David Headley alleges Pakistan role in Mumbai attacks

BBC ^ | May 23, 2011

[La Lydia]

A man who scouted sites for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks has testified in a separate trial that the Pakistani intelligence service had links to the group that carried out the attacks. David Headley was giving evidence against Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of giving him cover to scout the sites. Headley said a Pakistani agent paid him $25,000 (£15,526) for the operation. Mr Rana has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers say he was tricked by Headley, a former friend.

Headley has said he was trained by militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

At the opening on Monday of Mr Rana's trial for conspiring to plan the Mumbai terror attacks that left more than 160 dead, Headley testified Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) and LeT coordinated with each other and the ISI provided military and moral support to the group.

His lawyers say he was tricked by Headley, a longtime friend from their days at a Pakistani military school. Mr Rana was arrested in 2009, and if convicted, he faces a life sentence.

"David Headley... has been manipulating people for years. Dr Rana is by far and away not the first," Mr Rana's lawyer Charles Swift said in his opening statement.

Prosecutors say that in 2006 Mr Rana allowed Headley to open an office of his Chicago-based immigration services firm in Mumbai, which Headley then used as cover to scout sites for the 2008 attack.

"The defendant knew all too well that when Headley travels to a foreign country, people may die," assistant US Attorney Sarah Streicker told jurors on Monday....

[La Lydia]

This incident occurred over three days during November of 2008. Izlamic terrorists killed 164 innocent people and wounded another 300.

[repub4ever1]

Paki’s can’t win a conventional war with India, so they think
sponsoring terrorism will help their cause.

[Cronos]

“alleges”? It seems to me that there’s more than enough proof that the Pakis were behind it — the terrorists were Pakis, they set off from Pakiland and they had Paki weapons and training.