The United States did not provide information to India on David Headley before 26/11, as intelligence inputs it had about the Mumbai terror plotter was not enough to sufficiently establish his role in planning terrorist attack there, America’s spy chief has said.
Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James R Clapper, however, in a statement said that the US did provide information to India about Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) threat to several targets in Mumbai between June and September 2008.
The statement from Clapper, who oversees functioning of all the major US intelligence agencies, comes following a review of intelligence information that America had about Headley.
“The review finds the United States government aggressively and promptly provided the Indian government with strategic warnings regarding Lashkar-e-Taiba’s threats to several targets in Mumbai between June and September 2008,” Clapper said yesterday in a statement.
“The review finds that while some information relating to Headley was available to United States government officials prior to the Mumbai attacks, under the policies and procedures that existed at the time, it was not sufficiently established that he was engaged in plotting a terrorist attack in India.”
“Therefore, the United States government did not pass information on Headley to the Indian government prior to the attacks,” he said.
The DNI ordered for the review after ProPubica.Co, The Washington Post and The New York Times in a series of investigative articles last month said that Headley’s two wives had provided tip-off to US authorities about his LeT connections.
“The review finds that the United States government did not connect Headley to terrorism until 2009, after the attacks on Mumbai. Had the United States government sufficiently established he was engaged in plotting a terrorist attack in India, the information would have most assuredly been transferred promptly to the Indian government,” he said.