Bharat Rakshak

The detailed testimony of David Coleman Headley of the Chicago cell of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) in the case against Tahawuur Hussain Rana and some others being tried in absentia before a Chicago court has received considerable attention in India and Canada. However, the attention received in Pakistan is limited. The focus in Pakistan seems to be more on his credibility as a witness. Questions posed by the defence lawyer of Rana relating to Headley’s background as a narcotics smuggler and his alleged unreliability in money matters have received greater attention in Pakistan than in India.

Rana is only a co-conspirator in the case. The principal conspirators are Sajid Mir , Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal,Major Iqbal, Ilyas Kashmiri and Major Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Pasha. While the principal conspirators, all based in Pakistan, have been cited by the FBI as co-accused, no action has been taken by the FBI to pressure the Government of Pakistan to arrest them and hand them over to the FBI so that they could be tried along with Rana and Headley. No explanation has been forthcoming so far as to why no action has been taken by the FBI to make Pakistan hand them over for trial in Chicago.

Will the second prong of the FBI’s strategy succeed by sparing the Government of Pakistan of any embarrassment because of the disclosures of Headley regarding the involvement of the ISI? This would depend upon the way the prosecution lawyer and the Judge sum up the proceedings for the benefit of the jury when all the testimonies are over. If they focus only on the evidence relevant to the charges against Rana, they might succeed. On the contrary, if they also focus on the charges against the absconding accused being tried in absentia, it might not.

What are the action options for India?
Draw the attention of the Terrorism Monitoring Committee of the UN Security Council in terms of the UNSC Resolution No 1373 passed after the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US and ask for action against the ISI for violation of the UNSC resolution.
Indian action may not succeed because of a possible Chinese veto in support of Pakistan, but that should not deter us from bringing the evidence to the notice of the UNSC Monitoring Committee.
*Insist that the US should treat the case relating to the involvement of the ISI in the Mumbai blasts on par with the involvement of the Libyan intelligence in an act of terrorism directed against a Pan Am aircraft (the famous Lockerbie case) in 1988, which resulted in the death of all the passengers and crew, many of them US nationals.
The Government of India should insist on the trial of the ISI officers involved before the Chicago court and the payment of compensation to the relatives of the victims by the Government of Pakistan.
Re-energise our case for the declaration of Pakistan as a state-sponsor of international terrorism by the US State Department on the basis of the evidence adduced in the trial. The State Department will avoid doing it as it did after the Mumbai blasts of March 1993, but that should not deter us from taking up the case against Pakistan vigorously once again.

New Delhi, May 27, DHNS:

The United States has committed itself to sharing with India all information about the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai emanating from Pakistani-Canadian terror-plotter Tahawwur Hussain Rana’s trial in a court in Chicago.

The US also hinted at giving India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) access to Rana as well as yet another chance to grill his childhood friend and co-conspirator David Coleman Headley—now a witness of the US government in the case—after the trial in Chicago ends. Headley was earlier quizzed by the National Investigation Agency officials in June 2010.


“The US has given India full access to the witness. When the case is over, there will probably be more access given,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said here on Friday.

She was addressing a news conference along with Home Minister P Chidambaram after they launched the India-US Homeland Security Dialogue. She said Lashkar e-Toiba was as dangerous a terrorist outfit as al-Qaeda.

Pakistan-based terrorist outfit LeT plotted and carried out the November 26, 2008, carnage in Mumbai, which left 174 dead and countless others maimed.

In a joint statement issued after the parleys, Napolitano and Chidambaram “committed their governments to comprehensive sharing of information” related to the 26/11 at­tacks.
The two sides decided to strengthen agency-to-agency engagement in areas like intelligence exchange, information sharing, forensics and investigation, access and sharing of data relating to terrorism.

They also decided to strengthen agency-to-agency engagement security of infrastructure, transportation and trade, conducting joint needs assessments, combating counterfeit currency and countering illicit financing and transnational crime.

Both Rana and Headley were arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in October 2009. Apart from helping the LeT plot the 26/11 attack, Rana and Headley were also indicted for planning attacks on “Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten,” a Danish newspaper that had triggered a controversy by publishing some cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad.

Headley in March 2010 entered into a plea-bargain with the US prosecutors and admitted that he had worked for the LeT and had surveyed the potential targets for terrorist attacks, both in Mumbai ahead of 26/11, as well as in other places in India in 2009.

Headley is now testifying as a witness of the US government in the trial of Rana in the Chicago court. He has over the past few days exposed the role of the Pakistani ISI in plotting the 26/11 attacks. He revealed that the ISI official “Major Iqbal” alias “Chaudhery Khan” had been his handler and not only directed him during his assignments in India, but also monitored the attacks real time.

Chidambaram referred to Rana’s trial in Chicago in his opening remarks in the security dialogue. He told Napolitano that Pakistan had turned into a “global epicentre of terrorism.” “It is a truism to say that India lives in perhaps the most difficult neighbourhood in the world. The global epicentre of terrorism is in our immediate western neighbourhood. The vast infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan has for long flourished as an instrument of state policy,” he said.

“Today, different terrorist groups, operating from the safe havens in Pakistan, are becoming increasingly fused; society in Pakistan has become increasingly radicalised; its economy has weakened; and, the state structure in Pakistan has become fragile. Today, Pakistan itself faces a major threat from the same forces. Its people as well as its state institutions are under attack,” he added.

Headley asked Rahul to not go to South Mumbai on Nov 26, 2008...
Rahul: No comments. There was never anything specific about don't go here or there or the time or about people coming to Mumbai via a boat. I could have been in Taj eating a meal. I knew nothing.

Mahesh: Rahul did talk to David Headley, but much before in 2007 when he befriended him. This was when the Marriott attack had taken place in Islamabad. They were discussing the carnage in Islamabad.

ramana wrote:Inst there a contradiction in Headley's testimony? Earlier he claimed he found out about the 26/11 atack by someone to turn on the TV. Now he says he told Rahul Bhatt not to go to South Mumbai on the 26th which means he had prior knowledge of the attack date.

CHICAGO: As Charlie Swift, the defence lawyer, grappled with another pronunciation of a name or place in the trial of his client Tahawwur Rana, he offered apologetically, "I know I will butcher this." As he wrestled with names of places like Karachi, Lahore and Siddhi Vinayak Temple, the list was endless.

<snip ..>

... and even more importantly, how easily do some South Asian terms and ideas lend themselves to translation? Code words like "Nikaah" for die or "Pir Sahib" for the al-Qaida terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri are relatively negotiable, but what of "Oye Hoy, Shahji," which was interpreted by Headley to the court to mean, "Congratulations, for a job well done." In other words Rana telling him,"Wow, great job in Mumbai."

The defence argued though, that Shahji was a larger caste of Headley's family, and the felicitation was a response to the general good humoured banter that occurred after listening to a particular film song! ...

<snip>
"Kabhi, kabhi, insaan lehaaz me bhi aa jaata hai" referring to Rana's predilection with his `unruly' friend, Headley.

I wondered, a little stumped, "How does one translate 'Lehaaz' and all its overtones?"

ramana wrote:Reuters:
US Witness says ISI leaders didn't know about 26/11

Lalmohan wrote:headley might soon start to spin and discredit his own testimony, and have the case thrown out of court...
that may be the secret plan

ramana wrote:Agent Deadly:

Conducted German bakery survey

UBanerjee wrote:

Lalmohan wrote:headley might soon start to spin and discredit his own testimony, and have the case thrown out of court...
that may be the secret plan

That's a little too convoluted and involves too many self-goals to be an actual plan

Rana found guilty on two counts but not guilty in conspiracy count involving Mumbai attacks #Ranatrial.

Chicago man found guilty of assisting in Mumbai terrorist attacks

BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporter [email protected] Jun 9, 2011 4:44PM

Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana was found guilty Thursday on charges that he assisted in carrying out the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people.

Rana’s terrorism trial drew international attention, particularly for the startling testimony of the prosecution’s star witness, convicted terrorist David Coleman Headley.

Rana allowed Headley to use his immigration business as a front so Headley could research sites for the deadly plots, prosecutors said.

But defense attorneys said Rana, 50, had no knowledge that his childhood friend was scheming overseas.

Headley, who took the stand for the bulk of the eight-day trial, gave an insider’s account of a complex terrorist network involved in the attacks and claimed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, separately gave him identical instructions for scouting and surveilling locations for the Indian siege.

“They coordinated with each other,” Headley said, describing what he believed to be a cozy relationship between Lashkar-e-Taiba and the government intelligence agency.

“ISI provided assistance to Lashkar” through military and financial assistance and moral support, he continued.

Headley’s characterization of LeT and the ISI working in concert was a stunning admission given outstanding questions of the ISI’s possible role in helping protect Osama bin Laden as he hid in Pakistan before he was killed by U.S. forces on May 2.

Headley also said he met with Ilyas Kashmiri to discuss an attack on the newspaper offices of Jyllands-Posten, whose 2005 depictions of the Prophet Muhammad sparked protests in the Muslim world.

Kashmiri, believed to be a senior al-Qaeda member, was killed in a U.S. drone attack earlier this month.

Headley has pleaded guilty for his roles in the Mumbai attacks and the Denmark plot.

rummanahussain Rummana Hussain
Rana's mother-in-law's hands cupped in prayer before verdict. Rana's daughter was wiping away tears when verdict read
9 minutes ago

rummanahussain Rummana Hussain
Guilty on conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark, Lashkar-e-Taiba. NOT GUILTY in count involving Mumbai attacks

The Key Piece of Evidence

Both prosecutors and the defense focused on a secretly-recorded conversation between Rana and Headley during their closing arguments. Federal investigators bugged Rana’s car and heard the two old friends talk for hours as they drove to Kinsman, Illinois, where Rana owned a farm. The conversation took place after the Mumbai attacks. Rana is heard saying the nine Lashkar e Taiba attackers who died conducting the attacks in Mumbai should be awarded medals. The two are also heard talking about the Denmark plot and targeting four other places in India, including a political party and Bollywood, the Indian film industry. Prosecutors said what’s most chilling about the conversation is that Rana and Headley are heard laughing when they talk about more attacks.

Defense attorney Blegen said there are flaws in the prosecutors’ interpretation of the conversation. Blegen said the mood in the car was jovial and the two were not laughing about attacking more places, but joking around as old friends do when they take long road trips together. Blegen also said jurors should consider that there are chunks of the conversation, which occurred in Urdu, which could not be translated into English, so there is no way to put the entire dialogue in perspective.

CRamS wrote:Whats the difference between "Chicago man found guilty of assisting in Mumbai terrorist attacks" and "NOT GUILTY in count involving Mumbai attacks"?

A key argument for the defense also revolved around a trip Rana planned in the fall of 2008, shortly before the attacks. Defense attorney Patrick Blegen asked jurors in closing statements why would Rana plan a trip to Mumbai with his wife if he knew attacks were imminent. They said Rana was warned by Headley not to come to Mumbai and if Rana needed a warning, then he wasn’t involved in the plot.

Amber G. wrote: There is also report that Jury (during deliberation) asked Judge to ask Prosecution and Defense to clarify role of Pasha (was he ISI or LET) .. Judge refused and told them that they have to depend on their collective memory rather than get clarification ...

ramana wrote: Means US succeeded in making GOI ullu again.