The Curious Case of Daood Gilani alias David Headley & co

[sum]

Truely, the bar for India's patience( a.k.a "Laxman Rekha" ) has been raised so high that cant imagine what is it that any nation can do to cause hit to hit back ( with things others than WMDs like 100000 page dossiers)

[arun]

Besides inordinately delaying India’s access to Pakistani origin Islamic Terrorist Daood Gilani aka David Coleman Headley, another good way for the US to protect its client the Islamic Republic of Pakistan while plausibly maintaining the fiction that terrorism targeting India is of concern to the US, is to insist on non -disclosure of the evidence obtained from the interrogation :

Philip J. Crowley
Assistant Secretary
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
July 21, 2010 ………………………..

QUESTION: As part of the cooperation and partnership between India and U.S., you allowed Indian Government officials access to David Headley, but there was a clause that both countries will not disclose the contents of the interviews. Two of the top ministers in India have given out all the details they have got and there are reports – media reports that U.S. is angry about it. Would you like to react on that?

MR. CROWLEY: Well, we value the cooperation between India and the United States on law enforcement and combating terrorism; it’s important. It does place responsibilities on both countries. We fully expect both countries to live up to their respective responsibilities.

QUESTION: No, but follow --

MR. CROWLEY: I understand. I’m not going to comment specifically on it.

State Dept

[Patni]

Chidambaram shared report at CCS meeting

Jul 23rd, 2010 -- Namrata Biji Ahuja and Ramesh Ramachandran | New Delh

Union home minister P. Chidambaram is understood to have shared copies of David C. Headley’s interrogation report with the cabinet committee on security, of which Mr S.M. Krishna is a member, besides NSA Shivshankar Menon.

Sources said the Indian high commissioner to Islamabad and a “note taker” from the Indian mission there were present in all but one meeting which the Indian side had had with Pakistan when Mr Chidambaram visited that country in June. “Except the one-on-one meeting between Mr Chidambaram and Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik, in all the other meetings the high commissioner and a ‘note taker’ from the mission were present. So they are privy to all information that the delegation discussed with Pakistan,” a source said.
The sources dismissed the claims that the home secretary had put out the details of Headley’s interrogation in the public domain. Even Mr Krishna had said that Headley’s interrogation has revealed many things and that India cannot be faulted for asking Pakistan to take suitable action based on “such irrefutable evidence”, it was pointed out.
Further, the sources maintained that New Delhi had not violated any understanding reached with the US on the interrogation of Headley.
Reacting to reports that the US was upset with Indian officials going public with what Headley had told Indian investigators, a source said, “There will be no case against Headley using his confession. But we can use his interrogation details against other persons accused in the case.”
Therefore, the comments made by officials here citing Headley’s revelations of the ISI’s involvement in 26/11 did not violate the agreement, the source explained.

[chaanakya]

Though FIR has been filed against DCH yet NIA has chosen not to ask for NBW . NBW is needed for RCN by interpol. Serves as precursor to extradition. It appears to me that GOI does not intend to go for extradition as yet. NIA argued that whereabouts of DCH is known to NIA and had access so there was no need for NBW. qpq for access to DCH.
Unprecedented inspired leaks coming into media is meant to deflect public anger over non access or limited access given to NIA.

[ramana]

x-post...

Take this for what ever it is worth

Headley's 26/11 revelations 'ticking time bomb' in Pak-US ties

WASHINGTON: David Headley's revelation that LeT planned the Mumbai attacks with possible help from the ISI is a "ticking time bomb" that could wreck the US- Pakistan relationship and take the subcontinent to disaster, a former CIA official has warned.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and now with the prestigious Brookings Institute, said Pakistan should carry out a "thorough house cleaning" of its military after the Pakistani-American LeT operative's revelations that attackers had links to the ISI.

Dont know where he said this! Was it on C-SPAN?

[sum]

X-post:
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.

Seems NIA knows quite a bit about the Indians involved...

[krisna]

dossier war

Pakistan has handed over another dossier on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley to India seeking more information about his role in the November 2008 Mumbai carnage.

[krisna]

Dossier sharing 'turns into game', India wants action

New Delhi is getting increasingly disillusioned at the lack of seriousness in Islamabad over acting against perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks. "Given the kind of questions they had asked the last time, we are expecting them to send another questionnaire… They have turned this into a game," a government official said.

The official, however, confirmed that Delhi had not yet been refused the voice sample of key Mumbai terror attack accused including Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operative Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

[ramana]

Has the NIA connected DCH to Heywood's internet router, the one with the wireless modem without password?

