Rana knew of 26/11 plot for six months: Headley

David Coleman Headley, a co-conspirator in the 2008 terror strike on Mumbai, testified in court that co-accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana knew of the attack six months beforehand.

The testimony of the trial?s star witness against Rana, his Pakistan-born friend, came even as the Chicago-based businessman, accused of supporting planners of the attack, including Headley, continued denying every allegation.

Lawyers for Rana, reviewed several transcripts of his conversations with Headley in the court, trying to argue that he had no idea of his former schoolmate?s devious designs.

Rana’s attorney Patrick Blegen also told the Chicago court that unlike several others, Rana did not congratulate Headley on the success of the operation that killed 166 people and wounded over 300.

Blegen said that while Headley was congratulated by his brother Hamza and wife Shazia among several others, for the carnage, Rana did not.

On Tuesday, Headley 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.

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.

Testifying in the trial, Headley also spoke of chilling details of the attack and exposed the hand of Pakistani secret service ISI in the strike.

He said that 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.

?ISI did provide me training. I attended 50 training sessions over a period of time,? Headley said.

He testified that a Pakistani Navy official was present during discussions with Iqbal on landing sites and arrival of LeT terrorists by sea.

“When discussing the landing site, someone from the Pakistan Navy was present–clean shaved, military bearing, hair cut,? Headley said, identifying him as Abdur Rahman.

Headley told the Chicago court 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?.

However, Headley said he did not know anyone in ISI other than Iqbal, adding that his Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) handler Sajid Mir had a separate handler in the Pak intelligence agency.

He said Iqbal gave him a US number to stay in touch while in Mumbai.

Headley admitted that he went to Taj hotel numerous times to shoot video of the site and stayed at there on Apr 7, 2007 with his second wife. He used to ask his ?veiled? wife to pose in front of target areas, so that no one would suspect him while shooting videos and clicking pictures

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.

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.