Shared Headley info with India before 26/11,claims US

Indian official says had received information of general nature

Amid reports that two of David Headleys wives had warned the FBI of the Mumbai attacks,the US Sunday said the threat information,though general in nature,was duly shared with India.

Had we known about the timing and other specifics related to Mumbai attacks,we would have immediately shared those details with the government of India, Mike Hammer,spokesman of the National Security Council,said when asked about a report by ProPublica,which said that Headleys American wife had told federal agents in 2005 that he was an active militant of Lashkar-e-Toiba.

The New York Times had also reported that two of Headleys three wives had warned US authorities,first in 2005 and then again in 2008,of his links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the plot to strike Mumbai.

The US,Hammer said,regularly provided threat information to Indian officials in 2008 before the attacks.It is our governments solemn responsibility to notify other nations of possible terrorist activity on their soil, he said.

Another senior US official also denied that his country did not share information with India. The US authorities took seriously what Headleys former wives said, the official said. Their information was of a general nature and did not suggest any particular terrorist plot.

An Indian official,who was involved in the investigations into the 26/11 attacks,admitted that India had received the information,but said it was general and not specific in nature.

Headley,who has pleaded guilty to all 12 terror charges under a plea bargain,was known both to Pakistani and US security officials long before his arrest as a terrorist,The New York Times said.

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Mr Headleys Moroccan wife Faiza Outalha described the warnings she gave to American officials less than a year before gunmen attacked several popular tourist attractions in Mumbai. She claims she even showed US embassy officials in Islamabad a photo of Headley and herself in Taj Mahal Hotel,where they stayed twice in April and May 2007. Hotel records confirm their stay, The New York Times said.

The texture of Outalhas meeting with American officials was that her husband was involved with bad people and they were planning jihad,a US administration official was quoted as saying in the report. But she gave no details about who was involved,or what they planned to target. Given that she had been jilted,Outalha acknowledged she may not have been composed. I wanted him in Guantanamo, she said.

The NYT indicated that the reason why the Americans did not follow up on the warnings may have been to avoid a line of investigation that could lead to evidence of its key ally Pakistans involvement in these attacks,which the ISI has vociferously denied.

It also pointed out that the absence of a follow-up raised questions if the US officials avoided digging deeper since Headley was an informant for the DEA Drug Enforcement Administration.