DND Report
“Access of everything is bad” is an old phrase with the same results over propaganda and manipulation of information in the media sphere. The excessive, 24/7 reporting of Indian media over the extradition of accused of 2008 Mumbai attacks has certainly exposed the ambiguities, gaps and loopholes in woven fairytale of this event that according to sane elements within Indian writers raise serious questions in past and some of them even claim that Mumbai attacks were mastermind of Indian intelligence agencies or some of out of control elements within Indian intelligence agencies.
However, emerging interesting information and reporting of this case have created further doubts that the Indian intelligence agencies should not be blamed alone. Rather, there was a dark side of the story that could link the involvement of even American elements when one can deeply look into the case of David Coleman Headley. The results could be the same if the character of Tahawwur Hussain Rana is reviewed; the results are not different.
During a propaganda spree on Indian television screens, some important information surfaced that had been missed by global media in the past. Since Pakistani media is by design reactive so it is not raising these points but rather trying to emphasize that Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Coleman Headley are not Pakistani. Yes, there is no doubt that both are not Pakistani citizens, as David Coleman Headley is a US citizen and Rana is a Canadian citizen.
The thoughtful points in this case include how could a Pakistani origin Canadian having the background of Medical Corp of Pakistan Army had been travelling so frequently to India and meeting important people within Indian official hierarchy? Moreover, David Coleman Headley (born Daood Sayed Gilani; June 30, 1960), whose father retired as Director General State-run Radio Pakistan had been travelling too often between India and Pakistan without any check from India intelligence agencies? David had justification to travel to Pakistan because his father, the late Saleem Gillani, was living in Lahore (and he also married a Pakistani woman), but David had no justification to travel to India so often. It must be remembered that the Indian government withdrew the Mumbai attack case against David when he became approver in the case. Today, the Indian government has nothing to do with David as he is not accused of the Mumbai attack; rather an approver in the case. Is it not interesting information?
Moreover, the soft corner US intelligence agencies had been showing for David is also an interesting but crucial factor in the case. Born in Washington D.C., David, according to US record, became a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant as part of his plea deal following heroin related offenses. After being placed on probation, he made frequent visits to Pakistan and India. According to the official record of the case, David also travelled to Copenhagen, Denmark, to allegedly help plot an attack against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Poste. He was arrested at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago with co-conspirator Tahawwur Hussain Rana in October 2009. On January 24, 2013, a U.S. federal court sentenced Headley to 35 years in prison for his role in the Mumbai and Copenhagen events. In India, a Mumbai special court held a trial in absentia for Headley in early February 2016 via a video link from his prison cell in the United States.
According to available information, Headley and his childhood friend Tahawwur Hussain Rana allegedly got involved in drug smuggling in the early 1980s. In 1988, David was arrested by police in Frankfurt, West Germany, after two kilos of heroin were found hidden in a false bottom in his suitcase. Headley quickly made a plea deal when his case was handed over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, agreeing to surrender his partners in Philadelphia in exchange for a lighter sentence. Headley’s cooperation earned him four years in prison while his two associates were sentenced to eight and ten years. Strangely, Rana immigrated to Canada in 1997. In early 1997, Headley was again arrested in a DEA sting operation when he tried to smuggle heroin into the country. Headley again offered his services as a confidential informant to the DEA. This was the time when David was probably hooked by the US intelligence network to work for them. In exchange for information, Headley received a considerably lighter sentence than his co-defendant from the 1997 arrest: fifteen months in jail and five years of supervised release. In January 1998, the agency sent him to Pakistan for an assignment. According to the DEA, Headley’s participation led to five arrests and the seizure of 2½ kilos of heroin, and DEA has confirmed that Headley’s 1998 trip to Pakistan was paid for by the agency. In July 1999, only months into Headley’s sentence, his attorney, Howard Leader, requested permission for him to be given a supervised early release from prison so he could travel to Pakistan to be wed in an arranged marriage. Judge Carol Amon granted the unusual request. Headley married a Pakistani woman named Shazia and fathered two children with her.
According to media reports, Headley allegedly resumed work as a DEA informant in New York City and participated in an undercover operation that reportedly led to the seizure of heroin. Despite working for a U.S. government agency and all these time he had been spending all his time with his school friend Rana, with whom he had allegedly been involved in drug smuggling.
