London – Report: British Intelligence Tipped Off U.S. About American Mumbai Suspect

London – British intelligence tipped off the American authorities over a suspect in the Mumbai bombings, the Daily Telegraph has learned.

David Coleman Headley, also known as Daood Sayed Gilani, made frequent visits to the Indian city where he mixed with the Bollywood set as a cover for his activities, it is claimed.

He joined a local gym in the upmarket Breach Candy area and stayed at the Taj Mahal hotel, one of the targets, in April and May 2007.

According to a US indictment, Headley, 49, was a freelance reconnaissance agent for terrorist groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the Mumbai attacks a year ago.

Intelligence sources have told the Daily Telegraph that British officers collected the vital information that identified Headley, a US citizen living in Chicago who was arrested in October. They declined to give further details.

British intelligence was also responsible for the arrest of another US terrorist suspect, Najibullah Zazi, 24, who was allegedly planning attacks on the New York subway when he was arrested in Denver in September.

Investigators in India are still trying to piece together Headley’s activity in the country around the crucial period, when he posed as a businessman running an immigration service.

He is said to have befriended a man called Rahul who has identified himself to Indian police as Rahul Bhatt, a young actor from one of Bollywood’s leading families.

Apart from his visit to the Taj Mahal hotel in 2007, when he stayed in the heritage building attacked by the terrorists the following year, he also visited New Delhi, staying in the city’s Paharganj area, in October 2007 and March 2009.

He is reported to have rented an apartment close to his gym in Mumbai from April 2008, where his landlady has described him as a “sweet and charming man”.

Headley’s associate, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, a Canadian living in Chicago, stayed in a guesthouse in south Mumbai close to the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station, another target, until November 21 last year, five days before the attacks, when he returned to North America.

Headley himself was in Pakistan at the time of the attacks working on another plan he called the “Mickey Mouse Project”. Headley and Rana both attended the Hasan Abdal Cadet College in Pakistan and were members of an internet group called the Abdalians.

Five Pakistani army officers were arrested this week in connection with their activities. One Pakistani officer, referred to in US legal documents as “Individual A,” is said to have acted as Headley’s link to Let and another group called Harakat ul- Jihad Islami, both of which are associated with al-Qaeda.

While investigations continue into Headley’s activities in India he has been charged in Chicago with a number of other terrorist offences.

He is accused of plotting an attack on the culture editor and cartoonist who published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark.