Airport interview put officials on Headleys trail

The 49-year-old Chicago mans ability to travel freely on a US passport to Pakistan,India and Denmark allowed him to play a key role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks,US officials said.

Federal agents,already suspicious of him,used his return to the US this summer as an opportunity,according to officials. When a border inspector asked Headley about his overseas travels,Headley said he was working for a company called First World Immigration Service a business that allegedly provided Headley with cover as he travelled to scout terrorist targets for the Lashkar-e-Toiba,according to the federal charges.

Agents searched Headleys luggage and found it contained no papers or other documents relating to such a business, according to court documents. They also searched tax records and found no record of any income paid to Headley by the company,court records show. Headley was confronted on his return to the US from a trip to Denmark in which he was scouting for potential targets,authorities alleged. He is also being charged with planning an assault on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

Authorities said little more about the airport interview,including where it happened or why they had become suspicious of Headley. But court records showed that federal surveillance of Headley accelerated afterwards.

Headley has been charged on 12 counts,including conspiracy to bomb public places in India,to murder and maim persons in India and Denmark and provide material support to terrorist plots and to provide material support to LeT. He has also been charged with aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India.

Meanwhile,Headley on Wednesday pleaded not guilty before a Chicago court where he was produced,two days after being charged with helping plan the Mumbai terror attacks. He also pleaded not guilty to the charge of plotting terror attacks in Denmark. The next hearing of the case will be held on January 12.