Not-Guilty Plea in Terror Case

CHICAGO -- The American man charged with helping coordinate the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court. In a five-minute arraignment, David Coleman Headley, who is cooperating with federal prosecutors, also waived his right to be indicted by a grand jury. He was charged with nine felony counts in connection with the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, and three separate counts for plotting an on the Danish newspaper that in 2005 published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that offended many Muslims. Mr. Headley, 49 years old, appeared in court Wednesday in an orange jumpsuit with his feet shackled. A Pakistani-American, he is tall, fair-skinned and clean-shaven. Flanked by two court-appointed attorneys, he gave mostly one- and two-word answers to U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber. Prosecutors allege Mr. Headley traveled to India and Pakistan over nearly two years to videotape targets and brief plotters for the Mumbai attack. He also traveled to Copenhagen to help plot an attack on the Danish newspaper that never took place, prosecutors allege. "These are very serious charges; we're treating them very seriously," said John Theis, one of Mr. Headley's attorneys. "I want to remind everyone that he is presumed innocent of these charges." Born in Washington to a Pakistani diplomat and a Philadelphia socialite, Mr. Headley was educated in a military boarding school in Pakistan until his parents divorced and he returned to the U.S. as a teenager. He briefly attended community college and managed his mother's in Philadelphia. In 1994, he moved to New York and bought Hair two video rental stores. In 1998, he was convicted of conspiring to smuggle heroin into the U.S. from Pakistan and was sentenced to 15 months in prison after cooperating with authorities. Mr. Headley began training with Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003, and in late 2005 he began surveillance of Mumbai to establish targets for the attack, federal prosecutors allege. In 2006, Mr. Headley changed his name from Daood Gilani to facilitate his travels abroad, prosecutors say. In October, Mr. Headley was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and charged with planning the assault on the Jyllands Posten newspaper. He has since been held without bail. Lakshar-e-Taiba was intending at one point to borrow tactics from its Mumbai attack to use in Denmark, though on a smaller scale, and the plan showed the group's widening international ambitions, according to authorities. Among the allegations, Mr. Headley is charged with providing material support for terrorism, conspiracy to bomb public places, and aiding and abetting the murder of six U.S. nationals. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. He allegedly conducted surveillance of key targets in Mumbai attack: the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, the Leopold Cafe, a Jewish outreach center, and the train station where more than 50 people were believed killed, authorities said. He took an April 2008 boat trip around Mumbai's to shoot surveillance video, according to U.S. officials. The terrorists would later land in the area to stage their attack. During the two-day assault, 10 well-armed terrorist commandos Hair stalked their targets on foot, using grenades and guns, to kill Indians and foreign visitors to the seaside South Asian financial hub. Six Americans were among those killed.