Mousketerrorists Tied to Another Plot: Prosecutors

The men accused of plotting to blow up a Danish newspaper in retaliation for a series of Muslim-themed cartoons they found unsatisfactory is no linked to another terror plot, U.S., prosecutors said.

Despite Tahawwur Rana's insistence that he never heard about the planned attack, and his plea to be released on bail, prosecutors allege that Rana educated a Pakistan-based terrorist group on how to slip people into India to carry out an attack on  National Defense College of India as and possibly other targets.

"Recorded conversations involving the defendant, emails and other documentary evidence demonstrate that the defendant conspired to provide and did provide material support to the conspiracy," prosecutors said in court papers.

Prosecutors offered the new allegations to reinforce their argument that Rana should remain in the Metropolitan Correctional Center and not be released. Headley is scheduled to have a bond hearing later.

Rana, 48, and another man, David Headley, 49, are charged with conspiring to attack the Copenhagen newspaper Jyllands-Posten. But prosecutors say that the two also had other targets in mind and they discussed them sometime in September.

The discussion, conducted by e-mail, included a warning from Rana not to use student visas to get people into the country. He said a school "reports to immigration on a hot line that students are missing and immigration at 5 a.m. is at their place of residence or work, wherever they can pick them up."

"Then they offer them a deal and ask them to tell how they came. ... How they paid, what amount whom, who did what," the e-mail said, allegedly quoting Rana.

 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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