Terror suspect admits scouting for Mumbai massacre

A Chicago man admitted in court Thursday that he scouted out the Indian city of Mumbai before a 2008 terrorist attack that left 166 dead and helped plan an attack a Danish newspaper that never took place.

Meanwhile a Pennsylvania woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" pleaded not guilty to charges of providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to kill in a foreign country.

David Coleman Headley, a 49-year old American citizen, pleaded guilty to all 12 counts he faced in US District Court.

He could have been sentenced to death if convicted of the most serious charges - conspiracy to bomb public places in India and six counts of murdering US nationals in India. But he will not be executed under an agreement with federal prosecutors as long as he continues to cooperate with their investigation of terrorist activities.

Headley admitted in his signed plea agreement that he made surveillance videos and conducted other intelligence gathering for the November 2008 attack on Mumbai, which included an attack on the local branch of the Jewish Chabad organization.

The US and India say the 10 gunmen who carried out the attack were trained and directed by the Pakistani-based terrorist group Lashkar e Taiba (Army of the Pure).

Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement from Washington saying that "not only has the criminal justice system achieved a guilty plea in this case, but David Headley is now providing us valuable intelligence about terrorist activities."

The Chabad house in Mumbai after the attack (Photo: AFP)

A co-defendant, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a 49-year-old Canadian national living in Chicago, is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark and India as well as to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Rana has pleaded not guilty.

US 'Jihad Jane' pleads not guilty to terrorism

In Philadelphia, Colleen LaRose, known as "Jihad Jane," appeared in federal court and pleaded not guilty to accusations that she plotted with others over the Internet to kill a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed in a way that was offensive to Muslims, and of wanting to become a martyr to Islam.

LaRose, 46, from Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, has been in custody since October. A grand jury indictment against her, unsealed on March 9, said she recruited men online to wage "violent jihad" or holy war, in South Asia and Europe.

Magistrate Judge Lynne Sitarski set LaRose's trial to begin on May 3. LaRose will remain in custody until then.

Outside the court, LaRose's court-appointed lawyer, Mark Wilson, declined to comment in detail about his client.

LaRose - who also used the online pseudonym "Fatima LaRose" - told co-conspirators her appearance as a blonde-haired white woman would allow her to "blend in with many people" and avoid being detected as an Islamic terrorist, the indictment said.

LaRose, who has a history of broken marriages and petty crime, traveled last August to Europe, where she planned to live and train with jihadists and find and kill the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, according to the indictment.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Thursday that LaRose has confessed to the FBI, according to unidentified sources.

Her travels to Europe included a visit to co-conspirators in Ireland, the newspaper said. Irish police on Monday charged two men in a plot to murder Vilks.

She faces life in prison if convicted on all charges.