Pakistan braces for Indian pressure in wake of blasts in Mumbai (The Christian Science Monitor)

Lahore, Pakistan – Wednesday’s triple-bomb attack on Mumbai has Pakistan bracing for renewed attention and has put a spotlight on the fact that leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terror group blamed for the 2008 attacks, remain free.

Though no one has yet claimed responsibility for the new series of blasts, there is some speculation the home grown Indian Mujahideen, who have ties with the LeT, are involved.

Analysts blame a systematic failure on the part of police and prosecution to make criminal charges stick. Analysts also blame a government too weak to deal with terror organizations.

“The basic problem is evidence collection and investigating terrorism. And another basic problem is political will – there are some political sectarian and ethnic reasons that allow the government to release people without trying them effectively or keeping them in jail without a trial,” says Badar Alam, editor of Pakistan’s Herald magazine.

RELATED: Mumbai's terror track record: nine major attacks in two decades

The trial of Zaki ur Rehman Lakhwi, founder of the Laskhar-e-Taiba and other senior members of the group continues to flounder more than two years after it began. And Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, head of Jamat-ud-Dawah (the organization’s charitable wing) who was named in a list of India’s 50-most wanted fugitives, remains free in his Lahore home.

Since Mr. Lakhwi’s trial began in March 2009, it has been beset by numerous unforeseen adjournments, for reasons ranging from the judge’s absence to the validity of the defense lawyer’s law degree being brought into question. The trial descended to what observers called farcical levels for several months last year, when it was held up because India unsurprisingly refused a Pakistani court’s request to send Ajmal Kassab, the lone surviving gunman from the attack to Pakistan to testify.

Jamat-ud-Dawah, an organization banned by the United Nations Security Council, meanwhile operates openly from a base in Lahore and was particularly visible in its relief efforts following last year’s catastrophic floods.

And on Thursday, an antiterror court freed Malik Ishaq, a sectarian militant believed to be the mastermind of the 2009 attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team that brought an end to visits to Pakistan by foreign cricketing teams. Following his release from a Lahore jail, Mr. Ishaq was feted by armed Sipah-e-Sahaba (a banned sectarian organization with links to domestic terrorism) members, who shouted sectarian slogans.

Such demonstrations of impunity are by no means uncommon and provide the space for terrorism to thrive, says Ahmer Bilal Soofi, an expert in Pakistani criminal law.

a€?There is a need for creative legislation in Pakistan. And the government doesna€™t have this priority. The nature of legal challenges are unique and different ... the legislation has to be very creative to respond to those challenges,a€

On the courts side, those criminals that are nabbed are often quickly let go because of a lack of forensic evidence and retracted confessions. A recent report commissioned by the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan found that the accused have been acquitted in 98 percent of serious crimes.

RELATED: Mumbai blasts: India asks 'who' and 'why' a day after blasts rock Mumbai

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Mumbai blasts raise terrorism concerns, but not calls for political change (The Christian Science Monitor)

New Delhi – Facing a dearth of evidence from Wednesday’s terrorist attack on Mumbai, the Indian government has avoided speculating on culprits and announced planned talks with Pakistan would continue as scheduled.

American officials have worried in the past about India’s ability to avoid escalating tensions with Pakistan in the face of another major attack after the Nov. 26, 2008 raid on Mumbai. So far, India’s government has played it very cool.

Part of the early muted response has to do with the uncertainty over who perpetrated the attack and its smaller scale as compared to the 2008 attack. But there’s another major factor that could give policymakers here leeway as more facts emerge: National security does not play a large role in Indian elections.

“Terrorism has never been an electoral issue,” says Yashwant Deshmukh, a pollster with Team CVoter in Noida. “If you talk about the biggest issue in front of the country, then terrorism will shoot up as an issue that concerns them. But if you talk about what is the biggest issue when you go to vote, then terrorism as an electoral issue isn’t there.”

He argues that many voters do not see terrorism as under the control of politicians in the same way as inflation or corruption a€“ two issues that are currently upsetting Indians.

Related: History of terrorist attacks in Mumbai

The main opposition party is trying to make an issue out of the government’s response to terrorism, however.

