India's National Defence College was terror target

By Arun Kumar, Washington, Nov 4 : Two Pakistan-born Chicago men charged with plotting to launch terrorist attacks in India and Denmark in association with Pakistan based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were targeting India's National Defence College (NDC), a US court was told.

In court papers filed in Chicago Tuesday to have a federal judge detain Chicago businessman Tahawwura Hussain Rana without bond, federal prosecutors said he discussed the attack on NDC with David Coleman Headley, a Pakistan-born American national.

Prosecutors told magistrate Judge Nan Nolan that the alleged discussion of an attack on the New Delhi-based premier military college for senior service and civil officers shows that Rana was serious about taking part in terrorism and wasn't merely Headley's dupe as Rana's lawyers contend.

Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian national, and Headley, whose former name was Daood Gilani, are also charged with plotting to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The newspaper sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world in 2005 by publishing 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

After a brief hearing Tuesday, the detention question was continued to Nov 10 before magistrate Judge Nolan.

The government's memorandum in support of Rana's detention pending trial said the planners of this attack included at least one member of LeT and Ilyas Kashmiri, who is affiliated with Al Qaeda, another terrorist organization that has been so designated since 1999.

Recorded conversations involving Rana, emails and other documentary evidence demonstrate that the Rana conspired to provide, and did provide, material support to the conspiracy, it said.

Rana was aware of the object of the conspiracy and the ongoing efforts to further the plot, the memo said. For example, on Sep 7, 2009, Rana and Headley, actively discussed the efforts to communicate with Kashmiri.

Rana and Headley also discussed the need to get Headley's "reports" and "notes" to Kashmiri. "In doing so, Rana was neither laughing nor ridiculing Headley, as suggested by Rana during oral argument," prosecutors said.

In the same conversation, Headley and Rana discussed Denmark and other targets, including the National Defence College in India, the memo said noting Rana, in fact, used the English word "target" in this discussion.

Rana also misled a government official, the Pakistani Consulate in Chicago, to obtain a visa for Headley to facilitate his prospective overseas travel.

Rana, the owner of a Grundy County goat farm and a Chicago immigration business, also allegedly communicated with a person affiliated with Let about smuggling in workers to the US.

He allegedly e-mailed an LeT associate last December concerning a "loophole" in American immigration policy. "Whenever you find easy way to come to US immediately think there is a catch to it," Rana wrote, prosecutors said.

"Only one loophole is business, which they believe is OK and intelligence can play a role," he was quoted as saying

Meanwhile, a team of Indian officials have arrived in the US to join the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in probing the foiled terror plot.

The officials were expected to interview at least Headley in a bid to determine the intended target in India and when the alleged attack was to be carried out. However, both Indian and American officials declined to "confirm or deny" whether they had questioned Headley.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)