Chicago Man to Plead Guilty in Mumbai Case

(AP)  A Chicago man accused of scouting out the Indian city of Mumbai before the 2008 terrorist attack that left 166 people dead and plotting to attack a Danish newspaper has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges, a court said Tuesday.

David Coleman Headley is scheduled for a change of plea hearing Thursday before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, the court said in a one-paragraph filing. It gave no details about what charges Headley would plead to or whether he would cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for lenience at sentencing.

Headley pleaded not guilty in January to 12 counts, including six that charge a conspiracy to murder and maim people in India and provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The maximum sentence is the death penalty.

Headley's attorney, John Theis, said he and his client "have been in discussions with the government" and Thursday's action would reflect the results. He declined to comment further.

Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, also declined to comment.

Headley, 49, is accused of going to Mumbai to lay groundwork for the November 2008 rampage that the government blames on the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group is antagonistic toward India because of a dispute over the territory of Kashmir.

FBI agents arrested Headley at O'Hare International Airport on Oct. 3 as he was about to board a plane for Philadelphia. The government says he was believed to be headed to Pakistan afterward to confer with collaborators.

Headley is accused of scheming to launch a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper, Jyllands Posten, which in 2005 published a dozen cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that were highly offensive to Muslims. That attack never happened.

Three other men are charged along with Headley.

Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 49, has pleaded not guilty to charges in connection with both the Danish cartoons case and the Mumbai attacks. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

Two other men, retired Pakistani military officer Rehman Abdur Hashim Syed and accused terrorist leader Ilyas Kashmiri, also are charged in connection with the planned attack on the newspaper. Their whereabouts are unknown, although the indictment said Kashmiri has been in Pakistan's tribal areas, home to various terrorist groups.

Headley is the son of an American mother and Pakistani father. His name at birth was Daood Gilani, but he had it legally changed to make it easier to get through customs without questions, according to federal prosecutors.

[PacifistIndia]

noone buys your conspiracy theory indicting the political leadership.while there are corrupt politicians in each country.it is reality that 3000 people died in the attack and it is real this story highlights how a Pakistani expat was on recce missions to target the people of India and orchestrated the Mumbai attack.Thus being the case,a global partnership to defeat terror is not just a 'nice to have' but a necessity.

[PacifistIndia]

@ brian :

It refuses to sink in because it is absurd and preposterous.I am gob-smacked by your faux pas when you say :
"I have shown you that the nurturing you speak of is being done by the US, as excuse to invade and occupy Afghanistan."

I this were to be true,US would have retreated long back from Afghanistan.Why would America get into Afghanistan to colonize?it has no oil or any other prized strategic importance,except for now where root-ages of terror need to be fought and subdued.

Are you really an American?.This war is fought because 3000 people were massacred on Sept 11..mostly Americans and people from all over the world.A grim similarity with Mumbai attacks were Americans have died too.

Your apparent cynicism and 'no hope' thinking is not the attitude to tackle he profound problems faced by nations of the world and the most potent one being extremism..

I am not trying to fawn Americans like you to sensationalize this fight
and your line that :

"As for the Pakistani public, if US-launched missiles and drones were killing your people, it is logical that you would also hate the sender, and it would be perfectly understandable from my perspective."

It is disgustful lack of commitment to America, which is spending billions of dollars to aid the Pakistani people.If the Pakistani military refuses to take on Al Qaida , then drone attacks are inevitable and i don't condone the civilian deaths

Your sardonic comment on outsourcing is a farce:
"2. India may be pro America, because our jobs are leaving the US, and relocating to India, where you pay close to slave wages. (and you have the cheek to ask why Pakistan accepts the CIA's money)"

Lest you forget that you as a taxpayer is paying for the money and it a wee bit of the 10 billion dollars given to Pakistan which used it against INDIA as opposed to civilian aid or to fight the taliban.

Capturing Pakistan's nuclear weapon will not lead to genocide , an agile swift operation from Israel,India and US will be not be without risks , but it will ensure the riddance from a major pain in the neck.

