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The Headley Saga: What Are They Hiding?

By Feroze Mithiborwala

29 October, 2010
Countercurrents.org

“The speculation gaining respectability in Delhi is that Washington knew in advance about the Mumbai attack & deliberately chose not to pass the details to Delhi .” That would he said, “Reveal the links between the CIA-ISI & LeT”. - MK Bhadrakumar (ex-Ambassador, GOI).

“Headley was a deep penetration agent of US Intelligence” - Bahukutumbi Raman (Former Counter-Terrorism Chief (RAW).

It has been apparent ever since the time that the Headley story began to appear in the Indian & global media that David Coleman Headley was basically a CIA-FBI agent. The recent revelations that have been brought forth by   Sebastian Rotella in the ProPublica   ( Oct 15, 2010 ), have reaffirmed our position ( http://www.countercurrents.org/mithiborwala181010.htm ).

Despite all the daily brouhaha by our Intelligence services over Headley's role in the 26/11 terror attacks,   not even a FIR, leave alone a charge-sheet has been filed   against the known central figure in planning & executing the dastardly terror attack on our country & all of South Asia.

Though Mr. Pillai (Home Secretary, Government of India) has now chosen to speak out & said that the “US has let us down” & that “we were disappointed that the na me of Headley was not provided, if not pre-26/11, at least post-26/11” . ( Hindustan Ti mes, 28/10/10 ).

It all see ms a bit like a well orchestrated charade on the part of the leadership.

Thus on a daily basis we hear of Headley's latest revelations, which target the ISI & LeT. Then on the very next day, we read of further   US funding to the tune of billions of dollars for that very ISI.  

Do the Indian ruling elite really believe that the people are astoundingly stupid? We certainly are not!

Clearly there is a quid-pro-quo between the Indian Intel & their counterparts in the US & subsequently in Pakistan & this is how it operates. 

Headley is being used to protect & mislead the investigations into the   Ishrat Jehan encounter killing   to protect Modi & his ilk. Similarly the investigations into the   Samjhauta Express   as laid out by the charge-sheet filed by Hemant Karkare which clearly implicate   Col. Purohit , are also being targeted by the NIA & the IB, to protect the Abhinav Bharat. And recently the investigation into the ghastly   Chittisinghpora massacre , which was the handiwork of the undercover black-op cells within the Indian army, is again being misled under the guise of Headley's statements.

We are also aware that the   US funds more than a third of the Pakistan  military & ISI-intelligence budget. The Lashkar-i-Tayyaba   is the sword arm of the ISI. The US has never attacked any Lashkar bases in Pakistan & the LeT does not attack US troops. The CIA has worked together with the LeT in Kosovo , Chechnya & Bosnia . Thus the US uses the ISI-LeT for furthering its strategic objectives in the region. ( http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/ramps-cia-infiltration-pakistan-report/ )

The US Intelligence is also deeply involved in supporting & funding   narco-terror & weapons smuggling   across the world. These are the connections that we will have to study, if we are to comprehend & unravel the complex world of intelligence agencies & terror networks that operate together. ( http://www.ciadrugs.com/ )

The US a mbassador Timothy Roemer ( http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=10875 ) maintains that they did warn ' India ' about the coming 26/11 attack.

So the questions that arise are the following:

1) The central & simple question is that, why did the CIA & FBI not warn their counterparts in Pakistan , within the government, the Military or the ISI. As we can discern from above, they have a very deep operational & material relationship, stretching across 6 decades.

It was always clear that an attack of the magnitude of 26/11 could even lead to a nuclear war in the region. Yet they refrained from informing & warning any of their counterparts in Pakistan .

Why? And moreover, why isn't anyone asking this obvious question?

2) Who did they inform in India ? We still do not have the specific name or names. 

It surely could not have been the Indian security guard standing outside the gates of the US fortress of an embassy in New Delhi .

