CHICAGO RESIDENT PLEADS GUILTY TO TERROR PLOT…HOLDER CROWS
Mar 19, 2010
Man pleads guilty to plots
CHICAGO – A CHICAGO man pleaded guilty on Thursday to using his Western appearance as a cover while scoping out sites for the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege and plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist.
The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and American woman, David Coleman Headley reportedly befriended Bollywood stars and even dated an actress during his lengthy surveillance trips to India.
Headley, 49, began cooperating with investigators immediately after his October arrest and formally admitted to 12 terrorism charges after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty or to allow Headley to be extradited to either India, Pakistan or Denmark to face related charges.
He will, however, be required to ‘truthfully testify in any foreign judicial proceedings held in the United States by way of deposition, video-conferencing or letters rogatory,’ prosecutors said.
‘Today’s guilty plea is a crucial step forward in our efforts to achieve justice for the more than 160 people who lost their lives in the Mumbai terrorist attacks,’ US Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. ‘David Headley is now providing us valuable intelligence about terrorist activities,’ Mr Holder said.
‘Working with our domestic and international partners, we will not rest until all those responsible for the Mumbai attacks and the terror plot in Denmark are held accountable.’ In a plot that reads like a movie thriller, Headley spent two years casing out Mumbai, including taking boat tours around the city’s harbour to scope out landing sites for the attackers who killed 166 people, including six Americans. — AFP
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