US charges Ilyas Kashmiri in Danish newspaper plot.
Also formally charged was Pakistani-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, 48, and Abdur Rehman, a retired Pakistani Army major, both previously named in the investigation.
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johnpi
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johnpi
Indians say Headley was a rogue US agent who flipped his allegiance to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Despite being firmly on the radar of the US intelligence agencies, he was allowed to return to India as recently as March. Indian officials are furious that their American counterparts did not share details of that visit at the time. The Indian media has raised the possibility that Mr Headley was being protected by his American handlers — a theory that experts say is credible.
….Indian officials suspect that US agencies declined to share intelligence to avoid compromising other secret operations and to to be able to deny any link with Mr Headley.
Also in this article a list of other potential targets Headley was surveilling for LeT.
As well as helping to co-ordinate the Mumbai atrocity, Mr Headley is accused of planning attacks on Mumbai’s Bollywood film industry, the Shiv Sena, a Hindu extremist group also based in Mumbai, a major Hindu temple, and a Danish newspaper that had published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
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johnpi
Time magazine decides what the story is and then makes the facts fit.
Time has an article titled, “Defying stereotypes, most domestic ‘jihadists’ are educated, well-off” prominently illustrated with a courtroom sketch of David Coleman Headley.
Headley, according to Time, fits the definition of an educated, well-off ‘jihadi’ because – as the reporter describes him – he is a “Chicago businessman.” Actually, according to his Wikipedia bio, he was an employee of his friend’s immigration agency, hardly a “businessman.” It doesn’t appear that he ever went to college, and he’s a convicted heroin smuggler.
According to media reports, he was able to front himself off as a successful businessman in India, with a personal trainer and smoozing at the gym with Bollywood types, but it’s a huge inaccuracy to imply this con-man loser was some kind of successful person who inexplicably turned on his life of accomplishment and became a ‘jihadi.’
There are also problems with saying Ramy Zamzam comes from the ‘educated, well-off’ class. Zamzam may have been a student at the dental college, but his family lived in a basement apartment (we of the ‘educated, well-off’ class tend to like natural sunlight). The building shown in the media looks like typical public housing project construction. The local imam said he was carrying the hopes of his family on his shoulders for a better life.
I understand why educated, socially and economically accomplished terrorists are so fascinating, and some certainly do exist, but misrepresenting these people as something other than what they are is just shoddy.
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johnpi
The US government has charged the first US citizen in the Mumbai terror attacks. He is Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Headley, formerly Daood Gilani.
Headley reportedly provided surveillance before the attack, and also took boat trips in Mumbai harbor, from where the attacks were launched.
The foreign media, especially Indian, has it all over the US press with reportage on this story. Here’s a few video pieces from a Delhi news service. Pardon the circus-like sensationalism, but these reports have the most information I’ve seen yet about Headley’s background (this video), and his ties to extremists including Ilyas Kashmiri (this video). The second video also reports the names of the operatives as-yet-unnamed-by-the-FBI-or-the-US-press that were also involved with Headley.
One person, identified by the FBI as Lashkar-e-Taiba’s director of transnational operations is Sajid Mir, a former Pakistani army officer and ISI agent. Mir is reported to have recruited French white convert Willy Brigitte to carry out a terror attack in Australia.
The second person named is Lashakr-e-Taiba’s ’section head’ for Bangladesh, Sheikh Saeed.
U.S. prosecutors also unsealed charges against a retired major in the Pakistani military, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, for participating in the conspiracy to attack the Danish newspaper and its employees.
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johnpi
There’s been a lot of developments in the story of the two Pakistani American men from Chicago who were arrested by the FBI for plotting to attack the Copenhagen newspaper that published the Mohammed cartoons.
One of the men, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, is being described as more of an enabler for the other – David Coleman Headley – formerly Daood Gilani.
Both men are now being described as operatives of Lashkar-e-Toiba/Lashkar-e-Taiba who have made a number of trips to India and where investigators say they suspect Headley may have helped with scouting and planning last year’s Mumbai massacre.
Indian papers report that Headley’s chief patron is a former elite Pakistani commando turned Caliphate-aspirant militant named Ilyas Kashmiri who established a group called the 313 Brigade – mentioned in conversations by the Mumbai attackers. An article in an Indian paper reports that Headley was so despondent a few months ago when it was reported that Kashmiri was killed in a drone attack that all his activity ground to a halt – but became active again when he got a message that Kashmiri was alive.
The Indians are also reporting:
“We have established that Headley and Tahawwur were in touch with the same Pakistani-based ‘handlers’ who gave directions to the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai on 26/11. We are now investigating how he had corresponded with Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah (presently in Pakistan’s custody) and other masterminds who carried out the audacious Mumbai attacks,” said an investigating officer.
Indian investigators are now looking for a woman Headley met with frequently on his trips to India and who they say may have been involved in setting up safehouses for militants in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.