You seem to repeat and the line that we want you and your siblings to die for India's cause..I have REPEATED ,IT IS NOT THE CASE.

We , in this war are fighting for our values,our cherish egalitarianism and respect and dignity to common man who is in no way deserving of the atrocities inflicted on him by terror.

If you wish to be obstinate then so be it,I do not concur with you

[brianbwb2011]

What Bush wanted in Afghanistan was permission from a puppet government to take land from the Afghan people to build his Caspian Sea pipeline, it seems you are the only one unaware of this, it is why he installed Karzai, ex- UNOCAL coffee-boy.

You are seriously deluded if you think that the most recalcitrant racist country of the past century, the US, actually cares about humanitarian causes. I suppose you think that, after 9 years of hostile occupation, by the US that continues to date, Iraq, or Afghanistan are somehow "free". You then have a strange definition of the word.

You say "Your apparent cynicism and 'no hope' thinking is not the attitude to tackle he profound problems faced by nations of the world and the most potent one being extremism."

It is not our job to tackle any problems other than our own, and what happens in other countries half a world away are not our concern. We have white racist war-mongering extremists, and corrupt government officials in our own country that we need to deal with, long before we think about meddling in other countries affairs.

As an American, my duty is to do my "wee bit" to stand opposed to those who have corrupted our own government, involving us in unnecessary wars against imaginary enemies, and squandering our assets until we now face bankruptcy.

The Taliban were no threat to the US, the BS about harboring Al Qaeda is ridiculous, considering the CIA created Al Qaeda. If you want to talk harboring criminals, the convicted war criminals in the CIA are being harbored by the US, who refuses to extradite them to Italy, where their crimes were proven, and they were convicted. So the "harboring terrorists" canard is also not a valid point.

"This war is fought because 3000 people were massacred on Sept 11..mostly Americans and people from all over the world.A grim similarity with Mumbai attacks were Americans have died too"

Laughable. Those who carried out the crime all died, and those who claimed responsibility are all CIA. The more than a million Afghani, and Iraqi civilians dying, or otherwise harmed since then had nothing to do with the 3000 dead Americans. Even Bush stopped spewing that garbage after a while.

This war is being fought because some people are making a lot of money from it, nothing more.

"Capturing Pakistan's nuclear weapon will not lead to genocide , an agile swift operation from Israel,India and US will be not be without risks , but it will ensure the riddance from a major pain in the neck."

Right, we heard that song before, Iraq was supposed to last less than 30 days, then 100, then 6 months, it is now 9 years. We don't buy that BS any more, Pakistan may be your pain in the neck, but they have done nothing to me. You take your own risks, you deal with them.

[PacifistIndia]

@ Brian : A tunnel vision focus by just dealing with a dictator in Pakistan as being done for the last 8 years was a Fiasco.An attempt to circumscribe the SCOPE of this war to just Afghanistan has not produced results.

Afghan Intelligence head Amarullah saleh says there is "PILES AND PILES" of evidence that ISI is involved in destabilizing Afghanistan.Thereby PROLONGING YOUR MEN AND WOMEN as NATO forced to stay long in Afghanistan and vulnerable to road side bombs.

I am trying to assert that the war on extremism is being nurtured and exacerbated in Pakistan till date.The Pakistani public hates America.Just google youtube to see how Hillary Clinton was hounded by the Pakistani public and the media.And look how successful and Affable her visit to India turned out.

NOBODY is asking you and American soldiers to die for the cause of India.
But we should realize that our cause does converge by:
1. We both are secular democracies
2. Opinion polls in India show it the most pro American country in the world
3. We share a global workforce ,there are so many American firms setting up operations in India for new business or as a Back office to the world
4. We share the same goals in climate change
5. We share the same vision of freedom of expression and equal opportunity

You are right if you feel the Iraq war is not where the focus should be ,but the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan should be the FOCUS for the world.I am not trying to involve America by deceit in the INDO-PAK conflict.

