Thursday, May 26, 2011

Dr. Tuhawwar Rana's Trial - Colin Freeze's direct tweets from the Chicago courtroom on May 26, 2011

Day Four

1. About an hour away from a full day's cross-examination of Mumbai Massacre plotter David Headley.... Can't wait #Ranatrial Day 4
2. PLEASE CIRCULATE: If you want to know the FULL US Govt take on Headley story read pages 19-57 of this PDFhttp://bit.ly/mE8kln #Ranatrial
3. @blahssome See pp 20-21. Meeting with Major. Iqbal. Headley testifies he's ISI. Prosecutors shy about highlighting ISI links …
4. @blahssome ... Also it's Tahawwur Rana who is on trial here. Not the ISI. Though, if the US ever catches Major Iqbal they will try him...
5. And we're back. Headley still in rugby shirt and windbreaker, with familiar gray buzzcut and widow's peak.... #Ranatrial

6. His eyes so deep that you can't tell they r different colours --blue, brown. Was cool for prosecutors but now his brow furrowing #Ranatrial
7. Headley says he was inserted into Mumbai after 50+ spycraft sessions led by ISI Maj. Iqbal's team before posing as tourist. #Ranatrial
8. Q. You became a tourist who had an interest in fishing boats right? A. Yes. #Ranatrial(Headley went out in harbour w/ GPS to map route.)
9. Headley stayed in Taj with Moroccan wife Faisa (sp?).Wife was covered in Islamic dress. Defense asks -- didnt burqa blow cover? #Ranatrial
10. "I wasn't (wearing Islamic dress). She was.... Definitely I was being careless." #Ranatrial
11. Rana defense establishing that Headley's Mumbai cover was being a tourist. Fake immigration credentials irrelevant for recce op. #Ranatrial
12. Headley says he briefed Maj. Iqbal at Lahore safehouse. Dense hood. "I can't give (directions to) you verbally ..." Headley. #Ranatrial
13. ISI Maj. Iqbal wanted to use promise of Canadian jobs to tease out disgruntled and retired Indian types. #Ranatrial
14. "He wanted me to place a (newspaper) ad as if I wanted too recruit people for jobs in Canada ...Security personel w/ mil exp..."#Ranatrial
15. "He wanted me to place an ad as if I wanted to recruit people for jobs in Canada. ... Security personnel w/ military exp." #Ranatrial
16. (Mounties investigated First World Immigration's Toronto branch office after Rana arrest. No charges, not even visa fraud.) #Ranatrial
17. Defense asks: If ISI Maj. Iqbal directed Headley to keep Mumbai op a close secret, why tell Rana? #Ranatrial
18. Q. Do you know whether Maj. Iqbal was telling anyone else in the ISI about this operation. A. No. #Ranatrial
19. Headley says he has no way of knowing who in ISI Maj. Iqbal might've looped in. Says he assumes LET's Mir has ISI handlers but doesn't know.
20. Headley says op was tightly compartmentalized in need to know secrecy. Defence asks: So why be so indiscrete with Rana? #Ranatrial
21. Headley testifying in summer 08 he told Chicago pal Rana to stay away from India. "Something was imminent..." #Ranatrial
22. Defense incredulous.You called him (Rana) on the telephone?! (Would be major security breach.) "I just told him not to come." #Ranatrial
23. Defense seems to be establishing Headley's v. inconsistent on what/when/where/how he warned Rana not to come to Mumbai. #Ranatrial
24. Nov. 14-16 2008. Tahawwur Rana, failing to heed warnings, shows up in Mumbai for biz,en route to Dubai China. 26/11 10 days away.#Ranatrial
25. "It was my job to warn him, in case he thought of it, do not go back (to India)," Headley recalls thinking circa Nov. 16th. #Ranatrial
26. Headley decides to use intermediary to get message to Rana. "He wld b able to elaborate more clearly than I wld be able to on the phone."
27. Now on break. Headley stood ramrod straight, as he does, and I realized he's wearing Adidas track pants... (FBI wouldn't buy him a suit?)
28. Headley says after 26/11 he dreamed about his grave being "not next to the prophet's grave itself but a little disance away." #Ranatrial
29. Interpretted it as a sign he would reap an extraordinary religious reward -- if he took out the Denmark newspaper. #Ranatrial
30. H: In Nov. 08 meeting Major Iqbal, Sajid Mir meet @ Headley's Lahore house to discuss Denmark plot. #Ranatrial
31. Headley says his LET handler came up with Denmark idea, and his ISI handler expressed surprise "it hadn't happened already." #Ranatrial
32. Defence asks: Wasn't 'Mickey Mouse Project' a dumb + obvious name for a plot to assassinate a cartoonist?" #Ranatrial
33. "I guess I didn't do a very good job making a code," Headley deadpans. Chuckles in court. #Ranatrial
34. Defence asks whether Headley warned Rahul Bhatt, son of Bollywood movie director, to stay away from Mumbai on 26/11. #Ranatrial
35. Headley replies he gave some sort of head up but doesn't elaborate. (Testimony doesn't at all suggest he was precise ...) #Ranatrial
36. "As a matter of creed you should not think of them as your friends," Headley testifies.Them presumably refers to Hindus/Indians. #Ranatrial
37. Headley testied his ret'd army friend Pasha -- w/ ties to LET / AQ figures -- was likely being run by an ISI Col. Shah.
38. Headley says he put Pasha in touch with Rana Chicago consultancy to discuss branches in Pakistan. #Ranatrial
39. Pasha's interest purely financial and "absolutely not" to move ISI and terrorists out of Pakistan,Headley says. Venture fizzled. #Ranatrial
40. Headley's made fake immigration consultant business cards to prepare for Denmark. Listed #s of Chicago/N.Y./Toronto offices. #Ranatrial
41. (A necessary -- and probably overdue caveat re: #Ranatrial. It is a trial testing whether Tahawwur Rana knowingly supported 26/11 …
42. (2)... It iS NOT a trial on whether the ISI was complicit in 26/11. Headley says yes, but that's his take + & Ranatrial lawyers are …
43. (3) In fact, it's not in #Ranatrialdefense OR prosecution interest to challenge Headley overly much on ISI ties, though defense is some.
44. (4) USDOJ has indicted Maj Iqbal as a co-conspirator but do not openly refer to him as serving ISI. They say Headley says that. #Ranatrial
45. @durgeshkaushik NO. Nothing supports idea Rahul Bhatt had 26/11 foreknowledge.H said he gave oblique suggestion not 2 B in Mumbai.
46. Headley has testified he told Wife #1 he divorced Wife #2. Then he remarried Wife #2 without telling Wife #1. #Ranatrial
47. Early 09, after 26/11 Headley meets AQ-tied Illyas Kashmiri in Waziristan in hopes of getting backing for Denmark plot. #Ranatrial
48. Kashmiri broaches subject of AQ membership. "He said I should be in touch ... I didn't really respond," Heasley says. #Ranatrial
49. Headley agrees that Islam broadly bans killing women and children and mistreating hostages. #Ranatrial Agrees hostages ought to be "guests"
50. "Funding is not a major problem with Lashkar," Headley testifies.#Ranatrial
51. Headley on Illyas Kashmiri. "I was unimpressed with his personality but I was impressed with his dedication," Headley said. #Ranatrial
52. Q. Views on al-Qaeda? H. "I was working with them." Q. Had you sworn bayat (allegiance)? H. No. #Ranatrial
53. Headley says he knew a Maj Haroon, gossiped about a Maj. Haroon but "I was not working with Maj. Haroon." #Ranatrial(Significanceunclear.)
54. Headley -- you know he's a hard man just by looking at him. Struck by how Rana is relatively slight, grey, and gentle featured#Ranatrial
55. The two 50-year-olds met maybe 40 years ago in a schoolyard brawl in Pakistan. Headley was fighting, Rana an intrigued and curious spectator
56. Have a look at what's going on a the Chabad House now.http://www.chabadindia.org/Motto is "Let's rebuild." Thanks@jewishmumbai
57. Headley testifies he flew on UAE-based airlines. His cousin in Pakistan would buy him the tickets. #Ranatrial
58. Headley was a fan of "the Book of Ibrahim" -- preaches Muslim "enmity" versus "idolators." Defence says Rana rejected views. #Ranatrial
59. "When you care about somebody you ask what they are doing," says Headley #Ranatrial .
60. Headley angered, for first time, at suggestions he's friendly to people only to advance conspiracies. #Ranatrial
61. Headley testifies was posing as an ex-(US?) Army Ranger when he told Indian friend R. Bhatt not to go to South Mumbai b4 26/11. #Ranatrial
62. Denmark plot hindered by fact Headley had no access to weaponry in Europe. Tried to buy guns through intermediaries. #Ranatrial
63. (Anyone know why Headley's father was an "important man" in Pakistan? Alive or dead, etc. ?) #Ranatrial
64. Defense asks Headley: Did you really tell Rana you were going to storm Denmark newspaper, decapitate secretaries + throw heads out window?
65. "He just said OK ... He wasn't jumping with joy ... He didn't object." #Ranatrial
66. Headley testifies he returned from Denmark recce with 4-5 "Copenhagen" baseball caps for Pakistani co-conspirators. #Ranatrial
67. Q. Its a joke b/c the people knew you were trying to kill people in Denmark. Headley: "Yes ... Uh, I just got it as a memory..." #Ranatrial
68. Headley testifies he is a middle class Pakistani even though he lived until recently in a "big" Lahore house with a "manservant."#Ranatrial
69. Headley testifies PM of Pakistan attended his fathers funeral. #Ranatrial
70. Correction: Headley's wife wore a hijab when they stayed in the Taj prior to 26/11, not a burqa as I wrote before. #Ranatrial
71. "The caste/larger family I belong to, people refer to them as Shahji (an honorary term)" #Ranatrial (Paraphrasing)
72. Headley engaged in extremist "loose talk" on Internet military-school old boys forum. Also expressed views to DEA handler. #Ranatrial
73. Q. Are you proud of it today? (Mumbai attacks) Headley: No. (!!) Q. We'll get to that tomorrow... #Ranatrial
74. Headley testifies his wife Shazia was looped in on 26/11, sent hem congratulatory messages while attacks in progress. #Ranatrial
75. (Anyone know what the wife in question is doing these days?) #Ranatrial
76. Headley testified he loaned $100,000+ to Rana over the years. Father's cash + heroin profits used to buy video store H l8r sold. #Ranatrial
77. Court is done for the week -- and so am I!!! Just learned that #Ranatrial is not sitting again till Tuesday am.

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