Bharat Rakshak

Ahead of the India-Pakistan foreign secretary-level talks, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that all pending issues related to 26/11 investigations would be taken up in the meeting.

Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao will be meeting her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in the Capital on February 25.

“We are yet to finalise the specific issues that would be in the agenda but the pending issues concerning the 26/11 case and investigation also to be part of it,” he said while interacting with journalists at the Indian Women’s Press Corps on Friday.

The pending issues include voice samples of the seven Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operatives accused in the 26/11 attacks, a home ministry official said.

Asked if the Centre is trying to seek access to David Headley, the suspected Lashkar operative in the US, Chidambaram said, “As far as access to Headley is concerned, our position remains the same that we will go through legal process to seek access to David Headley.” Headley is lodged in a Chicago jail.

Asked if he was in favour of talks between India and Pakistan, coming close on the heels of Pune blast and Islamabad’s failure to dismantle terror infrastructure, he said, “It is government’s decision of which I am also a part. The government has decided that the two foreign secretaries of the two countries will meet on February 25 and I am part of the government... All of us have decided that the secretaries will meet.”

New Delhi, February 19 (Agencies): Just a week ahead of the meeting between Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan, Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said issues relating to the probe into 26/11 attacks will be taken up during the parleys. Noting that the “specific issues” to be taken up during the discussions were being finalised by the Indian side, he said the ministry would like “pending issues” concerning the 26/11 case and investigation also to be part of it.
He added that the government was still preparing the list of issues that will be raised at the meeting. The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan are meeting in New Delhi Feb 25 - the first significant official-level meeting between the two countries after India suspended the composite dialogue following the Nov 26, 2008 terror strikes in Mumbai.
India has accused Pakistan-based terror organisations of being behind the attacks, which left over 160 dead and brought Mumbai to a virtual halt for three days. The Indian government has given Pakistan seven dossiers related to the investigating, asking for clarifications on various points of investigation. India has categorically said that it has a one-point agenda for the foreign secretary-level talks, which was Pakistan’s action on tackling terror.
Seeking access to Headley
In an interaction with women journalists, the Home Minister also said his ministry would go through the legal process to seek access to Pakistani-American LeT operative David Headley, now lodged in a Chicago jail. Asked if FBI was holding back some crucial information from the Indian government as was being suggested by some reports, Mr. Chidambaram said, “Well, I don’t know. All I can say is FBI has shared vital information. If they are holding back any information, there is no way my knowing that they are holding back any information.
“And as far as access to Headley is concerned. Our position remains the same that we will go through legal process to seek access to David headley.” Mr. Chidambaram also indicated that he would be attending the SAARC home ministers’ meeting in Islamabad. “If and when it is held, the present position of the government is that we are attending,” he said. The meeting scheduled this month was postponed at Nepal’s request.

Tamang wrote:So it seems no action was taken against Counsel General Chicago for issuing Visa using discretionary powers to David Headley aka Daood Gilani.

SSridhar wrote:Headley was a terror jackal: Rahul Bhatt

"I have become a xenophobic... I have stopped trusting people and I am extremely suspicious of foreigners ...It is xenophobia that I have developed. So now, my guard is up and I am in a constant state of awareness and alertness because of the bizarre incident," said Bhatt who was questioned by security agencies after it emerged that Headley had known him during his stay in Mumbai.

"I have become a xenophobic... I have stopped trusting people and I am extremely suspicious of foreigners ...It is xenophobia that I have developed. So now, my guard is up and I am in a constant state of awareness and alertness because of the bizarre incident," said Bhatt who was questioned by security agencies after it emerged that Headley had known him during his stay in Mumbai.

"My father was making a film on terrorism and I was getting an American perspective from him (Headley).

SSridhar wrote:Headley was a terror jackal: Rahul Bhatt

Exclusive: 'I had a hunch he was an agent'
By Jonathan Miller

Updated on 21 January 2010

David Headley's arrest was the first his Indian bodybuilding friends knew about his involvement in the Mumbai attacks. They speak to Jonathan Miller about how he implicated them .

Extracts from the interview. ……………………

JM: "would you go and see him in jail?"

RB: "Oh definitely."

Channel 4

arun wrote:So I guess Rahul Bhatt will after all not be visiting the Pakistani origin terrorist Daood Gilani aka David Coleman Headley in jail as he had proclaimed in his interview by Jonathan Miller of the UK’s Channel 4

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Prosecutors preparing to try a Pakistani-born Chicago businessman on charges he aided the 2008 Mumbai attackers invoked a secrecy law on Wednesday to control evidence disclosures in the case.

