The world watched in horror as terrorist gunmen slaughtered nearly 170 people in Mumbai, India, in 2008. Six Americans were among those murdered. And now, alarmingly, the attacks have been linked to operatives in the United States.
A Chicago man has pleaded guilty to helping scout out targets in India for the terrorists who carried out the attacks. David Coleman Headley, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, entered his plea in federal court in Chicago. A second man, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian who lived in Chicago, has pleaded not guilty.
Headley also admitted his connection with a grisly plot to attack a Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons critical of Muhammad, Islam’s prophet. The cartoons stirred radical Muslim violence around the world. Hundreds died and the cartoonists went into hiding in fear for their lives.
Though the attack on the Danish newspaper has not materialized — yet — details of the plot are almost as horrible as the slaughter in India was. One of Headley’s contacts, a fugitive with ties to al-Qaida, wanted the attack on the newspaper to be as cruel and gruesome as possible. The contact “stated that the attackers should behead captives and throw their heads out of the newspaper building in order to heighten the response from Danish authorities,” the plea agreement stated.
Considering the savagery of the India attacks, there is little doubt the assault on the Danish newspaper would have been equally barbaric.
The American people will pay a terrible price if we forget that we face fanatical enemies who are immune to reason and who desire to inflict astonishing brutality on the innocent.