Chicago, Dec 8 (IANS) New federal charges filed against suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley accuse him of conducting extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years before last year’s deadly attacks that took the lives of 166 people.
Headley, an American citizen of Pakistani origin, already accused of plotting to murder a Danish newspaper cartoonist, was Monday charged with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim persons in India and Denmark, to provide material support to foreign terrorist plots and to provide material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based militant group.

According to the charges, after learning from members of Lashkar in late 2005 that he would be travelling to India to perform surveillance for Lashkar, Headley changed his name from Daood Gilani on Feb 15, 2006, in Philadelphia, in order to present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani.

He later made five extended trips to Mumbai in September 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008, each time taking pictures and making videotapes of various targets, including those attacked in Nov 2008.

Starting Nov 26, 2008, and continuing through Nov 28, 2008, 10 attackers trained by Lashkar carried out multiple assaults with firearms, grenades and improvised explosive devices against multiple targets in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, the Leopold Cafe, the Nariman House and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, each of which Headley allegedly had scouted in advance.

Headley allegedly attended Lashkar training camps in Pakistan that began in February and August 2002 and August and December 2003.

After being tasked in late 2005 with gathering surveillance in Mumbai and changing his name in early 2006, the charges allege that Headley traveled to Chicago in June 2006 and advised a person identified in the charges as Individual A of his assignment.

Headley obtained Individual A’s approval to open an office of First World Immigration Services in Mumbai in 2006 as cover for his surveillance activities, the charges allege. Headley allegedly misrepresented his birth name, father’s true name and the purpose of his travel in his visa application.

After each trip that Headley took to India between September 2006 and July 2008, he allegedly returned to Pakistan, met with other co-conspirators and provided them with photographs, videos and oral descriptions of various locations.

In March 2008, Headley and his co-conspirators discussed potential landing sites for a team of attackers who would arrive by sea in Mumbai, and he was instructed to take boat trips in and around the Mumbai harbor and take surveillance video, which he did during his visit to India starting in April 2008, the charges allege.

At various times, Headley allegedly conducted surveillance of other locations in Mumbai and elsewhere in India of facilities and locations that were not attacked in November 2008, including the National Defence College in Delhi.

The count against Headley charging conspiracy to bomb public places in India that resulted in deaths carries a maximum statutory penalty of life imprisonment or death.

All of the other counts against Headley carry a maximum of life imprisonment, except providing material support to the Denmark terror plot, which carries a maximum prison term of 15 years.

US prosecutors said they had also unsealed charges against a retired Pakistani military major, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, for participating in the conspiracy to attack the Danish newspaper and its employees.

Headley and another Chicago man, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, were initially arrested in the Denmark case, charged with plotting an attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten out of revenge for a dozen cartoons printed in 2005 depicting the prophet Muhammad.

Rana has denied involvement in a terror plot.

Authorities said Headley has been cooperating with investigators since FBI agents arrested him at Chcago’s O’Hare airport in October.