The Curious Case of Daood Gilani alias David Headley & co

[svinayak]

Could he be a double agent?

He is THE US agent and 26/11 was a joint operation

[vera_k]

^^^

So who was involved from the US side, and why would the FBI reveal so much about the plot if it were so?

[archan]

He is THE US agent and 26/11 was a joint operation

Let us clarify. Joint operation between who? and what are your sources?

[SSridhar]

Acharya, your theory is untenable unless you can back it up with some shred of evidence.

Headley's first visit to India after 26/11 was in March, 2009, unless he had been part of the FBI team under a diplomatic passport. One FBI team arrived in Mumbai on November 29 and the other team (that interviewed Kasab and others) arrived in Mumbai on December 17, 2008.

[SSridhar]

MODI, AHMEDABAD WERE HEADLEY TARGETS

‘Karachi Project’ Had Plotted Spectacular Strike On Civilians In City

Besides the above, Somnath temple & Bollywood Stars were also on crosshairs

Obviously, the Bollywood stars would have been top non-Muslims. Bollywood - Rahul Bhat, any connection ? Police need to question Rahul Bhat very, very closely.

Pakistanis cannot let go of their obsession with Somnath.

Besides the National Defence College in New Delhi, Somnath temple in Gujarat, certain Bollywood stars and Shiv Sena leaders in Mumbai were also the targets

“In his post-arrest statement, Rana falsely claimed that these were references to potential business ventures. It is difficult to imagine why a person who praises the work of a designated terrorist group that attacks India would look at an Indian temple or a Hindu nationalist party as a business venture,” the FBI noted.

[Lalmohan]

Just curious, were any esteemed Bollywood, media contacts asked to stay from the TAJon the night of 26/11?

akshay kumar in a tv interview said that his wife was inside the taj on the night and trapped for a while, and they worked very hard to keep the news out of the media. obviously she got out ok. you can imagine what the piglets would have done had they found out.

if you look at the modus operandi, even if bhatts et al, were in cahoots with gilani, they would not be warned. they would be killed like the rest without pity. very likely they were thoroughly used to gain access into 'the scene'.

gilani and rana were probably being watched by a number of agencies without fully understanding all the chess pieces or having sufficient evidence. over time the pieces began to fit. besides, by trailing them, more and more nodes of the network would be uncovered. now of course every tom dick and harry is claiming to have a headley connection, i am expecting schoolboys to blame being late on headley disrupting their route in the morning next

[enqyoob]

Let me help out Acharya.

Here's the Mother of All Credible Sources:

Sabahuddin Ahmed, one of the three arrested accused in the 26/11 terror attack case, has claimed that

There you go. Hari-Chandra, move over! Who can be more credible than Sabahuddin Ahmed?

[Ananya]

well one more point ( may be fictious) Bhatt's family and the trainer have stated that the picture is not the same as headley ( this could be Rana, this has been discussed earlier ) but could have come in with the clueless FBI team.

[ramana]

Very odd!

One wonders what is really going on!

Could he be a double agent?

There is also the interesting case of five US Muslims who were recruited via the Internet but were not accepted by the Taliban as they were wary that they were US agents!

PTI says:

FLASH | Wednesday, December 16, 2009 | Email | Print |


'Headley could be 'double agent' of US agencies & Lashkar'

PTI | New Delhi

Indications that US terror suspect David Headley could have been a "double agent" for American agencies and Pakistan -based outfits have become clearer for Indian investigators with mounting evidence coming there way.

Top official sources said that there is a strong suspicion that US agency CIA knew about Headley's link with Lashkar-e-Taiba one year before Mumbai attack but did not convey it when he was freely travelling across India.

The investigators believe that the US agencies kept away the information from India and never allowed the Pakistani- origin Headley to get "exposed".

The 39-year old terror suspect, arrested by FBI for his role in Mumbai attacks, had visited India in March 2009 -- four months after Mumbai attack carried out by LeT -- but FBI still did not inform India that Headley is a LeT operative, apparently fearing he could be arrested in India.

