Chicago: As Pakistani-American terrorist
David Headley pleaded guilty to plotting Mumbai attacks, his
maternal uncle says his nephew`s involvement in the "mass
murders" makes him wonder who the "real" David Headley is.
"I was really shocked, it was like you had poured cold
water inside my chest," Headley`s uncle William Headley told
CNN.
"We absolutely cannot imagine it. It is not consistent
with anything that we know of his personality and his
personality is very complicated. But the mass murders... I
can`t see it".
William said he was in disbelief that his own nephew was
connected with the massacre in Mumbai.
Headley wrote letters to his uncle from a Chicago jail,
addressing him as "Dear Uncle Billy (Mama)".
William said Headley had communicated to him that he was
doubtful he would be let off, after he was arrested on terror
charges in October last year.
In a letter dated December 18, 2009, Headley wrote to his
uncle that "despite his heritage, he is now a 100 per cent
Muslim."
"Though he considered himself innocent until proven
guilty, Headley hinted that he did not expect to be acquitted
and he had communicated that to me also," William said.
"That is important also. If he is guilty and he is
charged with it, then in that case he has done something
terrible and has to pay the price. I truly hope and I think
there could be a surprise ending to this," William added.
Headley, son of a Pakistani diplomat and a Philadelphia
socialite, was torn between two different worlds.
Headley, with one green and one brown eye, had married a
"blonde American beauty" but later divorced her and took a
Muslim wife. In late 1990s, he worked as a video shop manager
in New York. But was then convicted of smuggling heroin
into the US.
"Daood (Headley`s original name) had said to himself that
if I get free of this (smuggling of heroin case), I am going
to commit myself to God. So that is when I would say he became
a serious Muslim," William said.
Headley`s co-conspirators in the heroin case got 10 years
in prison while Headley was let off in just 15 months, due to
his cooperation.
His family believes that the Drug Enforcement Agency
(DEA) sent him regularly to Pakistan and Afghanistan to
establish contacts with heroin drug dealers, where he must
have met extremist terror groups and become influenced by the
LeT.
PTI
