(Thumbnail image: The Press Trust of India)
Chicago resident and U.S. citizen David Coleman Headley is charged with helping to plan the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, India in 2008. Headley was initially charged this October for planning to attack a Danish newspaper, but spoke about his connection to the Mumbai attacks while in jail.
The media are sharing views on Headley and how his behavior raises questions about plotting terrorism on American soil. We are looking at perspectives from WLS, World Market Media, CBS, The Washington Post, NewsX Live, and The Khaleej Times.
Chicago ABC affiliate WLS, explains just how important Headley’s terror planning from the U.S. was to his terrorist counterparts abroad.
"Headley is the missing link between several top terror leaders in the Mumbai attacks. The new charges allege he was sent to India five times to scout potential targets, taking video of the popular Pak Leopold Cafe, which ended up attacked, the city's ornate train station that became a killing ground, the Jewish cultural center damaged by terrorist grenades and rockets and two hotels."
A blogger on World Market Media says Headley's role in the Mumbai attacks raises a larger question about Americans and international terrorism.
"The arrest raises new concern over the engagement of U.S. citizens in radical terrorist activity. With the PATRIOT Act in place, the U.S. Government is keeping a watchful eye over clandestine operatives living right here within our country."
Others have picked up on that concern. Washington Post contributors and an editorial in Dubai’s Khaleej Times present opposing views on the legitimacy of American homegrown terror fears.
“It is a reminder…that al-Qaeda or its imitators continue to try to build a network of operatives inside the United States.”
“Concerns about homegrown terrorism may sound like wild extrapolation from limited data. After all, in the eight years since 9/11, none of America’s several million Muslims had committed violence on this scale.”
What do you think about “homegrown terrorism”, or terrorist plotting in the U.S.? How can this type of terrorism be prevented?
Writer: Katie Dohse
Producer: Charlie McKeague
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