Defendant Tahawwur Rana looked on during a federal court hearing where Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, and other prosecutors asked the judge for a private hearing to lay out the government's classified evidence. The judge set the hearing for March 29.

the law in question, the Classified Information Procedures Act, seeks to balance a defendant's rights against the government's desire to protect secrets and its information-gathering sources and methods.

Rana, 49, is charged along with American David Headley with providing support to the Mumbai attackers, which killed 166 people and set India-Pakistan relations on edge. Two Pakistanis have also been charged but they are not in custody.

Rana and Headley prosecution will be just the second case he's handled in Chicago

February 25, 2010

BY NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has personally prosecuted just one case in Chicago since arriving in September 2001 from New York, where he'd made his reputation prosecuting terrorism cases including the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.

Now, Fitzgerald plans to prosecute what authorities have called one of the most significant terrorism cases in the country — the 2008 bombings in Mumbai, India, that claimed the lives of about 170 people.

Fitzgerald — considered an expert in terror cases — will be on the prosecution team along with two of his assistants, Daniel Collins and Vicki Peters.

Two Chicago men -- Tahawwur Rana and David Headley -- are accused of helping plan the Mumbai attacks.

Headley has been cooperating with prosecutors.

The two men, along with a retired Pakistani military officer and a reputed terrorist leader, are also accused of plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper that published a controversial image of the prophet Muhammad.

At a hearing Wednesday in federal court in Chicago for Rana, Fitzgerald appeared for the first time in the case, saying some of the evidence will be handled under strict rules because it's considered classified.

Fitzgerald's other case in Chicago was that of Muslim charity leader Enaam Arnaut, who prosecutors said was linked to al-Qaida. Arnaut pleaded guilty in 2003 to a racketeering charge and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Written on March 2, 2010 by Editorial Team in National, New Delhi
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday said that useful discussions regarding Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) conduit David Coleman Headley and intelligence sharing were held between him and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller at the end of February.

Presenting the Ministry of Home Affairs’ monthly report card for February, Mr. Chidambaram said: “Mr. Robert Mueller, Director, FBI called on me on February 23, 2010. Our discussions were useful and centered on the case of David Headley and on intelligence sharing.” (ANI)

abhishek_sharma wrote:LeT in Perspective

http://www.newamerica.net/sites/newamer ... tankel.pdf

PTI
First Published : 04 Mar 2010 10:28:18 PM IST
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today allowed the National Investigating Agency to interrogate a suspected LeT militant as part of its probe against Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley charged with conspiring in Mumbai terror strikes.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja allowed an application by the NIA seeking permission to examine Mohd Aslam who was arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell from the national capital in August last year.

Aslam, 27, a suspected terrorist who hailed from Jammu and Kashmir, was apprehended on August 25 from New Delhi Railway Station while allegedly carrying detonators and chemicals, besides a Pakistani passport bearing the name Yusuf.

The NIA sleuths had earlier also been allowed by the court to interrogate Aslam on March two.

In the fresh plea, they submitted that they wanted to quiz him before an independent witness.

Aslam, who had already been chargesheeted by the Delhi police under various provisions of the IPC, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Explosive Substances Act, is at present lodged at Tihar jail here.

The NIA has registered a case against Headley and his Pakistani-Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana in November last year to probe their role in various terror strikes in the country, including the 26/11 Mumbai attack.

Headley, suspected to be in touch with the LeT men who planned and carried out the 26/11 attack in Mumbai in 2008, was arrested by the FBI on October 18, 2009 in Chicago.

Could U.S. Have Halted Bomb Plot?

by Philip Shenon
As an al Qaeda operative is reportedly arrested in Pakistan, U.S. officials are reviewing a Chicago terror suspect’s cooperation—wondering if he could have helped stop an Indian bomb blast.

American officials fear they missed clues in a Chicago terrorism investigation that might have prevented a bombing last month in India that killed 16 people and has threatened to inflame tensions with India’s nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan.

India has blamed the Feb. 13 bombing in the bustling eastern Indian city of Pune on the Pakistani terrorist network linked to the 49-year-old Pakistani-American from Chicago, David Headley, who has been in custody in the Windy City on terrorism charges since last fall.

American law-enforcement and diplomatic officials say they are now trying to determine if Headley, who had recently been cooperating with the investigation, shared all he knew about plans for an attack on Pune—and whether all that information was passed on to Indian authorities.

