2 Chicago men accused of terror plot
Newspaper was alleged target
WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors unsealed criminal charges yesterday against two men in an alleged terrorism plot that took them from Chicago to Denmark, in the latest example of US citizens accused of seeking to travel overseas to carry out violent extremist attacks.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, using e-mail messages, recorded conversations, and surveillance, traced the movements of David C. Headley from his apartment in Chicago to Pakistan, where he met at least once with a top Al Qaeda figure to plan foreign operations, according to court papers.
Headley has been in custody since he tried to leave Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport three weeks ago, but authorities said they had delayed public notice of the conspiracy charges against him so they could conduct “further investigative activity.’’
Chicago US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald assured the public there was no “imminent danger’’ to the community.
The arrests followed a series of unrelated terrorism charges against American citizens in Boston, New York, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas, and central Illinois.
Headley, 49, legally changed his name from Daood Gilani three years ago to avoid suspicion when he traveled, FBI special agent Lorenzo Benedict wrote in a sworn statement. In the past nine months alone, Headley journeyed twice to Denmark, where he posed as a businessman interested in placing ads in a newspaper that in 2005 published cartoons making fun of the prophet Mohammed, the statement said.
Authorities believe that Headley was taking steps to carry out terrorist strikes as part of a plan he called “the Mickey Mouse Project,’’ the court documents say. The FBI affidavit described contacts between Headley and two unnamed operatives of Lashkar-i-Taiba, a Pakistani group with ties to Al Qaeda, and with Ilyas Kashmiri, the operational chief of another Pakistani militant organization who survived a US drone attack earlier this year.
The FBI document cited Headley’s posting on an electronic message board in 2008. “I feel disposed towards violence for the offending parties’’ at the Denmark newspaper who, he allegedly said, were “making fun of Islam’’ by depicting the prophet Mohammed in unflattering cartoons.
US prosecutors also charged another Chicago man, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, with conspiring to provide support to terrorists for allegedly helping to plan and conceal the purpose of Headley’s travels. Headley did not work regularly or have a ready source of income, authorities said, but he told others he was employed by First World Immigration Services, owned by Rana.
Patrick Blegen, an attorney for Rana, said in a telephone interview his client is a “well-respected businessman in the Chicagoland community. He adamantly denies the charges and eagerly awaits his opportunity to contest them in court, and to clear his name and his family’s name.’’
John Theis, an attorney for Headley, declined to comment.