India is helping America getting out of Afghanistan by spending billions in civilian efforts to help the war torn country.The views against Pakistan are not Xenophobic but a rebuke to a nation which is not serious about this war.

Pakistan nuclear weapons by ending up in wrong hands will directly threaten Israel,India and other peaceful gulf states and thereby American interests

A holistic approach by the world in tacking this so called intractable nation makes INDIA and the US natural partners.

[brianbwb2011]

Just refuses to sink in, does it?

Sure the ISI is destabilizing Pakistan, the CIA is paying them to do it. Where else do you think the money is coming from? It provides more excuse for US troops to further dominate the country, and all for Bush's Caspian Sea pipeline, and for the war profiteers' corruption.

I have shown you that the nurturing you speak of is being done by the US, as excuse to invade and occupy Afghanistan.

As for the Pakistani public, if US-launched missiles and drones were killing your people, it is logical that you would also hate the sender, and it would be perfectly understandable from my perspective.

You ask that the US and India "dismantle" Pakistan and divide it up. Just how would you accomplish this without genocide, and being killed in the commission of genocide? You are, in fact, asking me to allow my sons and daughters to kill and die for your own dispute.

I, personally, refuse.

As for your "common interests",

1. The type of government a country chooses is irrelevant. No one has right to tell another country that their system of government must be a certain way.

2. India may be pro America, because our jobs are leaving the US, and relocating to India, where you pay close to slave wages. (and you have the cheek to ask why Pakistan accepts the CIA's money)

3. see 2.

4. Also irrelevant, especially since there are the retarded right wing nuts here in the US lobbying against any effort to mitigate climate change.

5. Perhaps I am remiss in that I did not tell you you are talking to a "Black" American, your "equal opportunity" idea is a myth, and always has been, except for now the unemployment from a collapsing economy is approaching equal opportunity unemployment.

Like I said, fight your own battles, settle your own disputes, or learn to live with your neighbor, those are your choices.

Not our problem, we have our own to deal with.

[PacifistIndia]

@brain : Your views are superannuated.YOU MUST COME OUT OF DISGUISE AS A WESTERNER AND ADMIT THE PAKISTANI ROOTS IF YOU ARGUE FOR PAKISTAN .An Average American is supportive of the cooperation between US and INDIA to combat the terror menace from Pakistan as it threatens both these secular democarcies.

RATIONALE FOR THE DIVISION OF PAKISTAN
--------------------------------------

The reason to divide Pakistan is not possession of weapons BUT THE PROLIFERATION OF WEAPONS AS BY THAT KHAN A SCIENTIST YOU HAD.

Don't quote that bin laden was Saudi and other terrorists have other nationality,But Pakistan acts as a breeding ground.It has proven to be a SAFE HEAVEN.

If Reagen Presidency approved CIA to recruit the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets ,the why did Pakistan accept to the Proposal.Money, is it NOT?Why did Pakistan accept to become a client state.

The British PM Gordon Brown stated openly that 3/4 th of the attacks in UK are plotted in Pakistan.Israel has questioned the continuous terror havens
in Pakistan and its leadership trying to support militancy.Madeline Albright calla Pakistan an International Migraine.

The WEST and the world cannot SPLURGE money on Pakistan without result.India and Afghanistan cannot endure attacks from Pakistan.The worlds needs to ACT AND ACT TOGETHER.You better RECKON.

[brianbwb2011]

You still seem to think that somehow this is our problem, it is not.

I have shown you where your assertions are incorrect, and just like the mentally ill warmongers here, you don't let things like facts get in your way.

Our soldiers, our children, do not kill and die for your country. Our economy will not be further squandered trying to help you settle your disputes. If you have a problem with Pakistan, deal with it yourself, or learn to live with them, those are your only choices.