“It’s not a failure of intelligence, it’s a failure of policy,” said L.K. Advani, senior leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “The last attack [in 2008] on Mumbai is proved to have been engineered by the ISI,” he said, referring to Pakistan’s premier spy agency, which he argues should be “declared as a terrorist organization.”

Talks still onInstead, the current government agreed to resume dialogue with Pakistan in February after freezing talks for more than two years in response to the 2008 attacks.

Rather than wade into Pakistan policy, the ruling Congress Party’s rising star Rahul Gandhi addressed concerns expressed by ordinary Mumbaikars that the government hasn’t proven capable of stopping terror attacks.

“You will not have heard of all the attacks that have been stopped. It is something that we will fight … but it is very, very difficult to stop every single terrorist attack,” said Mr. Gandhi.

Investigators are currently looking through hours of surveillance video from the three blast sites to look for clues. However, the rainy weather has not helped. Umbrellas blocked some of the view in the videos and rains washed away evidence from the sites.

The bombs appeared to be improvised explosive devices made with ammonium nitrate. The Ministry of Home Affairs described them as having “some level of sophistication.” The perpetrators placed one bomb in Dadar on top of a bus shelter, another at the Opera House under some garbage, and the third at Zaveri Bazaar under an umbrella. The death toll stands at 17.

While the latest Mumbai attack has received a lot of international attention, India has quietly faced a string of bomb attacks across the country in recent years, including in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Pune, Jaipur, and Bangalore.

Keeping calmSome of these attacks occurred before elections and they factored not at all in voting behavior, says Mr. Deshmukh.

“Look at the geographic spread [of attacks], and then you realize that it can happen to any state, anywhere and it doesn’t matter which party is governing,” says Deshmukh. While the opposition BJP has tried to sell itself to voters as being tougher on national security, several high profile terror attacks struck during their tenure as well, he adds.

While the country is rapidly urbanizing and has a growing middle class, most of India remains rural and poor. These voters care primarily about pocketbook issues, such as the cost of food and how politicians will reward them tangibly for their votes. Much voting still takes place not over policy issues but identity in the hopes that politicians will reward their own communities.

As they fire their latest salvos over national security, some opposition politicians appear to acknowledge the limited political impact of the issue.

“It is the process of vote bank politics that is weakening the war against terrorism. But at least there should be system of action against the system of terror itself,” said opposition leader Arun Jaitley.

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Mumbai terror blasts not an attack on financial markets - home minister (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Three coordinated terror attacks in three crowded districts of Mumbai were not attacks on India's financial markets, Home Minister said on Thursday.

"These cannot be seen as attacks on India's commercial capital or on (our) markets," Palaniappan Chidambaram told a news conference.

The blasts went off during rush hour on Wednesday, killing 17 people in the biggest militant attack on India's financial capital since 2008 assaults blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

(Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Mumbai attacks won't stop Clinton trip to India (AP)

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says it is more important now than ever to show solidarity with India in its fight against terrorism and she will not cancel her planned trip to the country next week following bomb attacks in Mumbai.

Speaking to reporters at the State Department shortly after coordinated blasts struck India's commercial capital on Wednesday killing at least 21 people and wounding 113, Clinton offered condolences to the Indian people and government. She said India has been hit by terrorism before and has responded "with courage and resilience."

Clinton said she will go ahead with her trip as planned and believes "it is more important than ever that we stand with India." Clinton is scheduled to visit New Delhi and Chennai starting next Tuesday.

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Terrorism suspected as 3 blasts kill 10 in Mumbai (AP)

MUMBAI, India – India's home minister says three explosions at rush-hour in busy Mumbai have killed at least 10 people and injured 54.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the number of dead and wounded could rise.

One blast Wednesday evening hit a crowded neighborhood in central Mumbai. The others were at a famed jewelry bazaar and a busy business district.

A terror seige in Mumbai three years ago that killed 166 people.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MUMBAI, India (AP) — Three explosions rocked India's busy financial capital at rush-hour Wednesday, killing at least eight people and injuring 70 in what officials described as another terror strike on the city hit by militants nearly three years ago.

Television footage showed dozens of police officials, several of them armed, at the sites of the explosion and at least one car with its windows shattered. A photograph showed victims of a blast at the Jhaveri Bazaar crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.

Indian media reported the Home Ministry had called the separate blasts in three busy locations a terror attack. No officials there could be independently reached for comment.