“There is a need to go deep and explore the involvement of Indian and global intelligence networking behind Mumbai attacks that could be staged event and a work of Indian intelligence agencies”
After 9/11, Headley’s ex-girlfriend, with whom he had a bitter relationship, contacted law enforcement agencies and claimed that he had praised attackers of the 9/11 event. He was interrogated and under questioning by two Defense Department agents, in the presence of his DEA handlers, Headley denied the accusations and cited his work for the DEA as proof of his loyalty to the U.S. Headley was cleared, and the DEA did not write a report on his interrogation. On November 16, 2001, six weeks after his interrogation, Leader and Assistant U.S. Attorney Loan Hong made a joint application to Judge Amon asking for Headley’s supervised release to be terminated three years early. Amon agreed to their request and discharged Headley from any further probation. The DEA has claimed that Headley wanted his probation lifted so he could travel to Pakistan for family reasons. DEA officials also claim that the agency officially deactivated Headley as an informant on March 27, 2002. Headley himself has claimed that he ended his work for the DEA in September 2002; other agencies claim that he remained a DEA operative as late as 2005.
In 2008, Mumbai attacks took place, and David and his friend Rana came into the limelight. In March 2010, NDTV did a report and raised several questions about the accused in the Mumbai attack. The report “David Headley: Truth & Lies” indicated David’s dubious background and his networking with US intelligence agencies. The report said, “Headley story hiding more than it is revealing? And is there a reason that American has still not given Indian investigators access to Headley in Chicago? America had described India’s request for Headley’s extradition as “too premature.” Is the FBI being cagey about Headley because he once worked as an undercover agent for America and then possibly went rogue? Suspicions within India’s security establishment have been mounting for several reasons.”
Another report published by Propublica in January 2013 titled “The American Behind India’s 9/11- And How U.S. Botched Chances to Stop Him” raised more questions about David.
The story of Tahawwur Hussain Rana is not quite different then David’s as his personality also has several unanswered questions. He abruptly left the Medical Corp of Pakistan and got Canadian immigration without completing the due process of leaving the Pakistan Army. When Rana and David had been working together for Rana’s immigration company together how could Rana be out of range of US agencies’ radar while David had been arrested, freed, and been working for US drug agency? If there were reports available with US intelligence that Rana used to connect David (when Rana was in Pakistan) with heroin producers in Pakistan. There are many unanswered questions, such as:
How could his immigration was smooth to Canada and how could he have been mostly living and working in the United States without trouble? Having a Canadian of Pakistani origins, how could Rana have been travelling to India so often and without check? How could he open the office of Immigration Service in Mumbai where David was a staffer?
There are so many questions Pakistani media could explore in this woven story of Mumbai attacks and the possibilities of working of the duo under question with Indian as well as US intelligence networking to frame Pakistan in something “bigger” such as Mumbai attacks. It is understood that neither David Coleman Headley nor Tahawwur Hussain Rana are Pakistani, so there should be no wasting time to emphasize this point, there is a need to go deep and explore the involvement of Indian and global intelligence networking behind Mumbai attacks that could be staged event and a work of Indian intelligence agencies to frame state of Pakistan as global terrorist.
It may be important to mention that the murders of Indian Police Service officials such as Karkare, Ashok Kamte, and Vijay Salaskar also need a thorough investigation as their families raised figures over Mumbai attack plotters. They were killed in a police van outside the Cama Hospital when the Mumbai attack was yet to end. Various issues have been raised over the years about the quality of the subsequent investigation and key pieces of evidence of the Mumbai attacks. The Indian court rejected the claim of the Indian state that accused Ajmal Kasab of firing at police officials or he was even being there.
The crucial evidence in Karkare’s death was that the source of a bullet fired into his body was absent. The bullets did not match with a few of the alleged terrorists’ recovered guns. In the book The Last Bullet, Vinita Kamte – wife of the Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte, who was killed with Karkare in the 26/11 terrorist attacks- alleges that the Mumbai Police ignored crucial information during the attacks. Vinita claims to expose Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria’s “feigned ignorance” about the deaths of Kamte, Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Karkare, and senior inspector Vijay Salaskar in the Rang Bhawan Lane of Mumbai. Vinita also claims that Karkare’s repeated pleas for reinforcement to block the passage of the terrorists fleeing Cama Hospital went unheeded for over an hour. Who Killed Karkare?: The Real Face of Terrorism in India is a book published in October 2009 by S. M. Mushrif, a former senior Maharashtra Police officer who had previously uncovered the Telgi scam. This book explores behind the propaganda screen, using material mostly in the public domain as well as his long police experience. It comes out with some startling facts and analysis, the first of its kind, to expose the real actors behind the so-called Islamic terrorism in India, whose greatest feat was to murder the Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare who dared to expose these forces and paid with his life for his courage and commitment to truth. While unearthing the conspiracy behind the murder of Karkare, this book takes a hard look at some of the major incidents attributed to Islamic terrorism in India and finds them baseless. There are several books, interviews, and articles available in Indian media that indicate that the Mumbai attack was a “homemade” project, a false flag and stage event.
Since Indian media is recklessly busy reporting the Mumbai attack, it is leaving cracks and loopholes in the fairytale of the alleged involvement of Pakistan as a state into it, and this is professional responsibility of Pakistani media to follow the event, unearth holes and report them.
