How Pakistan Planned For Carnage And Mayhem In Mumbai

Mumbai attack co-accused David Headley has said during his trial at the Chicago court that a Pakistan Navy man was present during discussions with his ISI handler Major Iqbal on landing sites and arrival of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists by sea.

Headley also said that he attended over 50 training sessions with the powerful Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, and that he always briefed Iqbal first during his visits to Pakistan. Iqbal was briefed at a Lahore safe-house, he said.

The 50-year-old Pakistani-American gave details of the Mumbai attack plot involving his Pakistani handlers while being cross-examined by the defence attorney Charles D Swift on the fourth day of the trial of Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani of Canadian origin and another co-accused in the case.

Headley said ISI provided him a special discourse in Lahore for carrying out surveillance ahead of the Mumbai carnage.

"ISI did provide me (espionage) training," he said, adding that he had attended 50 training sessions over a period of time.

Headley replied in the affirmative when asked by Swift if anyone from the Pakistan naval establishment was present during meetings with Iqbal on landing sites in Mumbai to carry out the attack.

"When discussing the landing site, someone from the Pakistan Navy was present - clean shaved, military bearing, hair cut."

Headley said his name was Abdur Rahman.

During questioning, Headley also said he did not know anyone in ISI above Major Iqbal.

He also said that the ISI provided him training on the streets and in a two-storey safe house in Lahore, near the airport.

Headley also told that court that when he met Major Iqbal in 2006, he expressed dissatisfaction at the military and espionage training that he had received from the LeT earlier.

Major Iqbal, who was identified by Headley as 'Chaudhery Khan', told him that the training received from LeT was "not very good" and was "very elementary", so he decided to give instructions to him.

The statements formed part of the testimony of Headley, who has pleaded guilty.

These disclosures, which further cements India's charges that elements of ISI were involved in the 26/11, is also corroborated by information given by federal prosecutors in the documents to the court, which have been unsealed.

Headley said he had taken videos of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai several times and also inside of a train station in CST.

Q) Video surveillance at railway station was an egress route (act of getting out of target area)
A) Yes

Q) That was Major Iqbal planning
A) Yes

Q) You were not detected?
A) Yes

Q) This is the landing site you identified
A) Yes

Q) What were you looking for?
A) Looking for something safe where we could not be detected.

Headley said he went to the Taj to video the area on numerous times and that he had stayed in the Taj on April 7, 2007 along with his second wife (from Morocco) with me.

He testified he used the occasion to video tape and take pictures and that his second wife was covered in a veil.

David Headley Trained By Lashkar And ISI

Dissatisfied with the military and espionage training received by Mumbai attacks accused David Coleman Headley from the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pakistan's spy agency ISI gave him special coaching in surveillance tactics before 26/11.

The training was given by Major Iqbal, Headley's ISI handler, on the streets and in a two-storey safe house in Lahore near the airport, the 50-year-old said.

"ISI did provide me (espionage) training," Headley told a Chicago court as he was grilled by defence attorney Charles Swift who's trying to prove Headley's friend and co-accused, businessman Tahawwur Rana, was in the dark about the Lashkar operative's terror role.

Headley told the court that when he met Major Iqbal in 2006, he was told Lashkar's training was "very elementary" and "not very good". So Major Iqbal, who was identified by Headley as Chaudhery Khan, decided to personally coach him. It was a double-storey house with a small compound outside in a residential neighbourhood, Headley described.

In answer to repeated questions on Thursday, Headley said he did not know the full name of Major Iqbal, but was sure he was from the ISI. Although Headley never saw Major Iqbal in military uniform, he came to meet him several times in a military jeep and his subordinates had military designations, he said.

He was introduced as Major Iqbal to him.

Headley said he never went to the ISI headquarters and added that he was introduced to Major Iqbal by military personnel.

The disclosures are part of the testimony of Headley, who has pleaded guilty, and cements India's charges that elements of ISI were involved in the 26/11 attack. Delhi's fears are being corroborated by information given by federal prosecutors in the documents to the court, which have been unsealed.

The ISI and Major Iqbal were particularly motivated by the fact that he was born in the US. As an American national, he would be able to conceal his real identity in India, they felt.

"They (ISI and Major Iqbal) wanted me to have a business so as to have the ability to have a long-term stay in India. In discussion with them I suggested it to take the help of Dr Rana's (Tahawwur Rana) business to get this objective," he said.

According to the new documents, Headley began attending terror training camps of the Lashkar in February 2002. By December 2003, Headley had attended five separate courses, and had been trained in, among other things, Lashkar's philosophy, the use of weapons and grenades, combat tactics, survival skills and counter-surveillance methods.

After completing several camps, Headley became acquainted with senior Lashkar member Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, who was responsible for Lashkar's military operations and one of the brains behind 26/11.

Pakistan Planned The Murder Of Innocent US Citizens in Mumbai

Prosecutors accused a Chicago businessman Monday of facilitating the November 2008 terrorist attacks that killed more than 160 people in Mumbai, India. But the defense argued that he was an unwitting victim betrayed by a business associate and longtime friend.

As Tahawwur Hussain Rana's trial began in a Chicago courtroom Monday, prosecutors said he allowed his office, First World Immigration Services, to be used as a front for a co-conspirator traveling abroad to scout possible locations for the terrorist attacks, according to court records.

Rana is also accused of taking part in a plot to bomb the offices of a Danish newspaper that had published irreverent cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and angered Muslims across the world.
He has pleaded not guilty.

Defense attorney Charles Smith didn't deny Rana's connections with David Coleman Headley, who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges related to the Mumbai attacks last year.
The two men were classmates in high school and frequently loaned money to each other over the years, Smith said in his opening statement.