One blast was in the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in central Mumbai. The others were at the bazaar, which is a famed jewelry market, and the busy business district of Opera House, both in southern Mumbai and several miles (kilometers) apart, a police official said.

The official in the city's Police Control Room spoke on condition of anonymity because of office policy.

"It must be a bomb blast," Chhagan Bhujbal, a state minister told a TV news channel.

All three blasts happened from 6:50 p.m. to 7 p.m., when all the neighborhoods would have been packed with office workers and commuters.

The blasts — if confirmed as a terror strike — would mark the first major attack on Mumbai since 10 militants laid siege to India's financial capital for 60 hours in November 2008.

That attack, which targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station, killed 166 people and was blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups. The attacks escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals and prompted them to suspend peace talks.

However, the talks have recently resumed.

Pakistan's government expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries soon after Wednesday's blasts were reported.

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US man guilty in Danish plot, cleared of Mumbai role (AFP)

CHICAGO (AFP) – A US jury has found a Pakistan-born Chicago man guilty of plotting an aborted attack on a Danish newspaper and aiding Pakistani terrorists, but cleared him of any role in the 2008 Mumbai siege.

Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 50, faces up to 30 years in jail for helping the banned Pakistan militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) plan an attack on a Danish newspaper that sparked outrage by publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

But the jury Thursday found there was insufficient evidence that Rana was involved in the Mumbai attacks that saw 166 people killed -- even though a key figure described how he had used Rana's business offering immigration services as a cover while conducting surveillance in India's financial capital.

Prosecutors hailed the verdict, which Rana's lawyers vowed to appeal.

"The message should be clear to all those who help terrorists -- we will bring to justice all those who seek to facilitate violence," said US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

David Coleman Headley, Rana's old friend from military school in Pakistan, has been cooperating with prosecutors since his 2009 arrest at a Chicago airport and was the star witness during the closely watched trial.

In a plot that reads like a movie thriller, Headley spent two years casing out Mumbai, even taking boat tours around the city's harbor to identify landing sites for the attackers and befriending Bollywood stars as part of his cover.

He once again used Rana's immigration service as a cover when he began plotting the attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in September 2008.

Headley told jurors how Rana helped him pretend to set up a new office in Denmark so he could scope out the newspaper's offices by scheduling meetings with the advertising department.

The plan was to use Headley's surveillance tapes and notes to gain access to the building before killing and beheading as many people as possible, throwing the severed heads out of the windows to draw in the police.

The Copenhagen plot was eventually aborted, both because of the intense pressure in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks and due to a lack of funds, weapons and manpower.

But not before the FBI was able to secretly capture a conversation between Rana and Headley in which they discussed the plot and plans for further attacks in India.

Dressed in white shirt and checkered olive blazer with no tie, Rana showed no reaction when the jury's verdict was read by the judge. But his wife, Samraz, covered her face as she cried in the courtroom.

"He is obviously disappointed," defense lawyer Charles Swift told reporters. "I think he's in shock."

Rana's lawyers insisted throughout the trial that he is a pacifist who was "duped" into letting his old friend use his company as a cover. The attorneys also said the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence to convict him.

Swift vowed to fight for limited jail time in the upcoming sentencing hearings, noting that if Rana had been convicted in Denmark of the same charges -- two counts of providing material support to terrorists, which each carry a maximum of 15 years in prison -- he would only face three to five years.

Judge Harry Leinenweber declined to comment on whether Rana should serve his sentence on the two charges concurrently or consecutively, telling reporters that it will take months for him to come to a "fair" sentence based on federal guidelines, the evidence and legal arguments.

A date has not yet been set for his sentencing.

The trial has been closely watched as it touched on alleged Pakistani military intelligence collusion with extremists -- a hugely sensitive issue after Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's killing sparked similar charges.

Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency has long been suspected of involvement in the Mumbai attacks, and three ISI agents were named as co-conspirators by US prosecutors.

Headley testified that the ISI's involvement in the Mumbai plot was limited to a handful of rogue agents, but that the agency worked closely with the militants of Pakistan's LeT.

The Mumbai attacks stalled a fragile four-year peace process between India and Pakistan, two South Asian neighbors and nuclear-armed rivals, which was only resumed in February.

Headley formally admitted to 12 terror charges in March 2010 after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty or to allow him to be extradited to either India, Pakistan or Denmark to face related charges.

Fitzgerald told reporters late Thursday that it had been worth cutting a cooperation deal for Headley, though he declined to comment on how many years may be shaved off his sentence due to his cooperation with authorities.

"We had to, because it's too important that we do everything we can to save lives," he told reporters.

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Jury may have doubted key Mumbai attacks witness (AP)

CHICAGO – Five days of testimony from the government's star witness in the trial of a Chicago businessman accused in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks provided a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a Pakistani militant group and its suspected ties to the country's main intelligence agency.

But jurors' split verdict in the case suggests they didn't always take David Coleman Headley — an admitted terrorist with a troubled past — at his word, underlining the difficulties federal prosecutors face winning complex terrorism cases that involve questionable cooperating witnesses and a complicated web of terror networks.

"Jurors are always looking for corroborating evidence," said former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton. "Mr. Headley avoided the death penalty and it's understandable that jurors would want evidence that his testimony was independently confirmed, but didn't find it."

After two days of deliberations, jurors cleared Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian, of any involvement in the three-day siege that has often been called India's 9/11. He was convicted of two lesser charges: providing material support to the terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed in the attacks, and in a plot that never was carried out against a Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. He faces up to 30 years in prison on the two charges.

Though defense attorneys called it a "conflicting decision" and planned to challenge the verdict, experts say the jury's split ruling isn't wholly surprising, especially because so much of the trial focused on Headley's testimony.

The 50-year-old American Pakistani pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork in the attacks on Mumbai and conducting surveillance in Copenhagen. He agreed to testify against his school friend Rana to avoid the death penalty and extradition.

Those facts probably weren't lost on jurors, who heard defense attorneys chip away at Headley's credibility for days, portraying him as a manipulator, who lied to FBI agents and the judge and worked as a Drug Enforcement Administration informant to get lighter sentences after two heroin smuggling convictions.

Experts said the evidence in the Denmark plot seemed easier to verify independently of Headley, who spent days on the stand detailing in emails, recorded conversations and testimony how he worked for both the Pakistani intelligence agency known as the ISI and Lashkar. His testimony took up more than half the trial, and had been highly anticipated worldwide after Osama bin Laden was found hiding out in a military garrison town outside of Islamabad. The trial fueled fears that could put pressure on the already frayed U.S.-Pakistani relations and inflame tensions between Pakistan and India.

Prosecutors presented Rana's videotaped arrest statement to the FBI where he said he knew Headley had trained with Lashkar. They also played a September 2009 recorded phone conversation between the men where "targets," including the Danish newspaper, were discussed.

But when it came to the Mumbai accusation, evidence either originated from Headley or one of the other six Pakistani men charged in absentia in the plot.

Seth Jones, a RAND Corp. political scientist, said it is generally easier for the government to prove that somebody is supporting a group than helping in a plot.

"Headley did not appear as crucial as the government had hoped in prosecuting Rana," Jones said. "There just was insufficient evidence to support his direct involvement in the Mumbai attacks."

Rana was accused of allowing Headley to open a branch of his Chicago-based immigration law business in Mumbai as a cover story and travel as a representative of the company in Denmark. In court, a travel agent showed how Rana booked travel for Headley and prosecutors showed emails from the Danish newspaper.

The Indian government expressed disappointment with the jury's ruling and said it would examine the verdict and evidence to decide whether to formally charge Headley, Rana and others in its own investigation into the Mumbai rampage, which left more than 160 people dead.

"When Rana has been held guilty of assisting the Lashkar -e-Taiba and guilty of supporting terrorist acts in Denmark how have they separated him from the Mumbai attacks?" said Ujjawal Nikam, the special public prosecutor in the Mumbai attack trial in India. "It appears that there are some apparent contradictions in this verdict."

Still, the split verdict was considered at least a partial win for the Justice Department, with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald calling it a clear message to "all those who help terrorists."

Headley's testimony may not have been enough to convict Rana in the Mumbai attacks, but it might have been the only shot prosecutors had, said Pat Rowan, the former head of the Justice Department's national security division.