“Headley is supposed to be cooperating with Justice,” said an American diplomatic official in Washington, referring to the Justice Department. “But our people did gulp after the bombs went off in Pune,” he said. “The question is whether Headley is really telling us everything he knows—if he’s holding something back.”

He said that “India has a right to ask if Headley knows anything that will prevent other attacks” that may now be in the planning.

Officials say that the case against Headley is shaping up to be one of the most important terrorism investigations since the 9/11 attacks, if only because they believe Headley was so central to a terrorist network that was ready to kill Americans abroad—and potentially, at home.

It comes at a time when U.S. officials are going public with their concern that American Muslims and others are being recruited into terrorist networks, including al Qaeda.

In a speech Friday in Los Angeles, the United States ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, outlined a “nightmare scenario” in which a large number of people with American passports trained abroad as terrorists and then returned home.

“They can easily infiltrate back into the United States and, frankly, we don't know what to do about them," she said, according to the Associated Press. "We think there are more out there than we know about."

American officials say it is not fully clear when Headley might have been recruited by Lashkar-e-Taiba. In 2006, he changed his name from Daood Gilani, which American officials say was an effort to avoid scrutiny when he traveled abroad on his American passport.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, which translates as Army of the Righteous, has called for the creation of an Islamic state throughout South Asia. The group is believed to have support among Islamic militants within the Pakistani military.

While it has mostly targeted India in the past, Lashkar-e-Taiba has appeared eager in recent months to attack foreigners, especially Americans and other Westerners, in part in response to American drone attacks on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Late last year, several of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s operatives in Bangladesh were arrested on suspicion that they were plotting to blow up the American and British embassies there. In the Mumbai attacks, six Americans were killed.
Headley has pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges, although law-enforcement officials say he is attempting to negotiate a plea agreement that would require him to continue offering detailed information about the workings of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Headley’s lawyer, John T. Theis of Chicago, told The Daily Beast that he could not comment on the status of any negotiation with the Justice Department, other than to say: “Nothing is imminent.”

He said that Fitzgerald’s decision to handle the case personally “spoke to the importance of the issues involved in the case.” Fitzgerald’s spokesman had no comment on the status of the investigation.

The prosecution is complicating relations between the United States and the governments of India and Pakistan, and between those two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.

The bombing in Pune came only hours before India and Pakistan were to resume high-level negotiations aimed at easing tensions between the two countries.

The Indian government has demanded access to Headley to determine if he has information that could preempt other attacks.

Indian officials also want to understand Headley’s past relationship with the United States government and whether he was some sort of double agent who duped American law-enforcement.

American officials have confirmed that Headley became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration in the 1990s after his arrest for smuggling heroin from Pakistan.

Pakistan has much to fear from the investigation. Its government is alarmed by allegations, widely reported in the Indian press, that Headley has fingered several senior Pakistani military officials as being tied to Lashkar-e-Taiba.

At the same time, law-enforcement officials say, Headley offers an extraordinary opportunity for the United States, since he appears to have detailed knowledge of the leadership structure of the Pakistani terrorist network and claims to be willing to share it.

“When this whole story is told, you’ll learn that this case has made a very valuable contribution to American national-security police,” a law-enforcement officer said cryptically. “If this is done right, we’ll going to be saving some lives here.”

Philip Shenon, a former investigative reporter at The New York Times, is the author of The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation.

Associated Press - March 10, 2010 1:34 PM ET

CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge has turned down a request for release from 1 of 2 men jailed in Chicago in connection with a deadly terrorist rampage in the Indian city of Mumbai.

Tahawwur Rana (tuh-HOW'-ur RAH'-nah) has been held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center since his October arrest and has repeatedly been turned down in requests for bail.

First Published : 13 Mar 2010 04:53:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 13 Mar 2010 09:23:04 AM IST

NEW DELHI / KOCHI: The Lashker-e-Toiba, in collusion with well-entrenched Indian Mujahideen terrorists could carry out terror strikes in Kochi.

The alert issued by the Centre on Friday is based on the National Investigation Agency probe of Lashker conduits David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, and the interrogation of recently caught IM suspect Salman Ahmed alias Chhotu, highly placed Union Home Ministry sources said.

The Home Ministry has asked the Kochi police commissioner to increase security levels at important and crowded places which Rana visited during his recce operations and crack down on all possible IM hideouts, sources said.

The Kochi police have brought the city under tight security following the alert from the Union Home Ministry.

