Tuesday, October 19, 2010
David Headley
David Coleman Headley, 50, who pleaded guilty in March 2010 to conspiracy to commit murder in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, that killed at least 166 people, was an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Born Daood Gilani, Headley is the son of a Pakistani father and an American mother. He first began working for the DEA after he was arrested in 1998 for conspiring to smuggle heroin from Pakistan to the United States. As a reward for his cooperation with investigators, he was given a relatively light sentence of less than two years, and the DEA apparently sent him back to Pakistan with their blessings. But Headley was double-dealing, also maintaining contacts with the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba and with Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI).
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. was desperate for human intelligence contacts, and it is possible that the DEA may have “shared” Headley with other branches of the U.S. government, although no evidence to prove this has been made public.
In 2005, he was arrested in New York City after his wife accused him of hitting her. His wife told authorities that he had trained at Lashkar-i-Taiba camps in Pakistan, a charge that he later confirmed to U.S. authorities. While undergoing terrorist training, Headley reportedly bragged about being a paid U.S. informant.
He changed his name from Daood Gilani to David Headley in 2006. Headley was his mother’s maiden name.
In 2007, another of Headley’s wives (he had three) informed U.S. officials in Pakistan that her husband was helping plot a terrorist attack.
But Headley wasn’t arrested until 11 months after the attacks on Mumbai. Among the 166 dead were six Americans.
-David Wallechinsky
Scout in Mumbai Attacks was DEA Informant While in Terror Camp, Authorities Say (by Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica)
Full Transcript of David Headley's Uncle's Interview (by Sarah Jacob, NDTV, New Delhi)
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