March 18th, 2010
03:14 PM ET

Mumbai terror suspect pleads guilty

David Headley, 49, pleaded guilty Thursday.

A Chicago man charged in two international terror plots, including the 2008 Mumbai, India, attacks, pleaded guilty Thursday to a dozen counts against him, and now will not face a trial.

David Headley, 49, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Chicago to a dozen federal terrorism charges. Authorities said he scouted out targets for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 that killed more than 160 people, and planned an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Headley has agreed to cooperate with the government and testify before a grand jury.

He could have faced the death penalty if convicted, but in exchange for his guilty plea and cooperation, the government has taken execution off the table.

However, he will not be sentenced until after the conclusion of his cooperation, the Justice Department said.

Authorities said Headley attended training camps in Pakistan operated by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and received instructions in 2005 from three members of the group to travel to India to conduct surveillance. The Justice Department said he traveled to India five times leading up to the Mumbai attacks. Six Americans were killed in the attacks.

The United States considers Lashkar-e-Tayyiba a foreign terrorist organization.

Headley also admitted that in early November 2008, a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba member in Karachi, Pakistan, instructed him to scout the Copenhagen and Aarhus offices in Denmark of the Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten newspaper in preparation for an attack. The newspaper had published controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

The alleged plan against the Danish newspaper was never carried out.

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soundoff (183 Responses)
  1. faiza

    why people always want to spoil the name of Islam, why noone of you thought of those who disturb muslims, did anyone punish them, those who kills muslims, anyone talk to them, what about the palestinians dying all the time, and the pakistanies dying everyday,hundreds of them die everyday, noone bothers,it's just like if you drink a cup of water, the same way, you hear 80 or 100pakistani died under a blast, so why nobody thinks about all this.
    who created terorists, why these people commit suicide, are all of them influenced or brain washed, who's doing this?
    and in islam there is no division and there is no modern or old islam, there is one islam, and it is clear, the holybook explain it all, so you please start respecting other's religion, and if anyone try to mension bad thing about muslims or Quran, then he should be punished by the law, then these terrorists would stop what they do, cause for them, they're fighting for a principal, for them, like if an american women kills her husband because he beats her to death and cheats on her, like a woman defending her honor, and asking punishment to someone who raped her, i think these people who commit suicide, some of them, they're brainwashed, some they really do it cause they're helpless, other because they defend their ideas and principles, so let's see it this way, and i want to say that i am a muslim and i like every human being, and i'm David Headley's wife, that all of you judge without understanding, what did really happen, cause as i know him, he is an innocent man, guess he just got influenced somehow, and many people are saying things that r not real in the press, so you people need to check the real truth before judging and saying mad things....

    April 7, 2010 at 3:17 am | Report abuse |
  2. faiza

    well not all of them, kill them selves by their own, what i hear is another thing, but then let's not get in there, i was just giving an example of pakistanies, i meant also iraqis, palestinians, and other cases that comes online from time to time, it is so clear, that muslims are misstreated, missjudged, it shouldn't be the way, My idea, is to look at deep into the problem, we're only taking fewwords and reapeating it, oh yes he's a terrorist, oh yes he's an agent, let's see why and how this person became named so, why we have all these things today, who created it, as for me, i can't believe all it was said in the press, some they really mix it up, and add things to the reality, that's why i'm sharing some of my thoughts in here, and as for David, i couldn't say i damn care, cause the man they talk about, isn't the man i lived with, what they're saying about him isn't all clear to me, what he admits doing is shocking to me, but yet i'm waiting for some surprise to come out, and i do not want to judge the situation now...

    April 7, 2010 at 8:23 am | Report abuse |
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