Thaindian News

Chicago, May 27 (IANS) Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley has said he is no longer proud of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, a day after saying that he was “pleased” with it. The US said it was closely cooperating with the Indians on counter-terrorism “certainly involving Mumbai”.

Washington, however, declined comment on revelations about Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) role in the Mumbai terror attack.

During cross-examination Thursday by lawyers defending his longtime friend Pakistan- born Tahawwur Rana, Headley aka Daood Gilani said he was proud of the attack by the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists then, but no more.

Headley, who has pleaded guilty to 12 terror charges to escape the death penalty, was asked by defence attorney Patrick Blegen: “You were proud of it (the attacks) then?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“Are you still proud of it today?” Blegen asked.

“No,” Headley replied without hesitation.

Headley has said that when the attacks happened in November 2008, he was proud of them because he said they were in retaliation for the deaths of Muslims. But he offered no explanation for the change in his feelings Thursday.

He said he may have been wrong to divulge the Mumbai attack plot to Rana.

In doing so he violated the espionage training he received from ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the deadly 26/11 attacks, Headley told the court.

Lawyers defending Rana challenged Headley about what evidence he had of his ISI handler, known as Major Iqbal, who provided guidance during Headley’s surveillance work in Mumbai.

“You can’t even identify him, or find him?” Rana’s lawyer Charles Swift asked, to which Headley agreed.

Headley testified this week that ISI and elements of Pakistan’s military - namely a retired army major he knew as “Pasha” - coordinated Lashkar’s attacks.

“Major Iqbal said to give Rana only generalities?” Swift asked. “Just what he needed to know,” Headley confirmed.

“That was one of the lessons (of Headley’s espionage training): trust no one,” Swift said. “They could give you away, sometimes without even knowing … Yet you violated every rule that you had been taught?”

“I violated some,” Headley said.

Headley brought his Moroccan second wife, covered in Muslim garb, to the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai more than a year before the raid on the hotel and other targets.

Swift said the misstep could have exposed his cover as a non-Muslim American opening an immigration office for Rana.

“I guess I was being careless,” Headley said.

Headley, who was married to three women at the time, unbeknownst to the women, said he was posing as a tourist while he was videotaping sites for the LeT, but he still wasn’t sure if the hotel was a target.

He also divulged that ISI handler Maj Iqbal used a unique cell phone with a US number to stay in touch.

Headley said Iqbal used this phone because he believed most phone calls between Pakistan and India were monitored.

“It (Iqbal’s phone) was a fairly unique cell phone?” asked Swift.

Headley: “Major Iqbal had a unique cell phone (with US number). Through that he contacted me when I was in India. He gave me the number.”

Swift: “He told (you) if something important call us on this number.”

Headley: “I had a cell phone in India. If it was urgent, he would call me.”

State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters: “We’ve been closely cooperating with the Indians on counter-terrorism, certainly involving Mumbai and the Mumbai attacks, but more on a broader level, too.”

“And that counter-terrorism cooperation is extremely beneficial,” he said when asked if the US was getting any phone calls from India or Pakistan about the revelations about ISI coming out in the ongoing Chicago trial of Rana.