US cables: PC stressed on access to Headley even if he didn’t speak

Chidambaram complained that Pakistan had “done damn near nothing” to prosecute Mumbai-related terror suspects,but added that the government would present a list of terror suspects to Pakistani officials when the two sides meet for talks in New Delhi on February 25,2010,the US ambassador had said.

Referring to the February 23,2010 meeting between the Home Minister and the FBI director,he had said Chidambaram also requested access to Headley’s wife Shazia who had sent a message to her husband soon after the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

“He (Chidambaram) also requested access to Headley’s spouse,Shaiza,who he said is in Chicago so (that) GoI investigators can question her on the meaning of her alleged message to Headley that she ‘saw your graduation’,” Roemer said in the cable.

The FBI director,however,only promised to “look into both requests”.

Mueller had also cautioned that Headley might ‘clam up’ if he is asked to cooperate with New Delhi as he had expressed hatred towards India.

“Noting that the process of Headley’s proffer of evidence is nearing a critical stage,Mueller observed that Headley has expressed hatred toward India and may ‘clam up’ if his guilty plea is tied in any way to cooperation with the GoI,” Roemer’s cable said.

According to Roemer,Chidambaram had confided that “I have a feeling in my bones that Headley was not acting alone” in India.

“(He) expressed frustration over what he characterised as Headley’s false claim that he had no accomplices in India. The Home Affairs Minister conceded he had no evidence to support his working hypothesis that Headley formed sleeper cells in India,one of which may have perpetrated the February 13 Pune bombing,” the cable claimed.

Roemer also said that Chidamabaram “noted that the GoI would not file formal charges against Headley until the trial of Mumbai defendant Kasab is finished for fear that Kasab would use the Headley charges as a way to delay conclusion of his own trial”.

Mueller had assured the Home Minister that he was travelling to Pakistan and “would press the Pakistanis for increased cooperation”,he added.