Chicago Men Charged with Plotting Terrorist Attack in Denmark Updated: November 17, 2009 Posted: October 28, 2009

Two Chicago men have been accused of plotting to attack the offices and employees of a Danish newspaper that printed controversial cartoons in 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

A criminal complaint, unsealed in a Chicago federal court on October 27, 2009, charged David Coleman Headley, 49, with conspiracy to commit murder and maim in a foreign country and with providing material support to terrorists. That same day, federal authorities unsealed a criminal complaint against Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, for conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorism conspiracy. Prosecutors added an additional charge against Rana the next day for providing material support to terrorist acts.

According to court documents, Rana, a Canadian citizen from Pakistan, allegedly helped arrange Headley's travels to Denmark in January and July 2009 to conduct surveillance of potential targets for a terrorist attack. Headley, a U.S. citizen who allegedly changed his name in 2006 from Daood Gilani to raise less suspicion when he traveled, visited two different offices of Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper that published cartoons in September 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad and caused controversy in Muslim communities.  

The cartoons offended many Muslims and triggered riots and violent protests in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. In the Palestinian territories, for example, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar issued a death threat against those responsible for the cartoons, and protesters in Damascus set fire to the Danish embassy.

According to affidavits filed in support of the complaints, Headley falsely told Jyllands-Posten employees that he was a consultant for First World Immigration Services, an immigration company owned by Rana. To further strengthen his cover story, Headley told newspaper employees that he was interested in placing an advertisement about the business, which he claimed was considering opening up offices in Denmark, in the newspaper.

According to court documents, authorities searching Rana's home recovered a DVD entitled "Bombing of Denmark Embassy," which focuses primarily on the controversial cartoons and explicitly calls for violent action against Denmark. The nearly 55-minute video is narrated by Al Qaeda spokesman Abu Yahya al-Libi, features Al Qaeda's leader in Afghanistan Mustafa Abu al-Yazid and was produced by Al Sahab, Al Qaeda's media wing. "Strong comments then followed from the narrators, condemning the United States, Denmark and the Jewish people, among others, for a litany of perceived outrages," according to court documents.

Indian news sources have reported that Headley and Rana have also helped plan other terrorist attacks, including a series of coordinated terror attacks in November 2008 that killed more than 170 people in Mumbai. In the years leading up to the Mumbai attacks, Headley conducted reconnaissance of the targeted locations, including the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station and the Tag and Oberoi-Trident hotels, according to media reports. Headley also reportedly posed as a Jew during a July 2008 visit to the Nariman House, the Mumbai headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch movement. In the terrorist attacks four months later, suspected members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), a Pakistani-based terrorist organization with links to Al Qaeda, tortured and killed six people at the Jewish center.

The affidavits state that Headley discussed the alleged plot against the Danish newspaper with at least three people in Pakistan, including an unnamed member and another unnamed LET associate. The affidavits also allege that Headley reported his overseas surveillance to Ilyas Kahsmiri, an operational chief for Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami, another Pakistani-based terrorist organization linked to Al Qaeda.

Headley allegedly corresponded with the two LET associates in coded communications, some of which were in Urdu, about the "Mickey Mouse Project," which the affidavits site as the plot to attack the facilities and employees of Jyllands-Posten. In other coded messages, Headley referred to the plot against the Danish newspaper as "mmp" and "the northern project."

In additional e-mail exchanges during the summer of 2009, the LET member allegedly asked Headley to assist in planning a terrorist attack in India, where LET had conducted a terrorist attack the previous year. According to prosecutors, Headley and Rana also discussed targeting the National Defense College in New Delhi. Headley allegedly decided to continue planning the attack on the Danish newspaper instead of working with LET on the new plot. If no one could assist him, he later told Rana, then he would perform the planned attack himself.

According to the affidavits, Headley allegedly traveled to Pakistan to meet with the LET associate and Kashmiri following his 2009 trip to Denmark. Before his return to Chicago, Headley e-mailed Rana with instructions "in case of my death or in case I am incapacitated for some reason."        

Headley, who had previously posted messages in an online forum expressing his desire to attack the Danish cartoonists and others he identified "as making fun of Islam," later suggested killing Jyllands-Posten's cultural editor and cartoonist instead of attacking the newspaper's offices in Copenhagen, according to the affidavits. Headley, who was falsely told that the editor was Jewish, also conducted surveillance of a nearby synagogue.

In September 2009, Rana and an LET associate allegedly discussed a "loophole" to get individuals into the U.S. under false pretenses, according to court documents. During that and a similar discussion held the previous year, Rana stated that the best way to enter the U.S. is by obtaining a work visa. If someone has a student visa and does not attend school, Rana warned, then the school will report the missing student to an immigration hot-line, which subsequently questions the apparent student about the way in which he came to the U.S. and who funded his trip. "Only one loophole is business which they believe is OK," Rana allegedly said.

Headley was arrested on October 3, 2009, at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport while boarding a plane to Philadelphia, with the intention of continuing to Pakistan. Federal agents searching Headley's luggage recovered a memory stick containing approximately ten short videos of Copenhagen, including the Jyllands-Posten building, a nearby synagogue, a Danish military barracks and Copenhagen's central train station.

Federal authorities also recovered a book entitled "How to Pray Like a Jew," a Copenhagen street guide and an airline reservation, which the affidavits allege was made by Rana, to fly to Copenhagen at the end of October. Following his arrest, Headley allegedly told federal agents that he had received training from LET and worked for the Pakistani-based terrorist organization.

Two weeks later, federal agents arrested Rana and raided the Chicago offices of his immigration business and a halal butcher in Kinsman, Illinois, owned by Rana.

If convicted, Headley faces a maximum sentence of life in prison while Rana faces 30 years.

Several other American Muslim extremists have been charged, convicted or sentenced on terror-related charges in 2009. For more information, see: Criminal Proceedings in 2009.