Terrorist David Headley Gets Day Off After Video Glitch in US

Terrorist David Coleman Headley's testimony in the 26/11 case via video link from the US has been cancelled for today because of a glitch. The video link could not be established for over three hours.

Headley is deposing from an undisclosed location from the US on the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed.

"There were technical problems from America. There was no visual link, only an audio link. We tried again and again but every effort failed. Our lines were working but American experts failed. The Department of Justice informed us that they regretted that the hearing can take place only tomorrow, said Ujjwal Nikam, special public prosecutor.

Mr Nikam said the US had offered more time in the next hearing.

Headley will testify again tomorrow from 7 am to 1.30 pm.  Over the last two days, he has revealed details about Pakistan's spy agency ISI collaborating with terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was behind the terror attack.

Headley has told the court that he was for working for the ISI and had met many people from the Pakistani Army. On Monday, Day 1 of his deposition, he had recounted how he joined the Lashkar e Taiba in 2002.

Headley has said that the ISI and the Lashkar work in close coordination with each other and the  ISI provides financial, military and moral support to the Lashkar.

Headley has also said that the ISI provides such support also to other terror groups like the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Jaish-e-Mohammad led by Masood Azhar, which is suspected to have attacked the Pathankot airbase in Punjab last month.

Headley said about a year before the 26/11 attack, Lashkar operatives planned an attack on a meeting of Defence Scientists that was to be held at Mumbai's famous Taj Mahal hotel.

Headley also said his Lashkar handler Sajid Mir had asked him to survey the famous Sidhivinayak temple in Mumbai as a possible terror target.  charge that Pakistan’s ISI and the LeT were behind the Mumbai attacks in 2008 that claimed over 166 lives.

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26/11 attacks: ISI provides financial, military support to Lashkar, David Coleman Headley says

Testifying before a Mumbai court for the second day on Tuesday, terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley disclosed that "Pakistan's ISI provides financial support to Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT).

"David Headley said that ISI provides financial, moral as well as military support to Lashkar," special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters after Headley's deposition.

"I was working for ISI also and met many people from Pakistani Army," Headley said. Headley, however, denied that he was paid handsomely by the ISI or LeT for his services.

Continuing his deposition via videoconferencing before special judge GA Sanap from a US jail, Headley said that in 2006, ISI official Major Pasha and LeT functionary Sajid Mir and others met to discuss plans to set up a business for (him) Headley in Mumbai.

Later, in November 2007, he met LeT top leaders when the proposed terror attacks on Mumbai were planned in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, he told special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

He also said that the LeT group as a whole was responsible for the terror attacks in India, and it can be speculated that all orders came from its top commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

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David Headley deposition on 26/11: Why this is more optics than substance

This is the first time in India that any court will be conducting the prosecution of a high-profile international terrorist via video-conferencing. But the deposition of David Coleman Headley in a Mumbai court on Monday will be more optics than substance.

Headley, who played a critical role in facilitating the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, has already been pardoned by the Indian court on the plea that he would reveal all about the role of his Pakistani handlers — particularly ISI officials, the operational commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and his chief Hafeez Mohammed Saeed. Legally, Headley’s deposition is aimed at nailing Pakistani’s prevarication and lies in the Mumbai attack.In legal terms, Headley’s confession in the crime and his dealings with Pakistan’s ISI operatives along with terrorists in Pakistani soil would provide incontrovertible evidence against Pakistan’s claim of the involvement of non-state actors in the Mumbai attack. His deposition will also provide 'prosecutable' evidence against not only Saeed or Lakhvi, but also top officers of the ISI acting as handlers of Headley.

But will it change the ground reality in relation to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism or Pakistan itself?

It seems unlikely.This is the first time in India that any court will be conducting the prosecution of a high-profile international terrorist via video-conferencing. But the deposition of David Coleman Headley in a Mumbai court on Monday will be more optics than substance.

Headley, who played a critical role in facilitating the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, has already been pardoned by the Indian court on the plea that he would reveal all about the role of his Pakistani handlers — particularly ISI officials, the operational commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and his chief Hafeez Mohammed Saeed. Legally, Headley’s deposition is aimed at nailing Pakistani’s prevarication and lies in the Mumbai attack.

here is neither any assurance from the US nor Pakistan that the deposition of Headley will result in any change in their approach to terrorism. “The deposition is nothing more than a legal illusion,” said an intelligence official dealing with the Mumbai terror attacks and Headley’s case.

Those dealing with the security scenario feel that Pakistan is unlikely to roll back its policies on the basis of Headley’s evidence. And there is a history behind it which makes Indian intelligence agencies quite wary of “excessive optimism” on the issue.

In fact, the not-so-little-known story about Headley is that he enjoys US protection because of his multiple roles as an agent of US and Pakistani intelligence agencies and the LeT. Just before the Mumbai attacks, US intelligence agencies supplied vague information about the impending attack on Mumbai. But they avoided giving specific details as it would blow Headley’s cover. This is the precise reason why Indian intelligence agencies were never given direct access to Headley for interrogation. The access to him was always facilitated through an intermediary — a sleuth of the US agencies.

Indian intelligence agencies still believe that in Mumbai attacks, the intelligence input from US agencies had concealed more than it revealed.

Since Headley was regarded as a “prized asset” by US agencies, they avoided revealing his name till they realised that they had been double-crossed by Headley. His deposition on video-conferencing may prove Pakistan’s complicity in the crime and nail its lies, but will keep under wraps the dubious role of the US intelligence agencies.

At the end of the deposition, Headley is sure to have the last laugh as he will be exonerated of his crimes after revealing only half-truths and lies.

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