David Headley, a Pakistani with U.S. citizenship, served as the lead scout for the Nov. 26 terrorist attacks against Mumbai, India. Headley was convicted for his crimes in the U.S. in 2013. As evidence at his trial indicated, Headley was paid by the ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency, to conduct the Mumbai reconnaissance. Headley has repeated this version of events again during remote video testimony for his trial in India. Headley also worked for the Islamic terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. What does that tell you about the shared interests of the ISI and the LeT?
From Foreign Policy‘s South Asia Daily brief:
David Headley: ISI paid me for reconnaissance for 26/11 targets
A U.S. citizen convicted for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks told an Indian court on Thursday that the Pakistani intelligence service ISI paid him directly for reconnaissance of target for the 26/11 attacks (CNN-IBN). In his testimony given through video link from the United States, Headley claimed that he was given one hundred thousand Pakistani rupees to scout National Defence College, Chabad House, and other places in Mumbai. Last month, Headley also told the court that he had visited India seven times prior to the attack, on behalf of the banned Pakistani militant organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), to gather information scouting potential target locations in Mumbai ahead of the attacks. Headley, 52, was captured in 2013 in the United States and plead guilty to charges of working with LeT and his involvement in the attacks, to avoid the death penalty and extradition to India. The November 2008 attacks in Mumbai were a coordinated set of strikes on the railway station, luxury hotels and a Jewish cultural center, and claimed 166 lives along with nine attackers.
