or training camp in the US intelligence database. "Some locations might be outdated, but there would be no concern, under the plan, for who might be living there now. The attribution plan called for a brutal punishing attack on at least 150 or more associated camps," Woodward says.

According to Woodward, within 48 hours of the Mumbai attack, the then CIA Director Mike Hayden contacted Pakistan Ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani.

"CIA intelligence showed no direct ISI links, Hayden told him. These are former people who are no longer employees of the Pakistani government," he wrote.

"Bush informed the Indians himself. He called Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with whom he had a strong personal relationship. My intelligence shows that the new Pakistani government is not involved, Bush said. It looked like a war had been averted for the moment," Woodward writes.

ISI involved in 26/11, chief Pasha told CIA shortly after attacks: Book - The Times of India

 

[sean]

Is he pleading not guilty to killing any mosquitoes on CSTM?

I think Kesab is absolutely right, he trained in probably highly decorated Isalmic school in Pakistan and they taught him according to holy book'killing Kafer Hindus is no crime in the eye of Islam like equivalent of killing irritants like filthy bugs.

 

[ajtr]

FBI Was Warned Years in Advance of Mumbai Attacker's Terror Ties​

The court documents that outline his odyssey do not mention the domestic dispute that led his wife to contact authorities in August, 2005. She had demanded a divorce after learning he had a wife and children in Pakistan. They argued at his store and on August 25 she filed an assault complaint alleging that he "struck her several times in the face," according to officials and a law enforcement document.

On August 26, she phoned a tip line of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, an FBI-led, multi-agency unit with hundreds of investigators. Her tip was assigned an FBI lead number under guidelines developed after the September 11 attacks to improve the response to potential threats. Procedure requires an FBI supervisor to begin an inquiry, decide in 90 days whether it merits a preliminary or full investigation, and report the outcome.

On August 31, New York City police arrested Gilani for alleged misdemeanor assault, according to NYPD officials. He was released on bail and was never prosecuted for reasons that remain unclear, officials say.

Not long after the arrest, task force investigators met three times with his wife. In addition to a detailed account of his activity with Lashkar, she showed them audio cassettes and ideological material and described his e-mails and calls from Pakistan and to individuals whom she thought to be extremists, according to the person close to the case.

It is not known if the investigators ever questioned Headley about his wife's revelations.

Veteran anti-terror officials described various ways in which the New York task force might have handled the tip.

Investigators could have decided it simply wasn't worth pursuing, perhaps because Lashkar was seen primarily as a threat to India at that time.

USA always had this habit of distinguishing between the terrorist who attack it from one those attack others like india.Thats the reason still we didnt see any action against L-E-T.Today usa defines Al-qaida/taliban as common enemy of usa and india so that india dont mess its war in afghanistan.But the truth is alqaida and taliban never attacked india.it were all punjabi/kashmiri L-e-t groups under the pak army which attacked india.Thats the only reason every terror attack on usa must be cheered. Al-qaida and taliban are freedom fighters fighting against the imperial usa to free their lands of afghanistan and middle east from usa presence and india must help them.

 

[SHASH2K2]

U.S. Had Warnings on Plotter of Mumbai Attack

Less than a year before terrorists killed at least 163 people in Mumbai, India, a young Moroccan woman went to American authorities in Pakistan to warn them that she believed her husband, David Headley, was plotting an attack.

It was not the first time American law enforcement authorities were warned about Mr. Headley, a longtime informer in Pakistan for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration whose roots in Pakistan and the United States allowed him to move easily in both worlds.

Two years earlier, in 2005, an American woman who was also married to the 50-year-old Mr. Headley told federal investigators in New York that she believed he was a member of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba created and sponsored by Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency.

Despite those warnings by two of his three wives Mr. Headley roamed far and wide on Lashkar's behalf between 2002 and 2009, receiving training in small-caliber weapons and countersurveillance, scouting targets for attack, and building a network of connections that extended from Chicago to Pakistan's lawless northwestern frontier.

Then in 2008, it was his handiwork as chief reconnaissance scout that set the stage for Lashkar's strike against Mumbai, an assault intended to provoke a conflict between nuclear-armed adversaries, Pakistan and India.

An examination of Mr. Headley's movements in the years before the bombing, based on interviews in Washington, Pakistan, India and Morocco, shows that he had overlapping, even baffling, contacts among seemingly disparate groups — Pakistani intelligence, terrorists, and American drug investigators.

Those ties are rekindling concerns that the Mumbai bombings represent another communications breakdown in the fight against terrorism, and are raising the question of whether United States officials were reluctant to dig deeper into Mr. Headley's movements because he had been an informant for the D.E.A.

More significantly, they may indicate American wariness to pursue evidence that some officials in Pakistan, its major ally in the war against Al Qaeda, were involved in planning an attack that killed six Americans.

The Pakistani government has insisted that its spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, a close partner of the C.I.A., did not know of the attack. The United States says it has no evidence to counter this, though officials acknowledge that some current or retired ISI officers probably played some role.

It is unclear what United States officials did with the warnings they had gotten about Mr. Headley — who has pleaded guilty to the crimes and is cooperating with authorities — or whether they saw them as complaints from wives whose motives might be colored by their strained relations with their husband.

Federal officials say that the State Department and the F.B.I. investigated the warnings they received about Mr. Headley at the time, but that they could not confirm any connections between him and Lashkar-e-Taiba. D.E.A. officials have said they ended their association with him at the end of 2001, at least two months before Mr. Headley reportedly attended his first terrorist training. But some Indian officials say they suspect that Mr. Headley's contacts with the American drug agency lasted much longer.

The investigative news organization ProPublica reported the 2005 warning from Mr. Headley's American ex-wife on its Web site and in the Saturday issue of The Washington Post. By ProPublica's account, she told authorities that Mr. Headley boasted about working as an American informant while he trained with Lashkar.

On Saturday, Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said, "The United States regularly provided threat information to Indian officials in 2008." He added, "Had we known about the timing and other specifics related to the Mumbai attacks, we would have immediately shared those details with the government of India."

Mr. Headley's American wife was not the only one to come forward. The Moroccan wife described her separate warnings in an interview with The New York Times. Other interviews illustrate his longstanding connections to American law enforcement and the ISI.

Among the findings:

¶ An officer of the Pakistani spy agency handed Mr. Headley $25,000 in early 2006 to open an office and set up a house in Mumbai to be used as a front during his scouting trips, according to Mr. Headley's testimony to Indian investigators in Chicago in June.

¶ The ISI officer who gave Mr. Headley the cash, known as Major Iqbal, served as the supervisor of Lashkar's planning, helping to arrange a communications system for the attack, and overseeing a model of the Taj Mahal Hotel, so that gunmen could find their way around, according to Mr. Headley's testimony to the Indians.

 

[SHASH2K2]

US officials told me to 'get lost', says Headley's wife

NEW YORK: "Get lost" was what the US officials in Islamabad told the young Moroccan wife of 26/11 accused David Headley when she informed them that her husband was planning a terror attack in India with the help of LeT.

Less than a year before 26/11 attack, one of Headley's three wives, Faiza Outalha, had two meetings with American officials in Islamabad in which she told them that her husband had friends in the Lashkar-e-Taiba and his business trips to India never amounted to much, according to The New York Times.

"I told them, he's either a terrorist, or he's working for you," she recalled saying to American officials at the US Embassy in Islamabad. "Indirectly, they told me to get lost."

"I told them anything I could do to get their attention," she told the NYT. "It was as if I was shouting, 'This guy was a terrorist! You have to do something.'"

27-year-old Outlaha also claimed that she showed the US authorities photos of Headley and her stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel, where they stayed twice in April and May 2007.

The stay is confirmed by hotel records. A senior administration official confirmed Outalha's meeting but said she could not give any details to her warnings.

"The texture of the meeting was that her husband was involved with bad people, and they were planning jihad," the official said. "But she gave no details about who was involved, or what they planned to target."

In a statement, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer on Saturday said that "The United States regularly provided threat information to Indian officials in 2008 before the attacks in Mumbai."

"Had we known about the timing and other specifics related to the Mumbai attacks, we would have immediately shared those details with the government of India," he said.

Headley, 50, was married three times, The NYT reported - all at one at one point -- Outalha, who is a medical student, a New York makeup artist and a conservative Pakistani Muslim.

The paper pointed out that "despite those warnings by two of his three wives, Headley roamed far and wide on Lashkar's behalf between 2002 and 2009."

Meanwhile, in her interview with NYT in Morocco, Outalha also revealed some personal details about Headley like his penchant for American shows like Seinfeld and Jay Leno even while slamming the US for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Outalha, also said that she went to the American authorities to find out more about Headley's true identity.


