ISI top guns 'clueless' about Mumbai terror plot: Headley

By Uttara Choudhury New York: David Headley testified on Tuesday that no more than a handful of agents from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate were involved in plotting the  Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008, and that the spy agency’s higher-ups were clueless about the scheming. “The higher officers did not know,” David Headley told a federal court in Chicago when a defence attorney asked him if the head of the ISI or its senior leadership were involved in the Mumbai plot. “I was only in contact with Major Iqbal of the ISI but I suspect his colonel knew about it,” added Headley. According to him, Major Iqbal was the ISI handler who trained, directed and funded his surveillance trips to Mumbai. Pakistan is sure to latch on to  Headley’s testimony to assert that the ISI’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks was limited to “rogue agents.” This doesn’t, of course,  absolve the ISI completely: it should have had some inkling of  the machinations of its spy agents. Despite Pakistani denials, India and a growing list of Western countries that have been terrorism targets have begun to be wary of the extent of Pakistan’s official complicity with terrorism. Pakistani officials have denied that Major Iqbal was a serving intelligence officer and have even questioned his very existence. But US prosecutors have taken the diplomatically explosive step of indicting Iqbal. They have also produced hard evidence, including phone records and Iqbal’s e-mail exchanges with Headley. [caption id=“attachment_18520” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“David Headley testified on Tuesday that no more than a handful of agents from Pakistan’s ISI Directorate were involved in plotting the  Mumbai terror attacks. Carol Renaud/AFP”]  [/caption] After the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, Headley’s view of his handlers in the ISI and the Lashkar-e-Taiba soured. In spring 2009, Headley was frustrated after they launched him on a plot against a Danish newspaper and then shelved the operation. Headley then turned to Ilyas Kashmiri, the chief of the Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) and a senior member of Al Qaida. Last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Islamabad to demand action against five top Al Qaeda figures, including Kashmiri. In the ongoing Chicago trial, besides Tahawwur Rana, six others are charged in absentia, including Ilyas Kashmiri and three ISI agents. Headley testified on Tuesday that Kashmiri plotted to kill the CEO of Lockheed Martin for manufacturing drones, which are being used in aerial attacks on terrorists holed up in Pakistan. “Kashmiri had people doing surveillance and asked me if there were weapons readily available to him,” Headley said. He revealed he had secretly used Rana’s office computer for research on the Danish plot, but dismissed the brief online search saying; “My research is more in-depth than Googling someone a couple of times." Tahawwur Rana’s defence attorney Patrick Blegen read Headley’s plea agreement and asked him if it was true that he was remorseful for what he did. “I feel bad for the methods I employed,” Headley replied. “Have you had a conversion in your thoughts?” Blegen asked. “I’m in the process,” Headley said impassively. ABC’s local television station in Chicago reported that Headley is planning to write a book about his experience. He apparently told his wife he will make pots of money from it. Questions about whether Headley’s testimony is credible have swirled around the Chicago trial. Rana’s lawyers have tried to show that Headley is a “master manipulator” and a liar who simply implicated Rana to cut the deal with US prosecutors. They have highlighted his conflicting allegiances to three different organisations and overlapping relationships with three wives. Headley admitted under cross-examination on Tuesday to a history of mental illness, repeated lies to judges, law-enforcement officials and his wives. He admitted he has undergone psychiatric treatment for a “mixed personality disorder” in Philadelphia. He went through 18 months of psychological treatment in 1997. Blegen also pointed out that while Headley was in custody, he told his wife to tell his half-brother in Pakistan to change his phone number so he wouldn’t come under the FBI’s scanner. “You pulled the rug out from underneath the government,” Blegan said. “Your brother was a terrorist in Pakistan.” “No, he’s a government employee,” said Headley. The answer drew derisive laughter in the packed courtroom filled with Indian, US and Danish journalists as Headley had testified only last week that the ISI co-ordinated the Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorist groups. Headley says