Major transnational LeT plot targeting Denmark, India and Bangladesh

[Halaku Khan]

The American Spectator : Foiled Again
By Christopher Orlet on 11.5.09 @ 6:07AM

The would-be terrorists -- one an American, the other a Canadian -- called their plot to murder two Danish newspapermen the "Mickey Mouse Project." The cutesy code-name may have stemmed from the fact that David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana allegedly planned to murder the men they held responsible for the 2005 "Danish Cartoon Controversy."

Headley, 49, and Rana, 48, grew up in Pakistan, and met in the mid-1970s when both studied military strategies at Cadet College Hasan Abdal, a military prep school. In those days, Headley went by the name of Daood Gilani. But, in 2006, Gilani Anglicized his name. He did so, he said later, in the hope of drawing less attention to himself as he traveled back and forth to Pakistan and Denmark.

Gilani/Headley and Rana would eventually immigrate to North America, where they would remain in touch. Both lived in Chicago -- in fact, not far from each other -- Rana in a modest home on the 6000 block of North Campbell Avenue, and Headley in an apartment leased to a dead man. By now, Rana had Canadian citizenship and was a highly successful businessman. He owned a company called First World Immigration Services, with offices in Toronto, Chicago, and New York. He also owned a corner grocery store in Chicago, and a goat farm/ritual slaughterhouse in Kinsman, Illinois, some 80 miles southwest of Chicago. Kinsman has a population of 110. And a nuclear power plant.

(Authorities, however, said there is no evidence that Headley or Rana were contemplating an attack in the Chicago area. [...])

The FBI, meanwhile, had been keeping tabs on Headley. One of the things they wanted to know was how was a guy with no visible means of support able to afford such extensive international travel? This led them to Headley's old schoolmate Rana.

Though old friends, Rana and Headley could not have been more different. Unlike Rana, Headley was uninterested in getting ahead in business, though, ironically, he often used terms like "income," and "business," as code words for his murder plans. "I don't care [which terrorist group] I work for, as long as I am making 'money…'" he once said. In fact, Headley appears to have spent his whole life nursing grudges as both a Pakistani ultra-nationalist and a radical Muslim. Before he decided to strike back at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Headley worked with the Kashmir-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Pakistani-based terror group Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami. Both groups are rumored to have strong ties with -- surprise -- Pakistan's security service ISI. In fact, the Pakistanis arrested Headley this past summer, only to release him a short time afterward.

ON OCTOBER 29, 2008, Headley posted a heated message to a Yahoo Group site devoted to alumni of his military prep school, which read in part:

Everything is not a joke…We are not rehearsing a skit on Saturday Night Live. Making fun of Islam is making fun of Rasoosallah SAW [Messenger of Allah, Peace be on Him],…call me old-fashioned but I feel disposed towards violence for the offending parties, be they cartoonists from Denmark or Sherry Jones [author of Jewel of Medina] or Irshad Manji [author of The Trouble with Islam Today]…They [jihadists] never started debates with folks who slandered our Prophet, they took violent action. Even if God doesn't give us the opportunity to bring our intentions to fruition, we will claim ajr [a holy reward] for it…

Headley was arrested October 3, at O'Hare Airport, as he was preparing to fly to Pakistan to meet with his terrorist contacts. Rana was picked up Oct. 18, at his modest Chicago home. Almost immediately, Headley opened up and began telling FBI agents about his training with Pakistani terrorist groups. He said that his initial plan called for attacks on the Jyllands-Posten offices, but he later proposed killing only the paper's former cultural editor, Flemming Rose, and Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who drew the cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. He intended to use both small arms and explosives. He also stated that he had conducted surveillance on nearby Danish troops and a Jewish synagogue. The terrorists were under the mistaken impression that Rose was Jewish. (Among Headley's belongings confiscated at the airport was the book To Pray as a Jew.)

Rana, however, has maintained his innocence. He has been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to an overseas terrorism conspiracy, and awaits further charges. Headley was charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the United States.

The Danish cartoon controversy occurred nearly half a decade ago. More than 100 people died from the resulting riots and murders. Embassies and European government buildings were torched. When they were told of the Chicago plot, employees at the Jyllands-Posten were surprised. Most had thought that the controversy was behind them.

