Top witness in Mumbai terror trial faces defense

[May 31, 2011]  CHICAGO (AP) -- The credibility of the government's star witness -- an admitted terrorist who said he lied to investigators -- was expected to be targeted Tuesday when the trial resumes for a Chicago businessman accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

David Coleman Headley has pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork in the three-day massacre that left more than 160 dead and paralyzed business in India's largest city. The American-Pakistani agreed to testify against his longtime friend Tahawwur Rana to avoid the death penalty and extradition.

Rana is accused of providing Headley with cover as he conducted surveillance for the attacks. He has pleaded not guilty.

Defense attorneys for Rana wasted no time last week attacking the credibility of Headley, who spent days detailing for prosecutors how he took orders from the Pakistani intelligence agency known as ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group blamed in the 2008 attacks.

Cross-examination by Rana's lawyers was expected to continue Tuesday.

"We're only just getting started," Rana attorney Patrick Blegen told U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber before the Memorial Day weekend. Proceedings are expected to last at least another week.

Though Rana is on trial, it is Headley's testimony that has been highly anticipated, especially in the wake of the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces outside Pakistan's capital city and suspicions that the country's government may have known or helped hide the former al-Qaida leader.

The trial -- which is under tight security -- has also made big headlines in India, which has long suspected that Pakistan was behind the attacks. Several Indian news outlets are covering the trial in Chicago.

Headley was the first witness called during the trial. Under defense questioning, Headley has talked about how he was an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration after a heroin conviction and also began his affiliation with Lashkar. He also admitted that he initially lied to the FBI and said Rana wasn't involved in the attacks.

Defense attorneys have also brought Headley's multiple marriages, and noted some of Headley's wives didn't initially know about each other.

Still, experts say undermining Headley's credibility is a challenge. His testimony has involved numerous emails and transcripts of phone calls with others listed in the indictment.

"He's certainly an imperfect individual, but the fact that the U.S. government put him up there and put him up there first, seems to suggest a reasonable level of confidence in what he has to say," said Stephen Tankel, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has written a book on Lashkar.

Besides Rana, six others are charged in absentia, including a man known only as "Major Iqbal," who Headley said was an ISI major, and Sajid Mir, Headley's Lashkar handler.

Headley said he started working with Lashkar in 2000. He testified that the group and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency operate under the same umbrella, though Pakistan has repeatedly denied the allegation. Headley said Lashkar and ISI coordinated in planning the attacks and that Rana was apprised of developments.

Rana and Headley, who are both 50, were schoolmates at a Pakistani military boarding school and have remained in touch. Rana, who owns several businesses in the Chicago area, is also accused of helping Headley plan an attack on a Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, which angered many Muslims. The attack never happened.

[Associated Press; By SOPHIA TAREEN]

Sophia Tareen can be reached at http://twitter.com/sophiatareen.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.