Because of US citizen involvement and American being killed, US prosecuters have charged Gilani and Ran
U.S. prosecutors charged a Chicago man with helping plan last year’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai by carrying out surveillance of potential targets in India’s financial hub.
Chicago Terrorism Suspect Charged by U.S. Over Mumbai Attacks - Bloomberg.com
David Coleman Headley (Daood Gilani), 49, who was arrested in October on charges he planned attacks against a Danish newspaper, is accused of conspiracy to bomb public places in India and conspiracy to murder and maim people in India and Denmark, the Justice Department said in a statement yesterday.
Headley, who was born in the U.S. to an American mother and Pakistani father, will plead not guilty at a Dec. 9 arraignment, said his attorney, John Theis.
The November 2008 attacks targeted luxury hotels, restaurants, a railway station and a Jewish center in Mumbai over a three-day period and left 166 people dead. Headley made five trips to the city from 2006 to 2008, taking pictures and making videotapes of targets, including those attacked, according to the statement.
He had changed his name from Daood Gilani before the trips to make himself appear in India as an American who wasn’t Muslim or Pakistani, the U.S. said.
“This case serves as a reminder that the terrorist threat is global in nature and requires constant vigilance at home and abroad,” David Kris, assistant attorney-general for national security, said in the statement.
Headley was previously charged with plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 2005. He has remained in U.S. custody without bond since he was arrested in Chicago on Oct. 3.
Lashkar-e-Taiba
India blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e- Taiba for the Mumbai attacks that were carried out by 10 militants. The lone surviving gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, is on trial in a Mumbai court.
Headley attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan run by Lashkar-e-Taiba earlier this decade and conspired with others in planning and executing the attacks in India, according to the Justice Department. The group was designated by the U.S. in 2001 as a foreign terrorist organization.
A criminal complaint was unsealed in Chicago yesterday charging Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani military, with conspiracy in planning to attack the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark.
Rehman allegedly participated in plotting the Denmark attack, had contact with Headley, and helped him contact other Pakistani conspirators, including members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to the Justice Department.
Ties to Al-Qaeda
During a January 2009 trip by Headley to Pakistan, Rehman guided him to a meeting with Ilyas Kashmiri, leader of another organization, Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, which has ties to the al- Qaeda network, the U.S. said.
Randall Samborn, a spokesman for Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, declined to comment on Rehman’s status or his whereabouts.
The charges against Headley and Rehman carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, according to the Justice Department.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who also is charged with conspiring in the planned attack on the Jyllands-Posten and cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, is in U.S. custody. Rana’s lawyer, Patrick Blegen, has denied his client was involved in the newspaper plot.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1946118,00.html
The cases are U.S. v. Headley, 09cr830, U.S. v. Rehman, 09cr862, and U.S. v. Rana, 09cr849, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).