Chicagoan David Coleman Headley was an avowed terrorist when he married Faiza Outalha. Indian authorities investigating the 165-dead Mumbai massacre have long considered Headley's wife to be a missing link in the effort to connect the deadly siege to Pakistan's official spy agency. There was just one problem: They had no idea where she was, until the I-Team tracked her to Morocco.
"I'm covering my face right now, yes, because I'm afraid that people really could look at, see my face and pursue me or come and try to harm me," Outalha told the I-Team.
It has been seven months since the I-Team found and questioned Headley's estranged wife from her hideout in Morocco. Now, Indian authorities have sent a formal request to Moroccan diplomats to hand over Outalha in the continuing investigation of their country's worst-ever terror attack. The 2008 siege by Pakistani radicals left more than160 people dead.
Headley, alias Daood Gilani, claims he worked with officials from Pakistan's intelligence agency to survey attack sites in India, even while on a Mumbai honeymoon with his new wife.
"It was love at first sight, you know, and we just married and, you know, it was so quick," Outalha said. "He betrayed me in every way, many lies, he's been lying to me, I mean the marriage, he fooled me to this marriage."
If she cooperates, Indian authorities hope that Outalha will offer information about Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder and leader of Pakistan's major terrorist organization. Two weeks ago the U.S. announced a $10 million bounty for Saeed's successful prosecution.
Headley, who became a government witness, testified in Chicago a year ago that Saeed was the brain behind the Mumbai massacre, an attack Headley's estranged wife says she tried to prevent by going to U.S. authorities overseas.
"So I went to them and I then started saying stuff, I said he's going to bomb everything, he's a criminal. They didn't bother," said Outalha.
The plea deal that federal prosecutors in Chicago cut with Headley precludes him from being extradited to India, so the testimony of his estranged wife may be the next best thing authorities there have in trying to connect the dots to terror fugitive Saeed.
