Who was actually using David Headley?

Despite his parental connection, David Headley is not a Pakistani; and neither the acts of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) elements can be considered as having been done by Pakistan, as Pakistan has banned the outfit. Accomplished writer Shahid R. Siddiqui, in his treatise ‘Who was actually using David Headley had suggested that “it was either American and Indian agencies or extremist Hindu elements, or both, involved in planning the attack and might have used LeT to execute it. And in all of this, Headley could have played coordinator.” As Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley told Indian court through videoconference his charges of links between the Pakistan’s spy agency ISI and terror groups, COAS General Raheel sharif said: “Terrorists are being funded externally by hostile intelligence agencies and have their sympathizers at home who provide them shelter and refuge.”
David Headley, in testimonies to an Indian court in the last week repeated his charges of links between terror networks and the ISI. Speaking from the US via a video link, Headley had said the ISI and the terror outfit Lashkar-Taiba work in close coordination with each other. During his deposition before a special court via videoconferencing from the US, David Coleman Headley named Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed as mastermind of 26/11 attack. Ajmal Kassab, the only survivor of the attackers, was tortured and coerced into naming Hafiz Saeed by the police as mastermind of 26/11 attacks, but he had retracted from his statement in the court. But this fact has never been highlighted in the media. Headley named Major Ali and Major Iqbal of the ISI and Lashkar commander Sajid Mir as his contacts in Pakistan. Headley, who was convicted in the US gave his statement before special judge G.A. Sanap.
Testifying as a prosecution witness from an undisclosed location in the U.S., he confined himself to the information he divulged following his plea bargain agreement with the American government in 2010. Since he admitted that what he said in the videoconference was what he had already told to American court. In this backdrop, his deposition before the Indian court appears to be a part of propaganda against Pakistan. Even former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief A.S. Dulat asserted that there was nothing new in what 26/11 accused David Coleman Headley had told special Mumbai court via video conferencing from US, and expressed doubt about whether Pakistan would accept Headley’s deposition, as it was made under the influence of the American authorities. In December 2015, David Coleman Headley was granted pardon by a Mumbai special court and made an approver/witness in the case against plotter Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal.
In March, 2009, the Mumbai Crime Branch had filed a charge-sheet comprising thousands of pages with regard to terrorists’ attack of 26th November 2008 in a Mumbai court. Mumbai’s Joint Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria had told newsmen that investigations had not thrown up anything that could speak about the involvement of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). “It is an operation carried out by the LeT and we have not yet come across any evidence of ISI’s involvement,” he added. From November 2008 to March 2009, India could not find any connection between the terrorists and Pakistan, which vindicated Pakistan’s position that Pakistan as a state was not involved. At least once Secretary External Affairs Shiv Shankar Menon had said: “We have no evidence of ISI’s involvement in Mumbai mayhem”. Perhaps having a second thought, they started propaganda blitz against Pakistan, which showed malicious intent on the part of Indian leadership.
There were many holes in the Indians’ version. They kept mum on the issue of local connection with the external perpetrators of Mumbai mayhem. There is also a perception that it was a stage-managed act by India to stall the composite dialogue. It was reported in the Indian press that a serving Indian Military Intelligence colonel was involved in the terrorist strike on Samjhota Express, in which at least 69 Pakistani passengers were killed and many more wounded. There were quite a few questions like the mysterious killing of Hemant Karkare, Mumbai’s anti-terrorist squad chief and two of his senior team members on the very first night of the terrorist attack. He was the man who had busted an Indian terrorist network comprising Hindu fanatics and military officers, both serving and retired. Anyhow, David Coleman Headley’s deposition to the court through video link made headlines in Indian print and electronic media.
It has to be mentioned that David Coleman Headley being a dubious character, son of divided family, double or triple agent, a drug trafficker, is not trustworthy. It has to be mentioned that at one place David Headly said that he was not on the pay role of the ISI; but he contradicted his own statement when he said that he was paid for the trips by the ISI. This goes to prove that he is not telling the truth. Headley had told the America’s National Investigation Agency that he believed local Indian boys were part of the LeT’s Karachi set-up. In the critical analysis captioned ‘The Murky World of David Headley’ carried by Axis of Logic in November 2010, the author Shahid R. Siddiqi wrote: “David Coleman Headley initially pled not guilty before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber in Chicago, but later pled guilty in a plea bargain with the U.S.”
His connections with the CIA and FBI are too well known; and could have made inroads in the banned outfits on the behest of those agencies. After his arrest in Germany in 1988 for smuggling drugs to the US, Headley landed with US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for which he worked as paid informant in exchange for a lighter sentence. In his article in ProPublica, a newsroom of investigative journalism, Sebastian Rotella wrote that “after 9/11 Headley told associates that he planned to train with LeT as part of a secret mission for the U.S. government. Within two months Headley was training with LeT, which had been designated a terrorist organization by the US and Pakistan.” In this backdrop, no one would take seriously what Headley said in his deposition before the Indian court through the videoconference.