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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Danish, Mumbai plotting linked

American charged in both terror cases

Jeff Coen Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO – One of two Chicago men charged in a planned assault against a Danish newspaper has been officially accused in last year’s terror attack in Mumbai, the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago announced Monday.

David Headley allegedly conducted extensive surveillance of targets in India for more than two years before the November 2008 attack that killed 170 people, prosecutors said.

Headley, who is cooperating with authorities, was named in a 12-count document with six counts of conspiracy related to the Mumbai attack, which targeted two hotels, a train station, a cafe and a Jewish community center. Sources have said Headley’s co-defendant in the newspaper case, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, is suspected to have paid for Headley’s India missions, but he was not charged Monday.

Headley was not expected to appear in court Monday, and no news conference was planned.

Headley and Rana were charged in October with planning to attack the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark over its publication of unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Federal prosecutors said Headley attended terror training camps with the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization in Pakistan, which has been blamed for the India attacks. Among those killed in Mumbai were six Americans.

The charges against Headley, 49, now include the six conspiracy counts, as well as providing material support to foreign terrorist plots, providing support to Lashkar, and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India.

“This investigation remains active and ongoing. The team of prosecutors and agents will continue to seek charges against the other persons responsible for these attacks,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement released Monday.