Posted on 12/14/2009 3:41:23 PM PST by cold start
A Chicago businessman already charged in a Danish terror plot knew about a separate November 2008 terror siege in India that killed 170 people days before it happened, prosecutors alleged today.
In a court filing this afternoon, prosecutors said a Sept. 7, 2009 intercepted recording between the businessman, Tahawwur Rana, 48, and his friend David Headley, shows Rana met with a retired Pakistani military major last year in Dubai. The major, Abdur Rehman — referred to as “Pasha” in the recording — told Rana and Headley of the planned assaults days before dozens of buildings in Mumbai were blown up in a series of coordinated attacks, prosecutors allege. Rehman was charged Dec. 7 in the Danish plot.
Rana is up in court Tuesday in a bid to be freed from jail, pending his trial. Prosecutors say the investigation into Rana continues and submitted the filing to show he should be kept behind bars.
Prosecutors in the filing questioned Rana’s self-portrayal as a man of non-violence.
“It is quite clear Rana is no Gandhi,” prosecutors wrote.
After the Mumbai attacks, Rana asks Headley to pass on his compliments to a leader of a Pakistani terror group, prosecutors allege in the filing.
“In the world, if there had been . . . a medal for command, top class,” Rana begins to say on the recording, according to prosecutors. “Very good. Good job.”
Rana and Headley, who knew each other from a Pakistani military school, were arrested in October on charges they plotted to kill employees of a Danish newspaper. Rana was accused of arranging Headley’s travels and providing a front for his time in Copenhagen.
But Headley, 49, who changed his name from Daood Gilani, was then further charged with scouting targets in Mumbai, India before the attack. Headley is cooperating with the FBI.
“The evidence shows that Rana was told in advance that the attacks in Mumbai were to happen; Rana, however, can at best claim unconvincingly that he was hearing that some other attack was about to happen,” prosecutors wrote in a filing.
Rana’s lawyer, Patrick Blegen, has denied Rana’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
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