The Mind of a Terrorist

by Kaare Sørensen

  Rose describes the course of events surrounding Westergaard’s drawing as paradoxical.

  “The ones who wanted Westergaard’s head said: if you, Kurt Westergaard, claim that some Muslims are violent, we’ll kill you. And in that way, every assassination attempt on Westergaard, every plan to murder him, became a confirmation of the drawing’s contents. It would have been absolutely hilarious if it hadn’t been so scary.”

  As he left the newspaper, Flemming Rose wrote in an e-mail to all the journalists at Jyllands-Posten, saying that liberty was under pressure from the increasing diversity in Europe.

  Munir Awad, Omar Abdalla Aboelazm, Mounir Dhahri, and Sahbi Zalouti—the four men from Sweden—were each sentenced to twelve years in prison for their roles in the planning of terrorist acts against Jyllands-Posten.

  PET has never officially connected the men directly to the Headley plot, but at a press conference after the four men’s arrests, PET leader Jakob Scharf said: “It certainly can’t be ruled out that there’s some connection to the David Headley case.”

  Farid Lamrabet—the man who met with Headley in Sweden and was in contact with the four men from Sweden—is apparently still living in Sweden. His shops in Stockholm have closed, and he has been convicted for violations of business regulations. He has never been indicted in any of the terrorism cases.

  Swedish authorities do not wish to reveal if he has been interrogated in connection with the investigation of the Headley case.

  Jesper Bornak is still working in the shipping business, and today has his own company with branches in Denmark, Germany, England, Belgium, and Spain, where he lives with his family.

  Since Mumbai, he has participated in his first triathlon. Several of his acquaintances from the Leopold Café have tried to hide the images burned into their retinas, and by no means wish to speak about the attack. For Jesper Bornak, it’s the other way around. Since the violent night in 2008, he has returned to Mumbai and eaten the very same dish he did that evening at the Leopold Café. Right next to the bullet holes, which the restaurant has chosen not to plaster over.

  NOTES

  David Headley’s life has been characterized by lies, deceit, and manipulation. That made him the perfect man for the jobs of drug dealer, informer, and terrorist. At the same time, it has not made the task of reconstructing his life and actions any easier.

  This book is, first and foremost, based on the many documents, pieces of evidence, and testimonies upon which the trial in Chicago was based. Far from all of the ten thousand documents in the case have been released—and many never will be—but they paint a clear picture of David Headley as a person.

  More than three hundred private emails sent by David Headley to his friends in Pakistan in 2008 and 2009 have also played a crucial role in the making of this book. Emails often leave electronic tracks—for example, one’s geographic location (via IP addresses), dates, and times. These tracks have been checked and compared with the explanations Headley gave in the trial. They confirm his story.

  In other contexts, documents, information, evidence, or other things have been verified in the classical journalistic way. Did he really travel to Manchester? Was he really wearing a tie? Did he really buy those kinds of books? Did it rain that day? Airplane tickets, eyewitness accounts, receipts, and old weather forecasts say yes.

  The same, of course, goes for information and accounts from many other people who agreed to be interviewed for this book. Many had the chance to read through their accounts before the book was published. Not all of them have wished to come forward, but all the names used in the book are the correct ones. That is, no aliases have been used.

  Certain conversations—for example, with the terrorists in Pakistan who have since been killed—are reproduced entirely based on David Headley’s own memory and retelling.

  The responsibility for any errors there may be, though, rests with the author of this book alone.

  Apart from the American, Indian, and Danish interrogations, Headley hasn’t spoken about his criminal activities, and his physical location remains secret for reasons of security.

  Through his lawyer, in autumn 2013, Headley presented a number of concrete answers to questions about the plans for the attack in Denmark in connection with the making of this book.

  Headley stated that currently he doesn’t “feel that he’s able” to talk to the press. He hasn’t ruled out, however, that at a later time he might answer the last unanswered questions about his life. Headley dreams that one day, his life will become a book. Perhaps even a movie.

  Several sources are used in successive chapters and are named here in the first chapter in which they appear. The sources are listed in chronological order, chapter by chapter. Book titles are given in italics.

  1. A Beginning

  Leaked copy of the Indian intelligence service NIA’s thirty-four-hour long interrogation of Headley from June 3–9, 2010. Transcript.

  Headley’s own testimony in Chicago on May 23, 24, 25, 26, and 31, 2011. Transcript and own notes.

