Indian officials believes terror plotter was rogue US agent
A key terror suspect who allegedly helped to plan last yearÂs attacks in Mumbai and plotted to strike Europe was an American secret agent who went rogue, Indian officials believe.
David Headley, 49, who was born in Washington to a Pakistan diplomat father and an American mother, was arrested in Chicago in October. He is accused of reconnoitring targets in India and Europe for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terror group behind the Mumbai attacks and of having links to al-Qaeda. He has denied the charges.
He came to the attention of the US security services in 1997 when he was arrested in New York for heroin smuggling. He earned a reduced sentence by working for the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) infiltrating Pakistan-linked narcotics gangs.
Indian investigators, who have been denied access to Mr Headley, suspect that he remained on the payroll of the US security services  possibly working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)  but switched his allegiance to LeT.
This is the sort of thing that will probably never be confirmed, but the case does make a certain amount of sense. Even if it is just the case that he was supposed to be working for the DEA while planning the attack, it will be rather embarrassing for the US.
Jay