Headley was right about one thing though. He is "old-fashioned." His behavior would have conformed well to ninth century Arabia. Sadly for him and his ilk, this is 21st century America.

 

[Halaku Khan]

LeT torn between Denmark, India? - India - The Times of India


Vishwa Mohan , TNN 6 November 2009, 01:52am IST


NEW DELHI: As the details of a fresh Lashkar plot to target India emerge, it appears that a conflict of priorities may have come in the way of its plan to launch another Mumbai-style attack.

Documents submitted by the FBI to the Illinois district court against two US-based LeT terrorists — David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana — suggest that the duo diverged from the Lashkar leadership on attacking India. While the Lashkar leader, introduced by FBI to the US court as LeT Member A, wanted them to focus on India, both Headley and Rana were fixated on attacking the Danish newspaper whose decision to print cartoons of Prophet Moha-mmad in 2005 angered Muslims worldwide.

The FBI dossier suggests HuJI commander Ilyas Kashmiri was in agreement with US-based Lashkar terrorists. It also appears LeT went along with the plan initially before deciding to put India — their pet hate — on top of their “to do” list. The switch of priorities surprised Headley, originally Daood Gilani, and Rana but did not distract them from their Danish project.

The divergence came to the fore when Lashkar commander — LeT Member A in the US court’s records — insisted that the mission in India needed to be accomplished first. FBI special agent Lorenzo Benedict told the Illinois court, “In July and August 2009, Headley exchanged a series of emails with LeT Member A including an exchange in which Headley asked if the Denmark project was on hold, and whether a visit to India that LeT Member A had asked him to undertake was for the purpose of surveilling targets for a new terrorist attack. These emails reflect that LeT Member A was placing a higher priority on using Headley to assist in planning a new attack on India than on completing the planned attack in Denmark.”

His puzzlement over the change of plan is reflected in the email Headley wrote to the LeT commander on July 16, “One very important thing I need to know please is that how long do you need me for, meaning how long should it take me to finish my work (on Indian project), in your opinion. And is it really urgent? Before it seemed that the Northern Project (Danish) was really urgent.”

Not convinced, Headley travelled to Copenhagen and other destinations in Europe with help from Rana as part of the plan to attack Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper in question. The dejection of the LeT members comes out clearly in the documents submitted by FBI in the court. “Futile are my advices, coz you do what you feel like... matter and situation is not clear... your skin is dear to me, more than my own,” LeT Member A wrote to Headley on August 11.

Headley could not have cared less for his disappointment, so intense was his zeal to attack the Danish newspaper. His conviction came through in one of his posts to the Yahoo group called “Abdalians” — named after a military cadet school in Pakistan.

He wrote, “Everything is not a joke... making fun of Islam is making fun of Rasoosallah... call me old fashioned but I feel disposed towards violence for the offending parties, be they cartoonists from Denmark or Sherry Jones (author of Jewel of Medina) or Irshad Manji (liberal Muslim trying to make lesbianism acceptable to Islam amongst other things). Even if God doesn’t give us the opportunity to bring our intentions to fruition, we will claim ajr (a religious award) for it.”

 

[Halaku Khan]

Headley a frequent flyer to Pakistan: FBI- Hindustan Times
Press Trust Of India
Washington, November 01, 2009

US national David Coleman Headley, nabbed by FBI for plotting a major terror attack in India at LeT's behest, was a frequent flyer who made multiple trips to Pakistan where he spent "substantial time" undergoing training from the terror group, American investigators have said.

49-year-old Headley was arrested on October 3 along with Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, by FBI at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Philadelphia, intending to travel to Pakistan.

According to the affidavit submitted by FBI to the US District Court of Illinois, Headley, alias 'Daood Gilani', at times has claimed to be a consultant with or representative of First World Immigration Services, a company owned and operated by Rana.

Surveillance of Headley's activities as well as his phone conversations and e-mail exchanges, reflect that he performed few services for First World.