[PacifistIndia]

@ brianbwb2011 : your imbecility by calling the CIA as Al Qaeda demonstrates, that you are a jealous GREEN EYED Pakistani.Pakistan always complains to US about friendship,craves for attention , begs for AID and instead of helping civilians ,swindles the money to act against india and to fill pockets of the corrupt Army officers.Dividing Pakistan and dismantling its setup as a nation will bring peace to the world.DON'T DISGUISE YOURSELF WITH A WESTERN NAME

PAKISTAN IS AT THE EPICENTER OF TERROR IN THE WORLD.AL-Qaida and Lashkar are headquarted in PAKISTAN even today.It directly threatens US and INDIA.

Satire can be vivdly drawn from the fact that it has created a professional satanic intelligence service,army that hold the state to ransom and has a facade of democracy as veil .It has managed to be labeled as the 'international migraine'.It has succeeded in fermenting hate and laments against India and mastered the art of counterfeit Indian currency.Above all it seems to flaunt the identity of being a global hub of terror.It blackmails stakeholders in return for cooperation in terror fight against aid, has exacerbated the Afghan conflict by poking a noxious anti-India strategic angle to the problem.

INDIA and US shoule work to dismatle pakistan nuclear abilities and joiontly fight pakistan then from terror camp to terror camp and solve this mess by dividing PAKISTAN for the good.Israel might also be of help here.

[brianbwb2011]

Dismantle it yourself, our soldiers do not serve your country.

[PacifistIndia]

PAKISTAN IS AT THE EPICENTER OF TERROR IN THE WORLD.AL-Qaida and Lashkar are headquarted in PAKISTAN even today.It directly threatens US and INDIA.

Satire can be vivdly drawn from the fact that it has created a professional satanic intelligence service,army that hold the state to ransom and has a facade of democracy as veil .It has managed to be labeled as the 'international migraine'.It has succeeded in fermenting hate and laments against India and mastered the art of counterfeit Indian currency.Above all it seems to flaunt the identity of being a global hub of terror.It blackmails stakeholders in return for cooperation in terror fight against aid, has exacerbated the Afghan conflict by poking a noxious anti-India strategic angle to the problem.

INDIA and US shoule work to dismatle pakistan nuclear abilities and joiontly fight pakistan then from terror camp to terror camp and solve this mess by dividing PAKISTAN for the good.Israel might also be of help here.

@ brianbwb2011 : your imbecility by calling the CIA as Al Qaeda demonstrates, that you are a jealous GREEN EYED Pakistani.Pakistan always complains to US about friendship,craves for attention , begs for AID and instead of helping civilians ,swindles the money to act against india and to fill pockets of the corrupt Army officers.Dividing Pakistan and dismantling its setup as a nation will bring peace to the world.DON'T DISGUISE YOURSELF WITH A WESTERN NAME

[brianbwb2011]

Maybe you can get a translator, but essentially here are the facts.

"The alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorists attacks, Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, was recruited during the Soviet-Afghan war, "ironically under the auspices of the CIA, to fight Soviet invaders".(Hugh Davies, "`Informers? point the finger at bin Laden; Washington on alert for suicide bombers." The Daily Telegraph, London, 24 August 1998)."

Ooh, not looking too good for your side...

There is also this from Robin Cook, former British foreign minister. Read it, if you understand English.

"Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians..." Definitely not good for your points, in fact, you don't have any.

And for strike three, this, from the "horse's mouth"...

"Brzezinski: According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, [on] 24 December 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise. Indeed, it was July 3, 1979, that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the President in which I explained to him that in my opinion, this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Question: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

Brzezinski: It isn?t quite that. We didn?t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would..."

Oh, and as for your feared ISI,

" "In March 1985, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 166 ? [which] authorize[d] stepped-up covert military aid to the Mujahideen, and it made clear that the secret Afghan war had a new goal: to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan through covert action and encourage a Soviet withdrawal. The new covert U.S. assistance began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies ? a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually by 1987 ? as well as a "ceaseless stream" of CIA and Pentagon specialists who travelled to the secret headquarters of Pakistan?s ISI on the main road near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There, the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations for the Afghan rebels."(Steve Coll, The Washington Post, July 19, 1992.)

