U.S. man pleads not guilty for role in Mumbai attacks

A reporter talks on her phone as smoke is seen coming from Taj Hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Chicago man with Pakistani roots accused of scouting targets for the 2008 Mumbai attackers

on Wednesday pleaded not guilty at his first court appearance since his October arrest.

David Headley, 49, has been cooperating with authorities as they investigate his alleged ties to the militant Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba that has been blamed for the two-day rampage that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

Headley also is charged with plotting and scouting targets for an intended attack on the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in 2005, which offended many Muslims.

His lawyer said Headley had requested he not discuss his case with reporters. But he did confirm that the suspect was cooperating with investigators.

"Over the next several weeks, the next several months, we will be reviewing the evidence," attorney John Theis said. "We will respect our client's wishes not to discuss the allegations, or defense strategy."

The gray-haired Headley wore leg shackles and a short-sleeved orange prison jumpsuit. He responded to the judge's questions with one- or two-word answers at the brief hearing.

He is charged with 12 counts, including providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy to bomb public places in India that resulted in deaths, which could carry the death penalty.

INDIA COLLECTING EVIDENCE

FBI Director Robert Mueller was in Chicago on Wednesday, and the Chicago Tribune reported he was being briefed on the case. An FBI spokesman said Mueller spoke with Chicago agents.

U.S. investigators shared information with India this week and Indian officials said they were collecting evidence to try Headley for helping plan the attacks in Mumbai. The officials said they would prefer Headley be punished in India.

Judge Harry Leinenweber of the U.S. District Court gave prosecutors until January 8 to turn over evidence to the defense, and set another court hearing for January 12.

Headley has waived his right to a formal grand jury indictment.

He was arrested at a U.S. airport in late October, on his way to Pakistan with surveillance information from Denmark in his luggage, prosecutors said.

According to court documents, Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, made numerous trips to scout potential targets in India, Denmark and other European cities, then traveled to Pakistan to turn over the result of his surveillance.

Headley's accused co-conspirators in the Danish newspaper plot are a Pakistani-born Chicago businessman, whose travel and immigration business is suspected of providing cover for his trips, and a retired Pakistani army major accused of being Headley's go-between with Lashkar.

Headley was born in the United States, but spent much of his childhood in Pakistan where he was raised by his Muslim Pakistani father, a diplomat, according to The New York Times. Family members told the newspaper that Headley had a foot in each culture, spending part of his youth at his Philadelphia socialite mother's bar, called the Khyber Pass.

The case number is 09 CR 830.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Xavier Briand)