"Headley has no known or reported employment other than with First World. His residence in Chicago is an apartment leased to an individual who is deceased," the affidavit says.

"Notwithstanding his apparent lack of financial resources and substantial employment, Headley has engaged in extensive international travel since the second half of 2008, including multiple trips to Pakistan and various countries in Europe," it says.

Records reflecting the locations of internet protocol addresses used by Headley, who changed his name to 'Daood Gilani' in 2006, to send e-mails indicate that he has spent "substantial time" in Pakistan and elsewhere during the last several years -- often for months at a time, the affidavit says.

For example, records of e-mail accounts used by Headley reflect that between in or about August 2008 and December 7, 2008, he sent multiple e-mail messages from internet addresses located in the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore.

The affidavit says that on January 24, 2009, Headley left for Pakistan via Frankfurt, Germany and the United Arab Emirates.

Records of e-mail accounts reflect that between in or around late January and early March 2009, he sent multiple e-mail messages from locations in Pakistan.

Headley, Rana and co-plotters, including persons only identified as 'Individual B' and 'Lashkar-e-Taiba Member A', have used several methods of communication, including in-person meetings, telephone conversations and e-mails.

Based in Pakistan, the banned LeT has been mainly involved in terrorist attacks in India, including the Mumbai strikes last year in November.

The FBI has told a Chicago court that both Headley and Rana, now lodged in a downtown Chicago jail, were in close contact with LeT leaders in connection with a major terrorist attack in India.

 

[Halaku Khan]

US Embassy Attack Plan
Lashkar plotters identified

Kailash Sarkar

The Detective Branch of police has identified several persons including foreign nationals as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives holed up in the country with plans to attack the US embassy in Dhaka and other establishments.

A DB official who would not be identified talking about matters under investigation also said the three LeT men arrested recently at a hilltop madrasa in Chittagong had regular contact with two LeT leaders detained in the United States and one in Pakistan on charges of scheming to attack a Danish newspaper house.

India-born US citizen David Colelman Headley alias Gilani Daud and Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested in Chicago in October and Pakistani Abdur Rahman Sayeed in Pakistan last week. The three had ordered the Let men in Bangladesh to attack the local US embassy, added the official.

DB officials said they suspect several money transactions have taken place to fund terror attacks in Bangladesh. They have already traced one involving Tk 4 lakh.

Monirul Islam, deputy commissioner of DB-South, said two foreigners top their list of LeT suspects. The two know the ins and outs of the attack plot and are playing an important role in efforts to pull it off.

"Not only the US embassy, they may attempt to attack other places as well," the DC-DB said.

"We have specific evidence the detainees had links to plotting terror attacks here," he added.

The three Lashkar men rounded up from Chittagong are Mufti Harun Izhar, 33, Shahidul Islam, 26, and Al Amin alias Saiful. Harun is son of Mufti Izharul Islam, ameer of an Islami Oikya Jote faction.

The DB assistant commissioner who led the raid on the Chittagong madrasa said they had been looking for several persons linked to LeT and Huji and the planned terror attack.

He said they have information that the suspected foreigners would frequent the madrasa, which might have been used as a training camp-cum-shelter for the militants.

 

[Halaku Khan]

Headley ran visa agency in Tardeo before 26/11 - dnaindia.com
Josy Joseph / DNASunday, November 8, 2009 2:38 IST Email

New Delhi: The two terror suspects arrested in the US for plotting to strike targets in Denmark and India spent significant time in Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks, authoritative sources have told DNA. While one of them operated a visa agency in Mumbai for almost two years until the latter part of 2008, the other suspect spent 10 days in the city just days before the terror strike last November.


Investigations are underway in Mumbai and elsewhere to establish whether they had any direct role in the 26/11 attacks by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists who came to Mumbai by sea. It has always been a mystery how such a sensational attack on multiple targets in the city could have been carried out without any local support. The Mumbai police charge-sheet in the case, too, does not mention any local support.

But the latest revelations, made to DNA by authoritative sources in the security establishment, could overturn the existing claims, and provide leads to the local operations of LeT. According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the two were in touch with senior LeT operatives and other top terrorists in Pakistan, including Ilyas Kashmiri, a dreaded terrorist with links to al-Qaeda and Huji (Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, a Pakistan-based terrorist outfit). Kashmiri and his activities are under close watch by India, US and other global powers.

