CHICAGO: Defense attorneys for a Chicago businessman charged in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks say the government's star witness is a “lifelong manipulator.” Attorneys for Tahawwur Rana say their client had no knowledge of the plot on India's largest city and a separate plot that was never carried out in Denmark. In closing arguments Tuesday, defense attorney Patrick Blegen says if Rana knew about the Mumbai plot he would not have traveled to the city with his wife during the same month to look after a branch of his immigration business that was located there. Rana is accused of providing cover for his longtime friend and admitted-terrorist David Coleman Headley, who has pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork for the attacks. Rana has pleaded not guilty. US prosecutors said evidence was clear that Rana knew he was aiding a plot that ultimately killed 166 people. Rana, a 50-year-old Canadian citizen, faces charges of criminal conspiracy in the attack and of supporting the militant group blamed for the attack, Lashkar-e-Taiba. He could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty by the jury in federal court in Chicago. Prosecutor Victoria Peters dismissed Rana's contention that he was duped by his friend, David Headley, and said he knew that he was advancing a militant attack. “When it's all said and done, this is a simple case,” Peters told jurors. “The defendant Rana is charged with supporting these plots.” The trial, on the heels of the killing of Al- Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden by US special forces in Pakistan, came at a sensitive time in US-Pakistan relations. The star witness against Rana was his former life-long friend, Headley, an American and a former US drug informant who pleaded guilty to performing surveillance for the Mumbai attackers, Headley testified for five days of the eight-day trial. He told of guidance he received from his contact with Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services, or ISI, named Major Iqbal, from Pakistan Army Major Abdur Syed or “Pasha,” and operatives with Lashkar-e-Taiba. Peters said Rana passed on a message to Headley. Headley said he did not believe ISI “higher-ups” were aware of the Mumbai plot or of a separate plan, never carried out, to attack the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Copenhagen. “(Rana) is no dupe (as the defense contends). He knows exactly who Headley is and what he is about. And he approves,” Peters told the jury in US District Court. Rana and Headley were recorded by the FBI shortly after the Mumbai attack discussing the raid and additional targets under consideration in India and Denmark, Peters said.
