Danish Cartoonist Kurt Westergaard Targeted In Foiled Assassination Plot

In a bizarre and distressing twist on a story over five years old, two Chicago men have been arrested in what is being described as a plan to attack employees of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper that published the Danish Muhammad Cartoons in 2005.

David Coleman Headley, who used to be called Daood Gilani before changing his name in 2006, is a US-born citizen who once lived in Pakistan and now calls Chicago's north side home, was arrested at O'Hare airport on October 3 as he planned to make a trip to Pakistan. He held an additional ticket to Copenhagen.

A longtime acquaintance of Headley's and a travel agent who helped him arrange trip this year to Denmark and Pakistan, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, was arrest on October 18. Rana is a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen living in Chicago.

Headley's charges include conspiracy to murder and maim in a foreign country. The New York Times has reported that Headley informed FBI agents that his plans initially consisted of harm to the Jyllands-Posten building, and then moved towards killing the paper's cultural editor and cartoonist Westergaard. Westergaard was informed of the plot yesterday, and reportedly feels safe yet angry.

Reports indicate that Mr. Headley had contact with members of a terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, where his plans were referred to as the "Mickey Mouse Project."

What's interesting about these arrests from a domestic standpoint is that both men are in their late 40s and each, especially Rana, is a working member of a community -- a far cry from the standard portrait of young people and drifting souls getting the not-so-bright idea to take action on behalf of an abstract political notion like this one.

Both men are scheduled to appear in federal court in Chicago today.
 
posted 8:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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