According to available information, David Coleman Headley, the Pakistan-born US citizen and one of the two arrested, ran a visa facilitation agency in Mumbai between November 2006, and July 2008. The firm, named Immigrant Law Centre, was run from AC Market, Tardeo in Mumbai.

Officially, the firm was helping unskilled and semi-skilled people to get visas for the US and Canada. During the two years, Headley travelled to India several times, often spending a couple of weeks in Mumbai and elsewhere. Investigators are struggling to piece together the details of Headley's travels, given the fact that there is very little evidence available from those days.

Headley's travels to India ended some time in July 2008, sources said. According to FBI court documents, Headley's original name was Daood Gilani, but he probably changed his name to the more American sounding one in 2006. This must have facilitated his travels in India without suspicion, sources indicate.

The second accused, Tahawwura Hussain Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian citizen who was officially running an immigration services business in the US, too came to Mumbai, dependable sources now reveal. Rana was in Mumbai for about 10 days in November, 2008. Just five days before the attacks, Rana left the country. According to details available, he came from Dubai to Mumbai and went back to the Gulf city.The startling details have put a large number of intelligence sleuths on the trail of the two in Mumbai and elsewhere. Sources indicate that they have already questioned "some people" in Mumbai who may have worked with Headley or known him in those two years.

The FBI files
From THE FBI's criminal complaint on David C Headley: "Among other things, HEADLEY stated that beginning prior to 2006 HEADLEY worked at various times with Lashkar-e-Taiba (an organization he knew to be a designated foreign terrorist organization) and that he received training from Lashkar-e-Taiba. HEADLEY also stated that at times he worked with Ilyas Kashmiri, including in connection with planning the Denmark attack."

"HEADLEY changed his name from "Daood Gilani" in or about 2006. In an August
2009 interview with Customs and Border Patrol, HEADLEY advised that he changed his name so as to raise less suspicion when he traveled."

"Notwithstanding his apparent lack of financial resources and substantial employment, HEADLEY has engaged in extensive international travel since at least 2006, including multiple trips to Pakistan, India, Denmark, and other countries in Europe."

"Records reflecting the locations of internet protocol addresses used by HEADLEY to send emails indicate that HEADLEY has spent substantial time in Pakistan and elsewhere during the last several years - often for months at a time."

"Emails between HEADLEY and third parties reflect that Individual A was arrested by Pakistani authorities in Summer 2009 and later released. As noted above, Individual A is associated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist organization, and with Ilyas Kashmiri, a leader of Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami ("HUJI"), a Pakistani-based terrorist organization, among other entities."

 

[EjazR]

Who is Headley? Is a canadian citizen but ethnic Pakistani? IT says that he grew up in Pakistan

 

[Halaku Khan]

Indian mission in Dhaka was another target

Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
New Delhi, November 7, 2009

With the arrest of three suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba and HuJI terrorists by Bangladesh sleuths, a plan to target the US Embassy in Dhaka has been foiled.

It has also been learnt that the terror groups had plans to target the Indian High Commission located in a posh locality in the Bangladesh capital.

In a major anti-terror operation, the Bangladesh authorities on Wednesday arrested Sahidul Islam, Al Amin and Mufti Haroon Izhar from Chittagong's Lalkhan Bazar Madrassa. While Islam and Amin are members of the LeT, Haroon belongs to the HuJI-B and have earlier given refuge to foreign terrorists, a source in the Bangladesh government said. All three were arrested on intelligence inputs obtained from the FBI. The Lalkhan Bazar Madrassa was a training centre for the HuJI, the source claimed. Officials have also cracked down on two other top LeT terrorists T. Nasir and Asaf, close associates of the three arrested terrorists.

The three have admitted that Nasir and Asaf conducted a recce of the US Embassy in Dhaka's Baridhara area last week.

