Tag: Mumbai

Bump and Update: On Frontline tonight, don't miss A Perfect Terrorist, about former DEA informant David Coleman Headley, aka Daood Giliani, who pleaded guilty in Chicago in exchange for a life sentence for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate the mysterious circumstances behind David Headley’s rise from heroin dealer and U.S. government informant to master plotter of the 2008 attack on Mumbai.

By most accounts except its own, the DEA turned Headley from a drug informant into a terror informant. And failed to notice he had joined the terrorists for real. [More..]

Daood Gilani, aka David Coleman Headley, charged in Chicago with assisting in the Mumbai attacks and in plotting an attack on the Danish newspaper that published cartoons critical of the Prophet Mohammed, will plead guilty on Thursday.

He's been cooperating. The plea details aren't available. Will he get less than a life sentence when 8 Americans were killed in the Mumbai attacks? Stay tuned.

Our prior coverage of Headley, including his days as a DEA informant and his potential double agent status, is assembled here.

The Chicago terror charges against David Headley, formerly Daood Gilani, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana are interesting for a number of reasons. They are particularly big news in India, where FISA surveillance information has authorities connecting them to the Nov. 2008 Mumbai attacks and to high level people in Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (Lashker e Taiba) and Harkat-ul Jihad Islamid.

What's getting some, but not enough news, is Headley's 1997 bust in New York for conspiracy to import heroin into the U.S. (The New York Times briefly refers to it here.)He was charged under his original name, Daood Saleem Gilani, along with a codefendant James Leslie Lewis. (Lewis was sentenced to 120 months, later reduced to 100 months.)

After Headley's arrest, he was ordered detained pending trial. But, he began cooperating with the DEA. The U.S. Attorney's office submitted some sealed documents (obviously cooperation letters) and got him out on bond. He was sentenced to only 15 months and when he got out from Ft. Dix, the DEA sent him to Pakistan to make some cases. [More...]