The sources said that they apprehended that if Headley got less punishment in court then India would have a reasonable ground to believe that Headley was a US agent and also working for LeT.

It could also add credence to the belief that there was a plea bargain between Headley and US agencies, made a rare move: They ended his probation years early, allowing him to travel freely.

Within weeks, investigators cited by McClatchy said, he began training with terrorists in Pakistan.

New details are emerging about the strange double life of Headley, the son of a Pakistani broadcaster and a Main Line socialite who would spend evenings holding court and drinking splits of champagne in her bar, the Khyber Pass, McClatchy said.

He was briefly married to a Philadelphia woman in the 1980s whom he met at the bar, who, like a lot of other young women, was mesmerised by his dark skin and piercing eyes - one blue, the other brown.

{So why does Rahul Bhatt claim Headley was a gora?}


He later became a heroin addict, and twice was caught smuggling the drug into the country by the DEA, in 1988 in Frankfurt, Germany, and in 1997 in New York. Both times, he got off with a lighter sentence by testifying against his partners.

It quickly became clear to federal law enforcement officials in New York that Headley knew a great deal about the heroin trade between the US and Pakistan and was willing to cooperate, McClatchy said.

Sources said if Headley gets a jail term of just two to four years then India will press for his extradition after he serves his sentence.

During his multiple visits to India, Headley had spent a lot of money running into lakhs of rupees through credit cards issued by American banks and in fake Indian currency, believed to have been brought from Pakistan.

Indian investigators were now trying to find out who had paid his credit card bills in the American banks.

The sources said the US agencies gave Indian authorities two inputs about possible terror attack before 26/ 11 -- in September and October 2008. On both the occasions, the LeT aborted their missions at the last minute.

{So Headley tipped the TSP folks?}

During their discussions, FBI officials told Indian investigators that Headley does not want to be questioned by Indian investigators, raising suspicion that the US agency does want him to be questioned by India.

Sources said now the Indian investigators will be able to question Headley only after filing a chargesheet against him in connection with Mumbai attack case.

About Headley's accomplice, Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, sources said during his visit to Mumbai he did lots of shopping -- sarees, pants, shirts -- but left behind everything.

I think the unmentioned third agency is the TSP's ISI.

So he is 2 1/2 agent.
1: ISI, 2: US 1/2: LeT

[svinayak]

Acharya, your theory is untenable unless you can back it up with some shred of evidence.

Think outside the box

[shravan]

The sources said the US agencies gave Indian authorities two inputs about possible terror attack before 26/ 11 -- in September and October 2008. On both the occasions, the LeT aborted their missions at the last minute.

{So Headley tipped the TSP folks?}

If they knew Headley's had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba one year before Mumbai attack, why did they not inform Indian Intelligence when he visited Mumbai in April 2008 & July 2008.

From La Times: Timeline of David Coleman Headley

April 2008: Visits India for several weeks, and at Lashkar's behest, makes a surveillance video of his boat ride through the Mumbai harbor. Authorities later say this video was used by the 10 Lashkar gunmen to identify the best landing sites after traveling by boat from Pakistan.

July 2008: Visits India for several weeks, then Pakistan.

October 2008: Apparently comes to the attention of the FBI after posting inflammatory messages on a Yahoo discussion group, including that he felt "disposed toward violence" against Danish cartoonists and others he thought were "making fun of Islam."

[svinayak]

If the knew Headley's had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba one year before Mumbai attack, why did they not inform Indian Intelligence when he visited Mumbai in April 2008 & July 2008.

Usually intel agencies never share the source. Only the info

[Gagan]

The point I want to raise is,
The LET / ISI / David Headley were planning an attack on the Danish newspaper's offices.

Now to go to denmark, they will have needed educated individuals, not country bumpkins like kasab or the other idiots we heard over their phone conversations.

Most likely these young men for the denmark attack would originate from western countries and would hold western passports. Perhaps an international team representing different nationalities would be chosen to deflect any linkage to pakistan.

