New Delhi:
A cable sent from the US embassy in Delhi on the 26th of February this year says Home Minister Chidambaram in his meeting with FBI Director Robert Mueller said, "We must be able to say we had access, even if Headley did not speak." (
Read Cable: FBI director Mueller discusses Headley case with Chidambaram)
The FBI chief had said that Headley was giving the US "the best information for months'' on Pakistan-based terrorist groups. Chidambaram requested direct access to Headley and also, to Headley's spouse.
Chidambaram said he had "a feeling in my bones that Headley was not acting alone here," and asked whether an Indian government official could monitor Headley's interrogation and submit questions "in real time".
David Coleman Headley, a Chicago-based Pakistani American, is accused of conspiring with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistani intelligence agencies to launch the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
India's new National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against Headley for plotting the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India. After initially denying access, in June 2010, a 4-member NIA team questioned Headley for a week at a correctional facility in Chicago where he's currently lodged.
Among a quarter million secret US documents released by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, a total of 3,038 classified cables are from the American embassy in New Delhi. According to WikiLeaks, there are as many as 5,087 records amongst the leaked cables that refer to India.
The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.