  2. Light the Fire, My Brother and 4. In the Control Room

  “Fleeing, hiding, dying,” Los Angeles Times, November 28, 2008.

  “Taj Mahal hotel chairman: We had warning”, CNN, November 29, 2008.

  “Mumbai: City of Death,” Sunday Times, November 30, 2008.

  “Jeg lå og ventet på å få kula” [“I Lay Waiting for the Bullet”], Verdens Gang, December 1, 2008. Line Kristin Woldbeck and Arne Strømme still dispute the official story about the Mumbai attack.

  “Vengeance through Kindness,” Jerusalem Post, December 3, 2008.

  “Hvad der skete i Mumbai” [“What Happened in Mumbai”], from the blog Seiersen Science, December 15, 2008.

  “Final Report. Mumbai Terror Attack Cases,” Ashok T. Duraphe, Mumbai Police, February 25, 2009.

  “Revealed: The Chilling Words of the Mumbai Killers Recorded during their Murder Spree,” Mail Online, June 27, 2009.

  “Secrets of the Dead: Mumbai Massacre,” PBS, November 25, 2009.

  “Terror in Mumbai,” CNN, December 12, 2009.

  “Det var skuddsalver, skrik og gjester som ble meid ned” [“There Was Gunfire, Screams, and Guests Being Mowed Down”], NRK, November 26, 2010.

  “The Events at the Mumbai Chabad House and the Immediate Aftermath,” chabad.org.

  “26/11 Attacks: Cops Find Voice That Guided 11 Terrorists”, Hindustan Times, June 26, 2012.

  Interview with Jesper Bornak, Benjamin Matthijs, Klaus Seiersen, Line Kristin Woldbeck, and several other witnesses.

  3. The Army of the Righteous

  “Bombing at Hotel in Pakistan Kills at Least 40,” New York Times, September 20, 2008.

  “PET-medarbejder dræbt ved terrorangreb i Islamabad” [“PET Employee Killed in Terrorist Attack in Islamabad”], PET, September 24, 2008.

  “Militant-linked Charity Fears Indian Reprisal,” Reuters, December 2 2008.

  Transcript of Headley’s Interrogation, FBI, November 6, 2009.

  “The Double Life of David Headley,” Channel 4, January 2010.

  “Little Progress in Locating 26/11 Terror Commanders,” Hindu; June 27, 2012.

  J. M. Berger, Jihad Joe. Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2011).

  Stephen Tankel, Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-E-Taiba (London: C. Hurst, 2011).

  S. Hussain Zaidi, Headley and I (London: HarperCollins, 2012). “LeT took Headley Seriously,” Asian Age, July 30, 2012.

  “Sex, Drugs & Jihad,” India Today, February 7, 2013.

  Excerpts from more than three hundred emails sent by David Headley in 2008 and 2009.

  Several copies of the indictments against Rana, Headley, Pasha, Sajid Mir, and Ilyas Kashmiri.

  “The Fighters of Lashkar-e-Taiba: Recruitment, Training, Deployment and Death,” Combating Terrorism Center, West Point, April 2013.

  5. Burn Denmark Down

  “I feel terribly guilty,”
Guardian, November 4, 2004.

  “Lærer overfaldet efter Koran-oplæsning” [“Teacher Attacked after Qur’an Recitation”], Politiken, October 9, 2004.

  “Jeg tør ikke pisse på Koranen—og det gør mig vred” [“I Wouldn’t Dare Piss on the Qur’an—And That Makes Me Mad”], Information, September 7, 2005.

  Prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s letter to Muslim ambassadors, October 21, 2005.

  “Fra idé til krise” [“From Idea to Crisis”], Journalisten, February 15, 2006.

  “May our mothers be bereaved of us if we fail to help our prophet.” Words of Osama bin Laden, IntelCenter, 2008.

  FBI interrogation of Headley, May 9, 2011.

  “David Coleman Headley: Cold, Detached,” NDTV, May 25, 2011.

  Interview with Flemming Rose, Kurt Westergaard, and several others at Jyllands-Posten.

  Sixty-six e-mails, tape transcripts, pictures, maps, bills, contracts, telephone lists, video clips, and other materials entered as evidence in the Chicago trial against Rana.

  6. The Prince

  “A Terror Suspect with Feet in East and West,” New York Times, November 21, 2009.

