FBI knew of Headley’s LeT links from 2005

Washington: Even as the PR machinery swings into action to smoothen passage of US president Barack Obama, with reports that he may indeed stay at Mumbai's iconic Taj Hotel the target of a savage assault by Pakistan Army-backed LeT cadre terrorists in November 2008, it now transpires that America's top counter-intelligence agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was aware of prime suspect David Headley's active connection with the Lashkar-e-Toiba atleast from 2005.

What makes the episode even stranger is the fact that the FBI was made aware of his terrorist connections by Headley's wife, who spilled the beans on his LeT connections in 2005 after a marital dispute.

"Three years before Pakistani terrorists struck Mumbai in 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," so says a report on the 26/11 attacks by ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom engaged in investigative journalism in the public interest.

"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," the report said.

According to the report, Headley's wife not only told the FBI that he was an active Lashkar-e-Toiba militant, but also that he had trained extensively in their Pakistani camps and had also shopped for night vision goggles and other equipment.

The report is investigated and authored by Sebastian Rotella of ProPublica, who has cited officials and sources close to the case.