David Headley: US agent who went rogue?

India hasn't really seen what he looks like, but David Coleman Headley is familiar now to most Indians as a man who helped Pakistani terrorists plan and execute the country's worst terror attacks.

In his nine trips to India between 2006 and 2009, Headley meticulously surveyed the targets that would be struck by 10 Pakistani men on 26/11 in Mumbai.

Headley's appearance does not suggest his Pakistani roots. He's described as light-skinned with an odd set of eyes - one brown, the other green. His real identity now challenges the Indian government on many fronts. Is there a reason that America has still not given Indian investigators access to Headley in Chicago, where he was arrested in October?

Why has America described India's request for Headley's extradition as "too premature" when it acknowledges that Headley helped plot terror attacks as an undercover agent of the Lashkar-e-Toiba? Intelligence officials say they cannot rule out the possibility that the FBI is being cagey about Headley because he once worked as an undercover agent for America, and then possibly went rogue.

Indian officials point out that America's own track record in the Headley case is riddled with lapses that are uncharacteristic of this day and age, when intelligence agencies are aware that terrorist attacks are planned across borders, and are therefore quick to share alerts and inputs.

So given that the FBI says Headley was on its radar for over a year, before he was arrested in October, why did it not share any intelligence with India? Even in the last month before 26/11, by which time Headley was under surveillance, there was still no information shared by America. This, despite the fact that that FBI had issued a detailed warning of a potential strike on hotels.

It is being reported extensively in American media that Headley worked as an undercover agent for America's Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) after being arrested in 1998 for smuggling heroin.

Both the New York Times and the Daily Beast website have shared details of how reported Headley infiltrated Pakistan's narcotics underbelly. So did Headley transition at some point from the DEA to the CIA?

So far, the FBI has told India that Headley abandoned his real name, Daood Gilani, so that he could mingle with Indians without suspicion. But could it be that Headley actually abandoned his Pakistani name to travel as a DEA agent across the world?

Confirming this theory, American journalist Gerald Posner writes: "In a world of high security, Headley somehow managed to then move with apparent ease in and out of Pakistan. A convicted felon of Pakistani descent, making frequent trips back and forth to the US (there were apparently at least four in one year), would have been monitored by US tracking agencies."

As the questions India has for America on Headley pile up, answers seem unlikely. The Indian government has been talking bravely about extradition and access to Headley; America has been quick to suggest neither is possible for now.

Source - http://www.ndtv.com