WASHINGTON—David Coleman Headley, a U.S. citizen partly
of Pakistani descent, was sentenced today to 35 years in prison for a
dozen federal terrorism crimes relating to his role in planning the
November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, and a subsequent
proposed attack on a newspaper in Denmark. Headley pleaded guilty in
March 2010 to all 12 counts that were brought against him following his
arrest in October 2009 as he was about to leave the country. Immediately
after his arrest, Headley began cooperating with authorities.
Headley, 52, was ordered to serve 35 years, followed by five years of
supervised release by U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber. There is
no federal parole and defendants must serve at least 85 percent of their
sentence. “Mr. Headley is a terrorist,” Judge Leinenweber said in
imposing the sentence.
“There is little question that life imprisonment would be an
appropriate punishment for Headley’s incredibly serious crimes but for
the significant value provided by his immediate and extensive
cooperation,” the government argued in seeking a sentence of 30 to 35
years.
In pleading guilty and later testifying for the government at the
trial of a co-defendant, Headley admitted that he attended training
camps in Pakistan operated by Lashkar e Tayyiba, a terrorist
organization operating in that country, on five separate occasions
between 2002 and 2005. In late 2005, Headley received instructions from
three members of Lashkar to travel to India to conduct surveillance,
which he did five times leading up to the Mumbai attacks in 2008 that
killed approximately 164 people, including six Americans, and wounded
hundreds more. Headley’s plea agreement in March 2010 stated that he
“has provided substantial assistance to the criminal investigation and
also has provided information of significant intelligence value.”
In consideration of Headley’s past cooperation and anticipated future
cooperation, which would include debriefings for the purpose of
gathering intelligence and national security information, as well as
testifying in any foreign judicial proceedings held in the United States
by way of deposition, video-conferencing or letters rogatory, the
Attorney General of the United States authorized the U.S. Attorney’s
Office in Chicago not to seek the death penalty.
“Today’s sentence is an important milestone in our continuing efforts
to hold accountable those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attacks
and to achieve justice for the victims. Our investigations into Mumbai
attacks and the Denmark terror plot are ongoing and active. I thank the
many agents, analysts, and prosecutors responsible for this
investigation and prosecution,” said Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney
General for National Security.
Headley was convicted of conspiracy to bomb public places in India;
conspiracy to murder and maim persons in India; six counts of aiding and
abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India; conspiracy to provide
material support to terrorism in India; conspiracy to murder and maim
persons in Denmark; conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism
in Denmark; and conspiracy to provide material support to Lashkar.
According to Headley’s guilty plea and testimony, he attended the
following training camps operated by Lashkar: a three-week course
starting in February 2002 that provided indoctrination on the merits of
waging jihad; a three-week course starting in August 2002 that provided
training in the use of weapons and grenades; a three-month course
starting in April 2003 that taught close combat tactics, the use of
weapons and grenades and survival skills; a three-week course starting
in August 2003 that taught counter-surveillance skills; and a
three-month course starting in December 2003 that provided combat and
tactical training.
Mumbai Terror Attacks
After receiving instructions in late 2005 to conduct surveillance in
India, Headley changed his given name from Daood Gilani in February 2006
in Philadelphia to facilitate his activities on behalf of Lashkar by
portraying himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor
Pakistani. In the early summer of 2006, Headley and two Lashkar members
discussed opening an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his
surveillance activities.
Headley eventually made five extended trips to Mumbai—in September
2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008—each time
making videotapes of various potential targets, including those attacked
in November 2008. Before each trip, Lashkar members and associates
instructed Headley regarding specific locations where he was to conduct
surveillance. After each trip, Headley traveled to Pakistan to meet with
Lashkar members and associates, report on the results of his
surveillance, and provide the surveillance videos.
Before the April 2008 surveillance trip, Headley and co-conspirators
in Pakistan discussed potential landing sites in Mumbai for a team of
attackers who would arrive by sea. Headley returned to Mumbai with a
global positioning system device and took boat trips around the Mumbai
harbor and entered various locations into the device.
Between November 26 and 28, 2008, 10 attackers trained by Lashkar
carried out multiple assaults with firearms, grenades, and improvised
explosive devices against multiple targets in Mumbai, including the Taj
Mahal and Oberoi hotels, the Leopold Café, the Chabad House, and the
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, each of which Headley had
scouted in advance, killing approximately 164 victims and wounding
hundreds more.
