According to the FBI, Chicago native David Coleman Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in order to avoid attention from authorities, spent two years traveling back and forth from India, helping the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) plan the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The attacks killed 163 people, including five Americans. Headley also traveled to Denmark to help develop a plot against the Danish newspaper that published an offensive cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. Now, after cooperating extensively with authorities, it looks like Headley is ready to plead guilty:
On Tuesday, an order was docketed in federal court in Chicago scheduling a change-of-plea hearing in the case for Thursday.
According to the criminal complaint, Headley scouted targets for terrorist attacks abroad, all while pretending to work for an immigration services company called First World. The FBI says First World made fake business cards and pretended to want to take out an ad in the targeted Danish newspaper as a cover for their surveillance. Although the LeT is generally focused on India, the FBI says that the planned Denmark attack was inspired by a video produced by al-Qaeda.
Initially, Headley pleaded not guilty. But his cooperation provided information that led to the indictments of Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian co-conspirator who is in custody but has pleaded not guilty, and Ilyas Kashmiri, who the government says is an "influential leader" of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, another India-focused Pakistani terrorist group. Kashmiri was once thought killed in a drone attack. Also indicted is a retired Pakistani Army Major named Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed. Kashmiri and Syed, who were indicted in connection with the alleged Denmark plot, are not in American custody.
The case was assembled by the FBI; it was filed in federal court; and the alleged terrorist was given a lawyer. The result is a likely guilty plea and the indictments of his co-conspirators, to say nothing of other details related to other overseas LeT operations Headley may have provided. For some reason, Republicans want you to believe the American justice system is inadequate for dealing with terrorism. The facts say something else.
-- A. Serwer