  “Avoid Daood, Father Said,” India Today, February 1, 2013.

  NDTV interview with Headley’s now deceased uncle. Author’s own observations from Chicago.

  7. A Dream about the Prophet

  “The Saga of the Khyber Pass,” Today Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 1974.

  Letter to Judge Amon from the United States Attorney, Eastern District of New York, September 22, 1998.

  Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Random House, 2006).

  “The Lost Picture Show: Complaints About Closed Video Store,” City Room, New York Times, June 10, 2008.

  “A Terror Suspect with Feet in East and West,” New York Times, November 21, 2009.

  “Terror Suspect Was Drug Dealer, Then Informant,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 13, 2009.

  Author’s own observations in Philadelphia.

  8. In Denmark

  “Terrorist udnyttede dansk kvinde” [“Terrorist Used Danish Woman”], Politiken, November 23, 2011.

  “Kronik: Terrortruslen er alvorlig” [“Essay: The Terrorist Threat Is Serious”], Morten Bødskov, Justitsministeriet [Ministry of Justice], November 22, 2012.

  Several emails shown in court in Chicago.

  Interviews with several people Headley met in Denmark. The young woman did not wish to participate, but her identity is known.

  9. The Women

  “Newly Discovered Warnings about Headley Reveal a Troubling Timeline in Mumbai Case,” Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica, November 5, 2010.

  “The American Behind India’s 9/11—And How U.S. Botched Chances to Stop Him,” Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica, January 24, 2013.

  Interview with Faiza Outalha. ABP/STAR News, June 2012.

  Interview with Faiza Outalha, NDTV, October 11, 2011.

  Headley’s email to friends in Pakistan.

  10. Why This Talk of Death?

  Excerpts of emails to and from Headley and his friends in Pakistan.

  Interviews with several participants.

  11. Brigade 313

  “Omar Sheikh’s Pak Handler Ilyas Kashmiri Also Handled Headley,” Express India, November 16, 2009.

  “The New Bin Laden,” Newsweek, October 23, 2010.

  Syed Saleem Shahzad, Inside al-Qaeda and the Taliban (London: Pluto Press, 2011).

  12. The Will

  “Pakistan’s Jihadists No Fans of Cricket,” Hindu, March 5, 2009.

  “As Human Victims of Terror Attack Are Buried, Nation Mourns the Other Casualty – Cricket,” Guardian, March 7, 2009.

  “Mehar Mohammad Khalil: A Hero Across Borders,” Sunday Times Sri Lanka, March 8, 2009.

  13. Cut Their Heads Off

  “Documents Reveal al Qaeda’s Plans for Seizing Cruise Ships, Carnage in Europe,” CNN, May 1, 2012.

  14. The European Cells

  “Flemming Rose – A Ukrainian Jew Working for Mossad?” Christopher Bollyn, February 27, 2006.

  “This Is How You Slit the Throats of Your Enemies,” Daily Mirror, February 19, 2008.

  “Another City Link to Terror,” Derby Telegraph, March 3, 2009.

  “Man Jailed Over Suicide Bomb Book,” BBC, December 15, 2009.

  “Mumbai Terrorist, MI5 Spooks and the Link to Derby,” Derby Telegraph, November 11, 2011.

  Magnus Sandelin, Jihad – svenskarna i de islamistiska terrornätverken [“Jihad—The Swedes in the Islamist Terrorism Networks”], Reporto, 2012.

  Interview with Raffaello Pantucci of the Royal United Services Institute and Stephen Tankel of American University.

  15. The Suspicion

  “U.K. Cites David Headley to Join EU Directive on Air Passengers,” PTI, May 11, 2011.

  “A Perfect Terrorist,” Sebastian Rotella, PBS Frontline, ProPublica, 2011.

  Speech by Alan Shatter, Irish minister of Justice, about PSR, May 16, 2012.

  16. A Desperate Man

  “A Shuttered Video Store, with Troubles Still Brewing,” City Room, New York Times, September 16, 2008.

  “Affidavit in Support of Search Warrants,” FBI agent Lorenzo Benedict, October 2, 2009.

  17. Sacrifice Everything

  “Federal Agents Raid Goat Meat Plant,” CB2, Chicago, October 20, 2009.

  “Massive FBI Raid on Islamic Slaughterhouse Mystifies Tiny Illinois Town,” Fox News, October 22, 2009.

