David Coleman Headley: Cold, detached

Chicago: For hours over the last two days, star witness David Coleman Headley has made some chilling revelations while testifying about his involvement in gruesome terror attacks and assassination plots at the trial of Tahawwur Rana in Chicago. In doing so, the man has seemed markedly emotionless, cold, detached.

When he talked about his filming of the Oberoi hotel as a site for the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, Headley said, "I was in the area. I was going for a movie and I had some time on my hands and so I decided to use that to film the Oberoi hotel."

When in Mumbai, Headley went to the Siddi Vinayak temple and procured wristbands, worn by practicing Hindus, for the men who attacked Mumbai on 26/11 as part of their disguise. This was not something that he was asked by his handlers to do - it was Headley's own idea, his own little contribution to the success of the mission.

Headley also told the court that while discussing the 26/11 attack with handlers like ISI man Major Iqbal and Lashkar e Taiba leaders, he debated the "stronghold" and "ingress" options of attack. As a fascinated court room watched and listened in absolute silence, Headley, poker-faced, explained that a "stronghold" attack is when the assailants lock themselves up in a building until the end, until they are killed. An "ingress" attack is when the assailants launch an assault and flee the building. He then explained that the "ingress" method was chosen for the Victoria Terminus attack on 26/11/2008.

Headley also talked about the plot to attack the newspaper in Denmark that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. This project was named the Mickey Mouse project. When Headley was asked why, he responded indignantly, "It's a cartoon!"

The nonchalance with which Headley went about his violent plans is also evident in his emails and diary notes, now exhibits in court. His notes on the Danish attack had the word "mixed fruit dish" - this is what Headley calls an attack that uses both assault and firearms. His emails detailing the Denmark attacks are signed off with a, "Peace, Dave."

And in the middle of a coded email exchange that he shares with Rana that describes his time in Denmark plotting the attack, Headley says, "The girls are hot. You and I should come here without our girlfriends and have a good time."

Then while in Mumbai, in an email exchange with Sajid Mir he casually mentions that if needed, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray can be "taken care of here." When asked what he meant by that, Headley said it meant that Thackeray could be assassinated. But he quickly added that it was a joke.

In all of that, the man who has an email address by the name "impervious to pain" showed the first sign of emotion when, in an email to Sajid Mir, he said, "I have very few friends, perhaps only you and Dr Rana." Sajid Mir responded, "If you have a few friends you should take good care of them."

In court, Dr Rana smiled wryly and shook his head from side to side. The irony is that by signing a plea agreement Headley agreed to spill the beans on the two men he called his only friends in the whole world.