Updated: March 19, 2010
An American citizen, arrested in October for plotting a terrorist attack in Denmark, has pleaded guilty to helping plan the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 170 people.
On March 18, 2010, Chicago resident David Coleman Headley, 49, pleaded guilty to conducting extensive surveillance of the Mumbai headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch movement and other locations targeted by suspected members of Pakistani-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) during the November 2008 terrorist attacks.
Headley, who provided members of LET with pictures, videos and descriptions of the various targets in India, was arrested on October 3, 2009, on charges stemming from another terror plot in which he planned to attack the offices and employees of a Danish newspaper that had previously printed controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Canadian citizen Tahawwur Rana, 48, who is also a resident of Chicago, has been implicated in the Denmark plot and the Mumbai attacks as well. Two weeks after Headley's arrest, federal agents arrested Rana and raided the Chicago offices of First World Immigration Services, an immigration company owned by Rana.
Since his arrest, Headley has cooperated with federal authorities investigating both the Danish and Indian terror plots. Although Headley faces a maximum sentence of life in prison or death, the Department of Justice agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for his guilty plea. Rana faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted.