The Central Intelligence Agency using Pakistan?s ISI as a go-between played a key role in training the Mujahideen.

So, if Pakistan must be divided because it possesses nuclear arms, or is corrupt, then so must India, for the same reasons, and so must all other nuclear-armed corrupt countries. Pakistan is recognized as a sovereign state, and has just as much right to exist as India.

Regardless of your ignorance of the facts, the strife between India and Pakistan is none of our business, our soldiers are not required to fight your battles, If you have a problem, then you settle it. Rarely in the history of international strife, is one party totally in the wrong, and one totally right.

[PacifistIndia]

PAKISTAN IS AT THE EPICENTER OF TERROR IN THE WORLD.AL-Qaida and Lashkar are headquarted in PAKISTAN even today.It directly threatens US and INDIA.

Satire can be vivdly drawn from the fact that it has created a professional satanic intelligence service,army that hold the state to ransom and has a facade of democracy as veil .It has managed to be labeled as the 'international migraine'.It has succeeded in fermenting hate and laments against India and mastered the art of counterfeit Indian currency.Above all it seems to flaunt the identity of being a global hub of terror.It blackmails stakeholders in return for cooperation in terror fight against aid, has exacerbated the Afghan conflict by poking a noxious anti-India strategic angle to the problem.

INDIA and US shoule work to dismatle pakistan nuclear abilities and joiontly fight pakistan then from terror camp to terror camp and solve this mess by dividing PAKISTAN for the good.Israel might also be of help here.

[brianbwb2011]

What a maroon.

First, Al Qaeda is headquartered in the US, at CIA hq, they take orders from their creators and do nothing on their own.

Second, India and the US can do nothing about Pakistan's nuclear weapons, Pakistan is a sovereign state, and, at the slightest hint of such interference from India or the US, would immediately launch several into it's rival country.

Bet you'd like that, eh?

Besides, the US cannot afford even one more misadventure meddling in the affairs of other countries. India and Pakistan have been rivals for decades, and both possess nuclear devices, If Pakistan is to be divided, then so should India.

It is only fair.

[PacifistIndia]

PAKISTAN IS AT THE EPICENTER OF TERROR IN THE WORLD.AL-Qaida and Lashkar are headquarted in PAKISTAN even today.It directly threatens US and INDIA.

Satire can be vivdly drawn from the fact that it has created a professional satanic intelligence service,army that hold the state to ransom and has a facade of democracy as veil .It has managed to be labeled as the 'international migraine'.It has succeeded in fermenting hate and laments against India and mastered the art of counterfeit Indian currency.Above all it seems to flaunt the identity of being a global hub of terror.It blackmails stakeholders in return for cooperation in terror fight against aid, has exacerbated the Afghan conflict by poking a noxious anti-India strategic angle to the problem.

INDIA and US shoule work to dismatle pakistan nuclear abilities and joiontly fight pakistan then from terror camp to terror camp and solve this mess by dividing PAKISTAN for the good.Israel might also be of help here.

[PacifistIndia]

PAKISTAN IS AT THE EPICENTER OF TERROR IN THE WORLD.AL-Qaida and Lashkar are headquarted in PAKISTAN even today.It directly threatens US and INDIA.

Satire can be vivdly drawn from the fact that it has created a professional satanic intelligence service,army that hold the state to ransom and has a facade of democracy as veil .It has managed to be labeled as the 'international migraine'.It has succeeded in fermenting hate and laments against India and mastered the art of counterfeit Indian currency.Above all it seems to flaunt the identity of being a global hub of terror.It blackmails stakeholders in return for cooperation in terror fight against aid, has exacerbated the Afghan conflict by poking a noxious anti-India strategic angle to the problem.

INDIA and US shoule work to dismatle pakistan nuclear abilities and joiontly fight pakistan then from terror camp to terror camp and solve this mess by dividing PAKISTAN for the good.Israel might also be of help here.

[hateisafourletterword]

Gee a guy from Chicago no less. Must be something in the water or air in that town.