U.S. jihadists’ stretches through Mumbai to Lahore

[FarCenter]

Less than a week before 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives executed at least 173 people in Mumbai last November, David Coleman Headley checked out of a nondescript guest house near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and caught a flight home.

His friends in the U.S., more likely than not, would have complimented him on his fortunate escape.

Now, there is mounting suspicion among the Mumbai Police investigators that Headley may have helped facilitate the Mumbai massacre by carrying out pre-attack reconnaissance in the city.

Headley’s visits to Mumbai

Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigations charged Headley — born Dawood Gilani in Pakistan — and his associate Tahawwur Husain Rana, with plotting terrorist attacks in Denmark and India. Headley, Mumbai Police investigators say, visited Mumbai at least five times between 2006 and 2009, claiming to work for the Immigration Law Centre — a concern run from Mumbai’s Tardeo area.

Mumbai Police investigators suspect the concern may have been used to secure passports and visas for Lashkar recruits to travel to Pakistan through west Asia. Because of his apparently western name, Headley had succeeded in obtaining a long-term business visa and faced no scrutiny from authorities.

Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian national, also visited New Delhi and Mumbai in April, 2009 — possibly, investigators suspect, to liaise with operatives of a still-active Lashkar cell.

<SNIP>
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article45435.ece?homepage=true

[skepticscott]

1. Don't you mean

Bombay?

[imdjh]

3. Both are used last time I read.

[imdjh]

2. It would be funny if it weren't so deadly. Guys in US prisons changing their names...

... to Luqman Ameen Abdullah or Jamil Abdullah al-Amin and guys in Pakistan changing their names to David Coleman Headley and of course the Chase call center employees "Brian" and "Betty".

[snagglepuss]

5. How true. nt

[vadawg]

roflmao, yup i spoke to a guy who went by squeegee, i though it was a street name

but nope he told me it was an islamic name he chose for himself in jail, though the spelling was different. so i squeezed him for more information on why he converted, turned out it was a gang thing...

[vadawg]

6. oops double post

[snagglepuss]

4. Serious stuff given that Rana was a former officer in the Pakistani army.

"U.S. prosecutors said Headley was carrying a data stick in his luggage that contained surveillance video footage of sites in Denmark. They said Headley reported and attempted to report on his efforts to individuals with ties to terrorism overseas, including at least one with links to al-Qaida.

Headley and Rana attended school together in Pakistan, the FBI said in court papers. Headley posted a message on an Internet discussion site in October 2008 saying he resented the Danish cartoons and adding: "I feel disposed toward violence for the offending parties."

According to prosecutors, Headley told FBI agents after his arrest that he received training from a terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba, starting in 2006. Headley told agents he had worked with Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistani based terrorist with al-Qaida links, and that Kashmiri helped plan an attack in Denmark, prosecutors said."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33493019/ns/world_news-terrorism/