"There's a lot of individuals out there who are cooperators, and they have a lot of baggage, and you're not really sure how they'll come across when they testify," Rowan said.

Roy Black, a high-profile Miami defense attorney, said the benefit to using a cooperating witness, such as Headley, is that the prosecution has someone who can tell the entire story, and then the jury can parse out what they believe.

Jurors weren't available to explain their verdict. The names weren't released due to the sensitivity of the case, and they declined to speak publicly. The only hint of what was being discussed during deliberations is the one question they had about the affiliations of two other men charged in absentia in the case. The judge directed them to look at the evidence.

"It's not uncommon for juries who think it was a close case to want to show how close they thought it was by dividing up the counts and finding people guilty of one and not the other," said Stuart Baker, a former senior Homeland Security official and former general counsel of the National Security Agency.

___

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan in Washington and Muneeza Naqvi and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.

___

Sophia Tareen can be reached at http://twitter.com/sophiatareen

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Jury selected in Mumbai terror case (AP)

CHICAGO – The 12 jurors selected Wednesday in the federal trial of a Chicago businessman accused of helping plan the deadly 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks are mostly minorities and mainly women.

Eight women and four men were sworn in at the trial of Tahawwur Rana, who allegedly provided cover for a former school classmate to scout out sites for the 3-day siege that killed more than 160 people, including six Americans, in India's largest city. He has pleaded not guilty.

Opening statements are planned for Monday in the trial that has been closely watched worldwide as testimony may give clues about suspected links between Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group blamed in the Mumbai attacks, and Pakistan's top intelligence agency. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, has been under scrutiny since Osama bin Laden was killed May 2 outside Islamabad.

Few biographical details have been available about the jurors or the six alternates chosen, whose identities are being kept secret. More than half of the 12 jurors are black. Questions in open court focused on the jurors' understanding and views of Islam, citizenship and terrorism, issues that experts predict will come up at trial.

One juror, a white woman who said she had worked as a bank manager during a robbery, said she knew only a little about Islam.

"I have friends who are of that faith," she told Judge Harry D. Leinenweber, who is presiding.

Other jurors include a woman who went to a Catholic high school and an Oprah Winfrey fan who was allowed to miss proceedings for a day to attend the daytime talk show queen's celebrity-studded taping Tuesday at Chicago's United Center. It's Winfrey's last season and tickets to the final episodes are highly coveted.

"How was Oprah?" Leinenweber asked the woman, identified only as "Juror No. 31."

"It was nice to see all the stars," she said, smiling. The show included appearances by Aretha Franklin, Michael Jordan and Madonna.

Rana's attorney, Patrick Blegen, said he was pleased with jury.

"We got a great selection process," he said.

Prosecutors declined to comment Wednesday.

Several potential jurors who were excused during jury selection had said they couldn't be fair to the defendant.

Rana, 50, is Muslim. He was born in Pakistan, is a Canadian citizen and has operated businesses in a largely Indian and Pakistani enclave in Chicago for years.

Prosecutors allege he also helped plan an attack that never took place on a Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which triggered protests. Pictures of the prophet are forbidden in Islam.

Rana's attorneys had said their goal was to seat a jury that would be able to make a decision separate from any current events or preconceived notions about Muslims.

The trial has received attention worldwide — several reporters for Indian news outlets are covering the proceedings. The government's star witness is Rana's former school friend, David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American who pleaded guilty in the case and has admitted working on behalf of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He's also claimed to Indian investigators that the ISI was involved in the attacks, according to an Indian government report.

A female juror was dismissed earlier Wednesday, the third day of jury selection, after she said she didn't know much about Islam beyond television accounts.

"All I know I what I see on the news," she said. "I'm afraid."

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Headley says he's no longer proud of Mumbai attack (AP)

CHICAGO – An admitted American terrorist who is the federal government's star witness in the deadly 2008 attack in Mumbai says he is no longer proud of the rampage that left more than 160 people dead.

David Coleman Headley is testifying in the Chicago trial of his longtime friend Tahawwur Rana (tuh-HOW'-ur RAH'-nah), who is accused of cooperating with Headley in the three-day siege of India's largest city.

Headley has said that when the attacks happened in November 2008, he was proud of them because he said they were in retaliation for the deaths of Muslims.

But when defense attorney Patrick Blegen asked Headley on Thursday if he was still proud of the attacks, Headley said: "No."

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Mumbai attacks plotter fingers Pakistan at Chicago trial (AFP)

CHICAGO (AFP) – The Pakistani-American who spent months casing out Mumbai ahead of the 2008 attacks told a Chicago jury Monday that Pakistan's spy service supports terrorist group he worked with on the deadly siege.

David Coleman Headley testified that Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) provided financial, military and moral support to banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

"I assumed these groups operated under the same umbrella -- they coordinated with each other," Headley told the jury as he described his path to terrorism and the bloody 60-hour siege of India's largest city that left 166 people dead.

Headley described his relationship with an ISI handler identified as "Major Iqbal" who gave him $25,000 to help cover the cost of his surveillance work.

"I told him what kind of (terrorist) training I did and he mentioned he was part of Lashkar" Headley said.

Headley testified that after he told Iqbal of a plot he was working on in 2003, Iqbal asked him "to do something that was more important, which was intelligence work for the ISI."

Headley formally admitted to 12 terrorism charges in March 2010 after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty or to allow him to be extradited to either India, Pakistan or Denmark to face related charges.

He was testifying at the trial of an old friend from military school in Pakistan -- Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana -- who stands accused of providing Headley with a cover and acting as a messenger.

The proceedings are likely to add fuel to a diplomatic crisis over suspicions of official Pakistani complicity with terrorism after US commandos killed ex-Al-QOsama bin Laden on May 2 in a garrison city just 55 kilometers (35 miles) from Islamabad.

However, while US prosecutors named ISI officers as co-conspirators in the Mumbai attacks, it is not yet clear whether they were acting independently or with the approval and aid of senior officials.

The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and an American woman, Headley admitted to spending months scoping out sites for the Mumbai siege and plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist.

In a plot that reads like a movie thriller, Headley spent two years scouting Mumbai, even taking boat tours around the city's harbor to identify landing sites for the attackers and befriending Bollywood stars as part of his cover.

The attacks stalled a fragile four-year peace process between the two South Asian neighbors and nuclear-armed rivals which was only resumed in February.

Rana -- who holds Canadian citizenship -- insisted after his 2009 arrest that he was a pacifist "duped" into letting his old friend use his immigration services company as a cover.

In opening statements Monday, his lawyers tried to undermine Headley's credibility and insisted that Rana thought he was helping the ISI, not terrorists.

"Headley is a master manipulator who made a fool of Dr. Rana," defense attorney Charlie Swift told jurors.

"The question is that at the end of this case will David Headley make a fool out of all us. I'm confident he won't."

But prosecutors said Rana knew exactly what he was doing, and told jurors they would hear secret recordings in which Rana praised the Mumbai attackers.

"The defendant knew what Headley was doing and he helped him," said US Attorney Sarah Streicker.

"In a complicated and sophisticated attack, not everyone carries a weapon. But support people are just as important."

None of the other co-conspirators are in US custody and a spokesman for the US Attorney's Office declined to say whether the US government would be seeking their extradition or even knows their whereabouts.

Headley -- who changed his name from Daood Gilani so he could hide his Pakistani heritage -- joined LeT in 2002, attending training camps five times over the next three years.

He began working with an Al-Qaeda-linked group in Pakistan called Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami on the Danish plot after LeT became preoccupied with the final planning for the Mumbai attack.

Headley was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport on his way to deliver 13 surveillance videos he obtained after pretending to be interested in buying ads in Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's highest circulation daily.

The newspaper triggered a furor in the Muslim world by publishing 12 cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Rana's trial is expected to last about four weeks.

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Mumbai terror trial gets under way in Chicago (AP)

CHICAGO – A Chicago courtroom could become the unlikely venue for revealing alleged connections between the terrorist group blamed for the 2008 rampage that killed more than 160 people in Mumbai and Pakistan's main intelligence agency, which has come under increased scrutiny following Osama bin Laden's killing.

Jury selection began Monday in the case against Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of helping a former boarding school friend serve as a scout for the militant group that carried out the three-day attack in India's largest city. Though the accusations against Rana are fairly straightforward, the trial's implications could be enormous.

