According to a Pakistani-American who helped pull off the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, Pakistan’s intelligence agency worked with the culprits who killed more than 166 people in India, including six Americans.

 

Coming on the heels of the discovery that Osama bin Laden was living a half mile from the Pakistan Military Academy, the latest revelations call into question why the Bush and Obama administrations have given more than $14 billion in military and security aid to the Pakistani government since 2001.

 

Testifying at a trial in Chicago, David Coleman Headley, who pleaded guilty in March 2010 to conspiracy to commit murder, said he trained for three years with the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba in preparation for scouting locations to attack in India. In 2006, he met a member of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) who offered to provide financial support for the surveillance. Headley added that he gave copies of video showing potential targets in Mumbai to his contacts in both ISI and Lashkar.

 

“I understood these groups operated under the umbrella of the ISI,” Headley testified, referring to Lashkar. “They coordinated with each other.” He later added that his ISI contact asked him to seek out targets that would increase the likelihood of killing Jews and Americans.

 

His testimony came at the trial of Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, a boyhood friend of Headley’s who is accused of providing support for the Mumbai attacks.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Witness: Pakistani Intel Officer Ordered Hit on Mumbai Jews (by Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica)

Pakistani intelligence: Friend or Enemy of US? (by Kathy Gannon, Associated Press)

Terror Trial Witness Ties Pakistan to 2008 Attacks (by Ginger Thompson, New York Times)

Trial Testimony Intensifies Allegations Pakistan Is Playing Double Game (by Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica)

Chicago Trial May Expose Pakistan Government’s Support of Terrorism (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Were Pakistani Forces Protecting Osama bin Laden? (by David Wallechinsky, AllGov)

Mumbai Terror Victims’ Families Sue Pakistani Intelligence Agency (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)

Convicted Terrorist was on the DEA Payroll (by David Wallechinsky, AllGov)