What's new

Indians 'deserved' 26/11, ISI plotted it: Rana trial

Ramander#

BANNED

New Recruit

May 15, 2011
75
0
17
An American who has admitted scouting targets for the 2008 assault on Mumbai by Pakistani militants testified on Monday that the plot was hatched with at least one Pakistani intelligence official and a navy frogman. At a trial for a Chicago businessman accused of providing a front for his surveillan


related stories
Pak's ISI planned and funded 26/11, sings Headley
Headley dishes the dirt on 26/11
Pakistan denies ISI role in Mumbai attack
ce work in India, David Headley testified to getting help and guidance from two officers in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, the ISI.
Headley pleaded guilty last year to being a co-conspirator in the Mumbai attacks, in which 10 militants from the Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) killed 166 people, including six Americans.

On the stand as a star witness in the case against his childhood friend, Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian citizen, Headley said he was recruited by LeT and shuttled between India, Pakistan and the United States performing surveillance and briefing his contacts and Rana.

The 50-year-old Headley said he was introduced to a retired Pakistani military officer at a mosque, and reported regularly to his LeT handlers and an ISI officer named "Major Iqbal."

"These groups operated under the umbrella of ISI ... they coordinated with ISI," Headley testified under questioning by prosecutor Daniel Collins.

Rana, 50, is accused of using his immigration services firm in Chicago to provide a cover story for Headley's surveillance work and to be a conduit for communication with militants.

His trial comes at a time of growing discord in the United States about Pakistan's commitment to fight terrorism after the United States discovered and killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a compound near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Pakistani authorities deny having known where the man behind the September 11 attacks was hiding, but the revelation raised US-Pakistani tensions and increased interest in who may have known what about the Mumbai attacks.

US prosecutor Sarah Streicker said that although Rana did not carry a gun or throw a grenade, he was complicit in the violence in Mumbai.

Some Pakistanis accused in the case but not in US custody knew about Rana and were "appreciative of his assistance," she said in her opening statement to the jury in US District Court in Chicago. At one point after the 2008 attack, Streicker said Rana told Headley, "The Indians deserved it."

Scouting Mumbai

A defense attorney for Rana tried to challenge Headley's credibility, suggesting that he changed his story repeatedly and duped Rana. "Headley told his own wife after the attack that 'I acknowledge that I made a fool out of (Rana),'" said defense attorney Charles Swift.

Swift said the militants had tried and failed twice before to launch the attack on Mumbai by hijacking Indian fishing boats -- crashing one onto rocks and letting the other escape.

Headley, who has been convicted twice of importing heroin into the United States, told the court he had wanted to wage war against India in the disputed territory of Kashmir but was advised he would get another assignment, which turned out to be scouting Mumbai. He was directed to change his given name, Daood Gilani, for easier travel in India.

Arrested on a trip to Pakistan's northeast while seeking an old contact who could help smuggle weapons into India, Headley said he was freed after explaining to an ISI officer named "Major Ali" about his training and ties to LeT.

He also told the court that he had suggested to an LeT operations chief named Zaki that a lawsuit be filed against the United States for labeling LeT a terrorist organisation.

"Zaki said we would have to take ISI into confidence before making such a move ... He meant to consult with ISI," he said.

Headley said he was asked to shoot video of luxury hotels, Mumbai's bus and train terminals, the headquarters of the right-wing Shiv Sena political party and of the coastline. He was provided a GPS device to mark locales and targets.

Headley recalled how he pleased his handlers with his surveillance work and settled a dispute about where to land by suggesting a spot by some fishermen's shanties, across from a taxi stand. Among those plotting the seaborne assault was a Pakistani navy frogman, Headley said, who agreed with his assessment.

Iqbal gave him $25,000 for expenses and requested he scout an Indian nuclear research facility.
He was told not to get close to Indians he befriended, and not to press his forehead down too hard during Muslim prayers to avoid leaving a mark and giving away his identity.

Rana -- who faces the possibility of life in prison -- and Headley were also charged with participating in a second plot with Pakistani militants. That plot, never carried out, allegedly targeted a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which angered many Muslims.

Indians 'deserved' 26/11, ISI plotted it: Rana trial - Hindustan Times
 
Pak's ISI planned and funded 26/11 , sings Headley

A key plotter of the Mumbai terror attack, Pakistani American David Coleman Headley, has told a court that he joined Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group as he hated India for "dismembering" Pakistan in 1971. Implicating Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for providing supp


related stories
Indians 'deserved' 26/11, ISI plotted it: Rana trial

Mumbai terror trial gets under way
Pakistan denies ISI role in Mumbai attack
ort to LeT in carrying out the 2008 terror attack, Headley told a Chicago federal court Monday: "They coordinated with each other."
"ISI provided assistance to Lashkar through military and financial assistance and moral support," said Headley, who has pleaded guilty to taking part in planning the rampage to escape the death penalty, at the trial of his one time friend, Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Rana.

Prosecution's star witness Headley testified that in 2004, after meeting with top LeT leaders, he proposed that it sue the US government to challenge its designation as a terrorist organisation.

But top leaders in the group told Headley, son of a Pakistani father and an American mother, who changed his given name of Daood Gilani in 2006 to scout targets for the attack without arousing suspicion, that they would need to consult with the ISI if they were to try to sue the US.

Headley discussed how he attended several training camps with the group and how he was trained with weapons and in Koranic studies when he returned to Pakistan from the US after the Sep 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Eventually in 2004, Headley attended a leadership course with about 200 LeT terrorists, he said, adding that he had wanted to fight against Indian troops in Kashmir.

But LeT leaders told him they wanted to use him in other operations because he had been born in the US and may not raise suspicion.

In December 2005, he discussed with his Lashkar handler, Sajid Mir, plans to go into India. Headley was introduced to a retired Pakistani military officer named Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed aka "Pasha".

The following year, Pasha and Headley tried to meet with a drug smuggler Headley knew to possibly smuggle weapons into India for an attack, he told the jury.

But they were arrested in northern Pakistan by Pakistani authorities. Headley admitted he had been training with LeT and was introduced to an ISI official named Major Ali.

Headley testified that he told Major Ali about his plans to go to India and plans to change his name and get a US passport.

Major Ali was "very pleased" and then wanted to introduce him to another ISI officer known as Major Iqbal, Headley said.

Acknowledging his work for the ISI, Headley told the coort: "During my trip to Chicago, I told [Rana] about my meetings with Sajid and others in Lashkar.

"I also told him about my meetings with Major Iqbal, and told him how I had been asked to perform espionage work for ISI. I even told him some of the espionage stories that Major Iqbal had told me."

Headley's testimony may take several days, with the trial itself expected to last four to five weeks.

Federal prosecutors on Monday argued that Rana supported and even laughed about plotting terror with his co-conspirator.

"You will hear the defendant in his own voice laughing as they discussed targets of attack," assistant US attorney Sarah Streicker said.

"The plots we are going to describe are atrocious, the attacks terrible."

Rana's attorneys argued that Headley was not a credible witness.

"David Headley is a master manipulator," said defence attorney Charles Swift.

"He made a fool out of Mr Rana."

Pak's ISI planned and funded 26/11 , sings Headley - Hindustan Times
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)


Pakistan Defence Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom