David Coleman Headley, a U.S. citizen partly of Pakistani descent, was
sentenced today to 35 years in prison for a dozen federal terrorism
crimes relating to his role in planning the November 2008 terrorist
attacks in Mumbai, India, and a subsequent proposed attack on a
newspaper in Denmark.
Headley pleaded guilty in March 2010 to all 12 counts that were
brought against him following his arrest in October 2009 as he was
about to leave the country.
Immediately after his arrest, Headley began cooperating with authorities.
Headley, 52, was ordered to serve 35 years, followed by five years of
supervised release by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber.
There is no federal parole and defendants must serve at least
85 percent of their sentence. “Mr. Headley is a terrorist,” Judge
Leinenweber said in imposing the sentence.
“There is little question that life imprisonment would be an appropriate
punishment for Headley’s incredibly serious crimes but for the
significant value provided by his immediate and extensive cooperation,”
the government argued in seeking a sentence of 30 to 35 years.
In pleading guilty and later testifying for the government at the trial
of a co-defendant, Headley admitted that he attended training camps in
Pakistan operated by Lashkar e Tayyiba, a terrorist organization operating in that country, on five separate occasions between 2002 and 2005.
In late 2005, Headley received instructions from three members
of Lashkar to travel to India to conduct surveillance, which he did five
times leading up to the Mumbai attacks in 2008 that killed
approximately 164 people, including six Americans, and wounded hundreds
more.
Headley’s plea agreement in March 2010 stated that he “has
provided substantial assistance to the criminal investigation, and also
has provided information of significant intelligence value.”
In consideration of Headley’s past cooperation and anticipated future
cooperation, which would include debriefings for the purpose of
gathering intelligence and national security information, as well as
testifying in any foreign judicial proceedings held in the United States
by way of deposition, video-conferencing or letters rogatory, the
Attorney General of the United States authorized the U.S. Attorney’s
Office in Chicago not to seek the death penalty.
“Today’s sentence is an important milestone in our
continuing efforts to hold accountable those responsible for the Mumbai
terrorist attacks and to achieve justice for the victims.
Our investigations into Mumbai attacks and the Denmark terror plot are ongoing and active.
I thank the many agents, analysts and prosecutors responsible
for this investigation and prosecution,” said Lisa Monaco, Assistant
Attorney General for National Security.
Headley was convicted of conspiracy to bomb public places in India;
conspiracy to murder and maim persons in India; six counts of aiding and
abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India; conspiracy to provide
material support to terrorism in India; conspiracy to murder and maim
persons in Denmark; conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism
in Denmark; and conspiracy to provide material support to Lashkar.
According to Headley’s guilty plea and testimony, he attended the
following training camps operated by Lashkar: a three-week course
starting in February 2002 that provided indoctrination on the merits of
waging jihad; a three-week course starting in August 2002 that provided
training in the use of weapons and grenades; a three-month course
starting in April 2003 that taught close combat tactics, the use of
weapons and grenades, and survival skills; a three-week course starting
in August 2003 that taught counter-surveillance skills; and a
three-month course starting in December 2003 that provided combat and
tactical training.
Mumbai Terror Attacks
After receiving instructions in late 2005 to conduct surveillance in
India, Headley changed his given name from Daood Gilani in February 2006
in Philadelphia to facilitate his activities on behalf of Lashkar by
portraying himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor
Pakistani.
In the early summer of 2006, Headley and two Lashkar members
discussed opening an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his
surveillance activities.
Headley eventually made five extended trips to Mumbai — in September
2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 — each time
making videotapes of various potential targets, including those attacked
in November 2008.
Before each trip, Lashkar members and associates instructed
Headley regarding specific locations where he was to conduct
surveillance.
After each trip, Headley traveled to Pakistan to meet with
Lashkar members and associates, report on the results of his
surveillance, and provide the surveillance videos.
Before the April 2008 surveillance trip, Headley and co-conspirators in
Pakistan discussed potential landing sites in Mumbai for a team of
attackers who would arrive by sea.
Headley returned to Mumbai with a global positioning system
device and took boat trips around the Mumbai harbor and entered various
locations into the device.