Read more: US officials told me to 'get lost', says Headley's wife - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ys-wife/articleshow/6764028.cms#ixzz12cNo58lh

 

[ajtr]

US officials told me to 'get lost', says Headley's wife

NEW YORK: "Get lost" was what the US officials in Islamabad told the young Moroccan wife of 26/11 accused David Headley when she informed them that her husband was planning a terror attack in India with the help of LeT.

Less than a year before 26/11 attack, one of Headley's three wives, Faiza Outalha, had two meetings with American officials in Islamabad in which she told them that her husband had friends in the Lashkar-e-Taiba and his business trips to India never amounted to much, according to The New York Times.

"I told them, he's either a terrorist, or he's working for you," she recalled saying to American officials at the US Embassy in Islamabad. "Indirectly, they told me to get lost."

"I told them anything I could do to get their attention," she told the NYT. "It was as if I was shouting, 'This guy was a terrorist! You have to do something.'"

27-year-old Outlaha also claimed that she showed the US authorities photos of Headley and her stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel, where they stayed twice in April and May 2007.

The stay is confirmed by hotel records. A senior administration official confirmed Outalha's meeting but said she could not give any details to her warnings.

"The texture of the meeting was that her husband was involved with bad people, and they were planning jihad," the official said. "But she gave no details about who was involved, or what they planned to target."

In a statement, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer on Saturday said that "The United States regularly provided threat information to Indian officials in 2008 before the attacks in Mumbai."

"Had we known about the timing and other specifics related to the Mumbai attacks, we would have immediately shared those details with the government of India," he said.

Headley, 50, was married three times, The NYT reported - all at one at one point -- Outalha, who is a medical student, a New York makeup artist and a conservative Pakistani Muslim.

The paper pointed out that "despite those warnings by two of his three wives, Headley roamed far and wide on Lashkar's behalf between 2002 and 2009."

Meanwhile, in her interview with NYT in Morocco, Outalha also revealed some personal details about Headley like his penchant for American shows like Seinfeld and Jay Leno even while slamming the US for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Outalha, also said that she went to the American authorities to find out more about Headley's true identity.


Read more: US officials told me to 'get lost', says Headley's wife - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ys-wife/articleshow/6764028.cms#ixzz12cNo58lh

USA play double game on terror like pakistan.USA can never be trusted with any kind of partnership or defence purchases.

 

[SHASH2K2]

USA play double game on terror like pakistan.USA can never be trusted with any kind of partnership or defence purchases.

I love USA made gadgets . They are needed to counter Pakistan and China together but question still remains is that can we trust them. USA may force to be with India due to economy and Geopolitics but They need to prove that they are trustworthy.

 

[ajtr]

below report should be taken with truckloads of salt.India would have arrested headley in mumbai itself after he visited again to india after 26/11.USA has to answer a lot thats the reason they are protecting headly.sometimes it looks like its not the non-state actors who want pakistan and india fight but its the usa who wants indo-pak war.

India 'knew' about Headley before Mumbai terror attacks​

Washington: Amid reports that two of David Headley's three wives had warned the FBI beforehand of the Mumbai attacks, the US on Sunday said the "threat information", though general in nature, was duly shared with India. "Had we known about the timing and other specifics related to the Mumbai attacks, we would have immediately shared those details with the government of India," said Mike Hammer, spokesman of the National Security Council, White House.He made the remarks when asked about an investigative report on Mumbai attacks published by ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. The New York Times also said that two of 50-year-old Headley's three wives had warned American law enforcement authorities -- in 2005 and less than a year before the 2008 Mumbai attacks -- of his links with the Pakistan-based LeT terror outfit and the plot to strike India's financial hub.

"Despite those warnings by two of his three wives, Headley roamed far and wide on Lashkar's behalf between 2002 and 2009, receiving training in small-calibre weapons and counter surveillance, scouting targets for attacks, and building a network of connections that extended from Chicago to Pakistan's lawless north-western frontier," the daily said.Hammer said the US "regularly provided threat information" to Indian officials in 2008 before the attacks in Mumbai. "It is our government's solemn responsibility to notify other nations of possible terrorist activity on their soil," he said. Another US official denied that the United States did not share any terrorist-attack related information with Indian authorities.

"US authorities took seriously what Headley's former wives said. Their information was of a general nature and did not suggest any particular terrorist plot," said a senior Administration official. Separately, an Indian source, who was involved in the investigations of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, said on the condition of anonymity, that India did receive the information, which was general and it was not specific in nature.

An examination of Pakistani-American Headley's movements in the years before the Mumbai attacks, based on interviews in Washington, Pakistan, India and Morocco, shows that he had overlapping, even baffling contacts among seemingly disparate groups - Pakistani intelligence, terrorists and American drug investigators, the NYT said.Headley, who has pleaded guilty to all 12 terror charges under a plea bargain, was known both to Pakistani and American security officials long before his arrest as a terrorist, the daily said. "In several interviews in her home, Headley's Moroccan wife, Faiza Outalha, described the warnings she gave to American officials less than a year before gunmen attacked several popular tourist attractions in Mumbai.

"She claims she even showed the (US) embassy officials a photo of Headley and herself in the Taj Mahal Hotel, where they stayed twice in April and May 2007. Hotel records confirm their stay," the newspaper reported.

She said that in two meetings with American officials at the US embassy in Islamabad, she told the authorities that her husband had many friends who were known members of Lashkar-e-Taiba. "She said she told them that he was passionately anti-Indian, but that he travelled to India all the time for business deals that never seemed to amount to much," the report said.

"And she said she told them Headley assumed different identities: as a devout Muslim who went by the name Daood when he was in Pakistan, and as an American playboy named David, when he was in India," the newspaper said."I told them, he's either a terrorist, or he's working for you," she recalled saying to American officials at the US Embassy in Islamabad. "Indirectly, they told me to get lost," she was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The texture of the meeting was that her husband was involved with "bad people" and they were planning 'jihad', a US administration official was quoted as saying. "But she gave no details about who was involved, or what they planned to target," the official added. "Given that she had been jilted, Outalha acknowledged she may not have been composed. I wanted him in Guantanamo," she said.

"More than that, however, Outalha says, she went to the American authorities looking for answers to questions about Headley's real identity. In public he criticised the United States for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan," the newspaper said. Sipping tea in a cafe overlooking a plaza in Morocco, Outalha said that in hindsight, she is convinced that Headley is "both men" and "claims to be puzzled that American officials did not heed her warning," the NYT said.

"I told them anything I could to get their attention," she said of the American authorities at the embassy in Islamabad. "It was as if I was shouting, 'This guy was a terrorist! You have to do something'," she was quoted as saying.The NYT indicated that the reason why the Americans did not follow up on the warnings may have been to avoid a line of investigation that could lead to evidence of its key ally Pakistan's involvement in the attacks, which the ISI has vociferously denied.

"The United States says it has no evidence to counter this (ISI denial), though officials acknowledge that some current or retired ISI officers probably played some role," the newspaper said.

It further pointed out that the absence of a follow-up on the warnings could represent a "communication breakdown in the fight against terrorism," and also raised questions if the US officials avoided digging deeper since Headley was an informant for the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration).

According to the ProPublica report, Headley's American wife, in three interviews with federal agents in 2005, said he was an active militant in Lashkar-e-Taiba, had trained extensively in its Pakistani camps and had shopped for night vision goggles and other equipment.

"Three years before Pakistani terrorists struck Mumbai in 2008, federal agents in New York City investigated a tip that an American businessman was training in Pakistan with the group that later executed the attack," it said.

"The previously undisclosed allegations against David Coleman Headley, who became a key figure in the plot that killed 166 people, came from his (American) wife after a domestic dispute that resulted in his arrest in 2005," it had said.

Headley's American wife, whom ProPublica did not identify to protect her safety, also told agents that Headley had bragged of working as a paid US informant while he trained with the terrorists in Pakistan. Headley is currently in a Chicago prison after he was arrested by the FBI agents last year.

 

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I love USA made gadgets . They are needed to counter Pakistan and China together but question still remains is that can we trust them. USA may force to be with India due to economy and Geopolitics but They need to prove that they are trustworthy.

ypu can trust pakistan even china any day but not usa.Atleast we know they are enemies but with usa its like its an enemy of india in the disguise of pretending friendship.more than pak or china india has to be careful of usa.

 

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US never gave us alert on Headley: Mumbai Police

 

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US never gave us alert on Headley: Mumbai Police

This is wat i ve been insisting on usa's perfidy on headly

Even a non-specific or vague intelligence input on Daood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley from the US could have landed him in an Indian jail, Maharashtra Police officers said. They refuted the US claim that it had alerted Indian agencies about Headley.

. . . "The US is trying to confuse - the point here is whether they passed on information about Headley, the LeT operative, or about the attack. These are different issues," the police officer said.

