ISI trained me: Mumbai attack planner David Headley

David Headley, a co-conspirator in the 2008 terror strike on Mumbai, on Wednesday testified in court that Pakistani secret service ISI provided him espionage training, a new revelation that will further weaken Pakistan?s stance as it tries to shake off allegations of a hand in the deadly attack.

Expressing dissatisfaction at the espionage training provided to him by the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Major Iqbal alias Chaudhery Khan, an agent of the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), helped him master the art of deceit, Headley said.

?ISI did provide me training,? Headley told the Chicago court, adding that Iqbal personally instructed him at a two-storey safe house in Lahore near the airport after he found that his spy training was ?not very good? and was ?very elementary?.

Testifying at the Chicago trial of his Pakistan-born friend Tahawwur Hussain Rana who also faces charges of co-conspiracy in the attack, that left 166 people dead and over 300 wounded, Headley has already revealed chilling details and exposed the hand of Pakistani secret service ISI in the strike.

On Wednesday he spoke about conversations he had with Rana and a retired Pakistani military officer Abdur Rehman, known as Pasha, reiterating the coordination between LeT militants, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) and elements in Pakistan’s military.

He also described how handlers guided and advised militants on ground, by watching live coverage of the attack from Pakistan.

Handlers of the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) followed the 60-hour siege as it happened and guided the 10 militants to carry out more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across India?s financial capital, Headley said.

The handlers even advised the militants on how to avoid or confront the advancing commandos, said the Pakistani-American, also known as Daood Gilani, who has already admitted to scouting targets for the terror strike that left six Americans dead.

He claimed that he and Rana gloated over the success of the raid and praised its planners as they listened to the recordings of conversations between the militants and Sajid Mir, his main LeT contact, Headley said.

Rana, a 50-year-old Chicago businessman, is accused of aiding the attack and helping Headley pose as a representative of his immigration business while he carried out his surveillance work in Mumbai.

On Tuesday, Headley had implicated Rana in the case as he said was pleased when he saw on television from Lahore the Mumbai carnage unfold and claimed his childhood friend was happy too.

?Tactically, this was done brilliantly,? Headley quoted Rana as saying on Wednesday.

Defence attorneys too questioned Headley, whom they accuse of tricking their client Rana and giving false testimonies as he pretended to cooperate with authorities to escape a death penalty and extradition, later in the day.

They tried to undermine Headley?s credibility as they questioned him over trip to Pakistan to buy heroin, where he was accompanied by Rana, and highlighted his gift for obfuscation, apparently honed in terrorist camps in Pakistan.

?You did very well in espionage school,? Rana’s defence attorney, Charles Swift, said to Headley. Visibly pleased, the key witness replied, ?Thank you.?

On Wednesday, Headley also spoke about of his conversations with Sajid Mir, where the LeT operative had called the ISI officer Major Iqbal a ?coward? for telling Headley to sever all ties with him.

Pasha and Iqbal, are among the five accused charged in the case but not in custody. The five men along with purported mastermind Hafiz Saeed are believed to be living freely in Pakistan where court procedures in the case proceed at snail?s pace.

Headley has already identified Iqbal, also known known as Chaudhery Khan, the ISI agent who coordinated on the attack and conversed with terrorists about the plots from his e-mail address chaudherykhan@gmail.com.

In fact the change in the list of targets, as the raids grew nearer, irritated Khan, who seemed upset that the Mumbai Airport was not on the list and remarked that a targeted Jewish community center was a haven for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Headley said.

The Pakistani secret service has denied charges and sees the trial an excuse for making scapegoat a of the ISI, which already faces heat over failing to find al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden hiding in the country for years before being killed by U.S. commandos 60 km from the capital Islamabad.

However, as the ISI?s credibility takes blow after blow, there is hope in India that this could force Pakistan to share crucial evidence on the attack that it is purportedly holding back and expedite court proceedings that would allow New Delhi investigators access to the Pakistani accused.