Did they inform  MK Narayanan (the then NSA Chief) or the Mr. Shivraj Patil (ex-Home Minister) ? Who was complicit in the cover up? Why no names of the key people who were supposedly provided information by mid-September of the coming terror attack by Sea, where the Taj, Marriott & the Trident were mentioned as potential targets. ( http://www.countercurrents.org/mithiborwala140510.htm ). 

Who will stand up & take the responsibility? None, only an eerie silence . . . a cover up .

The 26/11 attack could have been averted if the necessary information would have been provided on time & precautions taken.

Thus we now come back to Headley & his wives.

It was way back in   2005   when one of Headley's wives in New York , warned the FBI of Headley's links with terrorists. Due to a domestic squabble, Headley was even arrested by the police. The wife stated that Headley "was an active militant in the LeT terrorist group & had trained extensively in Pakistani camps, shopped for night-vision goggles & other equipment". She also said that “Headley used to brag about his working as a paid informant of the US , while he trained with terrorists in Pakistan ”.

Significantly, after 9/11, Headley told his associates “that he planned to train with Lashkar as part of a secret mission for the US government”.

He also stated that “the FBI & DEA have joined forces & I am going to work with them. I want to do something for my country”.

The point is which country, the USA or Israel ??

In 2008 April , Headley went to Chicago & told his accomplice of an evolving plan for a seaborne terror attack by gunmen who would land in front of the Ta j M ahal Hotel which he had scouted extensively.

These are the official statements as recorded by the FBI officials.

Though Headley was jailed for domestic violence, he was not prosecuted & the matter of his terror links not investigated.

Later again in   2007, only a year prior to the attack,   his wife in Pakistan went to the US embassy in Islamabad & gave specific information of his terrorist links but she was driven away both the times & basically told to “Get Lost”, by the FBI-CIA officials.

The wives gave information & a detailed account of training with the LeT, provided audio tapes of conversations & emails as well as records of calls from Pakistan

And yet the CIA & FBI claim that the information provided by the wives "was not specific". 

Thus let us assess this bizarre claim as well:

1) Firstly Headley was already known to the DEA-FBI & CIA since 1998, due to his drug smuggling activities, for which he was prosecuted & jailed & he later became an agent of the DEA to infiltrate drug rings in the US & Pakistan. After 9/11 he was taken in by the CIA & FBI as an asset & became their agent.

2) They should have taken the precautions after his wives gave specific information about his terror links & should have put him under surveillance. But then they did. All of Headley's & Rana's mobile conversations were being tapped & their whereabouts monitored. They had to further monitor his Bank transactions, credit cards & have him followed. These are all standard procedures & nothing beyond their scope of operations either in Pakistan or India , where we have an ever increasing presence of the US & Israeli Intel.

3) They should have again immediately checked with their counterparts in the ISI & their handlers in the LeT. But the CIA-FBI undertook none of these basic precautions, si mply because Headley was pursuing the mission of terror in exactly the way they had planned it.

4) Though he was on probation till 2004, he was discharged in 2001 & was allowed to go to Pakistan . Within 2 months he was training with the LeT, with the full knowledge of the US authorities.

Thus the intentions were very clear.

In our assessment, the CIA & FBI were clearly aware of the detailed plans for the attack on Mumbai.

HEADLEY A STRATEGIC & INVALUABLE ASSET: Undoubtedly the CIA-FBI have gone to preposterous levels to protect Headley & have repeatedly refused his extradition to India . Thus his limited & controlled access by Indian Intel is clearly a farce & of no consequence whatsoever, apart fro m the fact that is now being used to cover-up the crimes of the Intelligence Bureau, as well as that of the Police that indulge in encounter killings & the cover-up of the terror attack by the Brahmanical terrorists, within the Abhinav Bharat & the Sanatan Sanstha.

But then Headley is a unique asset. He is White, yet of a mixed Muslim-Jewish parentage. He knew English, Urdu, Farsi, Pashto & a smattering of Arabic.

And then he had very deep connections with the drug-underworld & the narco-terror networks.

Headley's father & his religion are often discussed, but when it co mes to his mother, there is a studied silence & it is only fair that this angle be delved into as well. In fact the Wikipedia insists that he acquired a “Christian sounding na me ”, even though his mother was Jewish.

