Pakistan Official is David Headley's Half-Brother

By Jeralyn, Section Terror Trials
Posted on Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 05:21:06 PM EST
Tags: Daood Gilani, David Headley (all tags)

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It turns out David Headley, aka Daood Gilani, the former DEA cooperator now indicted for terrorism in Chicago and suspected of playing some role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is the half-brother of the Public Relations Officer to Pakistan's Prime Minister. In a statement, Danyel Gilani says:

Seeking to de-emphasize the connection, the PRO said, “Being much younger to Daood, I have heard that he studied at the Hasan Abdal Cadet College for sometime and in the mid-1970s shifted to America to live with his mother. Since then, the family here only had occasional links with him. In fact, because of his involvement with issues related to drugs my father wanted the rest of the family to stay away from his influence.”

Speculation keeps mounting that the feds here used Headley to infiltrate Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and that at some point he either went rogue and joined LeT, or became a double agent. [More...]

Headley had come into contact with US authorities after he was busted on a drug trafficking charge in 1998. Because he “sang like a canary” to authorities, he served a minor sentence. But this was used against him to have him work as an “agent”.

Suspicion is growing that for the next few years, Gilani worked as a “double” agent. It stems from many reasons, including intriguing ease with which Headley could move in and out of Pakistan. In post 9/11 world, a Pakistan-origin man making frequent trips to Pakistan would have been marked by US tracking agencies, particularly if he was a US national. The fact that Headley managed to have a free run in this dangerous region without setting off alarm bells has been found by many to be odd.

The explanation that Gilani changed names to make travel easier is also drawing skepticism:

They are not convinced by Headley’s explanation that identity switch helped him dodge surveillance. It is a common knowledge that in US agencies keep tons of data on drug offenders. A simple camouflage like change of name by a frequent flier to Pakistan and UAE could not have kept the over-cautious border and customs officials from putting out red flags. The ‘rogue agent’ school has been reinforced by FBI’s specific warning of the terror attack that Lashkar had planned on Mumbai in September 2008. Tha