The Curious Case of Daood Gilani alias David Headley & co

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 17 Dec 2009 10:57

STRATFOR is clearly trying to protect American interests and prevent potential embarrassments.

RayC · Post by **RayC** » 17 Dec 2009 11:00

True.

But carries more details than Indian newspapers and what politicians have to say!

Brinda Karat raised a pointed question. If India US relationship is that great, how come they can interrogate Kasab and we cannot interrogate Headley?

a_kumar · Post by **a_kumar** » 17 Dec 2009 12:45

RayC wrote: Brinda Karat raised a pointed question. If India US relationship is that great, how come they can interrogate Kasab and we cannot interrogate Headley?

Come to think of it, it seems like they even had access to Bhatt Jr. So everybody on this side of the border is fair game!!

Ofcourse, if GoI found it in its interest to prevent it, he would have probably been in "protective kustodi". It seems to be a case of letting others set the pace and agenda!

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 17 Dec 2009 14:09

Headley not our agent: CIA

"I can't comment on an ongoing investigation, but any suggestion that this individual worked for the CIA is flat wrong," CIA spokesperson Marie E Harf said when specifically asked about Headley and his links with CIA.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 17 Dec 2009 14:12

Shashi Tharoor on missing Visa papers

"Rana's visa papers have been found. We are tracing those of Headley," Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told mediapersons

niran · Post by **niran** » 17 Dec 2009 14:21

SSridhar wrote:Shashi Tharoor on missing Visa papers
"Rana's visa papers have been found. We are tracing those of Headley," Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told mediapersons

English translation: Headley never applied for Visa, most probably traveled on Indian passport to India
with proper entry/exit to USA stamped.

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 17 Dec 2009 15:42

http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/dec/ ... -games.htm

Commonwealth games this time.

This is really getting tiring. Headley the super spy, is everywhere... he will be blamed for global warming or lack of it , next.

Neela · Post by **Neela** » 17 Dec 2009 17:02

Atleast you have some place to vent your anger on this!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2 ... ..1&v=info

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 17 Dec 2009 17:44

SSridhar wrote:The CG at Chicago claims that Rana submitted all documents and he was convinced it was a genuine case deserving multiple visit visa. Apparently, Rana applied and was granted visa in circa 2006. The CG should have extraordinary memory to remember these details 4 years later especially when the papers are now missing and there is no way for the CG to refer back to the file.

Besides, the CG's claim that Rana had become a Canadian citizen recently and hence his Pakiness would have disappeared is extremely naive and dangerous. Are these IFS officers for real ?

Another confusing thing for me is why is the present CG defending Rana's visa if he assumed the Chicago post only in 2007 and Rana was given visa in 2006 itself ? Am I missing something ?

SSridhar ji,

Many senior officers everywhere always have an exclusive personal file of additional copies all official and demi official letters that have been personally been signed by them and details of verbal instructions and other sensitive matters etc generated during their tenures in a specific post, as an aide-memoire.

These personal files will not contain letters signed by their subordinates as such letters would generally be available in official files.

Hence the headly rana info may have been culled from from the personal files of the current incumbent or his predecessor.

Just my 2 paise.

shravan · Post by **shravan** » 17 Dec 2009 22:22

Pak woman stayed with Headley as wife in Taj hotel
STAFF WRITER 21:9 HRS IST

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Investigators probing the role of David Headley in India have stumbled upon the evidence that a Pakistani woman stayed with the US terror suspect as his wife at Mumbai's Taj hotel, a target of Lashkar-e-Taiba militants during the 26/11 attacks last year.

While government sources refused to give any further information, well placed sources within the investigating agency do not rule out the possibility that the woman, who visited India in 2007 posing as Headley's wife, could have been used for carrying out recce of the targets.

This information was shared with the FBI which allegedly feigned ignorance about the same.

The woman travelled to Mumbai from Pakistan alone and stayed in the five star hotel for a few days before returning to the neighbouring country, the sources said.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 18 Dec 2009 01:04

Ramana garu

With your post above regarding the analyses of experts such as B.Raman and some here dismissing "Headley = US Agent" theories, my request to is to consider the diference between claims such as (a) Unkil is cagey/reluctant to help India beyond a point and (b) CIA is behind 26/11

That Headley had something going with the DEA was known from Day-1. More recently it is becoming clear that other US agencies may have known more and may have known about 26/11. Also, given that Headley got deeply tied into LeT/ISI senior level network, calling him a double agent is reasonable.

But we still cannot jump to Unkil plotted 26/11 type claims. That is what I was cautioning against. Not that you have made any such claims, but some others have and I hope we can be more careful than that.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 18 Dec 2009 01:10

Neela wrote:Atleast you have some place to vent your anger on this!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2 ... ..1&v=info

photo seems to be Tahawwur Hussain Rana.

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 18 Dec 2009 01:20

Rangudu wrote:Ramana garu

But we still cannot jump to Unkil plotted 26/11 type claims. That is what I was cautioning against. Not that you have made any such claims, but some others have and I hope we can be more careful than that.

Agree of course. The question is how much did the Americans know, and when, and why is it that they are telling us about 6-8 months after the attacks and not earlier? If they suddenly have a spirit of India-US bhai chara, why arent they allowing direct access to him?

Yes, US plotted 26/11 claims are ridiculous, but claims that the US is holding out on Headley are not.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 18 Dec 2009 01:25

Tanaji

For me, the most outrageous part thats requires GoI to push Unkil hard are:

1. Why did US allow Headley to India after 26/11, when they must have known that he was part of that attack plot?

2. Why did Unkil move on these guys only after they got serious about attacking a Western European country (Denmark)?

3. While not condoning the stonewalling to cover up Headley's US ties, why can't Unkil hand over voice samples of Headley's ISI/LeT contacts and full documentation of all their interactions?

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 18 Dec 2009 01:39

Headley’s Moroccan wife joined him at Taj from Pakistan

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 18 Dec 2009 01:55

The unusual suspects ---- Ashok Malik

Headley and Rana may be big news in India, but in the US they are part of a small but worrying trend. In July 2009, a terrorist group of at least eight members was busted in North Carolina. Seven were arrested; the eighth had already vanished into Pakistan. In September, Najibullah Zazi — an Afghan-American who among other things drew inspiration from videos of Mumbai televangelist Zakir Naik — was arrested for conspiring to carry out bombings in New York.

These were not stray incidents — as the case of a Muslim US army doctor who went on a shooting spree at a Texas military base may have been. Like with Headley-Rana, they indicated meticulous planning and the structure of a terror organisation. They also suggested America’s economic and integrative model, exemplary as it is, does not necessarily firewall it from immigrants unable to throw off an innate extremism.

All these years America has believed such imperfect immigration to be a British problem. Indeed, the 800,000 strong British-Pakistanis have been regarded as the Western-located community most likely to produce jihadists.

At a Brookings Institution discussion in Washington, DC, shortly after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, intelligence veteran Bruce Riedel spoke of the “Pakistan-isation of al-Qaeda”: “More and more of its activities outside of the South Asian arena, and particularly in Western Europe, used Pakistanis, principally… [from] the United Kingdom, but also Pakistanis in Denmark, Germany, and Spain.” At the same event, strategic affairs specialist Stephen Cohen reckoned British Pakistanis were “al-Qaeda’s number one target today for recruiting individuals that can be used to target both the United Kingdom and the United States”.

Mahendra · Post by **Mahendra** » 18 Dec 2009 02:24

NDTV programme on David Headley

The first part is quite interesting

Ananya · Post by **Ananya** » 18 Dec 2009 02:57

pgbhat wrote:Headley’s Moroccan wife joined him at Taj from Pakistan

Just curious , won't the hotels take in passport copies and if so Taj would have the records and the room number

Karan Dixit · Post by **Karan Dixit** » 18 Dec 2009 03:00

Amber G. wrote:Also: From TOI:
Mahesh Bhatt, the baap of all the talkers

Mahesh Butt keeps saying that Rahe-Ullu Butt approached the police voluntarily. But he fails to mention that his son's name was retrieved from Headley's email and authorities were already looking for Rahe-Ullu Butt. By voluntarily going to police, he saved some heat on his musharraf.

Mahendra · Post by **Mahendra** » 18 Dec 2009 03:13

Karan Dixit wrote:
Amber G. wrote:Also: From TOI:
Mahesh Bhatt, the baap of all the talkers
Mahesh Butt keeps saying that Rahe-Ullu Butt approached the police voluntarily. But he fails to mention that his son's name was retrieved from Headley's email and authorities were already looking for Rahe-Ullu Butt. By voluntarily going to police, he saved some heat on his musharraf.

From the above link

While the allegations were quickly cleared,

TOI and Mah-e-sh Butt are the only ones who have cleared Rah-ul Butt

Karan Dixit · Post by **Karan Dixit** » 18 Dec 2009 03:35

Mahendra,

I noticed one more thing about Rahe-Ullu Butt. He says that he was under impression that Headley was CIA man on mission and yet this *** showed Headley around in Mumbai. Rahul Bhatt has provided logistical support to Headley. There is no doubt about that. For that alone he needs to be in prison till NIA clears him about "whether he knew the true identity of Headley".

Why is this anti-national not in prison?

gandharva · Post by **gandharva** » 18 Dec 2009 03:50

Visa plot thickens

Pioneer News Service | New Delhi

Missing files: Consulate says none, Tharoor insists yes

http://www.dailypioneer.com/223553/Visa ... ckens.html

Ananya · Post by **Ananya** » 18 Dec 2009 04:03

gandharva wrote:
Visa plot thickens

Pioneer News Service | New Delhi

Missing files: Consulate says none, Tharoor insists yes

http://www.dailypioneer.com/223553/Visa ... ckens.html

SMK is another rehman malik

Karna_A · Post by **Karna_A** » 18 Dec 2009 07:17

Rangudu: Rightly said "But we still cannot jump to Unkil plotted 26/11 type claims."

There seems to be a serious lack of how intelligence info really works in real world which leads to these highly speculative deductions.
At any given point of time SeeAiA and AR A W are looking at 500+ threats.
It goes something like this:
T1 and T2 based out of Lawhore planning X1 in Big Metro in next 3 months and got this info from Agent A.
T3 and T4 based out of Doobai planning X2 in Big Metro in next 6 months and got this info from Agent B.
T5 and T6 based somewhere in North India operationalizing X3 in unknown time and got this info through Phone tap.
T7 and T1 are near execution of X4 as per emails.

Some of the above is deliberatly planted to throw off the investigators since what is stopping 2 Piglets in discussing really weird and wayoff stuff.
The other thing is if X1 is not big enough why out Agent A. Why not let Agent A be part of the group Z and let X1 happen so Agent A is even deeper into group Z.

SeeAiA and AR A W both knew of 26/11,(as they did of hundreds of other plots) but did not anticipate its success but probably thought it more like Ai Ai SC attack at bangalore.

Rangudu wrote:Ramana garu

With your post above regarding the analyses of experts such as B.Raman and some here dismissing "Headley = US Agent" theories, my request to is to consider the diference between claims such as (a) Unkil is cagey/reluctant to help India beyond a point and (b) CIA is behind 26/11

That Headley had something going with the DEA was known from Day-1. More recently it is becoming clear that other US agencies may have known more and may have known about 26/11. Also, given that Headley got deeply tied into LeT/ISI senior level network, calling him a double agent is reasonable.

But we still cannot jump to Unkil plotted 26/11 type claims. That is what I was cautioning against. Not that you have made any such claims, but some others have and I hope we can be more careful than that.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 18 Dec 2009 08:37

BRF has had threads on intel ops almost since the inception.

So folks here do know how things work. WRT US and TSP nothing is infeasible. They have deep links.

Patni · Post by **Patni** » 18 Dec 2009 08:53

IMHO in near past (~ 6 months) the current US admin has taken some high level policy decision to re-orient itself in AF-PAK, and and relation with India vis-a-vis Pakistan. Since CIA has a well entrenched history of links with ISI, and Indians would be skeptical and justifiably so about CIA when it comes to helping India get pakis to behave, It seems that FBI is given the ball about exposing the Chicago chapter of paki terror groups that are focused on India for their terror activity. I think its a step towards trying to rope in India closer to US point of view in AF-PAK region. We should wait and see how much more info comes out and proof of the pudding in If and when links to TSPA is brought out as a filing in court. If that happens and some of the serving TSPA terrorists are publicly named then I would think India has some deal worked out with USA and told USA to meet some conditions first and this could be it.

Karna_A · Post by **Karna_A** » 18 Dec 2009 09:11

So some folks here do not know how things work. Some other folks are obviously experts and well known in their fields.
There are certainly others like me who fail to see what SeeAiA could have gained by torturing and killing Americans & jews among other improbable things and find this theory of joint CIA/ISI operation on the lines of "Moon landing is Hoax because the flag was fluttering" or Birthers or 9/11 was jewish conspiracy lines. There is no point in being the Indian Zaid Hamid while propogating factless theories.

ramana wrote:BRF has had threads on intel ops almost since the inception. And BRF members commentaries on KRC report were lauded by the writers.

So folks here do know how hings work. WRT US and TSP nothing is infeasible. They have deep links.

Avinash R · Post by **Avinash R** » 18 Dec 2009 10:29

Headley, Kasav's handler declares war on India

18 Dec 2009, 0854 hrs IST

Al-Qaeda and HuJI commander Ilyas Kashmiri has issued a chilling warning to India in a letter that he sent to terror outfits. Kashmiri says he knows the routes to send suicide bombing squads into the country. Ilyas Kashmiri, the face of the Al Qaeda in NWFP is now training guns on India. TIMES NOW has accessed the copy of Kashmiri's letter, sent to various jehadi outfits calling for more terror attacks in India -- underlining a new strategy to spread terror.

TIMES NOW's Pradeep Dutta reports, "There are intelligence inputs that with US turning heat on Ilyas Kashmiri, this military strategist is said to have shifted his base from Waziristan to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) where he is trying to activate Lashkar and HuJI cadre to relaunch fidayeen attack in Jammu and Kashmir and other areas."

A copy of the letter signed by Ilyas Kashmiri which intelligence sleuths say is drafted in pure military language reads, "Mujahideen, some suicide persons launching be made, who should penetrate among enemies, sacrifice their lives for noble cause and kill many others."

Ilyas Kashmiri in this letter also claims of having knowledge of safer infiltration routes from where he can easily sneak in suicide squad meant for suicide mission in India. The letter reads, "I know many other routes through which I can easily and safely enter my suicide forces in different states of India. And for this purpose I do not need any permission of a ruler."

It is a threat that has security forces concerned and are bracing for the worst. To thwart any such attempts by the terror outfits the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir are already taking effective counter measures. It is because of these effective and vigilant steps that after Chinore encounter in the heart of Jammu City - in which fidayeen squad of Lashkar were involved - terrorists have failed to carry out any successful fidayeen attack.

Kashmirs was once a blue-eyed boy of President General Pervez Musharraf. He got a cash award from the president for slitting the throat of an Indian Army officer in the year 2000 but after 9/11, he became a suspected terrorist.

Right now the terrorist rewarding Musharraf is getting paid for 'lectures' in some american university. Reflection of the disconnect in the minds of the educated illiterates. http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 10#p790210

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 18 Dec 2009 13:43

{rant deleted}

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 18 Dec 2009 22:58

pgbhat wrote:Headley’s Moroccan wife joined him at Taj from Pakistan

Whats a Moroccan wife? is it like Dutch wife(like AQK) a marriage of convienence for this Headless guy?

This is getting ridiculous.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 18 Dec 2009 23:05

ramana wrote:Whats a Moroccan wife? is it like Dutch wife(like AQK) a marriage of convienence for this Headless guy?

This is getting ridiculous.

Reports say that Headley had a "traditional Muslim" wife in the US and girlfriends all over the world. This woman may be a girlfriend type posing as his wife...

You can imagine all the lecherous Bollywood types fawning after exotic women...

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 18 Dec 2009 23:21

What if she is his contact with the TSP agencies?

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 18 Dec 2009 23:35

ramana wrote:What if she is his contact with the TSP agencies?

She likely has because Headley's India trips were for TSP.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 19 Dec 2009 03:01

took a while for the penny to drop. the copenhagen angle is significant, not for the cartoons, but simply because of the climate summit. there would have been a huge security focus on the city ahead of the summit which probably flushed out various clues which fell into place leading to the focus falling on headley and rana and someone finally joining the dots

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 Dec 2009 04:24

HINDU:

Kasab retracts

Claims he was interrogated by Headley!

Kasab’ said he was interrogated by four foreigners. “Chaar gore aye the. Usme ek Headley tha. [Four white people had come. One was Headley].” David Coleman Headley is now in the custody of the FBI for his alleged involvement in 26/11.

As far as we know there are no pictures of this Headley formerly known as Gilani. All pictures to date are sketches and shoddy passport pictures.

So how is Kasab so sure?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 Dec 2009 04:37

Need to think this Headley affair with a clear mind and connect the dots and find the missing ones.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 19 Dec 2009 04:50

Ramana

Why take what Kasab says at face value? He also denies being a shooter. Clearly someone from TSP has gotten the message to Kasab, Sabahuddin and co that they can use the Headley ruse to create confusion.

Karna_A · Post by **Karna_A** » 19 Dec 2009 04:52

Next time Mahesh Butt of Jokes cries about certain people not able to buy apartments in Mumbai, he needs to be reminded
what sorts of people he/they allow in their homes.
Why can't they take a simple Army Commando around Mumbai or is it too much beneath their dignity and only want Gora skin on outside and a piglet inside?

Karan Dixit wrote:Mahendra,

I noticed one more thing about Rahe-Ullu Butt. He says that he was under impression that Headley was CIA man on mission and yet this *** showed Headley around in Mumbai. Rahul Bhatt has provided logistical support to Headley. There is no doubt about that. For that alone he needs to be in prison till NIA clears him about "whether he knew the true identity of Headley".

Why is this anti-national not in prison?

a_kumar · Post by **a_kumar** » 19 Dec 2009 05:00

Something doesn't make sense in Kasab's statement. He mentions only one name.. Headley. Why is it only one name? And he still remembers this one name after 8 months?

It could be possible he was advised to add it into the mix to throw off the court. He seems to be grabbing whatever he can to escape the noose!

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 19 Dec 2009 05:03

Does this Kasai has access to Newspaper or tv ? If not Who told him about Headley case?