"They had information on Headley's terror links and activities while he was travelling to India. But no Headley related information came to us. Instead, they are talking about a general alert passed on to India about a terror attack," the officer added. . . ."The US just gives us alerts and we are happy. But when it came to interrogating Headley, we weren't given much leeway. We still don't know how the attack was planned, which Pakistani military officers were involved and how they put it in place," an ATS officer said.

"People are afraid of a repeat of 26/11 because there are several unanswered questions. The US isn't cooperating and those who question Headley also have their hands tied. "The issue needs to be taken up at a higher level between the Indian and US governments. But it's not being done." the officer added.

USA was collecting data using headley, but they chose to act on the collected data only when Western interests.which is obvious from his arrest at that time headley was planning to blow up dannish newspaper office.While they chose to stop the terror attack on the office of this newspaper, they chose to let the PA/ISI/LeT unleash urban warfare on a heavily populated Mumbai.the US wanted the PA/ISI to understand the Indian redlines. While India's pain threshold is peripheral to the US, it is certainly very important for its ally, Pakistan and the latter cannot get a good handle on that without the support of the former. The US also probably wanted to understand how much India would trust the US of its 'good intentions' whenever it chooses to intervene on behalf of Pakistan. Or, in other words, the US influence and hold on GoI. They should be pretty satisfied especially after Sharm-el-Sheikh and Thimphu.

The US efforts to protect Headley and the PA officers, even after truth has been tumbling out relentlessly, is an unfriendly act of the highest order by that country.

 

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U.S. Embassy Didn't Pass Along Tip About Headley's Ties to Mumbai Terrorists​

More questions are being raised about how federal law enforcement officials handled two tips they received about David Coleman Headley, the U.S. businessman and former DEA informant who has confessed to helping plot the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. The first tip came in 2005 and the second in 2007, just a year before the attacks that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

NBC News correspondent Michael Isikoff reported Saturday night that the second warning, given by one of Headley's wives to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, was never passed along to the FBI in New York, according to a U.S. official who spoke with NBC. Isikoff also reported that officials didn't consider the earlier tip sufficient enough to put Headley on the "no fly" list or to trigger a full-scale probe at the time.ProPublica reported on Friday that the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York had been warned in 2005 by another of Headley's wives that he was training in Pakistan's mountains with the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba, which carried out the Mumbai attacks. She also told them that he shopped for night vision goggles and other equipment.

On Saturday law enforcement officials confirmed to ProPublica that while Headley was training with Lashkar he was also working with the DEA. Headley is the son of a Pakistani father and an American mother. He became a DEA informant in the late 1990s, after he was arrested on heroin trafficking charges.

Headley was apparently married to three women at the same time. The FBI arrested him last October, 11 months after the Mumbai attacks. In March, he pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism in the Mumbai attacks and to a failed plot to take and behead hostages at a Danish newspaper. He is cooperating with authorities.

 

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Headley revelations will further dent FBI's credibility in India​

The FBI moved against Headley seriously only after coming to know of his role in the planned attack in Copenhagen. It did not show the same seriousness in respect of his role in the Mumbai [ Images ] attack, writes B Raman

The latest round of disclosures relating to David Coleman Headley [ Images ], which have embarrassed the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were brought out in two detailed investigative reports by Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica, a website which specialises in investigative reporting.

These two reports -- titled FBI Was Warned Years in Advance of Mumbai Attacker's Terror Ties and Feds Confirm Mumbai Plotter Trained With Terrorists While Working for DEA -- which were published on the web site, have also been used by the Washington Post, thereby adding to their credibility.

A large part of these reports are based on a study of the court documents filed by the prosecution against Headley. The remaining is fresh information gathered from Headley's ex-wives and serving and retired officials of the FBI and other agencies.

The salient points in the investigative reports are:

In three interviews with federal agents, Headley's wife said he was an active member of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [ Images ], had trained extensively in its Pakistani camps, and had shopped for night vision goggles and other equipment, according to officials. The wife also told agents that Headley had bragged about working as a paid US informant while he trained with the terrorists in Pakistan.

The FBI "looked into" the tip, but they declined to say what, if any, action was taken. Headley was jailed briefly in New York on charges of domestic assault, but was not prosecuted. He wasn't captured until 11 months after the Mumbai attack, when British intelligence alerted American authorities that he was in contact with Al Qaeda [ Images ] operatives in Europe.

The New York Times reported that another of Headley's wives -- he apparently was married to three women at the same time -- had also warned US officials about his terror links. In December 2007, the Moroccan woman met with officials at the US embassy in Pakistan and told them about Headley's friendship with Lashkar members, his hatred of India [ Images ] and her trips with him to the Taj Mahal Hotel [ Images ], a prime target of the Mumbai attacks. On Saturday, federal officials said the women's tips lacked specificity. "US authorities took seriously what Headley's former wives said. Their information was of a general nature and did not suggest any particular terrorist plot," a senior administration official said.

Headley's relationship with the US government is especially delicate because the investigation has shown that he also had contact with suspected Pakistani intelligence officials and a Pakistani militant named Ilyas Kashmiri, who has emerged as a top operational leader of the Al Qaeda.



The following conclusions emerge from the two reports:


Headley was initially an informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency. He was being used to collect intelligence about the activities of the LeT in Pakistan. For this purpose, he used to visit Pakistan.

In August 2005, his US-based ex-wife had alerted an FBI task force about Headley's links with the LeT and helping them procure equipment like night-vision glasses. She had also told the FBI about his e-mail and other contacts in Pakistan. She had also complained that he was ill-treating her. The FBI questioned him about her allegations of ill-treatment, but did not seriously follow up her tips about his ties with the Lashkar.

The FBI probably did not question him about his links with the Lashkar because it was already aware of the details since he was a DEA informant. In December 2007, his Moroccan ex-wife complained to the US embassy in Islamabad [ Images ] about his links with the LeT. It is not clear what action the embassy took on her complaint

In 2008, the FBI came to know about the Lashkar's plans to launch a sea-borne terrorist strike on certain targets on the Mumbai sea-front, including the Taj Mahal Hotel. It promptly passed on the information to the Indian agencies. The FBI could not have been expected to tell the Indian agencies that the information came from Headley. This was a specific piece of information complete in many respects except the date of the planned attacks. No intelligence or investigation agency would reveal the name of a source giving such specific information.

Headley had visited India five times to collect operational intelligence and to help the Lashkar select targets and the landing point for the boat. Before starting his visits to India, Headley had taken a new passport under the name of David Coleman Headley in place of his previous passport under the name Daood Gilani in order to conceal his Pakistani origin from the Indian consular and immigration authorities. The FBI would have been expected to share this information with the Indian authorities, but it did not do so. Had the FBI done so, the Indian authorities might have been able to establish the details of his Indian network, arrest and question him and pre-empt the attack.

The FBI did not alert the Indian authorities, even when Headley visited India again after the 26/11 terrorist strikes.

The FBI seems to have arrested Headley only after it intercepted messages about his being used by the LeT and Ilyas Kashmiri of the 313 Brigade to plan a terrorist strike in Copenhagen against a newspaper which had published cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in 2005. The arrest was made actually after British intelligence came to know of his contacts with some associates of Kashmiri in Europe, while planning the Copenhagen attack. The FBI moved against him seriously only after coming to know of his role in the planned attack in Copenhagen. It did not show the same seriousness in respect of his role in the Mumbai attack.

How helpful was the FBI in helping the Indian agencies in this case? It would be difficult to answer this question unless one knows the following details:


When did the FBI first take the initiative in informing the Indian agencies about Headley's arrest and the information obtained from him?
Why did the FBI delay its response to the Indian request for permission to interrogate him?
Why did the FBI insist on Headley being interrogated in US custody in the presence of FBI officers and did not allow Indian officers to question him independently?
During the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] to Washington, DC, in November 2009 for talks with President Barack Obama [ Images ], the two countries had reached what was described as a joint counter-terrorism initiative to promote counter-terrorism co-operation between the agencies of the two countries. The FBI's suspicious conduct, in keeping the Indian agencies in the dark about all relevant aspects of Headley's involvement with the LeT, adds to the suspicions that the JCTI was an eye-wash sold to India to cover up the FBI's sins of commission and omission and to conceal from the American families whose members were killed in the 26/11 attack, the extent of the FBI's knowledge which could have been used to prevent the strikes.

While this issue may not have any major impact on President Obama's visit to India next month, it will definitely add to the traditional distrust nursed by the Indian agencies about their American counterparts.

In any other self respecting country, GOI would have been fired from their job by a a furious public for soft pedlling Mumbai and resuming Aman ka tamasha with paks at the behest of US. What is more outrageous is goi 's ineptitude before 26/11 and weakness after it and Usa sitting on 26/11 warnings and still continuing to use Headley after 26/11.USA is like devil you dance with it will harm u only still we are talking about buying weapons and signing strategic partnership with usa.