The six Americans killed during the siege were Ben Zion Chroman,
Gavriel Holtzberg, Sandeep Jeswani, Alan Scherr, his daughter Naomi
Scherr, and Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum.
In March 2009, Headley made a sixth trip to India to conduct
additional surveillance, including of the National Defense College in
Delhi, and of Chabad Houses in several cities.
Denmark Terror Plot
Regarding the Denmark terror plot, Headley admitted and testified
that in early November 2008, he was instructed by a Lashkar member in
Pakistan, to conduct surveillance of the Copenhagen and Aarhus offices
of the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in
preparation for an attack in retaliation for the newspaper’s publication
of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. After this meeting, Headley
informed co-defendant Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed (Abdur Rehman), also
known as “Pasha,” of his assignment. Abdur Rehman told Headley words to
the effect that if Lashkar did not go through with the attack, Abdur
Rehman knew someone who would. Although not identified by name at the
time, Headley later learned this individual was co-defendant Ilyas
Kashmiri. Abdur Rehman previously told Headley that he was working with
Kashmiri and that Kashmiri was in direct contact with a senior leader of
al Qaeda.
While in Chicago in late December 2008 and early January 2009,
Headley exchanged e-mails with Abdur Rehman to continue planning for the
attack and to coordinate his travel to Denmark to conduct surveillance.
In January 2009, at Lashkar’s direction, Headley traveled from Chicago
to Copenhagen to conduct surveillance of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper offices in Copenhagen and Aarhus and scouted and videotaped the surrounding areas.
In late January 2009, Headley met separately with Abdur Rehman and a
Lashkar member in Pakistan, discussed the planned attack on the
newspaper, and provided them with videos of his surveillance. About the
same time, Abdur Rehman provided Headley a video produced by the media
wing of al Qaeda in approximately August 2008, which claimed credit for
the June 2008 attack on the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, and
called for further attacks against Danish interests to avenge the
publication of the offending cartoons.
In February 2009, Headley and Abdur Rehman met with Kashmiri in the
Waziristan region of Pakistan, where they discussed the video
surveillance and ways to carry out the attack. Kashmiri told Headley
that he could provide manpower for the operation and that Lashkar’s
participation was not necessary. In March 2009, a Lashkar member advised
Headley that Lashkar put the newspaper attack on hold because of
pressure resulting from the Mumbai attacks. In May 2009, Headley and
Abdur Rehman again met with Kashmiri in Waziristan. Kashmiri told
Headley to meet with a European contact who could provide Headley with
money, weapons and manpower for the Denmark attack and relate Kashmiri’s
instructions that this should be a suicide attack and the attackers
should prepare martyrdom videos beforehand. Kashmiri also stated that
the attackers should behead captives and throw their heads on to the
street in Copenhagen to heighten the response from Danish authorities,
and added that the “elders,” whom Headley understood to be al Qaeda
leadership, wanted the attack to happen as soon as possible.
In late July and early August 2009, Headley traveled from Chicago to
various places in Europe and met with and attempted to obtain assistance
from Kashmiri’s contacts and, while in Copenhagen, he made
approximately 13 additional surveillance videos. When he returned to the
United States on August 5, 2009, Headley falsely told a U.S. Customs
and Border Protection inspector in Atlanta that he had visited Europe
for business reasons. On October 3, 2009, Headley was arrested at O’Hare
International Airport in Chicago, intending ultimately to travel to
Pakistan to deliver the approximately 13 surveillance videos to Abdur
Rehman and Kashmiri.
One of Headley’s co-defendants, Tahawwur Rana, 52, of Chicago, was
sentenced last week to 14 years in prison for conspiracy to provide
material support to the Denmark terror plot and providing material
support to Lashkar. Headley testified for the government at Rana’s trial
in June 2011.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Daniel Collins and Sarah E. Streicker, with assistance from the
Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security
Division. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have worked on a broader
investigation of the Mumbai attacks. The investigation was conducted by
the Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force, led by the Chicago Office of the
FBI, with assistance from FBI offices in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and
Washington, D.C., as well as both U.S. Customs and Border Protection and
the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security
Investigations.