Nasir, Asaf and Haroon had alleged links with Pakistan's Abdur Rehman, a top LeT operative who had links with David Coleman Headley. Rehman was arrested on Tuesday and his cellphone records had revealed information leading to the arrest of the three terrorists.

It has been learnt that Nasir (believed to be from Kerala) and Asaf are now in police custody.

Security has been beefed up for both the Indian High Commission and the US Embassy in Dhaka. Interestingly, the arrests were carried out two weeks after the authorities stepped up security for outgoing Indian envoy Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty and the Indian High Commission premises after a reported security email threat.

During the past few months, Bangladesh authorities have arrested three LeT operatives from different areas of the country.

Continuing its crackdown against the terror group JMB, the Sheikh Hasina government recently arrested the wife and a sister-in-law of the outfit's chief Saidur Rahman from Dhaka.

Haroon is the son of Mufti Azhar, chief of the right- wing Islami Oikya Jote party, a partner in the erstwhile government led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from 2001-06.

Probe into the links of the arrested terrorists in the last few months reveal that members of the BNP-led government maintained close links with terror groups like the HuJI, the JMB and Ulfa.

In another revelation, arrested HuJI commander Mufti Hannan admitted to the police that he was given protection by former Bangladesh minister of state of home L. Babar during the early days of the BNP regime. Babar is in custody now.

 

[Halaku Khan]

Who is Headley? Is a canadian citizen but ethnic Pakistani? IT says that he grew up in Pakistan

He is a US citizen. Apparently both Headley and Rana are graduates of a military academy in Pakistan.

This case is quite important, with links to 26/11.

 

[Halaku Khan]

Headley link traced to Pak, 2 LeT men arrested - India - The Times of India

Vishwa Mohan, TNN 7 November 2009, 03:47am IST

NEW DELHI: Home minister P Chidambaram on Friday said the arrest of two terrorists in Pakistan at the instance of FBI has established Islamabad’s link to a fresh terror plot against India.

"There is an obvious Pakistan link. (David) Headley visited Pakistan a number of times and I think on the advice of the FBI, two or perhaps more people have been arrested in Pakistan."

The home minister was referring to the arrest of the accomplices of US-based LeT operatives David C Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana who were arrested by FBI last month after an investigation that uncovered a new Lashkar conspiracy to target India.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in response to a question, said India had not been told by Pakistan of the arrests. "To the extent I have information on this Headley affair, I don’t think we have received any information from the Pakistani side," Singh said at a press conference here with his visiting Swedish counterpart Fredrik Reinfeldt.

The arrests, however, did not answer the question whether those held in Pakistan were footsoldiers or the two key figures that, as established by the FBI, were coordinating with Headley and Rana.

The FBI has told an Illinois court trying LeT operatives David C Headley and Tahawur Hussain Rana about "Individual A/B" and "Lashkar-e-Taiba Member A". Their identities hold significance to India because of the way they goaded the operatives to target India.

The two worked hard on the US-based Lashkar duo even when the latter saw an attack on the Danish paper that published cartoons of Prophet Mohammad as their chief priority. FBI mentioned the ‘LeT Member A’ as someonse who had "substantial influence and responsibility within the organisation and whose identity is known to the (US) government". The description may appear to point to a key associate of Hafeez Mohammad Saeed, if not the Lashkar boss himself, considering that important commanders of the jehadi group, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi and Abu Al Qama, are already under detention.

The question is of huge interest to India and will be weighing heavily on officials from IB and RAW who are in the US to find out more from FBI about the Lashkar plot. The chilling disclosure that the Lashkar had planned to target National Defence College in Delhi also possibly explains why Chidambaram was uncharacteristically aggressive last week when he warned Pakistan of retaliation in case of another terror attack on India.

The FBI investigation has strengthened the estimate of Indian agencies that Lashkar is planning to launch a spectacular attack on India to coincide with the first anniversary of Mumbai attacks.

 

[Valiant_Soul]

From where exactly does LeT operates? Is it congregated at a certain place or spread across a region?

 

[Atheist]

The 4 house on the second street in New Delhi - Come on dude hey are a banned organization throughout the world - I am sure no one except few Pakistani supporters know about their operations

P.S : Doesn't mean every Pakistani