Between Nov. 26 and 28, 2008, 10 attackers trained by Lashkar carried
out multiple assaults with firearms, grenades and improvised explosive
devices against multiple targets in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal and
Oberoi hotels, the Leopold Café, the Chabad House and the Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus train station, each of which Headley had scouted in
advance, killing approximately 164 victims and wounding hundreds more.
The six Americans killed during the siege were Ben Zion Chroman, Gavriel
Holtzberg, Sandeep Jeswani, Alan Scherr, his daughter Naomi Scherr and
Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum.
In March 2009, Headley made a sixth trip to India to conduct additional
surveillance, including of the National Defense College in Delhi, and of
Chabad Houses in several cities.
Denmark Terror Plot
Regarding the Denmark terror plot, Headley admitted and testified that
in early November 2008, he was instructed by a Lashkar member in
Pakistan, to conduct surveillance of the Copenhagen and Aarhus offices
of the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in preparation for an attack in retaliation for the newspaper’s publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
After this meeting, Headley informed co-defendant Abdur Rehman
Hashim Syed (Abdur Rehman), also known as “Pasha,” of his assignment.
Abdur Rehman told Headley words to the effect that if Lashkar
did not go through with the attack, Abdur Rehman knew someone who would.
Although not identified by name at the time, Headley later learned this individual was co-defendant Ilyas Kashmiri.
Abdur Rehman previously told Headley that he was working with
Kashmiri and that Kashmiri was in direct contact with a senior leader of
Al Qaeda
.
While in Chicago in late December 2008 and early January 2009, Headley
exchanged emails with Abdur Rehman to continue planning for the attack
and to coordinate his travel to Denmark to conduct surveillance.
In January 2009, at Lashkar’s direction, Headley traveled from Chicago to Copenhagen to conduct surveillance of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper offices in Copenhagen and Aarhus and scouted and videotaped the surrounding areas.
In late January 2009, Headley met separately with Abdur Rehman and a
Lashkar member in Pakistan, discussed the planned attack on the
newspaper, and provided them with videos of his surveillance.
About the same time, Abdur Rehman provided Headley a video produced by the media wing of Al Qaeda
in approximately August 2008, which claimed credit for the June 2008
attack on the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, and called for
further attacks against Danish interests to avenge the publication of
the offending cartoons.
In February 2009, Headley and Abdur Rehman met with Kashmiri in the
Waziristan region of Pakistan, where they discussed the video
surveillance and ways to carry out the attack.
Kashmiri told Headley that he could provide manpower for the operation and that Lashkar’s participation was not necessary.
In March 2009, a Lashkar member advised Headley that Lashkar
put the newspaper attack on hold because of pressure resulting from the
Mumbai attacks.
In May 2009, Headley and Abdur Rehman again met with Kashmiri in Waziristan.
Kashmiri told Headley to meet with a European contact who could
provide Headley with money, weapons and manpower for the Denmark
attack, and relate Kashmiri’s instructions that this should be a suicide
attack and the attackers should prepare martyrdom videos beforehand.
Kashmiri also stated that the attackers should behead captives
and throw their heads on to the street in Copenhagen to heighten the
response from Danish authorities, and added that the “elders,” whom
Headley understood to be Al Qaeda leadership, wanted the attack to happen as soon as possible.
In late July and early August 2009, Headley traveled from Chicago to
various places in Europe, and met with and attempted to obtain
assistance from Kashmiri’s contacts and, while in Copenhagen, he made
approximately 13 additional surveillance videos.
When he returned to the United States on Aug. 5, 2009, Headley
falsely told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspector in Atlanta
that he had visited Europe for business reasons.
On Oct. 3, 2009, Headley was arrested at O’Hare International
Airport in Chicago, intending ultimately to travel to Pakistan to
deliver the approximately 13 surveillance videos to Abdur Rehman and
Kashmiri.
One of Headley’s co-defendants, Tahawwur Rana, 52, of Chicago, was
sentenced last week to 14 years in prison for conspiracy to provide
material support to the Denmark terror plot and providing material
support to Lashkar.
Headley testified for the government at Rana’s trial in June 2011.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel
Collins and Sarah E. Streicker, with assistance from the
Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security
Division.
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have worked on a broader investigation of the Mumbai attacks.
The investigation was conducted by the Chicago Joint Terrorism
Task Force, led by the Chicago Office of the FBI, with assistance from
FBI offices in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., as well
as both U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment