CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man accused of planning an armed attack on a Danish newspaper was charged Monday with conducting surveillance on potential targets in the Indian city of Mumbai before terrorist attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people.
David Coleman Headley, 49, was charged in a 12-count criminal information with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim people in India and Denmark, to provide material support to foreign terrorist plots and another offenses.
Federal prosecutors also announced charges against a retired major in the Pakistani military, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, for allegedly taking part in the plot to attack the Danish newspaper out of anger over 12 cartoons published in 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world.
According to the charges, Headley, a U.S. citizen, attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan earlier in this decade operated by Lashkar e Taiba — a group that specializes in violent attacks on targets in India.
Headley, formerly named Daood Gilani, and Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Raha, 48, were charged in October with planning an attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten. The new charges add Syed to the list of defendants.
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said the investigation "remains active" and a team of prosecutors and FBI agents will keep seeking charges against other people responsible for the attacks.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKHQA