Two charged over Denmark cartoon 'terror plot'

October 28, 2009 07:54:00 AM

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US authorities charged Tuesday two men arrested in Chicago with plotting an attack on the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

The suspects were identified as David Coleman Headley, 49, a US citizen who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, a Canadian citizen born in Pakistan.

Headley was arrested by the FBI on October 3 at Chicago O'Hare airport before boarding a flight to Pakistan via Philadelphia, the authorities said. Rana was detained on October 18 at his Chicago home.

Headley conducted two surveillance trips to Denmark in January and July 2009, touring the offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Copenhagen and Arhus, a statement from the Justice Department said.

"Headley falsely told Jyllands-Posten employees that he was visiting on behalf of First World Immigration Services, which he said was considering opening offices in Denmark and might be interested in advertising the business in the newspaper," it said.

Rana, charged with being Headley's accomplice, owns several businesses, including First World Immigration Services, which has offices in Chicago, New York and Toronto.

The US authorities also said Headley had traveled to Pakistan to meet with co-conspirators about the planned attack, which was codenamed the "Mickey Mouse Project" and the "Northern Project".

There he met "Individual A" linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based radical Islamic group that has long fought Indian rule in divided Kashmir, the Justice Department said.

The pair then traveled together to Pakistan's tribal areas and met another unnamed militant associated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba group.

A third alleged conspirator in Pakistan was identified as Ilyas Kashmiri, identified as the operational chief of a Pakistani-based terrorist organization with links to Al-Qaeda.

Rana is accused of helping to arrange Headley's travel plans and conceal their true nature as well as discussing potential targets with him, the charge sheet said.

The head of Danish intelligence service Jakob Scharff issued a statement saying Copenhagen was taking the matter "very seriously" as Headley had "extensive contacts with leading militant extremists in Pakistan.

"We don't think that an attack has been immediate, but there has been very specific planning in order to carry out serious terrorist attacks in Denmark," he said.

Headley was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the US, and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to that plot.

Rana was charged with one count of conspiracy to provide material support for the planned attack, the Justice Department statement said.

If convicted, Headley faces life in prison, while Rana faces up to 15 years behind bars.

Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's highest circulating daily, triggered an outrage in the Muslim world by publishing 12 cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in 2005. Many Danish newspapers reprinted the drawings in 2008.

Demonstrators burned Danish flags in protests that culminated in February 2006 with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan.