Headley initially refused to entertain questions on Rana

From Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jul 3 (PTI) In the first few days of his
arrest, Mumbai terror attack accused David Headley refused to
entertain any question on his childhood friend Tahawwur Husain
Rana, as he wanted to save him.
It was only after he was informed by the FBI agents
that Rana has been arrested on terror related charge that
Headley agreed to respond to questions about Pakistani
Canadian Rana, Headley informed a Chicago court during a
recently concluded Rana trial.
"I did not want them to be affected by my case," the
50-year-old Pakistani American told the court when asked by
the government attorney when he testified before the jury
during the Rana trial.
"Why not?" the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative was
asked.
"I'm close to them. I didn't want to," Headley said.
"Besides your wife, who's the closest friend that you
have in the world?" he was asked.
"Dr Rana," Headley said.
Headley said "Yes, I did" when the government attorney
asked if he came to learn that Rana had been arrested.
And after Rana was arrested by the FBI on terror
related charges, Headley said, he had conversation with the
government about it.
After the conversation, the US attorney told Headley
that if he was to cooperate it "would have to be complete,"
and he could not refuse to talk about any individual.
"So I decided to comply with that," he said.
The Mumbai terror accused also told the court that he
initially lied about Rana to the FBI investigators, but later
on provided information about him.
The defence prosecutors however alleged that this was
a ploy by the FBI to extract information from Headley about
Rana.
The government, however, denied this allegation.
Besides Rana, Headley also declined to answer
questions about his wife.
"On the first few days, when you were asked questions
about Mr Rana, what did you do?" Headley was asked.
"I declined," he said.
"Besides declining, did you lie about Mr Rana when you
were first interviewed?" he was asked.
"Yes" Headley responded.
"Did agents continue to ask you questions about Mr
Rana?" he was asked.
"For a few days," Headley said.
"And at some point did you decline?" the US attorney
asked.
"Yes," he said.
"Did you decline to answer any questions about any
other individuals?" he was asked.
"Yes, my wife as well," Headley said.
While Headley was arrested on October 3, 2009, Rana
was nabbed on October 18.