As David Headley gets ready to spill the beans at a Chicago court about Pakistan ISI’s direct involvement in Mumbai 26/11 attacks, the White House in Washington is nervous. Headley’s statements during Chicago trial “will be explosive,” said one senior Obama administration official, who confirmed that White House officials are well aware and closely watching, says MSNBC.
But that’s not the main reason why Obama administration is chewing its nails. Headley may also reveal his connections with the CIA and the FBI. Top Indian official sources had been saying that there is a strong suspicion that US agency CIA knew about David Headley’s link with the Kashmiri separatist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) one year before Mumbai attack but did not convey it (to Indian officials) when he was freely travelling across India. See here
Let’s get back to the Chicago trial. The MSNBC reports: “This week, the smooth-talking Headley appears poised to create new problems for U.S. foreign policy. Headley will be in a federal courtroom in Chicago as the star witness for U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s prosecutors in a terrorism trial that is expected to expose new links between Pakistan’s embattled ISI intelligence service and the Mumbai atrocities.
“A one-time (American) federal drug informant, the Pakistani American went rogue and, by his own admission, later helped plan one of the world’s deadliest terrorist acts — the 2008 commando-style attack in Mumbai, India, that killed 164 people, including six Americans.
“Court records and other documents obtained by NBC News show that Headley is prepared to make detailed allegations about how the Pakistani ISI funded his efforts to conduct surveillance for the Mumbai attacks on behalf of one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups, Lashkar e Taiba or LET, which is now aligned with al-Qaida.”
Obama, when he came visiting India, managed to sidetrack Indian government’s demand for David Headley’s extradition to India with the ever obliging prime minister Manmohan Singh agreeing to gloss over “such things.” See my earlier post here…
The case has drawn international attention because Headley’s testimony is expected to reinforce allegations that Pakistan plays a double game in the fight against terrorism. Its success will depend largely on how the jury views Headley, 50, who is said to have juggled relationships with multiple wives, terrorist groups and intelligence agencies. See here…
With the recent Osama killing and the Headley revelations now coming, Pakistan seems to be running to China with renewed vigour for help. Pakistan’s defense minister said China has agreed to take over operation of the strategically positioned but underused port of Gwadar, and that Islamabad would like the Chinese to build a base there for the Pakistani navy.
Now this would give jitters to India. Indian officials have expressed concern that China plans to use Gwadar as a staging post for naval operations in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and beyond.See here…
According to Foreign Policy: “Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) had been gathering surveillance material for an attack against the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai since 2006. According to Headley, every major LeT operative had an Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) handler and all of the group’s major operations were conducted in coordination with these officers.
“If Headley is to be believed and every major LeT member had an ISI handler, then it is reasonable to assume others in the ISI were also aware of the operational details given that a number of the group’s senior leaders were involved in planning the attacks…” Full story here…
Chief of Army Staff General Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s real power broker, is likely to face charges sooner or later since he was director-general of the ISI in the years during which Mumbai was planned and bin Laden moved to Abbottabad, says Bruce Riedel, who helped craft Obama’s AfPak strategy. See here…
Now the question arises how the influential David Headley got arrested, knowing well that his arrest would also embarrass the US administration? Is it because of the turf war between the CIA and the FBI? Here are two old articles that may be of interest. See here… and ……Here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.