David Coleman Headley was a child of a broken family & around the age of sixteen Serrill Headley (Jewish by faith), took him to away to the US . It was after 9/11, when Headley began to work for the CIA, that he changed his name from Daoud Gilani, to David Coleman Headley, which the Wikipedia wrongly refers to a Christian name. Clearly the Wikipedia is trying to mislead for a purpose.

The point is that clearly Gilani wanted a new identity after 9/11 & since he was now working for the CIA-FBI as an undercover agent, he could have taken on any identity, but yet he chose to take his mother's Jewish identity & the Coleman surname.

All the reports state that Headley traveled with a Jewish prayer book with him. Was it because he had abandoned the faith of his father & had taken the faith of his mother which is normally the case of children of divorced families? I believe that was precisely the case.

Again, Headley operated out of the key Zionist strongholds in the US , namely Chicago & New York & in India from Goa , Mumbai, Pushkar (Rajasthan) & Himachal Pradesh.

In Goa he was in regular touch with an American agent who was living there for nine years but has disappeared after 26/11 & our police could not locate him. Though, when it comes to arresting innocent Muslim youth they have proved to be efficient & ruthless as well.

In Pushkar, whilst Headley was staking out the targets, he stayed in a hotel where two other Israeli's were also present at that very time. So the role of Mossad agents in the 26/11 attack needs to be investigated as well. ( http://criminalstate.com/2009/08/how-israel-wages-game-theory-warfare/ )

Also another question is as to whether Headley was a Chabad Lubavitcher by sect. The Chabad Lubavitch is one of the most powerful of the Jewish sects & has interests across the world ( http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/2010/07/chabad-at-hubs-of-power-around-world.html ) . The Chabad Houses are known to be used by Mossad operatives as safe houses to conduct their nefarious activities, ranging from drug & weapon smuggling, to espionage, fomenting terror & assassinations.

Despite certain limited warnings in May, September & November 2008, that did emanate from the sections of the US & provided to Indians authorities, the identity of whom is yet not known.

Yet, Headley was left untouched as no information was provided. Headley had been provided a visa from the Indian consulate in Chicago with all waivers despite his record of drugs smuggling & his Pakistani origin. Thus Headley enjoyed patronage at the highest levels, even within sections of the Indian security & Intelligence. ( http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headleys-visa-papers-vanish-from-consulate/articleshow/5345798.cms )

And after 26/11, the government & the corporate Media, barring a few exceptions, are satisfied with the Kasab story. The Plea bargain deal in the words of MK Bhadrakumar (ex-ambassador) “was a deal that enables the US government to hold back from formally producing any evidence against Headley in a Court of Law that might have included details of his links with US intelligence ”, which will now remain classified. He also said that the Obama administration was “behaving very strangely” & had something “explosive to hide”.

The former counter-terrorism chief (RAW) & security analyst, Bahukutumbi Raman was of the opinion that, “the mishandling by the US is due to it's anxiety to prevent public admission of the links of the US Intelligence community with Headley & protect Pakistan from the legal consequences of its role in the 26/11 terror attack. He further stated that “the FBI wants to avoid a formal trial & that “the feeling in India is that the US has not been transparent as it is almost certain that the CIA was aware of Headley & his movements across the sub-continent”.

The simple point is that all terrorists & suspects are listed on the main database of the US National Counter-Terrorism Centre , which is a facility used by the CIA & the myriad other agencies to track terror suspects as a matter of standard procedure.

When even the likes of Sharukh Khan (Bollywood Star), Praful Patel (Aviation minister) are not safe, surely David Headley's name would have cropped up at every computer monitor across every airport in the world.

Thus there are far too many questions & far too many facts that challenge the official version of the reality of the 26/11 terror attacks.

There is clearly an attempt even within our very own security agencies to collude & cover up the truth & thus we demand that a National Commission of Inquiry be created to investigate the truth about the 26/11 Terror attack.