Thus it is curious that the composition of the 5 chaps from virginia is such that they are of different origins. These are the chaps who ran away to pakistan, soon after headley's arrest news broke, perhaps to escape the dragnet that was to follow.

Either way, the Falls Church area of Virginia is now a hotbed of islamic fanaticism.
1. Two of the 911 hijackers prayed at the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center there.
2. These 5 chaps who ran away to pakistan are from that area.
3. Today there is news that two more guys from georgia one of who was born in the virginia area have been convicted for sending videos of targets in the US.

[pgbhat]

Falls Church, VA is like 8 miles from Langley. Should not be difficult to monitor.

[Gagan]

This Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center's name seems to pop up quite a lot.

If I were to be sarcastic, this is the new binori madarsa of the western hemisphere.

[Lalmohan]

a few years back i was in washington dc, got into a taxi driven by a somali type guy. after a few minutes he started preaching jihad to me and how evil amreeka was... i distinctly recall we drove past the capitol in the midst of this tirade... weird

[gandharva]

ISI-LET Link Exposed

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/107195/des ... -link.html


B Raman is present on the panel.

[ramana]

If the knew Headley's had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba one year before Mumbai attack, why did they not inform Indian Intelligence when he visited Mumbai in April 2008 & July 2008.

Usually intel agencies never share the source. Only the info

He might still have been on assignment at that time.

[enqyoob]

a few years back i was in washington dc, got into a taxi driven by a somali type guy. after a few minutes he started preaching jihad to me and how evil amreeka was... i distinctly recall we drove past the capitol in the midst of this tirade... weird

Oh! Must be the local Jeehad Talent Scout of the Federation of Bakistani Imams. The "dispatcher's radio" was on "record" mode, no doubt.

[Karna_A]

Only ignorance of how intelligence actually works can result in such a deduction.
All inteliigence agencies have all sorts of people on their payroll. There are quite a few Talibs on Indian payrolls. Does that mean Quetta Shura is Indian?
Bhindarwale was originally a Zail singh creation. That does not mean in June 1984 he was acting on Zail Singhs behalf.
SeeAiA/AfbeeAi has all types of people on its payroll. They are not employees but are contractors and it would be stupid not to have people like Headley giving some info atleast even if it's only about drugs.
But it's one thing to say Headley was a double agent(contractor), entirely different ball game saying 26/11 was a joint operation.
Its equivalent to saying Zail Singh conspired with Bhindarwale resulting in Bluestar
while he was the Commander in Chief of IA.

Could he be a double agent?

He is THE US agent and 26/11 was a joint operation

[Gagan]

Intel agencies / Agencies dealing with crime can't afford to be squeaky clean. These dirty men have to be on their payroll, usually these guys sell to the highest bidder.

Except that with the jihad business, some of these chaps can't be negotiated with.

The SeeAiA/AfbeeAi, have this problem, that they can't 'blend in' in the Indian Subcontinent, and so they have little option but to use these scumbags, and as history will state, once a Paki always a paki.

[Patni]

Chicago Man Accused in Terror Plot Denied Bond

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 15, 2009

Filed at 6:39 p.m. ET

CHICAGO (AP) -- A federal judge on Tuesday declined to release on bond a Chicago man accused of planning to attack a Danish newspaper and of knowing beforehand about last year's terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan said 48-year-old businessman Tahawwur Rana has the means and know-how to flee the country to avoid a possible 30-year prison term if released pending a trial.

''He has substantial financial resources,'' she said.

Rana, dressed in an orange jumpsuit with a gray beard, remained impassive at the news he would remain in jail.

Rana is charged with providing material support to terrorists in a planned attack on the Danish newspaper. The paper, Jyllands-Posten, published a dozen cartoons in 2005 that depicted the Prophet Muhammad and set off protests in the Muslim world.

Prosecutors say Rana, who owns a number of businesses including an immigration service and a goat farm, made travel arrangements for an alleged coconspirator, David Coleman Headley, as he moved around the world to plan the Denmark attack.

In a court filing Monday, prosecutors alleged that Rana was in Mumbai days before the Nov. 26 attack by members of a Pakistani group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. They said Rana was told about the plan to attack the city when he flew from India to the Persian Gulf city state of Dubai.

Defense attorney Patrick Blegen attacked the government's conclusion that Rana was briefed in advance about the Mumbai attack, saying it was based among other things on preliminary transcripts of Rana's interrogation following his arrest and poor quality recordings made by federal investigators.

''The unintelligibles -- there are more of them than the intelligibles,'' he said. He said the government wouldn't vouch for the accuracy of the transcripts.

Blegen acknowledged that Rana was in the Indian city days before the attacks, but said Rana had brought his wife along, and that he wouldn't have put her in harm's way if he had known an attack was pending.

''They're saying he knew about some terrorist plan and took his wife along on some sort of jaunt,'' Blegen said. ''I say that's absurd.''

He said the government took statements made by Rana after his arrest out of context. He said prosecutors' allegation that Rana knew about the Mumbai attack was based on vague statements Rana made after his arrest.

''All he said to the agents was that there are bad things happening all over the place all the time,'' Blegen said.

Rana, a Canadian national who once served in the Pakistani military, is not charged in connection to the Mumbai attacks.

Headley, the 49-year-old son of an American mother and Pakistani father, is charged in both the Danish and Mumbai cases.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Collins said the government is trying to enhance a recording of a conversation between Rana and Headley, but that enough of it is intelligible to understand them clearly to be talking about Mumbai.

''There's no question what they are talking about,'' Collins said.

Also charged separately with planning the attack in Denmark is a former Pakistani military man, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed.

Looks if state dpert. going to push for 30 yers sentence for rana then it got to be least 4-5 life terms for headley. IMHO FBI will try and avoid being mentioned, in official papers, any link of headley with DEA or any other government agency and might not press for capital punishment as bargain. Maybe GoI should extract and try to get out in open the link between him and handlers/masterminds serving in TSPA. Make it impossible for US admin to certify that Pakis are not up their usual double game and stop all the bakshis they openly send to pakiland!

[Patni]

Headley echoes Kasab: names Abu Qahafa as 26/11 trainer

Express news service Tags : Abu Qahafa, Kasab, David Coleman Headley Posted: Wednesday, Dec 16, 2009 at 0458 hrs New Delhi:

In further corroboration of David Coleman Headley’s involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, the FBI’s latest court submission states that Headley named Abu Qahafa in a conversation with accomplice Tahawwur Rana as the person who trained the 10 terrorists.

This matches Mohammed Amir Ajmal Kasab’s statement who also named Abu Qahafa as a key trainer. Kasab told interrogators that Qahafa briefed them on the layout of Mumbai, gave detailed computer presentations on the target sites and how to reach these, including entry and exit points.

The FBI has already charged Headley with surveying the attack sites in Mumbai and then passing on information to handlers in Pakistan. Clearly, Headley and Qahafa were in close coordination.

In Monday’s submission before a Chicago court, the FBI, providing details of a conversation where Rana is effusive in his praise for those behind the 26/11 attack, mentions Headley’s response: “Training was by Abu Qahafa”.

According to the FBI, Headley explained that “LeT Member A” briefed the attackers on the targets. The general understanding here is that Sajid Mir is the person being referred to as LeT Member A as he was in touch with the attackers even during the attack. Headley further said: “This jamaat (group) prepares people really well”. Rana agreed, “Yeah, there they stood their ground”.

FBI accounts reveal that an impressed Rana named LeT member A as Khalid bin Walid who is a historical figure known as the most successful commander of the Prophet Mohammed.

[SSridhar]

Headley shopped in Mumbai using fake Indian currency and American credit cards

David Coleman Headley, during his travels in India, splurged in shopping in malls in Mumbai and elsewhere, used American credit cards and at times also made payments using fake Indian currency. Interestingly, he left all his goodies behind in India.

“All this is under the purview of the probe. We are also looking into all circumstances like who made his credit card payments and who supplied him with fake Indian currency,” top officials of the Union Home Ministry said on Tuesday.

Some of the Bollywood personalities, including Rahul Bhatt{name reappearing after some time}, whom Headley had befriended, reportedly told the investigators that Headley spoke fluently about military operations, commando training and other such aspects and they got the impression that he could have been a “CIA agent” on some kind of mission but certainly was not a businessman as he made himself out to be.

Highly placed government sources said Headley’s life-style gave enough indications to the investigators that he “double crossed” everyone, including those handling him in Pakistan as well as the U.S. agencies. He has a traditional Pakistani wife who lives with their children in Chicago and he also has an American girlfriend, a make-up artist in New York. Investigators here believe that he may have entered into a relationship, during his multiple visits to India on business visa, with a woman.

Though the U.S. agencies had alerted India about the possibility of a terror strike in Mumbai through sea route in September 2008 and even named the Taj Hotel as one of the prime targets, they knew about the terror plot about a year before that. “There were two earlier botched up attempts to launch terror attacks in Mumbai, but terrorists succeeded in their third attempt on November 26 last,” the sources said. . . .

. . . he provided so much information about his Pakistani drug contacts, his own involvement with drug trafficking, which dated back to a decade, and about his Pakistan suppliers, that he got less than two years in jail. He later went to Pakistan to conduct undercover surveillance operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

. . .He then moved his family to Chicago and claimed to work for an immigration agency, owned by Tahawwur Hussain Rana

. . .yet another look was being given at the working of the counter-intelligence wings of the Indian agencies who never imagined the possibility of a Pakistani-origin U.S. citizen being involved in the LeT network and conspiring to launch terror attacks in Mumbai.{It speaks very poorly of Indian intelligence agencies if they were labouring under such impressions}

[Kati]

The point I want to raise is,
The LET / ISI / David Headley were planning an attack on the Danish newspaper's offices.

Now to go to denmark, they will have needed educated individuals, not country bumpkins like kasab or the other idiots we heard over their phone conversations.

Most likely these young men for the denmark attack would originate from western countries and would hold western passports. Perhaps an international team representing different nationalities would be chosen to deflect any linkage to pakistan.

Thus it is curious that the composition of the 5 chaps from virginia is such that they are of different origins. These are the chaps who ran away to pakistan, soon after headley's arrest news broke, perhaps to escape the dragnet that was to follow.

Either way, the Falls Church area of Virginia is now a hotbed of islamic fanaticism.
1. Two of the 911 hijackers prayed at the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center there.
2. These 5 chaps who ran away to pakistan are from that area.
3. Today there is news that two more guys from georgia one of who was born in the virginia area have been convicted for sending videos of targets in the US.

Very good point. let me butt in -

1. Around the time FBI was tracking rana-Headley, it was also investigating Somali immigrants around Minnesota getting lost - and surfacing in Somalia to fight against the govt on behalf of
Al Shahab/Shabab - an AQ offshoot.

2. Headley and Co must have been scouting for the piglets in and around Denmark to do their
hatchet job against the danish newspaper.

3. Just around ten days ago, the somali suicide bomber who killed a scores of people in
Mogadishu including three cabinet minister was a Somali immigrant settled in Denmark.
So FBI has every reason to be worried with the missing MN somali immigrants.

4. Denmark, compared to its size, has a good size somali community.

Now join the dots and see why unkil had to act to protect its NATO brethern.

[sum]

Intel agencies / Agencies dealing with crime can't afford to be squeaky clean. These dirty men have to be on their payroll, usually these guys sell to the highest bidder.

As former RAW chief, Vikram Sood always says:

Intelligence is a game of scoundrels played by gentlemen.

[arun]

Hmmmm …………….. Looks like a case of old habits die hard with the US reverting to the old habit of covering up for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan when it comes to terrorism targeting India that emanates from there.

Mail Today via India Today:

CIA hid Headley terror connection from India

Asian Age:

CIA didn’t give full 26/11 info

[Philip]

The Headley affair is echoing what i said some time before his name became infamous,that the manner in which the US was protecting Pakis responsible for 26/11 dspite all the damning evidence against them,that we would perhaps in the future find out that 26/11 had a CIA angle to it.

