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Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
VIEW: Who is David Headley? Naeem Tahir
In 2006, Daood Gilani changed his name to David Coleman Headley, borrowing the familys American name. The change was made to help Headley escape detection and travel easily between the US, India and Pakistan with his American identity
Indian investigators have now been allowed by authorities in the US to interrogate David Coleman Headley. This permission has been given after noticeable reluctance from the US.
The investigation under reference relates to the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008. Headley earned the grim distinction of being the American jihadist with the highest body count. He remains something of a cipher, quite literally an international man of mystery. One wonders if the Indians will find new facts. Will they be able to understand his mental makeup?
Who is David Headley? How did he end up being what he is?
He has one blue and one brown eye, a symbol of his mixed parentage. Some senior officers of Radio Pakistan may remember him as a fair looking boy hanging around the Lahore Radio Station. Others may remember him as a teenager living with his father near the Jamia Ashrafia off the Canal bank. His father was a bureaucrat and a poet. Within the broadcasting service he rose to become the director general, and served for some time in the Voice of America in Washington. Mr Salim Gilani is remembered for starting the transcription service in the broadcasting set-up, which is the only archive collection in the country. He was known to be comfortable with musicians, but otherwise stand-offish and strict.
It was during his stint with the Voice of America that he met Serrill Headley. She ran away from home when she was 15, eventually settling in Washington and finding work as a secretary. She was very independent, very freewheeling, says her brother, William Headley. It was in Washington that she met Salim Gilani. They got married. Headley was born Daood Gilani on June 30, 1960 in Washington DC. Later they moved to Pakistan, but the marriage did not last long due to cultural differences. Serrill eventually returned to Philadelphia without Daood, and, in 1973, she enrolled in a bartending school.
She was a stunner with snow-white skin, recalls Ronnie Horsman, 85, who ran the Philadelphia Bartending School. After she took the course, she told me she was going to buy a bar on Second Street. She had her mind set. So she started her own joint called Khyber Pass.
Daood Gilani was sent to Hasanabdal Military School. Salim Gilani, meanwhile, probably married again. In 1977, Serrill returned to Pakistan and convinced the then teenage Daood to drop out of the military academy and live with her in Philadelphia. In the opinion of his maternal uncle William Headley, Daood was shocked by his mothers libertine lifestyle: the drinking, the revealing clothes, the flirting with men. Serrills romantic life was further cause for friction between Daood and his mother. When Serrill found a new love interest, it took precedence over everything else in her life, including Daood. She eventually turned her back on David and that was just unforgivable.
Eventually, Daood assimilated into American life. He enrolled in Valley Forge Military Academy, but lasted just one semester. Friends of his mother believe that it was there that Daood first developed a taste for illegal drugs. He lived in a room in the bar and met some people of questionable occupations.
In 1985, he married a woman he met at the bar. When he would go to Pakistan he would get all riled up again, the woman told the Inquirer, He would use words like infidel when he would see an Indian person in the street. He used to spit in the street to make a point. Much like his parents marriage, this union would not survive the cultural differences; two years later it ended in divorce. I guess he was torn between two cultures, she told the Inquirer. I think he liked both. He did not know how to blend them.
He got involved with some bad people, which is not unusual when you live in a room above a bar, William says.
Returning from a trip to Pakistan in June 1988, he was arrested at the airport in Frankfurt, when customs agents discovered two kilogrammes of heroin hidden in the false bottom of his suitcase. Daood was turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and agreed to cooperate in return for a lighter sentence. Two days later, he was back at his apartment on New Street, which had been wired for sound and video, after which he ended up as a DEA agent and a drug addict. DEA also coordinates with the CIA in some matters. In 2006, Daood Gilani changed his name to David Coleman Headley, borrowing the familys American name. The change was made to help Headley escape detection and travel easily between the US, India and Pakistan with his American identity.
He visited Afghanistan several times to trap the drug mafia. He was in contact with jihadi networks as well. He was booked for his involvement in the Denmark terror plan but escaped the death sentence, once again by the plea bargain strategy. By then, he was totally in the hands of the secret agencies.
He was the major facilitator in the Mumbai attack. He provided maps, photographs, even GPS systems to the attackers. He visited Pakistan, Afghanistan and India several times. How were his trips funded? Did he use his half brother Danyal Gilani, the PRO to the prime minister, in any way? Was the CIA, FBI, IB or some other agency involved in planning the Mumbai carnage? Did they suppress the information for covert motives and let the attack happen? Such questions need answers.
Headley is the product of a broken home, a split nationality, neglect by society, influence of the mafia and totally inhuman exploitation by secret agencies. No one fulfilled their social responsibility. Parents, friends and society all ignored him while he needed help. He ended up as what he is a menace, with the prospect of spending the rest of his life in jail and further manipulation. The best that Indian investigators can achieve now is to identify the terror networks, share information and save future targets from destruction.
