Posted on 03/19/2010 7:00:37 AM PDT by James C. Bennett
Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, pleaded guilty on Thursday before a United States court.
Headley, 49, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's joint terrorism task force on October 3, 2009, told US District Judge Harry Leinenweber that he wanted to change his plea to guilty, in an apparent bid to get a lighter sentence and escape the death penalty.
Headley has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, which ruled out the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistan and Denmark, provided that he cooperates with the government's investigations into terrorism.
Read Headley's plea agreement:
“0”, a great large intestine moment!
Reading the plea agreement, something else really jumps out at me:
Under his criminal history assessment:
1988 -- First offense for conspiracy to import heroin into the United States: four years. Amount of actual prison time served was not mentioned. But in 1995, parole was violated, resulting in 6 months imprisonment.
1997 -- Convicted of conspiracy to import and possess heroin with the intent to distribute: sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.
IMHO, here we have a blatant example on why the war on drugs is failing, and the destructive and extreme results of that failure.
There was another article yesterday that said Headley got an unusually short prison term for heroin distribution because the DEA wanted to use him to establish contacts in Pakistan.
Very interesting. Makes sense to me.
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