(JTA) — The ex-wife of an American citizen of Pakistani origin who pleaded guilty to participating in the Mumbai terrorist attacks reportedly warned U.S. authorities less than a year before the attacks.
Faiza Outalha told U.S. authorities in Pakistan that her ex-husband, David Headley, was planning an attack, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Headley pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court in Chicago to charges of laying the groundwork for the November 2008 attacks on several locations in Mumbai, India, that killed 166 people, including six at the Chabad house.
In 2005, another of Headley’s three wives warned the FBI in New York that Headley was a member of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which allegedly was responsible for the attacks.
Indian investigators found that Headley visited all 10 Mumbai locations that were attacked, including the Chabad center, known as the Nariman House.
The warnings were reported initially by the investigative news organization ProPublica and in the Washington Post.
Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Saturday in a statement that “The United States regularly provided threat information to Indian officials in 2008 before the attacks in Mumbai.”
The Times cited federal officials as saying that the State Department and the FBI investigated the warnings about Headley but could not confirm the accusations.
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