US was told of American's ties to Pakistani militants - Washington Post

Three years before Pakistani terrorists struck Mumbai in November 2008, federal agents in New York City investigated a tip that an American businessman was training in Pakistan with the group that later executed the attack.

The previously undisclosed allegations against David Coleman Headley, who became a key figure in the plot that killed 166 people, came from his wife after a domestic dispute that resulted in his arrest in 2005.

In three interviews with federal agents, Headley's wife said that he was an active militant in the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba, had trained extensively in its Pakistani camps, and had shopped for night-vision goggles and other equipment, according to officials and sources close to the case. The wife, whom ProPublica is not identifying to protect her safety, also told agents that Headley had bragged of working as a paid U.S. informant while he trained with the terrorists in Pakistan, according to a person close to the case.

Federal officials say the FBI "looked into" the tip, but they declined to say what, if any, action was taken. Headley was jailed briefly in New York on charges of domestic assault but was not prosecuted. He wasn't arrested until 11 months after the Mumbai attack, when British intelligence alerted U.S. authorities that he was in contact with al-Qaeda in Europe.

In the four years between the wife's warning and Headley's capture, Lashkar sent him on reconnaissance missions around the world. On five trips to Mumbai, he scouted targets for the attack, using his U.S. passport and cover as a businessman to circulate freely in areas frequented by Westerners. He also met in Pakistan with terrorist handlers.

In March, Headley pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism in the Mumbai attacks and to a failed plot to take and behead hostages at a Danish newspaper. He is cooperating with authorities.

It is not clear from the available information whether a different response to the tip about Headley might have averted the Mumbai attacks. It is known that U.S. anti-terrorism officials warned Indian counterparts several times in 2008 about a possible attack on Mumbai, according to U.S. and Indian officials.

Former DEA informant

The handling of Headley's case calls into question the progress of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies in improving their coordination and the ability to "connect the dots" and deter attacks. It also raises questions about a complicated relationship between U.S. authorities and a confessed terrorist.

Court records and interviews show that Headley served as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, starting in the late 1990s. But a former senior U.S. law enforcement official said Headley's work as an informant ended before the Mumbai attacks in 2008. He could not say whether Headley worked for the drug agency during the years when he was helping to plan the attack.

"Headley was closed as an informant because he wasn't producing anything," the former senior official said. He said he thought Headley's relationship with the DEA ended "years" before Mumbai, but he did not have more precise information.

Federal officials refused to discuss the 2005 tip, other than to confirm that the FBI conducted an inquiry into the allegations made by Headley's wife.

FBI officials said they could not comment on the agency's role in the case because of ongoing prosecutions in Chicago and overseas. A DEA spokesman declined to comment because of a policy against discussing informants. New York police officials confirmed the details of the arrest in the assault case, but they declined to discuss the terrorism inquiry.

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Pentagon: Elements in Pakistani Intelligence Agency Support Terror - FOXNews

The Pentagon acknowledged Thursday that some parts of Pakistan's intelligence agency are cooperating with terrorist groups as a new report suggests Inter-Service Intelligence agents are working to undermine U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said the Pakistan intelligence service as an organization does not support terrorism, but some elements within the ISI are providing assistance to terrorists. 

U.S. officials have raised concerns about whether some members of the ISI "might be interacting with terrorist organizations in ways that aren't consistent with what the government and military are doing," Lapan said.

Lapan was responding after a report in The Wall Street Journal that suggested the ISI is pushing the Taliban to keep fighting in Afghanistan, undermining efforts by the Pentagon to end the war. 

The Journal quotes an Afghan commander in Kunar province who said the ISI is still urging and paying Taliban to fight NATO soldiers. 

Pakistan's top military leadership is working to correct the problem, Lapan said, but "like any large organization, change is difficult and comes slowly."

"The ISI has done a great deal in fighting terrorism. Some have said they probably have killed more terrorists than any other organization. But we also have some concerns with the strategic focus of the ISI," Lapan said.

Lapan spoke as U.S.-Pakistani relations remain strained over the effort to end the Taliban's use of Pakistan as a safe haven to launch attacks into Afghanistan. 

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that President Obama has not spoken to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari but a Pakistani delegation is due in Washington later this month as part of a continuing strategic dialogue. 

Other strains have added to the burden on U.S.-Pakistani ties recently. On Wednesday, the U.S. apologized for a Sept. 30 attack that killed two Pakistani border guards. Expressing condolences, the U.S. said the helicopters mistook them for insurgents being pursued across the border from Afghanistan.

On Thursday, Pakistani officials said they are still weighing when to open the Torkham border crossing along Kyber Pass, which was closed as a result of the U.S. attack. Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said authorities were still evaluating the situation and would make a decision "in due course."

Torkham is a major supply route for NATO trucks shipping supplies to troops in Afghanistan Military officials insist closing the crossing hasn't hampered supply chains, but truck convoys are something of sitting ducks as hundreds of vehicles are backed up at the border. Pakistani militants torched 70 NATO trucks Wednesday in Pakistan -- the sixth set of attacks on NATO convoys in the past week.

The CIA continues to operate its own drone attacks on suspected terrorists, including one believed to have struck Thursday that targeted a vehicle in the North Waziristan tribal region where Taliban militants are based. The strike would be the sixth suspected missile attack this month, following what is believed to be 21 similar attacks in the region in September. 

As the troubled relationship evolves, one senior Pakistani official told The Wall Street Journal that Islamabad is fighting militants, not aiding them.

"Whenever anything goes wrong in Afghanistan, ISI is to be blamed," the official is quoted saying. "Honestly, they see ISI agents behind every bush in Afghanistan."

Lapan said the U.S. continues to communicate with Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the head of the Pakistani Army and former chief of the ISI, and is "comfortable that change will be coming in how the ISI operates."

Speaking after a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said that "the ISI's continued involvement with various entities remains an issue of concern between us." 

He added that he is also concerned about Pakistani army attempts to undermine the government, but he doesn't think the army "will move in that type of way." 

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New Bin Laden Tape Addresses Pakistani Floods - ABC News

Osama bin Laden released his first audio tape since March today calling for Muslim relief and charity in places like flood-ravaged Pakistan.

The new message comes despite a record number of drone attacks along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border targeting Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. Both Bin Laden and Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Zawahiri are believed to be hiding in the mountainous border region.

The 11-minute message could not be immediately authenticated but was released on a variety of known extremist websites with an old still photo of the al Qaeda leader. The message was largely addressed to Pakistani citizens affected by recent devastating floods.

Although there is no date referenced, the recent floods in Pakistan suggest the recording is no more than two months old.

In several recent messages bin Laden has shifted slightly from militancy and addressed geopolitics, climate change and environmental disasters, seeking to appear as a humanitarian. His previous message, however, threatened the US with violence if 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammed is executed by the US government.

Today's tape is also the third in a series of recent al Qaeda messages focused on Pakistan and the flooding there. Al Qaeda number two Ayman al Zawahiri and American Adam Gadahn both released recent messages attacking the Pakistani governments slow and ineffectual response to flooding in that country. The shift reveals al Qaeda's most recent strategy, which is stoking resentment inside Pakistan against the government there.

Although bin Laden doesn't directly threaten the West, the message comes after European and US intelligence uncovered a terror plot personally requested by bin Laden.

According to European and American intelligence officials, bin Laden asked al Qaeda affiliates to attack England, France and Germany using a "Mumbai- style" attack aimed at "soft and economic" targets.

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