Headley pleads guilty. No extradition to India.

m.today

Chicago: Mar 19: In a volte-face, Pakistani-American LeT operative David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, today pleaded guilty before a US court here.

 

49-year-old Headley, who was arrested by the FBI’s joint terrorism task force on October 3 last year, told US District Judge Harry Leinenweber that he wanted to change his plea to guilty, in an apparent bid to get a lighter sentence than the maximum death penalty.
Headley, charged on 12-count, admitted guilty in all of them.
Headley, son of a Pakistani diplomat and a Philadelphia socialite, admitted to using his friend Tahawwur Rana’s immigration company as a cover for surveillance activities in India and Denmark on behalf of Pakistan-based terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit with hands and legs shackled, Headley was produced before the court under unprecedented security arrangements.

Security forces along with sniffer dogs were deployed around the court. Special metal detector doors were erected at the entrance of the packed court room.
Headley admitted guilty in all six counts of conspiracy involving bombing public places in India, murdering and maiming persons in India and providing material support to foreign terrorist plots and LeT; and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India.

Indian blames LeT for carrying out Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 that killed 166 people including six Americans.

Headley is also charged with plotting attacks against Danish newspaper ’Jyllands-Posten’ which published a blasphemous cartoon of Prophet Mohammad.
Earlier, US media said Headley may be bargaining for life in prison.

If convicted, Headley faces maximum death penalty. However, during half an hour long hearing, prosecution promised that they will not seek death sentence for Headley and he will not be extradited to either India or Pakistan.

Terror clouding region, spy chiefs flock to India

Spy chiefs of three countries have dropped in within a month of each other in New Delhi, amid concerns among the international community of the impact a major terror strike in India could have on regional stability. On Thursday, US Director for National Intelligence Dennis C Blair met Home Minister P Chidambaram, with the two discussing the security scenario in the region, particularly Afghanistan.
Barely a week ago John Sawers, the chief of the British secret service MI6, had visited India to acquaint himself with the new intelligence set-up in the country and to take forward cooperation in combating terror.

Before that, in February, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR), Mikhail Fradkov, an old India hand, had met top intelligence officials and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon in New Delhi on his first visit after taking command.

In November, CIA director Leon Panetta had flown down to India at a time when Indian and US officials were working closely on the David Headley case.
The visits come at a time where there are growing concerns in the international community about the situation in Afghanistan and about a terror attack in India worsening it. India has been receiving intelligence inputs about possible terror strikes.