Terrorist: Pakistan Helped Plan Mumbai Attack

Pakistani spies helped plan the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, confessed Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley testified yesterday. Headley said that after he had trained with the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group for three years, he was recruited by an ISI officer when he was detained near the Afghan border in 2006—and, going forward, always reported to “Major Iqbal” of the ISI before reporting to his Lashkar superiors, Pro Publica reports. He says Lashkar “operated under the umbrella of the ISI,” even after it had officially been banned from the country.

He says the ISI provided “financial, military, and moral support” to Lashkar, and helped plan key aspects of the Mumbai attack, including selecting targets. Prosecutors then showed the jury emails and records of phone calls between Headley and Iqbal intended to corroborate his story. The testimony is part of a trial against Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of helping to plot the attack, as well as attacks on a Danish newspaper that printed Muhammad cartoons, the Chicago Tribune reports. (More David Coleman Headley stories.)