David Headley: Difference between revisions

David Coleman Headley, formerly known as Daood Sayed Gilani, (born June 30, 1960) is a Pakistani American businessman based in Chicago, who has pleaded guilty^[1] to involvement with terrorism.^[2][3] He changed his name to hide his Muslim identity.^[4]

Gilani was born in Washington, D. C., where his father, Sayed Salim Gilani, worked for the Voice of America, and his mother, Serrill Headley, was a secretary. Danyal Gilani, spokesman for the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gillani, is Headley's half brother.^[5] When his parents broke up their marriage, Sayed Gilani went back to Pakistan, taking Daood and his sister with him. There Daood attended the Cadet College Hasan Abdal, a preparatory boys' high school for the military. In 1977 his mother traveled to Pakistan and brought him to live with her in the United States, where he grew up.^[6] Serril Headley owned Khyber Pass, a pub in Philadelphia, and died in 2008.^[7] In 1985 he married a Pennsylvania State University student, but they divorced in 1987 due to cultural conflicts.^[8]

Gilani ran a video store in Philadelphia. In 1998 he was convicted of conspiring to smuggle heroin into the country from Pakistan.^[9] After his arrest, he provided much information about his Pakistani drug contacts and got less than two years in jail. He later went to Pakistan to conduct undercover surveillance operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.^[6] In 2002 and three times in 2003, he attended Lashkar-e-Taiba training camps in Pakistan.^[8]

In 2006, he changed his name to David Headley so as to make border crossings between the United States and other countries easier. He moved his family to Chicago, where he claimed to work for Rana's immigration agency. Rana had been in the Cadet College Hasan Abdal with him.^[6]

David Coleman Headley, 48, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, were accused by U.S. federal authorities in Chicago, in complaints unsealed on October 27, 2009, of plotting against the employees of a newspaper in Copenhagen.^[10] Headley is accused of traveling to Denmark to scout the building of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, and a nearby Synagogue, for an attack by terrorists.^[11]

On December 8, 2009, the FBI additionally accused Headley of conspiring to bomb targets in Mumbai, India; providing material support to Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant Pakistani Islamist group; and aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.^[12]

Headley pleaded guilty to all charges on March 18, 2010.^[13][1] He faces life in prison and a three million dollar fine when he is sentenced.^[14]

India's new National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against Headley and Rana for allegedly plotting terror attacks in India,^[15] and Indian authorities are gathering evidence to charge him for involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.^[16]

Both Headley and Rana are accused in the complaints of reporting to Ilyas Kashmiri, an Islamist militant commander associated with both Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba.^[10] Kashmiri is reported to be a former Pakistani military commando,^[10][17] although he denied this in an interview in October 2009.^[18]

Another former military officer is suspected as a co-conspirator and identified only by a pseudonym (Individual A) in the first FBI complaint against Headley. He is said to have recently left the Pakistani Army as a Colonel or Brigadier.^[10] This second officer, suspected in the complaint as affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, was arrested in 2009 in Pakistan on unspecified charges and later released.^[10] He was identified by the FBI in December 2009 as Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed.^[12] Abdur Rehman, also known as "Pasha", is also wanted by the FBI.^[19]

An Associated Press story on November 24, 2009 said that five Pakistan army officers, including a retired brigadier and two active lieutenant colonels, had been detained for questioning in Pakistan.^[20] They had all been in telephone contact with Headley. But the next day, Pakistan military spokesman Athar Abbas said that "security agencies" had only detained a single former army major in connection with the FBI case.^[21][22][23]

Another individual named in the complaint as "LeT member A", a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, gave instructions to Headley on which locations to scout for future attacks, including both the Danish newspaper and locations in India,^[3] such as the National Defense College in New Delhi. Indian intelligence officials believe that LeT member A is Sajid Mir,^[24] Lashkar's head of international operations.^[25] Sajid Mir was a ranking member of the Pakistani army until several years ago,^[25] and attended the same military high school, with Headley and Rana.^[25]

Court documents allege that Headley corresponded with the Lashkar-e-Taiba associates in coded messages about the “Mickey Mouse Project,” code for the plot against the Danish newspaper. After his visit to Denmark in 2009, Headley allegedly traveled to Pakistan to meet with the LeT associate. After his arrest in October 2009, Headley told federal agents that he received training from LeT.^[26]

Headley traveled five times to India to scout locations for terrorist attacks on behalf of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Information he retrieved from his visits to Mumbai, including video footage and GPS coordinates, was used to execute the 2008 Mumbai attacks.^[27]

Headley posed as a Jew to scout the Jewish center at Nariman House for attack.^[28]. Headley made multiple visits to India before and after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, while Rana visited it only once.^[29]

A Moroccan woman, Faiza Outalha, believed to be Headley's wife, visited India twice: in 2007 she flew to Mumbai from Karachi and stayed with Headley in the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi Trident, both of which were targets in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. In 2008 she crossed from Pakistan via the road at Wagah and spent time in Manali.^[30][26] They later divorced.

Indian investigators were surprised at how easily Headley had obtained a visa to enter India, a process that is extremely difficult for Pakistani nationals. Headley's U.S. passport, his new Christian sounding name, and the fact that the passport and his visa application made no mention of his prior name or nationality, made it easy for him to obtain an Indian visa from the Indian consulate in Chicago. He also falsely stated on his visa application that his father's name was William Headley and that his own name at birth was "Headley", a claim that was difficult to refute since the U.S. passport, unlike the Indian one, does not provide the father's name, and does not require endorsements on name changes by the passport holder.^[31]

On his visits to India, Headley befriended several people, including the son of a famous movie producer.^[32] None of them suspected Headley of any wrongdoing.

Some Indian analysts have alleged that David Headley may be a CIA Double agent within LeT,^[33] an accusation rubbished by the CIA.^[34] Indian investigators want the FBI to share its tapes of Headley's communications with his Pakistani handlers to match with the voices taped on cell phones during the 2008 Mumbai attacks.^[35]

In relation to the 2010 Pune blast at the German bakery that killed 15^[36] people out of which 4 were foreigners and injured at least 53 people, Indian Home Secretary, G. K. Pillai^[37] and the Hindustan Times^[38] referred to Headley. The Hindustan Times stated that Headley had visited Pune in July 2008 and March 2009 and referred to him as a Lashkar-e-Taiba member.^[38] The Hindustan Times also reported that the CCTV footage which as been accessed by the Investigating agency, can, as per The Hindustan Times, help solve the mystery. The Times of India has also reported similar reports, along with The Telegraph, The Hindu, The Pioneer and also Indian Express.

• Michael Finton, American convert to Islam, attempted September 2009 bombing of U.S. target with FBI agent he thought was al-Qaeda member
• Sharif Mobley, American suspected al-Qaeda member, arrested in Yemen in 2010 and suspected of killing guard in escape attempt
• Aafia Siddiqui, alleged al-Qaeda member, former U.S. resident, convicted in 2010 of attempting to kill U.S. personnel
• Bryant Neal Vinas, American convert to Islam, convicted in 2009 of participating in/supporting Al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S.
• Najibullah Zazi, al-Qaeda member, U.S. resident, pleaded guilty in 2010 of planning suicide bombings on New York City subway system
• Detention of five Americans in Pakistan (Dec. 2009)

• http://www.ndtv.com/news/world/headleys_father_was_a_pak_diplomat.php
• http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Headley-may-have-tipped-off-US-about-26/11/articleshow/5341976.cms