The charges against David Headley, a key figure in the plot that killed 166 people, first came from his American wife after a domestic dispute that resulted in his arrest in 2005.
Two of convicted Pakistani terrorist David Coleman Headley's three wives had informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), even as early as three years before the Mumbai attack of November 26, 2008, that he was undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported.
But not only did the Chicago-based 'businessman' and Lashkar-e-Taiba double agent come to no harm, his Moroccan wife, Faiza Outalha, said officials in the American embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, told her, even if indirectly, to "get lost".
Headley was a crucial part of the conspiracy to carry out the Mumbai attack in which 166 people were killed. Nine of the 10 Pakistani terrorists who carried out the attack were killed by police and commandos.
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole terrorist to be captured alive during the attack, has been sentenced to death by a special sessions court in Mumbai. His appeal is pending with the Bombay high court.
The previously undisclosed charges against Headley, a key figure in the plot that killed 166 people, first came from his American wife after a domestic dispute that resulted in his arrest in 2005. Headley was jailed briefly for domestic assault but was not prosecuted.
This information was unearthed by Sebastian Rotella, a reporter for ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
In three interviews with federal agents, the woman, whose identity has been kept secret for her safety, said Headley was an active member of the terrorist LeT, had trained extensively in Pakistan, and had shopped for night-vision goggles and other equipment, the Post report said on Friday, quoting officials close to the case.
She also told agents that Headley had bragged about working as a paid American informer while training with the terrorists.
The FBI claimed it did investigate her charges but declined to say what, if any, action was taken.
Two years later, in 2007, Headley's Moroccan wife went to the American authorities in Pakistan to warn them that she believed that her husband was plotting a deadly terrorist strike in India, The New York Times reported.
Outalha told the Americans that in Pakistan Headley pretended to be a devout Muslim answering to the name of Daood while in India he was the American playboy David.
"I told them, he's either a terrorist, or he's working for you," she recalled saying to American officials at the US embassy in Islamabad.
Again, the long-time informer in Pakistan for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) remained unscathed and continued to travel around the world on behalf of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, receiving small-arms and counter-surveillance training, scouting targets for attack, including in Mumbai and several other cities in India, and building a network of connections that extended from Chicago to Pakistan's lawless northwestern frontier.
Headley was eventually arrested 11 months after the Mumbai attack, when British intelligence alerted US authorities that he was in contact with al-Qaeda operatives in Europe.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}