Police officials said that entry points to the city were under close surveillance.

“Teams have been deployed at the airport, railway station and bus terminals to conduct checks,” the officials said and added that all lodges and hotels in the city were also being checked.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba was created to participate in the Mujahideen conflict against the Najibullah regime in Afghanistan.Did they get contacts with US in this task?
In the process, the outfit developed deep linkages with Afghanistan and has several Afghan nationals in its cadre. The outfit had also cultivated links with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and also with Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network. Even while refraining from openly displaying these links, the LeT office in Muridke was reportedly used as a transit camp for third country recruits heading for Afghanistan.[66]

Kashmir
Al-Badr
Al-Badr Mujahideen
Al Barq (ABQ)
Al Fateh Force (AFF)
Al Jihad Force (AJF)/Al Jihad
Al Mujahid Force (AMF)
Al Umar Mujahideen (AUR/Al Umar)
Awami Action Committee (AAC)
Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DEM)
Harakat-ul-Ansar
Harakat-ul-Jihad-I-Islami
Harakat-ul-Mujahideen
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HUM)
Ikhwan-ul-Musalmeen (IUM)
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM)
Lashkar-e-Mohammadi
Jammat-ul-Mujahideen (JUM)
Jammat-ul-Mujahideen Almi (JUMA)
Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP)
Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF)
Jammu and Kashmir Jamaat-e-Islami (JKJEI)
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET)
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Kul Jammat Hurriyat Conference (KJHC)
Mahaz-e-Azadi (MEA)
Muslim Janbaaz Force (MJF/Jaanbaz Force)
Muslim Mujahideen (MM)
Hizbul Mujahideen
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
Farzandan-e-Milat
United Jihad Council
Al-Qaeda
Students Islamic Movement of India Tehreek-e-Jihad (TEJ)
Pasban-e-Islami (PEI/Hizbul Momineen HMM)
Shora-e-Jihad (SEJ)
Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TUM)

Ravi Karumanchiri wrote:Mumbai terror attack suspect expected to plead guilty
March 16, 2010 4:24 PM

A Chicago man is scheduled to plead guilty Thursday in federal court here in connection with the 2008 terror assault in Mumbai, India that took some 170 lives, court records showed today.

David Coleman Headley, 49, has been cooperating with investigators since his arrest in Chicago last October.

To many in India, Headley's volte-face seemed to confirm the estimate that he was a double agent who turned rogue after being brainwashed by the jihadis he was asked to infiltrate.

A lighter sentence for him would validate the "double agent" assumption, besides possibly putting Headley out of reach of Indian agencies forever.
US law forbids access to convicts without their consent, while those released as part of plea bargain are also helped to disguise their real identity to protect them against any retaliation

A senior source, however, played down the fear of Headley being allowed to get away this time, reasoning that the jihadi was trying to escape a death sentence by offering to provide information on Rana, his fellow accused

chetak wrote:

Aditya_V wrote:I think the Rahul Bhatt who is the son of Mahesh Bhatt is different from Rahul Bhatt, son in law of Satish SHarma, Rahul Bhatt son Mahesh Bhatt was born only in 1989 and thank God for that, if MB that close to power, the Pakis will march to Delhi in 2 days.

The correct spelling of our smelly friend and his ( profiting from aman ki nirasha) family's name is actually and correctly butt.

From wiki

Mahesh Bhatt was born to Nanabhai Bhatt, (1915-1999), a Hindi film director-producer. His father was a Kashmiri Hindu Brahmin (Kashmiri Pandit)

Origins

People named Butt were said to be a clan of descendants of intellectual Vedic and Dardic saints that inhabited the banks of the Saraswati River which ran dry around 2000 BC. This forced the community to migrate to Kashmir in search of "ultimate truth".[2] The river was said to run from the Pir Panjal Range in Kashmir down through Punjab and Sindh before emptying out into the Arabian Sea, closely following the path of the Indus River.
[edit]
Kashmiri Pandits

People named Butt were known as Kashmiri Pandits which traditionally refers to people within the priestly Brahmin caste of Hinduism and are speculated as being descendants of Saraswat Brahmins, who are mentioned in ancient Hindu scriptures as inhabiting the Saraswati River valley,

ramana wrote:To be honest I think Indian security agencies fell flat on this one.
Lets trace the mis-steps:

Kati wrote:America spoons out Headley Sweetner
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100318/j ... 230538.jsp

The view here is that if Headley pleads guilty to charges that he scouted targets for the assault on Mumbai in 2008, he is doing so on orders from his former minders in the shadowy world of American intelligence.

Headley was a double agent who worked for US intelligence and he pleaded guilty in court on drug-related charges on the orders of his minders in 1998 to continue his clandestine work for the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

For now, however, Headley’s guilty plea will be a major public relations coup within India for the Americans at a time when Indo-US relations appear not as close as they were under the Bush administration.

ramana wrote:
How is that so? Isn't the US game to keep him out of circulation to prevent their networks from getting exposed. What if Headley wasn't a rogue after all? How does Headley pleading guilty be major PR coup in India for US?

Is the idea that Headley pelading guilty indicts the non state actors in TSP? Who cares when its the state actors who are behind the non-state actors in TSP! And US is behind them!

Looks like too clever by half.

Headley pleads guilty, escapes death penalty

PTI In this December 9, 2009

Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the Mumbai attacks at the behest of the LeT and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, on Thursday pleaded guilty to all terror charges before a U.S. court in Chicago.

Headley, 49, who faces six counts of conspiracy involving bombing public places in India, murdering and maiming persons in India and providing material support to foreign terrorist plots and LeT; and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India, could have been sentenced to death if convicted.

But his plea agreement with federal prosecutors ruled out the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistan and Denmark, provided that he cooperates with the government’s terrorism investigations.

“Headley will cooperate in foreign investigation conducted in the US,” his lawyer John Theis told reporters after the hearing.

Headley, a Chicago resident who was arrested by the FBI’s joint terrorism task force on October 3, 2009, told U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber that he wanted to change his plea to guilty, in an apparent bid to get a lighter sentence than the maximum death penalty.

Son of a former Pakistani diplomat and a Philadelphia socialite, Headley, who was wearing an orange jumpsuit with hands and legs shackled, admitted guilty in all 12 counts during half an hour long hearing.

He also admitted using his friend Tahawwur Rana’s immigration company as a cover for surveillance activities in India and Denmark on behalf of Pakistan-based terrorist groups, including LeT.

Headley, admitted that he participated in planning the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, as well as later planning to attack a Danish newspaper.

He also admitted that he attended training camps in Pakistan operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba on five separate occasions between 2002 and 2005.

In late 2005, Headley received instructions from three members of Lashkar to travel to India to conduct surveillance, which he did five times leading up to the Mumbai attacks three years later that killed six Americans among 166 people and wounded hundreds more.

A 35-page plea agreement containing a detailed recitation of Headley’s participation in terror conspiracies was presented when he changed his plea to guilty.

“By this plea agreement defendant agrees to enter a voluntary plea of guilty to all counts,” said the plea agreement of Headley.

Earlier, Headley was produced before the court under unprecedented security arrangements. Security forces along with sniffer dogs were deployed around the court. Special metal detector doors were erected at the entrance of the packed court room. {What BS!}

Headley has cooperated with the government since he was arrested on October 3, 2009, and the agreement states that he “has provided substantial assistance to the criminal investigation, and also has provided information of significant intelligence value.”

In light of Headley’s past cooperation and expected future cooperation, the Attorney General of the United States has authorised the United States Attorney in Chicago not to seek the death penalty against Headley, the plea said. {So its a US govt decision.}

Regarding sentencing, which will be deferred until after the conclusion of Headley’s cooperation, the plea agreement calculates an anticipated advisory sentencing guideline of life imprisonment.

“Today’s guilty plea is a crucial step forward in our efforts to achieve justice for the more than 160 people who lost their lives in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Working with our domestic and international partners, we will not rest until all those responsible for the Mumbai attacks and the terror plot in Denmark are held accountable,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.

“Not only has the criminal justice system achieved a guilty plea in this case, but David Headley is now providing us valuable intelligence about terrorist activities. As this case demonstrates, we must continue to use every tool available to defeat terrorism both at home and abroad,” it said.

Earlier, Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai had said that if Headley gets severe punishment and comes out of the judicial process, it would be easier for India to get access to him in jail.

“If he is given a light sentence, it would not only be disappointing but we will be registering a very strong protest with the U.S.,” Mr. Pillai told a news channle in New Delhi.

The American terror suspect had got away with a lesser sentence after he was arrested in 1998 for smuggling heroin into the U.S. from Pakistan as he cooperated with the investigation in the case.

He was sentenced to less than two years in prison and thereafter went to Pakistan to conduct undercover surveillance operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.