  Drafts of press releases and several internal emails, Justitsministeriet [the Ministry of Justice] and Statsministeriet [the Prime Minister’s Office], 2009, released in 2013.

  Press conference with PET, recorded by TV2 on 27 October 2009.

  “FBI director Mueller discusses Headley case with Indian Home Minister Chidambaram,” confidential diplomatic cable from the American embassy in New Delhi, released by Wikileaks, February 26, 2010.

  Lawyer George Jackson III, Chicago.

  Excerpts from Rana’s immediate interrogation after his arrest. From “Government’s objections to the presentence report,” January 14, 2013.

  18. From Stockholm

  “The Terror Tapes,” Copenhagen Post, April 24, 2012.

  “Terrortiltalt: Operationen kan føre os til martyrdom-men” [“Man Indicted for Terrorism: ‘The Operation Can Bring Us to Martyrdom’”], Jyllands-Posten, February 24, 2012.

  “Aflytning afslører tiltaltes mordplaner” [“Surveillance Reveals Accused’s Plans for Murder”], Politiken, April 19, 2012.

  “Danish Newspaper Plotter Arrested Twice Before,” The Long War Journal, December 31, 2010.

  In addition, some information comes from Jyllands-Posten’s journalists Jonas Høy Bruun and Carsten Ellegaards’s coverage of the hearing in Copenhagen, April 2013.

  19. The Truth

  Letters from Headley to the organization Aseerun, 2011.

  Press release from Brigade 313, translated by The Long War Journal, 2011.

  “Al-Qaeda Pakistan Chief’s Death Likely,” Associated Press, June 5, 2011.

  Transcript from hearings in Chicago in 2011 and 2013.

  Afterword

  “Al Qaida truer på ny Danmark” [“Al-Qaeda Threatens Denmark Again”], Jyllands-Posten, December 31, 2012.

  “Pakistani Militant, Price on Head, Lives in Open,” New York Times, February 6, 2013.

  Transcript of press conference in the White House, June 13, 2013.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Special thanks to editor Truels Præstegaard Sørensen at People’s Press, Jyllands-Posten’s Fond, and my dear Ellen.

  Thanks to Jakob Kvist (People’sPress), Jakob Moll (Zetland), and my former colleagues at Jyllands-Posten, several of whom have actively helped with this book: Carsten Ellegaard Christensen, Jonas H. Bruun, Thomas Lund Hansen, and Niels Christian Bastholm.

  Thanks also to my amazing colleagues all over the world who have dug into the Headley case throughout the last
years, each helping in their own way: Sebastian Rotella (ProPublica), Puk Damsgaard Andersen (Danish Broadcasting Company), Morten Skjoldager and Claus Blok Thomsen (Politiken), Ginger Thomsen (New York Times), Rummana Hussain (Chicago Sun-Times), Mayank Chhaya (freelancer), Chuck Goudie (ABC7, Chicago), Magnus Sandelin (freelancer), Sarah Jacobs (NDTV), Sabrina Shankman (PBS/Frontline), and innumerable other journalists with newspapers and TV stations in India, Pakistan, the United States, Canada, and Denmark, and terrorism researchers at several international institutes.

  The Taj Hotel burned for days during the attack in Mumbai. In total, 166 people were killed during the attack. (AP)

  The beach where the terrorists made landfall in Mumbai. (FBI)

  Kasab, seen here on his killing spree at the Victoria Terminus. He was the sole surviving perpetrator from the Mumbai attack.

  David Headley’s class at the military academy in Pakistan. Headley is the tall student second from the right at the back. Tahawwur Rana is all the way to the left. The two would stay friends through most of their lives.

  The former classmates Headley and Rana met at a reunion in Pakistan in December 2004. By that time, Headley had long been a member of the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. He kept that information to himself.

  Born Daood Gilani in Washington, DC, Headley changed his name in 2006 to David Coleman Headley, taking the surname of his American mother’s family. (FBI)

  Headley was always a complex person. He enjoyed Hollywood action movies, TV host Jay Leno, and the books of former president Jimmy Carter. Privately, he wore traditional Pakistani clothing and used his evenings to write inflammatory emails about the United States.

  Three important people in David Headley’s life: his childhood friend Tahawwur Rana (above left), from an interview he did with a local TV station years before his arrest; Pasha (above) and the only know photo of Sajid Mir (left), Headley’s main terror contacts. (FBI)