Two Chicago men have been indicted on terrorism conspiracy charges, accused by the US government of plotting violence against the newspaper that published the infamous cartoons that made fun of the prophet (pbuh) in 2005.
David C. Headley, 49, legally changed his name from Daood Gilani three years ago to avoid suspicion when he traveled, FBI special agent Lorenzo Benedict wrote in a sworn statement. In the past nine months alone, Headley journeyed twice to Denmark, where he posed as a businessman interested in placing ads in a newspaper that in 2005 published cartoons making fun of the prophet Muhammad, the statement said.
Authorities think that Headley was taking steps to carry out terrorist strikes as part of a plan he called “the Mickey Mouse Project,” the court documents say. The FBI affidavit described contacts between Headley and two unnamed operatives of Lashkar-i-Taiba, a Pakistani group with ties to al-Qaeda, and with Ilyas Kashmiri, the operational chief of another Pakistani militant organization who survived a U.S. drone attack this year.
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U.S. prosecutors also charged another Chicago man, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, with conspiring to provide support to terrorists, accusing him of helping to plan and conceal the purpose of Headley’s travels. Headley did not work regularly or have a ready source of income, authorities said, but he told others that he was employed by First World Immigration Services, owned by Rana.