This is now being borne out by the Headley case contortions.The CIA/US agencies well knew about what Pak was planning for 26/11 as historically the ISI and CIA have been two sides of the same coin from the days even preceding Gen.Zia.Today it is a case of "thieves falling out",hence the chaos in Pak and the family feud which has set the country on fire.The US's gameplan has always been to control both India and Pak,make us subservient to them through any manner of chicanery and emasculate our N-deterent.This neccessitated a covert diplomatic operation to reduce regional tensions,especially during Musharrat's era after his Kargil fiasco rubed it into the Paki military establishment's nether regions that they couldn't gain Kashmir by force.India had to compromise across the negotiating table what it did not compromise with on the battlefield.So we were hoodwinked into the deception of lesser cross-border terrorism if we became chums with Pak.

Part of this deal was the carrot of tech supplies and military muscle to deal with China,were we conveniently forgot to see that the US had strted resuming arms supplies to Pak,ostensibly to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan! Gen.Bandicoot let the cat out of the bag when he said that pak misused US aid to arm itself against India.The gameplan was to pretend that the cross-border terrorists were not in the pay of Pak but rogue Islamists who were fighting against them all over the country and in Afghanistan and that idniaa nd Pak had to work together,cementing the US's strategy for the region,cleverly putting a brake upon our N-deterrent through the hidden terms of the N-deal.

Each act of terror saw the US offering us more intel assistance,which was easy for them as they knew from their ISI partners what was going to happen.
"Light the fire,then pretend to be the firefighter".One unanswered Q is what were the CIA operatives supposedly killed in the Taj attack doing there?Where they upto some clandestine secret operation or were they actually part of the 26/11 team,monitoring the mayhem and perhaps even guiding the Paki commandos? Was the attack on the Jewish centre unknown to the CIA? Was it not in the original plan and a secret aim of the turncoat triple agent and his handlers wild with the US for their Af-Pak drone attacks and gameplan there? Their presence in the hotel as guests during the attack in the light of the headley disclosures appears very suspicious and NOT a coincidence.It appears that all along the US/CIA knew that 26/11 was going to happen and allowed it to take place so that they could leverage India in the aftermath into an even closer embrace with their military and intelligence establishent.As they say."truth is stranger than fiction".

[R Vaidya]

Are there two fellows called Headley- one white and another Paki with blue/ brown eyes?
Is FBI playing games?
The Paki fellow is arrested and the Recee felow at large?
The photos/ drawings are confusing. Bhat says he is Gora?

[R Vaidya]

Rana and headely visa file missing at chicago consulate.
Probe on
http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articl ... 344257.cms

[pgbhat]

Are there two fellows called Headley- one white and another Paki with blue/ brown eyes?
Is FBI playing games?
The Paki fellow is arrested and the Recee felow at large?
The photos/ drawings are confusing. Bhat says he is Gora?

From http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 90#p776790

Today, Mr. Headley is an Islamic fundamentalist who once liked to get high. He has a traditional Pakistani wife, who lives with their children in Chicago, but also an American girlfriend, a makeup artist in New York, according to a relative and friends. Depending on the setting, he alternates between the name he adopted in the United States, David Headley, and the Urdu one he was given at birth, Daood Gilani. Even his eyes — one brown, the other green — hint that he has roots in two places.

David Coleman Headley, alias Daood Gilani

Source

Tahawwur Hussain Rana

Source

[enqyoob]

Wow! I guess they need a basket for the heads that are/should be about to roll. As soon as this Rana scandal broke, Indian media reported that Rana was thick with the Indian Consulate, and had been issued special visa exempt from police reporting and from 180-day limit. Both actions served to avoid scrutiny of his background by intelligent eyes. Also reported that it was done on specific instructions from the Consul.

The Consulate denied any special treatment.

Then Indian media reported that they had seen the passport and the stamp that clearly said "Discretion of the Consul"

The Consulate "categorically denied" any such thing, defying fact and logic.

NOW they say they can't find the file? There has to be a very good, non-accidental reason for this. And Nirupama Rao Herself has confirmed that there is a huge problem! This would indicate that it is not a GOI-GOTUS scam to protect Rana as an agent.

So what's going on here? Prima facie, it would appear that the Indian Consul in Chicago is being painted as a Lashkar e Toiba agent, and a stupid one at that. Is it plain corruption?

[Tanaji]

This whole Headley affair is mysterious. Think of it, we have one man who:

• Met Rahul Bhatt
• Has different coloured eyes
• Is simultaneously a gora and a desi
• Had open access to the Indian consulate in Chicago
• Met with various Bollywood stars and was thick with the Bhatt clan
• Did reconnaissance in Mumbai
• Did training in Pakistan
• Was close to LeT top commanders
• Was present in control room of LeT during Mumbai attacks
• Came with FBI to interrogate Kasab
• Had deep knowledge of drug trade in Pakistan
• Was in cahoots with ISI , CIA and LeT, all at the same time
• Had access to almost unlimited funds, with credit cards on American banks, bills paid by who knows?
• Had access to Indian counterfeit currency notes

Others can add more....

I mean this is mind boggling. He is either a hybrid of James Bond, xXx, Jason Bourne combined or there is something else going on here.

[Dilbu]

I mean this is mind boggling. He is either a hybrid of James Bond, xXx, Jason Bourne combined or there is something else going on here.

Smoke and mirrors for the mango man.

The security lapse in issuing the visa must be thoroughly investigated and exemplary punishment must be meted out to those involved. We might end up looking nanga in public but thesecurity loophole has to be plugged. GoI and babus, do you have it in you?

[Patni]

So what's going on here? Prima facie, it would appear that the Indian Consul in Chicago is being painted as a Lashkar e Toiba agent, and a stupid one at that. Is it plain corruption?

In same thread a few pages back we have links to reports that mentioned campaigns by Indian community to get the consul-general Ashok Kumar Attri recalled.

The discovery of the felony conviction becomes important in the context of the growing controversy over how he got a long-term Indian visa from the Indian consulate in Chicago, where the consul-general Ashok Kumar Attri is under fire for lax oversight. Some Indian community activists who have been campaigning against Attri for long have sought his recall.

On further search courtesy Google:

Indian diplomat in Chicago accused of 'divide and rule' policy

By IANS
Tuesday,18 August 2009, 18:12 hrs
Chicago: Simmering tensions between members of the Indian American community in Chicago and Indian Consul General Ashok Kumar Attri have come out in the open with prominent community members accusing the diplomat of dividing the community.

Matters came to a head at the India Independence Day celebrations where the consul general was conspicuous by his absence. Neither did any consulate staff attend the parade on Devon Avenue, the heart of Chicago's Indian district, nor the banquet the previous day.


The parade, which is attended by thousands of Indian Americans from Chicago and the neighbouring Midwestern states, is the highlight of the Indian Independence Day celebrations for Chicago's Indian American community. The Indian consul general has always been the guest of honour, alongwith members of the US Senate or Congress and lawmakers from the state of Illinois.

Hyder Mohammed, president of the Federation of Indian Organizations (FIA), the umbrella body of Indian community organisations in the Chicago area, said that the FIA had not extended an official invitation to Attri to attend the festivities, in protest against his consistent "insulting" behaviour.

"The FIA has never been invited for any event organised by the consulate. When Attri took over (as consul general) the entire board of the FIA met with him, introduced ourselves to him and welcomed him to the city. But he has never invited the organisation to any event. As a representative of the government of India, his job is to serve the Indian community. It is very unfortunate that instead, he adopts this policy of divide and rule," Mohammed, a physician turned businessman, told IANS.

Attri's rift with the community goes back a couple of years. Soon after he took over as the consul general in Chicago in 2007, Attri was invited to attend the Indian Independence Day festivities in Rolling Meadows, a Chicago suburb. Community leaders say they resented that he chose instead to attend another event organised by the Asian American Coalition.

