Two accused of plotting terror attack in Europe

CHICAGO -- A man who visited a Danish newspaper early this year feigning interest in placing ads actually was a terrorism operative from Chicago who was plotting to take revenge on the paper for publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that outraged the Muslim world, federal authorities charged yesterday.

Prosecutors said David Coleman Headley, 49, conducted a surveillance mission while claiming to be a consultant for a Chicago business called First World Immigration Services.

Headley, a U.S. citizen who had changed his name from Daood Gilani, has been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. The owner of the business, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, also of Chicago, is accused of supporting him.

Federal officials outlined their case against the men in documents that included e-mail and telephone traffic on the plot to attack the paper, an operation allegedly dubbed "the Mickey Mouse Project." Headley allegedly stayed in contact with two Pakistani terrorism groups as he made his plans, including one with links to al-Qaida.

He allegedly traveled from Chicago twice this year before being arrested Oct. 3 by the FBI at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago with a videotape of the Copenhagen newspaper office building in his luggage.

He and Rana now are in federal custody in Chicago, according to the U.S. attorney's office there.

Headley, supported by Rana, was to attack offices of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten or launch a more focused attempt to kill a cultural editor there and cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, authorities said. The drawings in 2005 depicted Muhammad with a lit bomb for a turban and touched off violent riots.

Authorities said Headley was in regular contact with two Pakistani terrorist groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, and had visited with an operational chief of the second group.

Rana's lawyer, Patrick Blegen, said his client denies the allegations.

"Mr. Rana is a well-respected businessman in the Chicagoland community," he said. "He adamantly denies the charges and eagerly awaits his opportunity to contest them in court and to clear his and his family's name."