By Vikas Datta New Delhi, Nov 25, : .His prowess in reconnoitering terror sites for unconscionable bloodbaths was perhaps only surpassed by his willingness to cooperate with authorities when he was caught.
Thirteen years after the Mumbai massacre, Daood Shaeed Gilani aka David Coleman Headley is still an unsolved mystery.He has no clear answers to the question of who he worked for, how much, and what he believes.
He was captured by the US while planning a new outrage and made available to Indian investigators.However, extradition has been firmly ruled against — even though the case of his childhood friend is moving forward on the basis evidence he is providing.
Sentenced to a three-and-a-half-decade jail term, Headley’s present whereabouts are unknown.
He was pardoned in Mumbai on condition that he made a clear admission about the conspiracy behind 26/11, which he did.
What can we make of David Headley’s erratic career and life?
Adrian Levy, a renowned journalist and author, got it right.He classified Headley, whose mismatched students are his distinguishing feature as an “extraordinary maverick character who only served himself despite professing multiple loyaltys”,
Levy’s The Siege: Three Days of Terror Inside The Taj’, co-authored by Cathy Scott-Clark, argues that Headley’s history — a Pakistani mother and a father — explains why he betrayed all those he came into contact with.
Headley was so sought-after by the US intelligence.Levy, who participated in an Indian literary festival shortly after his book was published, claimed that this was because Levy was convincing and difficult for control and all these attributes made him attractive to intelligence agencies.
Levy said: “Also he was only American passport holder capable of leading the US security agencies towards Osama Bin Laden.”
Indians will remember Headley’s meticulous research for 26/11, the Danes’ plan for one of the most outrageous terrorist outrages for their country, and the US for how he misled them for over a decade.But they will also remember the ease with which Headley turned over all the details once he was released from custody.
He was not only guilty of his role, but he also agreed to point the finger at his former associates.
This ensured that he not only avoided capital punishment in the US but that he was also pardoned and exonerated by an Indian court, as a veteran Danish journalist demonstrated.
Kaare Sorensen cited a compelling story in ‘The Mind of a Terrorist : The Strange Case of David Headley’ to illustrate Headley’s swinging allegiances.
Headley claims that he was so impressed by Ilyas Kashmiri, one of the few non-Arab high-ranking members of Al Qaeda’s hierarchy, who promised to help Headley attack Danish newspaper ‘Jyllands-Posten’.He was distraught when reports claimed Kashmiri had been murdered, and ecstatic when they were proven wrong.
Headley, on the other hand, was the one who, after being taken into custody, offered to meet Kashmiri at his hideout near the Pakistan-Afghan borderlands.He also presented him with a sword with a homing system embedded in it, so that the Americans could track him down.
Shirish Thorat, an ex-police officer in India, also discussed Headley’s involvement in 26/11 and the attack itself.
Thorat’s book ‘The Scout’ is a definitive account of David Headley’s Mumbai Attacks.He tries to figure out what kind of person can coolly navigate a busy metropolis in order to reconnoiter a series high-profile targets for unconscionable carnage.He also aims to make acquaintances with potential victims.
Many details about the Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Taiba operative are now known.He provided detailed inputs to the terror outfit and hours of footage of iconic and well-known targets including the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Leopold Cafe, as well as hours of footage of the Chabad House (aka Nariman House) and the difficult-to-find Nariman House.
Thorat and his coauthor try to answer questions like, when the attack was being ordered by LeT commanders.Why was Headley not invited? They provide a riveting reconstruction the pre-attack, their bloody unfolding and a bit of the aftermath.However, they clarify that their narrative is a combination “of verifiable facts as well as a professional’s estimation of what happened and how it happened”.
Let’s not forget that India should continue to focus on Headley.But the question is why? It is Sorenson who has extensively covered Islamic terrorism, who shows that the threat of terrorism is still present but not eliminated.
Headley’s life was a long, complicated tale of deceptions and betrayals.But even “before a terrorist attack becomes an item in a breaking-news ticker, social media, or even before the first shot is fired,” Sorensen said.
He could be sitting next to you at the bar in any major city around the world.He would fit right in.”
(Vikas Daatta can be reached at vikas.d@ians.in).
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