Naeem Tahir is a culture and media management specialist, a researcher, author, director and actor. He can be reached at naeemtahir37@gmail.com
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
VIEW: Who is David Headley? Naeem Tahir
In 2006, Daood Gilani changed his name to David Coleman Headley, borrowing the familys American name. The change was made to help Headley escape detection and travel easily between the US, India and Pakistan with his American identity
Indian investigators have now been allowed by authorities in the US to interrogate David Coleman Headley. This permission has been given after noticeable reluctance from the US.
The investigation under reference relates to the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008. Headley earned the grim distinction of being the American jihadist with the highest body count. He remains something of a cipher, quite literally an international man of mystery. One wonders if the Indians will find new facts. Will they be able to understand his mental makeup?
Who is David Headley? How did he end up being what he is?
He has one blue and one brown eye, a symbol of his mixed parentage. Some senior officers of Radio Pakistan may remember him as a fair looking boy hanging around the Lahore Radio Station. Others may remember him as a teenager living with his father near the Jamia Ashrafia off the Canal bank. His father was a bureaucrat and a poet. Within the broadcasting service he rose to become the director general, and served for some time in the Voice of America in Washington. Mr Salim Gilani is remembered for starting the transcription service in the broadcasting set-up, which is the only archive collection in the country. He was known to be comfortable with musicians, but otherwise stand-offish and strict.
It was during his stint with the Voice of America that he met Serrill Headley. She ran away from home when she was 15, eventually settling in Washington and finding work as a secretary. She was very independent, very freewheeling, says her brother, William Headley. It was in Washington that she met Salim Gilani. They got married. Headley was born Daood Gilani on June 30, 1960 in Washington DC. Later they moved to Pakistan, but the marriage did not last long due to cultural differences. Serrill eventually returned to Philadelphia without Daood, and, in 1973, she enrolled in a bartending school.
She was a stunner with snow-white skin, recalls Ronnie Horsman, 85, who ran the Philadelphia Bartending School. After she took the course, she told me she was going to buy a bar on Second Street. She had her mind set. So she started her own joint called Khyber Pass.
Daood Gilani was sent to Hasanabdal Military School. Salim Gilani, meanwhile, probably married again. In 1977, Serrill returned to Pakistan and convinced the then teenage Daood to drop out of the military academy and live with her in Philadelphia. In the opinion of his maternal uncle William Headley, Daood was shocked by his mothers libertine lifestyle: the drinking, the revealing clothes, the flirting with men. Serrills romantic life was further cause for friction between Daood and his mother. When Serrill found a new love interest, it took precedence over everything else in her life, including Daood. She eventually turned her back on David and that was just unforgivable.
Eventually, Daood assimilated into American life. He enrolled in Valley Forge Military Academy, but lasted just one semester. Friends of his mother believe that it was there that Daood first developed a taste for illegal drugs. He lived in a room in the bar and met some people of questionable occupations.
In 1985, he married a woman he met at the bar. When he would go to Pakistan he would get all riled up again, the woman told the Inquirer, He would use words like infidel when he would see an Indian person in the street. He used to spit in the street to make a point. Much like his parents marriage, this union would not survive the cultural differences; two years later it ended in divorce. I guess he was torn between two cultures, she told the Inquirer. I think he liked both. He did not know how to blend them.
He got involved with some bad people, which is not unusual when you live in a room above a bar, William says.
Returning from a trip to Pakistan in June 1988, he was arrested at the airport in Frankfurt, when customs agents discovered two kilogrammes of heroin hidden in the false bottom of his suitcase. Daood was turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and agreed to cooperate in return for a lighter sentence. Two days later, he was back at his apartment on New Street, which had been wired for sound and video, after which he ended up as a DEA agent and a drug addict. DEA also coordinates with the CIA in some matters. In 2006, Daood Gilani changed his name to David Coleman Headley, borrowing the familys American name. The change was made to help Headley escape detection and travel easily between the US, India and Pakistan with his American identity.
He visited Afghanistan several times to trap the drug mafia. He was in contact with jihadi networks as well. He was booked for his involvement in the Denmark terror plan but escaped the death sentence, once again by the plea bargain strategy. By then, he was totally in the hands of the secret agencies.
He was the major facilitator in the Mumbai attack. He provided maps, photographs, even GPS systems to the attackers. He visited Pakistan, Afghanistan and India several times. How were his trips funded? Did he use his half brother Danyal Gilani, the PRO to the prime minister, in any way? Was the CIA, FBI, IB or some other agency involved in planning the Mumbai carnage? Did they suppress the information for covert motives and let the attack happen? Such questions need answers.
Headley is the product of a broken home, a split nationality, neglect by society, influence of the mafia and totally inhuman exploitation by secret agencies. No one fulfilled their social responsibility. Parents, friends and society all ignored him while he needed help. He ended up as what he is a menace, with the prospect of spending the rest of his life in jail and further manipulation. The best that Indian investigators can achieve now is to identify the terror networks, share information and save future targets from destruction.
Naeem Tahir is a culture and media management specialist, a researcher, author, director and actor. He can be reached at naeemtahir37@gmail.com
