US release Headley terrorist interrogation tapes

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US federal prosecutors have released interrogation tapes of admitted Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley, who helped plot the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, after a Chicago judge's order.

Headley, son of a Pakistani diplomat and an American mother, who changed his given name of Daood Gilani to scout targets in Mumbai without arousing suspicion, is heard speaking publicly for the first time in the just released clips, ABC News reported.

Wednesday's release of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tape came after a not for profit investigative journalism group, Pro-Publica, filed a court motion along with the PBS show Frontline.

The government argued that Headley's family would be endangered if the video was released. Judge Harry Leinenweber said he wasn't convinced of that.

Headley is heard on the tape saying: "I want some, I mean would like, I know it doesn't matter what I want, but I'd like, from my eyes, I want some kind of bust to happen."

"I don't want to keep on & I mean I know you have plenty of evidence against me but really I'm just providing you more and more evidence against me and you aren't making any arrests."

During questioning, Headley was told that he had to tell authorities everything he knew and that any plea bargain would be based on the importance and quality of the information, ABC said.

That is when Headley made a motion to suggest a plea deal to avoid the death penalty and then decided to turn on his boyhood friend, Pakistan born Canadian Tahawwur Rana, who provided Headley the cover of his Chicago based immigration business.

Headley would go on to get his plea deal in exchange for testifying against Rana, who was cleared in June of his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks but convicted of providing material help to Pakistan based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for a foiled plot to attack a Danish newspaper.