CHICAGO (BNO NEWS) – A Chicago resident pleaded guilty on Thursday to a dozen terrorism charges that caused the Mumbai, India attacks.

David Coleman Headley, 49, a U.S. citizen partly of Pakistani descent, admitted to have participated in planning the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai and later planning to attack a Danish newspaper. Headley attended training camps in Pakistan operated by Lashkar e Tayyiba, a foreign terrorist organization, on five different occasions from 2002 to 2005.

In 2005, he received instructions from Lashkar members to travel to India to conduct surveillance. He did it five times leading up to the Mumbai attacks three years later that killed 164 people, including 6 Americans.

He was arrested on October 3, 2009, and has fully cooperated with the Government and by doing so avoided death penalty sentence. He faces a sentence of life in prison that could be lowered if he continues to provide full and truthful cooperation.

Headley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bomb public places in India; conspiracy to murder and maim persons in India; six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India; conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in India; conspiracy to murder and maim persons in Denmark; conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark; and conspiracy to provide material support to Lashkar.