FRONT PAGE | Thursday, November 5, 2009 | Email | Print | 
LeT men in US had India’s NDC in crosshairs: FBI
S Rajagopalan | Washington
In new disclosures, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has informed a Chicago court that the two Pakistan-born men in its custody for plotting terror strikes in India and Denmark had discussed the possibility of launching an attack on the National Defence College in India.
David Coleman Headley, who had changed his name from Daood Gilani three years ago, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana “discussed Denmark and other targets, including the National Defence College in India”, the FBI said in additional court papers filed on Tuesday.
Opposing Rana’s bail plea on grounds that he was innocent and had been “duped” by Headley, the FBI said that Rana was aware of the object of the conspiracy and the ongoing efforts to further the plot.
“Recorded conversations involving the defendant (Rana), emails and other documentary evidence demonstrate that the defendant conspired to provide and did provide material support to the conspiracy,” it said, noting that in numerous conversations, the two men were engaged in coded exchanges to hide the true nature of their communications.
Prosecutors submitted that Rana, the Chicago-based Pakistani-Canadian businessman, and Headley, a US citizen, had actively discussed the efforts to communicate with top Al Qaeda operative Ilyas Kashmiri on September 7, 2009.
“Rana and Headley discussed the need to get Headley’s “reports” and “notes” to Kashmiri. In doing so, Rana was neither laughing nor ridiculing Headley, as suggested by the defendant during oral argument.
In the same conversation, Headley and Rana discussed Denmark and other targets, including the National Defence College in India — Rana, in fact, used the English word “target” in this discussion,” the FBI document said.
Both Headley and Rana, arrested in Chicago on October 3 and 18 respectively, have been charged with a plot to attack the Copenhagen offices of the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, for publishing cartoons of Prophet Mohammad back in 2005.
Additionally, the FBI informed the court on Tuesday that Rana, who runs an immigration business and a meat processing plant, advised a member of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba on how to slip people into the United States by using a “loophole” in the American immigration policy. “Make him a cook,” wrote Rana, advising that the person invent a school degree if necessary.
FBI has already accused Rana of misleading an official of the Pakistani Consulate in Chicago in order to obtain a visa for Headley.
The hearing on Rana’s bail plea will resume on November 10. Defence attorney Patrick Blegen disputed Government claims that Rana is a danger to the community and a flight risk. He said Rana’s friends, relatives and supporters were willing to post a $1 million bond to guarantee that he would not flee the US to avoid prosecution.
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