David Coleman Headley’s saga, currently held in a federal prison in Chicago, is almost comparable with the complexity of a Le Carre nail biting cliffhanger of a novel. His eyes – one a green and the other a brown – are perhaps the best indication of his mixed bloodlines ; a splintered legacy drawn from his father, a conservative Pakistani and mother an upwardly mobile American socialite, bestowing upon him the capability and capacity to move and cross over into disparate cultures with an effortless ease.
His arrest by the US authorities in Oct 2009 on a tip by British intelligence when he was allegedly conspiring with al Qaeda to behead people at the Danish Newspaper site that had published blasphemous drawings has opened a Pandora’s box regarding how much role had he played in the planning of Mumbai carnage of 2008. Questions have been raised as to how much of this he had shared with the US Intelligence agencies who recruited him as an agent to penetrate Lashkar e Tayyaba (LeT). Further questions arise; if Headley was a CIA asset then why US failed to give actionable explicit warning to India that could have helped them thwart the blood curdling assault by ten terrorists in Mumbai that claimed 166 lives on 26 Nov 2008.
No one is under any doubt that David Headley, with his penchant for drug dealings and unique cross cultural background was a lucrative commodity for the US intelligence establishment. He was initially recruited by US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the early nineties and when September Eleven occurred, found himself under the tutelage of CIA which was then looking for assets to penetrate the ranks of LeT, a Kashmir centric militant organization, declared terrorist entity by the US on 26 December 2001. Post September Eleven, he told friends that he was to train with Lashkar as part of a secret mission for the US. “The FBI and the DEA have joined forces and I am going to work for them. I want to do something important in my life. I want to do something for my country,” he told his associates.
How, if and at what point he turned rogue is a mystery; the fact remains that till a year after the Mumbai attacks he managed to retain the confidence of his US handlers. Even detailed tip-offs from his two ex wives, in 2005 and 2007 regarding his forays into India and his association with LeT failed to move US intelligence. Headley’s second wife, Ms Faiza Outalha, who tried to disclose his activities to US security officials in Islamabad, less than a year before the Mumbai strike, was plainly told to keep quiet. “I told them, he is either a terrorist or he’s working for you,” says Outalha. But US Islamabad Embassy was not interested. “Indirectly they told me to get lost,” she says. Headley handlers were obviously in the know-how of what their prized agent was up to.
Headley trained with the terrorist organizations and performed a number of scouting missions for the Lashkar / al Qaeda between 2002 and 2009 when he was in the service of the US intelligence. During this period he was repeatedly debriefed by his American handlers at the US Islamabad Embassy and it is beyond realm of the possible that they were not aware of his involvement in the impending Mumbai attacks. Even though Pakistan was not tipped off of Headley’s shenanigans, US did pass warnings of the Mumbai attack to India on at least three occasions; obviously based on interactions with Headley; the timings of these warnings closely coinciding with his reconnaissance visits to India.
The first US warning came in early 2008 sounding India of the ongoing planning by Lashkar to target Mumbai. The second in May specifically warned of the strike to include the iconic Taj Hotel frequented by foreigners. On 18 November, just four days before the terrorists embarked on the assault, US intelligence warned India about a suspicious maritime vessel carrying terrorists that were to target Mumbai. Despite such explicit warnings the Indian security forces were caught napping as the terrorists struck on 26 November 2008 to launch their three day shooting spree. It is interesting to note that Headley was only arrested eleven months after the Mumbai carnage on a British tip that he was planning acts of terrorism in Europe at the behest of al Qaeda.
Why couldn’t US interfere at an opportune moment to thwart the attack and arrest Headley earlier to control further damage remains an abiding mystery. Its silence has persisted even as India , true to its established tradition, blamed Pakistan for direct complicity in the attack and many a finger pointing dossiers have been exchanged along with hot exchanges between the two countries. Pakistan also ought to know, as a US partner in war on terrorism, as to why US didn’t share intelligence of the attack with Pakistan even as they were closely monitoring Headley’s activities. The mystery intensifies whereby US provided access to a four member team belonging to India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Law Department to interrogate Headley, in June this year, without providing similar opportunity to Pakistan. They have also, ostensibly, failed to brief Pakistan as to what Headley disclosed during his encounters with the Indians. The result is a unilateral spate of negative propaganda emanating from India, blaming Pakistan’s complicity in the Mumbai terrorist strike. The costs to Pakistan are manifest; this baseless propaganda has been cleverly manipulated to sideline the Composite Dialogue Process which, initiated in 2004 among much fanfare is currently lying comatose.
Taking advantage of the US provided opportunity to interrogate Headley, India has even prepared a charge sheet securing an Interpol worldwide arrest warrants against five Pakistani nationals including two Army majors, who only exist in the fevered imagination of the Indian spin doctors. In another development a New York Court, responding to a lawsuit filed by relatives of two Jew victims who were killed during the strike on Chhabad House has summoned ISI officials along with LeT leaders. This move may not mean much in practical terms; the complaint being private and the US Government staying meaningfully silent, yet in a media image and sound-byte driven world, US court action places additional burden on Pakistan. As the slippery spy languishes in the Chicago Jail and India ratchets up its anti-Pakistan propaganda, US needs to come clean as to what is masked by the perplexing gallery of mirrors fabricated by the Headley tales and a loaded US silence. Further why don’t Pakistani courts summon CIA chief to hold him accountable for the death of hundreds of innocents killed by CIA drone strikes in Pakistani territory without accepting a shred of responsibility by the US?
His arrest by the US authorities in Oct 2009 on a tip by British intelligence when he was allegedly conspiring with al Qaeda to behead people at the Danish Newspaper site that had published blasphemous drawings has opened a Pandora’s box regarding how much role had he played in the planning of Mumbai carnage of 2008. Questions have been raised as to how much of this he had shared with the US Intelligence agencies who recruited him as an agent to penetrate Lashkar e Tayyaba (LeT). Further questions arise; if Headley was a CIA asset then why US failed to give actionable explicit warning to India that could have helped them thwart the blood curdling assault by ten terrorists in Mumbai that claimed 166 lives on 26 Nov 2008.
No one is under any doubt that David Headley, with his penchant for drug dealings and unique cross cultural background was a lucrative commodity for the US intelligence establishment. He was initially recruited by US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the early nineties and when September Eleven occurred, found himself under the tutelage of CIA which was then looking for assets to penetrate the ranks of LeT, a Kashmir centric militant organization, declared terrorist entity by the US on 26 December 2001. Post September Eleven, he told friends that he was to train with Lashkar as part of a secret mission for the US. “The FBI and the DEA have joined forces and I am going to work for them. I want to do something important in my life. I want to do something for my country,” he told his associates.
How, if and at what point he turned rogue is a mystery; the fact remains that till a year after the Mumbai attacks he managed to retain the confidence of his US handlers. Even detailed tip-offs from his two ex wives, in 2005 and 2007 regarding his forays into India and his association with LeT failed to move US intelligence. Headley’s second wife, Ms Faiza Outalha, who tried to disclose his activities to US security officials in Islamabad, less than a year before the Mumbai strike, was plainly told to keep quiet. “I told them, he is either a terrorist or he’s working for you,” says Outalha. But US Islamabad Embassy was not interested. “Indirectly they told me to get lost,” she says. Headley handlers were obviously in the know-how of what their prized agent was up to.
Headley trained with the terrorist organizations and performed a number of scouting missions for the Lashkar / al Qaeda between 2002 and 2009 when he was in the service of the US intelligence. During this period he was repeatedly debriefed by his American handlers at the US Islamabad Embassy and it is beyond realm of the possible that they were not aware of his involvement in the impending Mumbai attacks. Even though Pakistan was not tipped off of Headley’s shenanigans, US did pass warnings of the Mumbai attack to India on at least three occasions; obviously based on interactions with Headley; the timings of these warnings closely coinciding with his reconnaissance visits to India.
The first US warning came in early 2008 sounding India of the ongoing planning by Lashkar to target Mumbai. The second in May specifically warned of the strike to include the iconic Taj Hotel frequented by foreigners. On 18 November, just four days before the terrorists embarked on the assault, US intelligence warned India about a suspicious maritime vessel carrying terrorists that were to target Mumbai. Despite such explicit warnings the Indian security forces were caught napping as the terrorists struck on 26 November 2008 to launch their three day shooting spree. It is interesting to note that Headley was only arrested eleven months after the Mumbai carnage on a British tip that he was planning acts of terrorism in Europe at the behest of al Qaeda.
Why couldn’t US interfere at an opportune moment to thwart the attack and arrest Headley earlier to control further damage remains an abiding mystery. Its silence has persisted even as India , true to its established tradition, blamed Pakistan for direct complicity in the attack and many a finger pointing dossiers have been exchanged along with hot exchanges between the two countries. Pakistan also ought to know, as a US partner in war on terrorism, as to why US didn’t share intelligence of the attack with Pakistan even as they were closely monitoring Headley’s activities. The mystery intensifies whereby US provided access to a four member team belonging to India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Law Department to interrogate Headley, in June this year, without providing similar opportunity to Pakistan. They have also, ostensibly, failed to brief Pakistan as to what Headley disclosed during his encounters with the Indians. The result is a unilateral spate of negative propaganda emanating from India, blaming Pakistan’s complicity in the Mumbai terrorist strike. The costs to Pakistan are manifest; this baseless propaganda has been cleverly manipulated to sideline the Composite Dialogue Process which, initiated in 2004 among much fanfare is currently lying comatose.
Taking advantage of the US provided opportunity to interrogate Headley, India has even prepared a charge sheet securing an Interpol worldwide arrest warrants against five Pakistani nationals including two Army majors, who only exist in the fevered imagination of the Indian spin doctors. In another development a New York Court, responding to a lawsuit filed by relatives of two Jew victims who were killed during the strike on Chhabad House has summoned ISI officials along with LeT leaders. This move may not mean much in practical terms; the complaint being private and the US Government staying meaningfully silent, yet in a media image and sound-byte driven world, US court action places additional burden on Pakistan. As the slippery spy languishes in the Chicago Jail and India ratchets up its anti-Pakistan propaganda, US needs to come clean as to what is masked by the perplexing gallery of mirrors fabricated by the Headley tales and a loaded US silence. Further why don’t Pakistani courts summon CIA chief to hold him accountable for the death of hundreds of innocents killed by CIA drone strikes in Pakistani territory without accepting a shred of responsibility by the US?
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