October 17, 2010 2:03 PM

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FBI had prior knowledge about Headley's links with terror groups in Pakistan: US

The United States says, it is looking into media reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, had the information about David Coleman Headley's links with terror groups in Pakistan, three years before the Mumbai attack in 2008.In a statement issued in New Delhi on Saturday, US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer said that the US shares terrorism related information promptly with foreign partners if it is potentially credible and relevant to the national security. He also said that the United States takes counter terrorism cooperation with Indian partners very seriously. He said that since Mumbai terror attack, the United States has worked very closely with Indian counterparts to provide them with information, relevant both to that attack and the potential future attacks and threats to India's security. Besides, Indian authorities had also been given access to Headley so that the Indian government could put question directly to him.Mr. Roemer's statement comes in the wake of reports in 'The Washington Post' which says that the FBI agents of the US were warned years before the Mumbai attack that an American man was training in Pakistan with the group that carried it out and helped plan the attack.A report in the US major daily says that the wife of the Pakistani American Headley had told the FBI agents that her husband was an active militant in Lashkar-e-Toiba and trained extensively in Pakistani camps and had shopped for night vision goggles and other equipment.The report also says that Headley went to Mumbai five times to scout locations for the terrorist assault on the Indian city. The newspaper says the FBI interviewed Headley's wife three times, but that he remained free to travel around the world on the scouting missions. He was not arrested until almost a year after the Mumbai attack.Headley, who is the key accused in the plot that claimed 166 lives in Mumbai, is currently in Chicago prison. He was arrested last year on charges of involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks. Later Headley confessed to his role in the strikes under a plea bargain.

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