Indian and Italian authorities credit the FBI for the info for today's arrests, and the Complaint in the Headley case is filled with details from FISA electronic surveillance and searches. The terror group claiming credit for Mumbai is one of two that Headley told the FBI he's worked with. I would bet the Headley/Rana electronic surveillance resulted in the information for today's arrests in Italy, which are based on a money transfer of $229 to a company in California to set up a VOIP account used by the Mumbai plotters.

I have a long post in the works on the conncections and the Chicago case, but it will have to wait for another day.

Update: Looks like my suspicions that the information came from the Headley/Rana surveillance are correct. The European press is now all over this.

According to the 26/11 chargesheet, Abdul Rehman Bada, Javed, Abu Shoaib and Abu Umer were holed up in Taj Hotel while Abdul Rehman Chotta and Fahadullah attacked Trident Hotel. These terrorists, the chargesheet says, called four numbers (012012531824, 43720880764, 43720880767 and 43720880768) to get in touch with their handlers in Pakistan. A total of 41 calls (8,834 seconds) were made from the Taj and 62 calls (5,705 seconds) were made from the Trident to Pakistan using VOIP provided by the Callphonex company.

The money sent by the Italian money transferers went to Callphonex (in California.)

Did anyone else go shopping for food today? Whole Foods here was just packed -- from the parking lot to the store aisles to the shelves. Traffic was awful too. I don't remember it being like this last year. Maybe people sat out last Thanksgiving due to the financial mess? Maybe the crush is a sign the economy is recovering. Or, maybe it's not but people are spending anyway.

We have lots of health care threads up today, so here's an open thread to discuss other topics.