Mumbai investigators focus on 2 men charged in Chicago

[maddezmom]

Source: WaPo

By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

NEW DELHI -- Indian authorities are investigating whether two men recently arrested in Chicago on terrorism charges had a role in last November's attacks in Mumbai that killed 165 people, government officials here said.

David Coleman Headley, 49, who was born in the United States but had lived in Pakistan and changed his name from Daood Gilani three years ago, was arrested last month along with Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, a Pakistani-born businessman and Canadian citizen. They were charged with plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that had printed cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, according to criminal complaints unsealed recently in a federal court in Chicago.

Indian police suspect that Headley conducted scouting missions of the Mumbai targets, including the city's main train station, the popular Leopold Cafe, and the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and the Oberoi Trident hotels. Hotel records show he stayed in both hotels in 2007, authorities said.

Headley also allegedly posed as a Jew to visit one of the other eventual targets, Chabad House, home to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish center, said a high-ranking official involved in the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/17/AR2009111704549.html

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US consulate did not suspect anything amiss

MUMBAI: The US consulate in the city did not realise that David Headley was a terror suspect till pretty late and he even had access to several officials, including a senior diplomat.

Headley, arrested by the FBI last month, used the guise of running an immigration assistance company so well that no one suspected anything. This matter, too, was part of the FBI probe, a consulate official said.

Headley had been to India at least thrice since 2006 and even visited the city in 2008, leaving before the November 26 terror attack. "Headley could have met the consulate officials at get-togethers or at the office itself. It could have been a harmless meeting as Headley was not a terror suspect till last month, when he was arrested,'' the source said.

A US consulate spokesperson, however, declined to comment and the consulate also did not say anything about Headly's visit to the office.

more:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/US-consulate-did-not-suspect-anything-amiss/articleshow/5241119.cms

[BunkerHill24]

1. A Muslims sais: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent FBI"?

[formercia]

2. There are plenty of people like Headley in Pakistan.

I met numerous people that had perfect 'American' accented English from their spending decades in the US. This is how a professional 'Operation' is conducted. Separate crews do the scouting,logistics and execution.

Why not,the ISI has been supporting these terrorist groups for decades.