The New Media Journal | US-Based Jihadis Aided in Mumbai Terror Attacks

The New Media Journal | US-Based Jihadis Aided in Mumbai Terror Attacks: "Authorities in Chicago are looking into allegations that two local men accused of plotting an assault on a Danish newspaper that published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad may be linked to other plots, including a terrorist assault in Mumbai last year that left more than 170 dead, sources said.

David Coleman Headley, who has cooperated with authorities, is being investigated as a scout for the Mumbai attack, which targeted multiple sites, including two hotels, a train station, a cafe and a Jewish community center.

A source familiar with the probe said Headley's co-defendant in the newspaper case, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, is suspected to have paid for Headley's India missions.

Neither man has been charged in connection with the Mumbai planning, though officials in India were outspoken last week about their possible connection to the attacks. The militant Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba, linked to Rana and Headley in court documents here, has been blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

The US attorney's office in Chicago has declined to say whether charges against the men here could be upgraded to account for their suspected roles in the Mumbai operation. US citizens lost their lives in the coordinated attacks.

So far, Headley, a Pakistani American, is charged with conspiring to commit a terror act outside the US, and Rana, a Pakistani native with Canadian citizenship, has been charged with providing material support to terrorism. Those charges relate only to the plan in Denmark, where Headley is alleged to have staked out the Copenhagen offices of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Prosecutors here also have said Rana discussed other targets with Headley."