[krisna]

Hunting with the hounds

The question of who is in charge of Pakistan — the civil administration or the army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) — is one that has infuriated most Pakistani leaders and officials. But it is a valid one, given that the Interior Minister Rehman Malik's assurance to Home Minister P Chidambaram, on voice samples of those accused in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai has been reversed for flimsy reasons.
Pakistani law, apparently, requires consent for such recordings, something the lawyers of the accused, that include Lashkar-e-Tayyeba's Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, have refused. It is fairly clear from evidence gathered by India and handed over to Pakistan that those whose voice samples have been sought are complicit in the attacks.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made an extraordinary concession when he said that he'd seek to pursue peace regardless of reciprocity. This is the kind of olive branch that hostile neighbours can only dream of.
Sadly, Pakistan and whoever is in charge has not been able to respond in any manner to this rare show of statesmanship. Anyone who wants Pakistan to count among the comity of nations must move to sideline the people who seem to decide on life and death issues at will.
It makes eminent sense to cooperate with India to bring the likes of Lakhvi to book. Those hell-bent on jihad quite easily turn on their benefactors as Pakistan has discovered all too painfully.
It is still not too late for Pakistan to stop its slide into complete isolation and irrelevance. But first it must understand that abused spouses, by silence and cover-ups, will only invite more violent retribution upon themselves.

As long as the pleasure of hurting India is more than the pain of self mutilation this will continue. Not much hopes in cooperation. Yes India must pursue its efforts to bring the culprits to book.

[Patni]

26/11: Court Sets Oct 11 for Hearing Govt in Rana Case

Himani Kumar/Chicago | Sep 22, 2010

The prosecution in the case of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, Pakistani American terror suspect and co-accused in the Mumbai attack case, will present its evidence in a US court on October 11.

At a status hearing for Rana, held here today, the court set October 11 as the date for the government to present its evidence. The defence, on the other hand, will present its case on October 18.

Rana, 49, was accused along with LeT operative David Coleman Headley in a 12-count indictment and accused of providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba to carry out the Mumbai terror attacks.

Rana is also accused for plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper which published controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

At Rana's status hearing the government moved its Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) Section 4 filing to October 11. CIPA filing relates to the motion related to classified evidence.

"We will present our CIPA section 5 filing on October 18," Rana's lawyer Patrick W Blegen and his co-counsel Charlie Swift, told PTI.

The next official status hearing for the case is set for October 27.

The trial for Rana remains on track for Feb 14, 2011, as decided earlier by US District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber.

Rana was indicted by a federal grand jury on Feb 15 this year, while Headley had pleaded guilty in March to plotting the Mumbai carnage.

[ramana]

How many takers there will be plea bargain again? OTH it might get dragged till after the visit.

[ramana]

Mr. Blair briefs White House about people with American passports being trained in TSP is one among the many revelations in Woodward's new book.

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 12#p945012

[ramana]

X-post...
The Union Republic of Terror

The 26/11 Terror Strike “The ISI, I believe, had no ambiguity in understanding the necessity to strike India,” Headley told the NIA team led by Lokenath Behera. It was under “tremendous pressure to stop any integration of Kashmir-based jehadi organisations with the Taliban-based outfits. It’s always in ISI interests to keep these two sets of outfits poles apart.”

The NATO presence in Afghanistan too was encouraging LeT fighters to leave in droves. They wanted a piece of the action there, but the ISI wanted to keep their covert war against India intact. “The aggression and commitment shown by several splinter groups in Afghanistan influenced many committed fighters to leave Kashmir-centric outfits and join the Taliban category of outfits. I understand this compelled the LeT to consider a spectacular terrorist strike in India.”

Initially, the planned attack was much smaller, with only the Taj as the intended target with a couple of attackers. But the intense pressure on ISI “accelerated the Mumbai attack project” and eventually turned it into “a grand plan of the LeT to strike Mumbai with multiple locations with multiple attackers”.

Headley made eight trips to India between 2006 and 2008. On each trip, he set up a logistic base in Mumbai to gather data without raising suspicion. He opened an account in “a bank housed in a building” near Hotel Outram in south Mumbai where he was staying. Being a charming man, he also made friends quickly, among them director Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul (to whom he even boasted about his Pakistan contacts) and others like Aswin Rajpal, Villas Varak and Kaniaz Messman.

Over the next few years, Headley also tried to get close to the Shiv Sena’s Rajram Rege in a bid to gain access to Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and his family who were a pet peeve for Hafiz Saeed. Interestingly, so successful was Headley that he continued to remain in touch with Rege even after the Mumbai attack and exchanged mails with him in 2009!

On his seventh trip to India in April 2008, Headley went on four boat rides; on April 12, he surveyed the Mumbai coast using a fisherman’s boat. He also took pictures of the CST railway station. In the third week of June, he was asked to go to Mumbai again. This was his eighth trip to India and the time he surveyed the Leopold Cafe#, the Israeli consulate and the Trident Hotel. He purchased red threads from the Siddhivinayak temple for the terrorists and fed in the coordinates into his GPS. Headley also travelled to the Wagah border to check the connectivity of a Vodafone SIM card, which the terrorists would use after they landed in Mumbai.

Interestingly, a key aspect of the attack was an elaborate escape plan for the terrorists. Headley had suggested the LeT’s top commanders ask the terrorists to attack the targets and melt into the crowd in the ensuing confusion. Subsequently, they’d take trains and buses to Delhi, proceed to Kashmir and then return to Pakistan. But this plan was dropped and it was decided instead to create strongholds in the hotels and Chabad House. This was now to be a suicide mission; returning home was no longer an option.

The bunch made three attempts to launch their attack. The first was in mid-September but they almost drowned as the sea was rough. The next attempt came in mid-October; this time the boat apparently hit a rock. The third attempt in November proved successful. Indian security agencies, which had received an alert in September and November, failed to connect the dots.

{What about October? No warning?}


Headley also helped investigators identify the voices of handlers sending instructions to the holed-up terrorists. Many were veterans of terror attacks on India. Abu Hamza, the man who carried out the attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, was a key planner, instructor and handler. So was Sajid Majid, a top LeT official. He was the one who asked the terrorists in Chabad House to ensure that none of the Israelis were left alive. Most of them were dead even before the National Security Guard could reach Mumbai. They also had plans to create a stronghold at the CST station but a police team, led by Mumbai’s joint commissioner of police Sadanand Date, foiled that plan.

Worth reading in full.
-----
So this guy recall is an undercover American agent and looks like he was principal planner and facilitator of the Mumbai attack and we are expected to believe the US knew nothing of what he was doing in TSP with the ISI?

[Anujan]

Mr. Blair briefs White House about people with American passports being trained in TSP is one among the many revelations in Woodward's new book.

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 12#p945012

Not only that, several American citizens in training camps were killed in Predator attacks. Woodward says CIA hushed it up because of legal implications of killing Americans. The entire drone program would have been under peril if it emerged that some of them who got their 72s were US citizens.

[Patni]

The news already posted in the Mumbai 26//11 thread. Posting here for Headley link.

26/11: Pak army majors in the dock, Interpol issues Red Corner Notice

October 07, 2010 6:59:50 PM

PTI | New Delhi

International arrest warrants were issued by the Interpol against five Pakistani nationals including two serving Army Majors for their alleged role in Mumbai terror attack and plotting to carry out more strikes in this country.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the role of Pakistani-American LeT operative David Headley in India, had approached the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi which issued a non-bailable warrant against the five Pakistanis.

The Interpol Red Corner Notice were issued against Illyas Kashmiri, Major Sameer Ali, Major Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Hashim alias "Pasha" and Sajid Majid alias Sajid Mir, a NIA official said today. The action followed a request from India.

India had already secured a Red Corner Notice against founder of terrorist outfit Lashker-e-Taiba(LeT) Hafeez Saeed, his close aide Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Mohammed Ramadhan Mohammed Siddiqui alias Abu Hamza.

The court issued the non-bailable warrant against the five after the NIA submitted interrogation report of Headley conducted by its official during the visit of its team to Chicago in June this year.

The names of these five were also included in several dossiers sent by India to Pakistan.

Headley helped NIA identify voices of handlers giving instructions to the holed-up terrorists during the 60-hour carnage in Mumbai in November 2008. The handlers included Abu Hamza, the man who carried out the attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and a key planner, instructor and handler.

He also identified Sajid Majid, a top LeT terrorist, who asked the terrorists in Chabad House to ensure that none of the Israelis were left alive.

Abdur Rehman retired in 2007 from the Pakistan army as a Major. He worked closely with Lashkar-e-Taiba and coordinated the activities of Headley. He was arrested in 2009 in Pakistan on unspecified charges and later released.

Major Iqbal was Headley's handler who arranged funds and training in intelligence-gathering. Iqbal gave him 25,000 dollars in August 2006 to visit India. Another Pakistani Major Sameer Ali was also named by the Pakistani-American terrorist.

The Interpol had on August 25 last year issued Red Corner notices to Saeed, Lakhvi and Abu Hamza. The notices were issued after a Mumbai court issued a non-bailable warrant against the two for their role in the Mumbai attack.

India has also sent proof and request for issuing a similar warrant against Lashker commander Zarar Shah and Abu Al Qama, to which the the Interpol has said that it was analysing the evidence against them.

Saeed had allegedly provided training to terrorists between 2007 and 2008-end at Muridke (LeT headquarters), Manshera, Muzzafarabad, Azizabad, Paanch Teni in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

[Amber G.]

x-post
NBC Reports today: (Recently disclosed: Headey's wife told FBI almost three years ago that the scum was L-e-T terrorist)


FBI was warned of Mumbai plotter's terrorism ties
(Posting all relevant part)

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.
The previously undisclosed allegations against David Coleman Headley, who became a key figure in the plot that killed 166 people, came from his wife after a domestic dispute that resulted in his arrest in 2005.
In three interviews with federal agents, Headley’s wife said that he was an active militant in the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba, had trained extensively in its Pakistani camps, and had shopped for night vision goggles and other equipment, according to officials and sources close to the case. The wife, whom ProPublica is not identifying to protect her safety, also told agents that Headley had bragged of working as a paid U.S. informant while he trained with the terrorists in Pakistan, according to a person close to the case.

Federal officials say 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 U.S. authorities that he was in contact with al Qaeda operatives in Europe.
In the four years between the wife’s warning and Headley’s capture, Lashkar-i-Taiba sent Headley on reconnaissance missions around the world. During five trips to Mumbai he scouted targets for the attack, using his U.S. passport and cover as a businessman to circulate freely in areas frequented by Westerners. He met in Pakistan with terrorist handlers, including a Pakistani major accused of helping direct and fund his missions, according to court documents and anti-terror officials.


In March, Headley 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.
It is not clear from the available information whether a different response to the tip about Headley might have averted the Mumbai attacks. It is known that U.S. anti-terror officials warned Indian counterparts several times in 2008 about a possible attack on Mumbai, according to U.S. and Indian officials. The warnings included details such as a threat to the iconic Taj Majal hotel, which became a target, officials say.

But the handling of the Headley case calls into question the progress of American law enforcement and intelligence agencies in improving their coordination and ability to “connect the dots” and deter attacks. It also raises questions about a complicated relationship between American authorities and a confessed terrorist.
Court records and interviews show that Headley served as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration starting in the late 1990s. But a former senior U.S. law enforcement official said Headley’s work as an informant ended before the Mumbai attacks were launched in 2008. He could not say whether Headley was working for the drug agency during the years when he was helping to plan the attack.

“Headley was closed as an informant because he wasn’t producing anything,” the former senior official said. He said he believed Headley’s relationship with the DEA ended “years” before Mumbai, but did not have more precise information.
Federal officials refused to discuss the 2005 tip other than to confirm that the FBI conducted an inquiry into the allegations by Headley’s wife.
“We can confirm there was a lead based on his wife’s tip,” said an official who requested anonymity because of pending legal cases. “We can’t get into details.”
FBI officials said they could not comment on their agency’s role in the case because of ongoing prosecutions in Chicago and overseas. A DEA spokesman declined to comment because of a policy against discussing informants. NYPD officials confirmed the details of the assault arrest, but declined to discuss the terror inquiry.
Anti-terror officials noted that federal authorities in New York City are deluged with tips and warnings about suspected extremists.
“They get half-a-dozen leads a day like this,” a U.S. anti-terror official said. “People ratting out family members, people with grudges. Something like this does not ramp up to the White House.”
The tip came at a time of heightened fears about Pakistani terrorism. A month earlier, al Qaeda suicide bombers trained and directed in Pakistan had struck the London transport system. In previous years, a group of militants in Virginia had been given life sentences for training with and supporting Lashkar. Former Lashkar trainees had also been prosecuted in foiled plots against New York, London and Australia.
Mumbai joins a list of cases in which plotters caught the attention of authorities beforehand: London in 2005, Madrid in 2004, the September 11 attacks. Advance warning signs are part of the landscape of counter-terrorism. Facing many threats and limited resources, authorities must make hard choices, a British spymaster said recently.

“We appear increasingly to have imported from the American media the assumption that terrorism is 100% preventable and any incident that is not prevented is seen as a culpable government failure,” said Jonathan Evans, chief of MI5, in a speech. “This is a nonsensical way to consider terrorist risk.”
Official silence makes it hard to assess what happened in the Headley case. Court documents and interviews depict Headley, who is now 50, as a chameleon-like figure with a taste for risk and a talent for deception. Because of his sophistication and unusual profile, he was a valuable asset to police, spies, criminals and terrorists, officials say.

“Headley’s a fascinating study,” the U.S. anti-terror official said. “I see him as a mercenary, not ideologically driven. He’s not an Islamic terrorist in the classic sense.”
Headley was born Daood Gilani in Washington, D.C. His Pakistani father was a renowned broadcaster. His mother, whose maiden name was Headley, came from a wealthy Philadelphia family.
Gilani moved to Pakistan as an infant and attended an elite military school. Returning to the United States at 17, he married, divorced and slid into the drug underworld and heroin addiction, court records say. He had a fast-talking charm and, strikingly, a green eye and a brown eye. In addition to Urdu and English, he told associates he spoke Pashtun, Farsi and some Arabic.
In 1988, the DEA arrested him in Germany for smuggling heroin from Pakistan, court records show. He cooperated and got four years in prison while his co-defendant got 10.
In 1997, three years after Gilani moved to Manhattan to run two video stores purchased by his family, the DEA arrested him again for another heroin deal. Agents soon obtained his release and he became a prized informant, records show.

“He…helped the DEA infiltrate the very close-knit Pakistani narcotics dealing community in New York,” prosecutors said in a 1998 letter recommending a lenient sentence. He also “traveled to Pakistan…to develop intelligence on Pakistani heroin traffickers.”

Gilani was sentenced to 19 months in prison, but was freed on probation in less than a year. Records show that while he was still on probation he got permission in 1999 for a trip to Pakistan for an arranged marriage. Previously casual about his Muslim faith, he became radicalized. He sought out new recruits and raised funds for Lashkar and began preparing for its mountain training camps, getting corrective eye surgery and taking horse riding lessons, according to a person close to the case who requested anonymity.
Gilani’s mix of extremism and Pakistani nationalism pushed him toward Lashkar, because of its popularity in Pakistan and its fight against India, anti-terror officials say. Although Lashkar is a longtime al Qaeda ally, it still functions largely unscathed in Pakistan, officials say.
After the September 11 attacks, Gilani told associates that he planned to train with Lashkar as part of a secret mission for the U.S. government, the person close to the case said.
“The FBI and DEA have joined forces and I am going to work for them,” this person quoted him as saying. “I want to do something important in my life. I want to do something for my country.”
Federal officials say Gilani was never an FBI informant, however. The DEA and FBI work together on task forces and the DEA sometimes shares informants with other law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The unusual circumstances of Gilani’s departure for Pakistan reinforce the theory that he may have been working with the government in some capacity at that time. A federal court discharged him from probation in December 2001, well before the scheduled end date in 2004, court records show. Within two months he was training in Pakistan with Lashkar, which had just been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Pakistan, documents say.

To my concern that Intelligence (Indian Intelligence, Consulates which gave him visa etc too, could do much better in future) should learn from this. Indian Intelligence, along with others should scan (it is NOT hard to go through all police and other public records in US - there are Indians working for google) and ANY tip should put a red flag.

[ramana]

As an exercise lets see if one can dig up his record from 2005.

Most likely he was let(pun!) off as he was on assignment.

[Amber G.]

As an exercise lets see if one can dig up his record from 2005.

Most likely he was let(pun!) off as he was on assignment.

Ramana - IIRC when I first heard the name, simple (think intelius.com - or some other service) internet search produced much more than newspapers reported.

Hence, all this talk ( 'He was 'let off' of other evil designs from Unkil) is very poor excuse for failure of Indian Intelligence and its consular office (these guys are so bad - inefficient - they can't even return telephone calls). It's NO rocket science, if every Visa application goes through "people search" type background check (will take lass than a few minutes) to see if anything suspicious (eg about a person's previous name etc, criminal record etc)

They would have found out, that the person has changed the name from Gilani to Headley in 2006 - (We had NO trouble finding it out with just a few clicks of mouse), would have known the person's fathers name too. (DC records Syed S Gilani )

I think Indian Authorities wanted to talk to his wife, ex-wife, wife_girlfriend sometimes early this year.. (His first wife (Divorced in 1985) and Paki-wife (Sazia ?) are not hard to trace... Fazia Outalha's (GF or wife - Moroccan who stayed with him in Taj etc) whereabout are not known (Likely to be in Pak ?)..

My point is when simple search could bring up lot of information..why not train consulate staff with google skills .. and not get caught napping?

BTW, I do not have much time, (and login for detail searches) but I can see records for "Daood S Gilani" (Born in 1960) His father, and various relatives, (and David Headley etc ...To put it mildly, it would not have been that difficult (specially after his arrest, and by a skilled investigator) to see all the previous arrest records and go through it.

[Amber G.]

url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 0101505105[/url]
^^^ Another detail article in WP about Headley.. worth a read for interested ...

....In December 2002, Gilani married his girlfriend of eight years in New York. He used return visits to buy ropes, hiking boots and military books, and to research prices for night-vision goggles. He also continued to claim he was a paid U.S. informant, the person said.

The court documents that outline Gilani's 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 Aug. 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 Aug. 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 Sept. 11, 2001, 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 Aug. 31, New York City police arrested Gilani for alleged misdemeanor assault, according to police officials. He was released on bond 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.

[ramana]

Karan Dixit can you add this data to the timeline blog?

[ramana]

BTW new info:

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/11/22/31734/003

[svenkat]

del

[Patni]

Posting link to the original investigative report by "propublica" a version of the same is published by Washington post as linked by Amber G in previous post.


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

by Sebastian Rotella
ProPublica, Oct. 15, 2010, 5:18 p.m

ProPublica researchers Lisa Schwartz and Nicholas Kusnetz contributed to this report.

[Patni]

mm the latest revelation by Propublica proves beyond doubt that US agencies had a role in allowing headley to assume his new identity. They had him on scanner in 2005 itself even if one buys that FBI had no idea he was DEA agent/informant till that date, its clear they had him on scanner so no way they can not know about the same guy changing his name on 16th Feb 2006 to David coleman Headley in order to get under scanner and get multiple entry visa to India! Curiously the danish cartoon got published in sept 2005 and higtned threat perception from paki reactions and riots might have prompted us agencies to try and plant him with name change and eye surgery etc.

[Amber G.]

India is inefficient(and callous too in some aspects of life in India) but Unkil is efficient in its callousness.Thats the way the world is.

It (Unkil's Callousness) is really irrelevant where it really matters,The main responsibility to avoid 26/11 is India's. Cursing US may make one feel good (and requires little effort) but better, much better is, improve our readiness , and do everything to prevent it happening it again.

This latest round of 'revelations' is pressure on Pakis to GUBO in North waziristan or Unkil will reveal everything about Kiyanahis involvement in 26/11 about which amirkhans were aware right from the time of planning,etc.

I for one do not care, even if is true (and I don't think that there is any sort of grand/evil plan ..could be just incompetence that the revelations came now), Doesn't matter if Kiyanahi is involved or Amirkhans are, or MMS, 26/11 types must be stopped. Important part is to discuss, what can be done, not lash out with blind rage.

For once,I hope pakis develop cojones and call the bluff of unkil,that unkil's devilish game is making it lose all credibility in the region.And retaliate with the lives of a few hundred amirkhan soldiers who are in an islamic country.

How will it help? Those hundred amirkhan soldiers (many of them are Indian origins or family of people like me) did not take part in 26/11. Kasab and other scums did. Just to put a face, let me just tell a personal story:

Last year, I was at a dinner party given by one one of these "Amirkhan" (A US Navy scientist), in honor of Indian naval and coast guard officers. These officers, finest, most patriotic Indians, I assure you, were in US for special training. One of the coast guard person was actually involved in 26/11 rescue efforts. (He had access to Kasab and interrogated him). They would NOT be in US (along with their family for extended stay to train here in USA) if they did not see the difference between amirkhans and terrorist scums.

To put it mildly, there is no evidence. GOI, or any court in India has not indicted any US soldier for 26/11 yet you are hoping that US troops die by the hundreds. What is beyond any doubt (and GOI in all its official statements have made it publicly known) the actual help (GPS data, Telephone calls etc) given by US.

Respected and democratically elected government of India, does not see US as enemy yet sheer hatred creeping in this kind of narrative is amazing!

I would request, if some kind of restrain is observed here before people start wishing deaths of others.

[Amber G.]

Patni - I think every one goofed big time, and learn lessons. FBI, local police in US must do better job of coordinations and keep India in the loop. I am sure things have to change. India should (if they have not already done that) get access and as much information as humanly possible from all the Headly's contacts, and what is more important, any future occurrence. (For example any police arrests, FBI tips which causes reasonable suspicion should be shared with Indian Intelligence, Visa Authorities.. At the same time, Indian Visa procedures should get as much safeguards as possible.

Even if US helped to get him a new identity, there were numerous other things which should have rang..(his numerous trips to India + Pakistan etc could have raised questions at one of his entry.

I remember that US approved US visa to one (or was it two?) of the 9/11 hijackers after he flew into WTC. So they can be pretty incompetent too. Hope every one learns a lesson.
(So wrt "... the latest revelation by Propublica proves beyond doubt that US agencies had a role in allowing headley to assume his new identity" .. may be, or may be some one was incompetent .. either case this is a very big goof up)

[Johann]

Mr. Blair briefs White House about people with American passports being trained in TSP is one among the many revelations in Woodward's new book.

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 12#p945012

Not only that, several American citizens in training camps were killed in Predator attacks. Woodward says CIA hushed it up because of legal implications of killing Americans. The entire drone program would have been under peril if it emerged that some of them who got their 72s were US citizens.

Anwar al-Awlaki is a test case in the making.

How long before the family of a Western citizen targeted in a drone strike manages to sue in an American court, or even bring criminal charges in a European court? This is one of those issues that will mobilise financial and legal support both on the radical left and among Muslim communities.

Plus in the US there are real constitutional issues here, and the USG might well lose at the supreme court.

[Pranav]

The most interesting aspect of the 26/11 attack is the faked phone call from Pranab Mukherjee to Zardari. It was blamed on Omar Saeed Sheikh (freed in the Kandahar hijacking, and murderer of Danny Pearl, presently in a TSP jail). But one suspects that there is more to the story.

[Malayappan]

One more from WaPo
Scout in Mumbai attacks was DEA informant, authorities say

In that piece

Another federal official said Headley was a DEA informant in "the early 2000s." "I couldn't say it continued into 2005, but he was definitely an informant post-9/11," the official said.

Kashmiri's network has played a central role in sparking the recent U.S. alert about intelligence that al-Qaeda is plotting "Mumbai-style attacks" in Europe, U.S. officials told ProPublica.
"Kashmiri is directly linked to those threats, especially involving Britain and British Pakistanis," the federal official said Saturday. "There is some linkage to Headley."

