NEW DELHI, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Washington didn't have information to suggest American drug informant David Coleman Headley would turn to terrorist activity, a White House aide said.
Headley is under detention in the United States for his alleged role in the 2008 attacks in Mumbai
More than 160 people were killed when members of Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba laid siege to Mumbai for three days in 2008.
Headley served as an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House is under fire for failing to connect the dots, CNN reports.
The New York Times in a Monday report noted that Washington sent Headley to Pakistan in early 2001 despite evidence that he was sympathetic to terrorist groups. He started terrorist training shortly after his arrival, the report said.
Ben Rhodes, a White House aide, said Washington at the time didn't have information to suggest that Headley would become radicalized to the point that he would help LeT carry out the Mumbai attacks.
"I think what we found is the United States had pieces of information that had come in about David Headley," he was quoted by CNN as saying. "They were not the kinds of information that we were able to connect to, for instance, the plotting that was in Mumbai.
Former spouses for Headley told authorities between 2005 and 2008 they were worried Headley was plotting with terrorist groups in Pakistan, the report adds.
The issue came as U.S. President Barack Obama visited India as part of a tour of Asian countries.
