Chicago terror prosecution puts Pakistan spy agency on trial
Allegations that Pakistan’s intelligence service was involved in the Mumbai terror attacks will be scrutinised in an American court case starting on Monday when the man who helped plan the 2008 strikes testifies against his alleged accomplice.
David Headley, a Pakistani-American businessman who has confessed to his involvement in the attacks, will be the star witness in the trial of Tahawwur Rana, his childhood friend, in Chicago.
Rana is charged with providing material support for terrorism in the assaults, which killed 166 people, as well as a plot in Denmark that was never carried out. Opening arguments in the case, based on the deaths of six Americans in Mumbai, will begin on Monday.
The case has drawn international attention because Headley’s testimony is expected to reinforce allegations that Pakistan plays a double game in the fight against terrorism. Its success will depend largely on how the jury views Headley, 50, who is said to have juggled relationships with multiple wives, terrorist groups and intelligence agencies.
Headley is a former informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He pleaded guilty last year to conducting reconnaissance for the Mumbai attacks and for the Danish plot. His confessions painted a devastating portrait of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) – he says ISI officers helped the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group plot the commando-style attacks on Mumbai…
Prosecutors recently raised the political stakes by indicting a suspected ISI officer for the murders in Mumbai. The officer, identified only as Major Iqbal, allegedly oversaw Headley’s scouting in India.
The decision to indict Iqbal was made at high levels in Washington, sending a signal from Barack Obama’s administration, which had expressed frustration about Pakistan’s reliability even before Osama bin Laden was found and killed in Abbottabad.
RTFA. Beaucoup detail. Involved, intricate, opportunist – and offering all the corruption you would expect in global politics.
The ISI is about as useful to processes dedicated to peace and security as the average teabagger is to stem cell research.
the most unreliable state US now blaming pakistan for terrorism.US is the first country in the history of world that has been involved in mass murder of millions from Hiroshima to libyan invasion.US always forced oil rich countries to surrender her as ARAB KINGS,SO is the case pakistan now facing.but remember it that pakistan is a nuclear state,so no one in the world dare to treat it like Iraq Or libya.Realising that fact US now trying to create rifts among pakistanis on ethnic and sectarian basis,which would not be workable in pakistan.Sole superpower realising it.By doing this uS is going to lose its ally,ultimate result would be a defeat in Afghanistan.chinese presence at Gwador port could be a final blow to US policy makers.
irshadmemon
May 23, 2011 at 11:07 am
Time for one of the truly useful dichos?
With friends like this – who needs enemies?
moss
May 23, 2011 at 12:42 pm