Lockheed boss targeted by Ilyas Kashmiri: Headley
Ilyas Kashmiri, commander of the Pakistani-based terrorist organisation Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) had once targeted the CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp in apparent retaliation for drone attacks in Pakistan, Pakistani American terrorist David Coleman Headley testified on Tuesday.
Testifying at the trial of his long-time friend, Pakistani Canadian Tahawwur Rana for helping Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) plot the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Headley said Kashmiri, who has close links with Al Qaeda, targeted the boss of the US weapons firm as he was frustrated over drone attacks, Chicago Tribune reported.
Drones are used to attack suspected terrorist sites along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Kashmiri was indicted for alleged involvement in a plot to attack a Danish newspaper that never took place, but he has never been apprehended to face trial.
Headley, who has confessed to charges he helped in preparations for both the Mumbai attack and the Danish plot said: "There was a plan to kill him (the Lockheed Martin CEO) because he was making drones."
Headley testified that he secretly used Rana's office computer for research on the plot to assassinate the Lockheed boss, but dismissed his brief online search there as insignificant.
"My research is more in-depth than Googling someone a couple of times," he testified during cross-examination by Rana's defence attorney, Patrick Blegen.
Headley said he was working on the plot with Kashmiri and a senior member of Al Qaeda.
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