"The host country for that event was Pakistan," said Iftekhar Shareef, a former FIA president, and one of the few Indian American community leaders to remain untainted by the scandals swirling around deposed Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

"The Indian Independence Day event was held a bare 10 minute drive from the Asian American Coalition dinner," Shareef told IANS. "Many American politicians attended both events. How can the Indian consul general, with a good conscience, attend an event hosted by the Pakistani community and skip entirely the Indian Independence Day event? He could have come for 10 minutes at least."

Attri did not respond to a request from IANS for comment.

Meanwhile, investigations against prominent Indian American community leaders in connection with the corruption charges against Blagojevich had its impact on Independence Day festivities this year.

As some had predicted, only a handful of American politicians attended.

In the past, the parade and banquet were attended by at least a couple of US congressmen, senators or members of the Illinois Senate. Past participants in the parade have included Barack Obama, then a US senator.

Although Pat Quinn, Blagojevich's successor, who has a stellar reputation as an honest politician, attended the parade this year, the rest of the VIP guests comprised mostly local aldermen (the American equivalent of the municipal corporator).

Many community leaders rued that this was due to the image of the Indian community in Illinois as wheeler dealers. None of the Indian Americans being investigated in connection with Blagojevich scandals have been convicted or even charged of any crime. But nevertheless, the community's fall from the "model community" could be attributed to the fact that more often than not, in politics, perception trumps reality, said community old-timers.

[pgbhat]

Attri's rift with the community goes back a couple of years. Soon after he took over as the consul general in Chicago in 2007, Attri was invited to attend the Indian Independence Day festivities in Rolling Meadows, a Chicago suburb. Community leaders say they resented that he chose instead to attend another event organised by the Asian American Coalition.

"The host country for that event was Pakistan," said Iftekhar Shareef, a former FIA president, and one of the few Indian American community leaders to remain untainted by the scandals swirling around deposed Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

Okay that is red flag right there, was he attending Paki Independence day?

[Patni]

Wow! I guess they need a basket for the heads that are/should be about to roll. As soon as this Rana scandal broke, Indian media reported that Rana was thick with the Indian Consulate, and had been issued special visa exempt from police reporting and from 180-day limit. Both actions served to avoid scrutiny of his background by intelligent eyes. Also reported that it was done on specific instructions from the Consul.

IMHO the reports in media were about the Paki consul general who is a school mate of both Rana and headley as they all studied togather in abdali school in pakistan. The story was about rana calling paki consul and trying to pass off Headley as white american and to get his a multiple entry paki visa without him needing to appear in person, cause he knew that if he visits in person then he will be recognised as Daood Gilani by the paki consul.

[ArmenT]

Headley shopped in Mumbai using fake Indian currency and American credit cards

David Coleman Headley, during his travels in India, splurged in shopping in malls in Mumbai and elsewhere, used American credit cards and at times also made payments using fake Indian currency.

Couple of things don't make sense in this article. Given that the guy was in India in March and it is now December, how do they know he made payments using fake Indian currency? It is highly unlikely that a shopkeeper will hold on to a currency note for that long and no good undercover guy will ever risk doing anything as stupid as that to attract unnecessary attention.

Also the bit about leaving all his purchased goods behind in India seems a little contrived as well. How do people know that he didn't take anything back with him? Do they have a complete inventory of everything he purchased (including stuff he purchased with allegedly fake cash) to tell?

Seems like a bit of sensationalizing to me.

[enqyoob]

True, my mistake. The Indian consulate's contribution was the "Discretion of the Consul General" visa exempting Rana from standard requirements. But there seems to be something very wrong indeed with the Consulate. Funny thing is, if others apply for Indian visa, it goes to this outsourced vendor, who ensures that all paperwork is complete before forwarding it to the Consulate, and then they don't respond to any enquiries, though they also don't keep to their advertised schedule. The IANS, PTI etc seem peeved that they got no comment from the IC, but hey, don't take it personal, the buggers ignore us too, and we even pay their fees!

[Tanaji]

^^^
Armen T

The above report states that Headley left his stuff in India... ramana's post on this page links to another report that states Rana left his stuff in India... sounds too similar ...