To make their case, federal prosecutors may lay out alleged ties between Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group blamed for the attacks, and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as the ISI. The trial comes amid growing suspicion that the ISI was complicit in harboring bin Laden, who was killed by Navy SEALs during a May 2 raid, and could lead to further strains in the already frayed relations between Pakistan and the U.S.

The key government witness could be David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American with a troubled past who pleaded guilty last year to laying the groundwork for the Mumbai attack by Lashkar-e-Taiba. Headley, who is cooperating with U.S. officials, told interrogators that the ISI provided training and funds for the attack against India, Pakistan's long nemesis.

Headley told authorities that Rana provided him with cover for a series of scouting missions he conducted in Mumbai. Headley also told interrogators that he was in contact with another militant, who has ties to al-Qaida, as part of a separate plot to bomb a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons that offended Muslims.

"What you'll have now in Chicago is a trial which will undoubtedly demonstrate links between Pakistan government agencies and one of the most competent terrorist organizations operating in South Asia — Lashkar-e-Taiba," said Seth Jones, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corp. The trial "just adds more fuel to an already tense situation."

Nearly 100 potential jurors showed up Monday at the downtown Chicago courthouse and were asked to fill out forms with a range of questions, from their views on Islam to knowledge of Pakistani militant groups. Jury selection is expected to last several days.

Rana, who has been in custody since his arrest in 2009, wore a gray suit and told potential jurors "Good morning" when they entered the courtroom. One of his attorneys, Charles Swift, told reporters he was encouraged by the diversity of the jury pool and was confident they would find his client not guilty.

Experts say Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means "Army of the Pure," was created with the ISI's help in the 1980s as a proxy fighting force to battle with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Counterterrorism officials say the group has gained strength with the help of the ISI since then, possibly with the help of retired officers. Pakistani officials have denied any ties with the group.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is accused of carrying out the three-day siege in Mumbai in which 10 gunmen attacked two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station in India's financial capital, killing 166 people, including six Americans.

Rana, a Canadian national who has lived in Chicago for years, owns a Chicago-based First World Immigration Services, in the city's South Asian enclave. Prosecutors say Rana provided cover for Headley by letting him open a First World office in Mumbai and travel as a supposed representative for the agency. He also allegedly helped Headley make travel arrangements as part of the plot against the Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which angered many Muslims worldwide.

Rana is charged with providing material support for terrorism in India and Denmark. In court documents, Rana's attorneys have said he believed Headley was working for Pakistani intelligence. Headley also told authorities that he told Rana he "had been asked to perform espionage work for the ISI," according to a court filing.

Rana's attorneys have said part of their defense will be to show that Headley used his connections with the ISI to explain what he was doing. But U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber has ruled that that proposed defense was "objectively unreasonable."

Prosecutors have declined to comment ahead of the trial. A senior Pakistani intelligence official said he hasn't been following the trial and didn't have comment on it.

Some experts doubt the trial will reveal much, saying federal prosecutors may work hard to keep sensitive information from surfacing, and Headley is not the most credible witness. Headley reached a plea deal with prosecutors in the terrorism case in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and previously had been an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after a drug conviction.

Details of Headley's possible testimony were revealed last year in an Indian government report detailing what he had allegedly told Indian investigators during questioning in Chicago.

In the report, Headley is cited describing how the ISI was deeply involved in planning the Mumbai attacks and how he reported to a man known only as "Major Iqbal," whom he called his Lashkar "handler." But some experts have suggested Iqbal could be a retired ISI officer, or that he may not even exist. In the indictment, his name is listed as unknown, and he's referred to only under the alias "Major Iqbal."

Rana is actually the seventh name on the indictment, and the only defendant in custody. Among the six others charged in absentia are "Major Iqbal" and Sajid Mir, allegedly another Lashkar-e-Taiba supervisor who also "handled" Headley.

Also indicted is Ilyas Kashmiri, who also is believed by Western intelligence to be al-Qaida's operational chief in Pakistan. During his travels for spying and training, Headley allegedly met with Kashmiri in Pakistan, and Kashmiri gave him instructions on how to carry out the Danish newspaper bombing, which ultimately never occurred.

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Associated Press senior television producer Tracy Brown in Washington and AP writer Sebastian Abbott in Islamabad contributed to this report.

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