[Kati]

26/11: What US knew & didn’t tell K.P. NAYAR
The Telegraph, Kolkata, oct 17, 2010

Washington, Oct. 16: The Mumbai leg of President Barack Obama’s visit next month, already entangled in a web of intractable issues, has been further complicated by a revelation here that three years before the November 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai, US officials knew that co-conspirator David Coleman Headley was undergoing training with the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which plotted the attack.

In September 2005, officers of no less than New York’s joint terrorism task force investigated a tip-off from Headley’s American wife, who showed them audio cassettes and described his emails and phone conversations with those in Pakistan who want to create mayhem in India.

The new details, product of an investigation by ProPublica, an independent non-governmental organisation which “focuses exclusively on truly important stories with moral force”, suggest that the repeated warnings from the US to India of an attack on Mumbai were prompted by what they knew and did not share with New Delhi at that stage about Headley.

It is unlikely that India would have given a visa to Headley for his repeated visits to Mumbai to scout Lashkar targets if his photographs had been shared with India to be put on an immigration blacklist.

“The warnings included details such as a threat to the iconic Taj Mahal hotel, which became a target,” the investigation by ProPublica said. It raised the question “whether a different response to the tip about Headley might have averted the Mumbai attacks”.

The American media is already being deluged during the weekend by the revelations, not because any tears are being shed here for Mumbai but because several US citizens were killed in the 2008 terror attacks in the city.

The expose is being viewed by the Obama administration to be damaging enough for their President’s coming visit. The US ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, took the unusual step of issuing a weekend statement that “we are looking into published reports about possible information related to David Headley that goes back before the Mumbai attacks and how such information may have been handled”.

Roemer’s pre-emptive statement to control potential damage before the revelations spread in India said: “When we have determined exactly what transpired, we will be in a position to speak to the specific claims made in the... media reports.”

The ambassador recalled: “We have also provided Indian authorities with access to Headley in US custody so that the Government of India could put questions directly to him.”

What Roemer did not address at this stage was whether the Indians were ever told about the critical role played by Headley’s wife in tracing her husband’s links with Lashkar or whether any access to her was provided to Indian investigators.

The fear here is that such information may reveal that the US did not do all that it could have done to prevent the attack on Mumbai.

It has been officially acknowledged here after Headley’s arrest that he was an informant for the US drug enforcement administration in the 1990s. It is believed that he later became a double agent.

Possibly because of fears that his intelligence connections with the US government would be exposed, Headley was not detained until almost a year after the attack on Mumbai. He was detained only after it became known to British intelligence that he was plotting similar attacks with al Qaida in Europe.

The latest Headley saga revealed by ProPublica begins on August 25, 2005, when the Lashkar conspirator’s wife demanded a divorce after learning that he had another wife and children in Pakistan.

“They argued... and she filed an assault complaint alleging that he ‘struck her several times in the face’,” according to new accounts.

“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.”

The New York police department confirmed that on August 31, 2005, Headley, still going by his original Pakistani name of Daood Gilani, was arrested on the wife’s complaint for alleged misdemeanour and assault, but was never prosecuted for reasons that can only be speculated on.

“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 emails and calls from Pakistan and to individuals whom she thought to be extremists,” the new revelations said.ProPublica was a recipient of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. It is led by Paul Steiger, the renowned former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, and its team includes credible top American investigative reporters.

[svenkat]

AmberGji,
The last word has not been said on this saga.Let us wait until then.Also US perfidy is going on for too long.

I agree spitting venom takes no effort and it has no 'use'.How one wishes the US/Western media/academia('humanities' stream)/diplomatic corps/Church also have some similar innocent notions.

[abhischekcc]

We all know that DCH was/is a US double agent. So, when we combine the new information with this fact, we are still unable to solve one question:

Remember that when DCH controversy first broke out, we had faced a fork in the direction of enquiry:
1. Is DCH a US double agent gone rogue?
2. Was 26/11 a US (false flag) operation, in which this double agent gives plausible deniability to the US?

Even at that time, it was clear that DCH is a US double agent. So the question really was, was DCH working for US or LeT+others (when he was activating 26/11)?

The new information still is unable to help us know whether 26/11 was a US operation or not.

It does put a lot of egg on US' face, but they are shameless. They will make an omelette of this crisis and have it for breakfast.

[Raghavendra]

Another Headley wife also warned of his terror and India links http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 762623.cms

WASHINGTON: Less than a year before the Mumbai terrorists attacks, a second wife of David Coleman Headley warned US officials in Pakistan that she believed her husband was plotting an attack, according to the New York Times. She also told them he was passionately anti-Indian yet travelled to India all the time but she appeared not to have been taken seriously.

The new revelation about the warning by a young Moroccan woman came a day after a report that in 2005, an American woman who was also married to Headley told federal investigators in New York that she believed he was a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), created and sponsored by Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency.

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

Headley, 50, it said, was a longtime informer in Pakistan for the US Drug Enforcement Administration whose roots in Pakistan and the US allowed him to move easily in both worlds.

An examination of Headley's movements in the years before the Nov 2008 Mumbai attack, 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 Times said.

The investigative news organization ProPublica reported Saturday that Headley's American former wife told the authorities that Headley boasted about working as an American informant while he trained with LeT.

The Times said, Headley's Moroccan wife, Faiza Outalha, claimed 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.

Outalha, 27, 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 LeT. 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 Times 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.

"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."

He was married at least three times, according to the Times. For one period he was married to all three wives - Outalha, who is a medical student half his age; a New York makeup artist; and a conservative Pakistani Muslim - at the same time.

Besides Headley's guilty plea in a US court, seven Pakistani suspects have been charged there. American investigators say a critical figure who has not been charged is Sajid Mir, an LeT operative who became close to Headley as the plans for the Mumbai operation unfolded. The investigators fear he is still working on other plots

Meanwhile, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement Saturday, "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.

[abhishek_sharma]

U.S. Had Warnings About Plotter of Mumbai Attack

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/world ... adley.html

[CRamS]

The new information still is unable to help us know whether 26/11 was a US operation or not.

Thats something we will never know in black & white.

It does put a lot of egg on US' face, but they are shameless. They will make an omelette of this crisis and have it for breakfast.

Thats what power is all about, and diplomacy between unequals. US stll has the audacity to say India US cooperation on terror is unprecedented. 26/11 brought India and US closer and other crap.

As I mentioned once before, the good guys in the US govt know that India has been cheated for past 60+ years in the manner in which they have propped up TSP, covered up TSP's terrorist machinations against India, and hence the desire to make amends out of a sense of guilt. The occasional coziness to soothe India's H&D like this Obama visit (not to mention "deals" that benefot US) is a manifestation of this. I don't buy this BS about US getting cozy with India to contain China. Not much India can offer on that count. I guess US is quite content with India being a counterweight to TSP and vice versa. India TSP equal equal onlee .

[svenkat]

Raju saar used to say that Pakis did not have the 'chutzpah' for 26/11.He may be completely wrong but he was very vocal about a larger conspiracy which might never be found out.

But why should amirkhans do it? It makes no sense.Their perfidy is well known.Still they are not perverted or depraved.

[abhishek_sharma]

One more from WaPo
Scout in Mumbai attacks was DEA informant, authorities say

When a country wages "global war on terrorism" on several continents and pontificates on all kinds of issues, it has a special responsibility to ensure that its citizens practice what their government preaches. It would also help if government agencies (e.g.. DEA) do not hire terrorists.

[Philip]

We've said it time and again.The US cares "F" all about India and if India gets attacked continuously by Paki terrorists.US intersts are all that matter to them and India is just another nation to be exploited for as much as the US can squeeze out of us,using weak leaders and traitors in the Indian political establishment.Rent-boy Pak will always eb their favourite.When Obama visits I sincerely hope that the Non-US bought media in India asks bold questions about US chicanery in frontpage articles to the Mess-iah.

[SSridhar]

Another Headley wife also warned of his terror and India links http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 762623.cms
Meanwhile, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement Saturday, "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.

The bolded portion above is not the question. This US official is obfuscating the issue here. The question is that two of his wives have clearly said that he was hobnobbing with the LeT, that he was passionately anti-Indian, that telephone conversations, eMails proved he was trying to create a mayhem in India, that he was possessing Islamist material, and that he was travelling frequently to India on suspicious-looking business. With terrorism being top in the minds of everyone, anyone would have connected the dots. The US officials must have forewarned India about a certain Daoud alias David Coleman Headley. It was for the Indian officials to act thereafter. Rather, the US chose to keep mum because Headley was their man. Or, if they did not want to blow the lid off their own guy, they should have stepped in and warned him from going to India (even if the US still wanted him to infiltrate LeT).

They now take refuge under 'vague and imprecise information' etc. while everybody knows that Headley was an American double agent, that the Americans knew what was in the offing even if they did not have precise information and yet chose not to tip India off, that the Americans did not rein in their own guy who was obviously plotting a terrorist attack on India, that the Americans had to arrest him only after he was found to be involved in terrorist plot codenamed Micky Mouse against Denmark's newspaper Jyllands-Posten and not because of Mumbai 26/11, that the Americans went to extraordinary lengths to prevent Indian interrogators from accessing this guy, that the Americans placed extraordinary restrictions on the Indian interrogators when finally they reluctantly allowed them access to Headley, and that the Americans, after all these, are continuing to protect this terrorist through plea-bargain and such legalities.