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OO RUEHAST RUEHCI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHBI #0304/01 2040503
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 230503Z JUL 09
FM AMCONSUL MUMBAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7339
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI IMMEDIATE 8576
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD IMMEDIATE 0834
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 2563

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MUMBAI 000304 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC PTER PGOV PHUM KDEM
SUBJECT: IMPLICATIONS OF KASAB'S CONFESSION IN TERRORIST CASE 
(AMENDED) 
 
REF: A. NEW DELHI 1508 
     ¶B. MUMBAI 169 
 
MUMBAI 00000304  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.   (SBU) Summary:  On July 20, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the 
lone surviving terrorist from the November 26 attack on Mumbai, 
changed his plea to guilty, and confessed his role in the 
attacks.  In a four-hour address to the court, Kasab detailed 
his involvement in the attacks, including the identification of 
Pakistani and Indian co-conspirators.   The court has yet to 
announce if it will accept Kasab's plea and legal experts were 
quick to note discrepancies in this most recent confession from 
his earlier confession, which he recanted.  Implications for the 
prosecution of others involved in the planning of the attack are 
as yet unclear, but his statement cannot be used as direct 
evidence against other co-conspirators.  While his exact 
motivations are unclear, it appears that his confession and 
guilty plea may be the best way for his to avoid the death 
penalty, where the evidence is strongly against him.  End 
Summary. 
 
 
 
DETAILS OF THE CONFESSION 
 
 
 
¶2.   (U) On July 20, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone 
surviving terrorist from the November 26 attack on Mumbai, made 
a surprise confession and pled guilty to the charges against 
him.  Kasab provided a four-hour detailed account of the 
planning and execution of the attack, including  how he joined 
the terrorist training camp, identifying his Lashkar-e-Taiba 
(LeT) handlers such as Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman 
Lakhvi, his journey by sea from Pakistan aboard four different 
vessels, and his actions in Mumbai.  Kasab's confession is 
reported in detail by local media: 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS-India -Mujhe-gunah-k 
abool-hai/articleshow/4801037.cms. 
 
 
 
 
 
INDIAN CO-CONSPIRATOR NAMED 
 
 
 
¶3.   (SBU) For the first time, Kasab identified an Indian 
national, Abu Jundal, as a co-conspirator.  He claimed that Abu 
Jundal was at the terrorist training camp in Pakistan, and 
served as his Hindi teacher and one of his LeT handlers.  The 
prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam dismissed this portion of Kasab's 
testimony, alleging it was offered to mislead the investigation. 
 However, the Times of India (ToI) quoted an unnamed security 
official as saying Jundal "has been one of the most-wanted 
leaders and we have been trying to track him down for the past 
15 years."  The report said Jundal was originally from Hyderabad 
where he was affiliated with Islamic extremists and was 
recruited by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). 
ToI reported that Indian security sources previously identified 
Jundal as having played a critical role in the Indian Mujahideen 
(IM) attacks on Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi and other places across 
the country, and indicated that he may have been the link to 
terrorist elements in India who provided reconnaissance and 
logistical support for the attack on Mumbai. 
 
 
 
WHY CONFESS NOW? 
 
 
 
¶4.   (SBU) After 65 days of trial and the testimony of 134 
witnesses, Kasab's sudden confession took the court, the 
prosecutor, and his own attorney by surprise.  Special Judge 
M.L. Tahilyani questioned Kasab to determine if his confession 
had been coerced, but Kasab responded, "Initially, Pakistan had 
not accepted my nationality.  Now that they have, I am 
confessing."  Kasab refused to disclose how he came to know that 
Pakistan acknowledged him as a Pakistani citizen, a point of 
interest to the court as Kasab had been denied access to any 
reading material and was kept apart from the rest of the jail 
population.  (Note: In its July 14 dossier regarding its 
investigation into the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan acknowledged 
Kasab as Pakistani.  On July 19, the media reported the details 
of the dossier which had been leaked.  That Kasab knew this fact 
suggests that someone broached the media black out the court had 
 
MUMBAI 00000304  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
imposed on Kasab.  End note.) 
 
 
 
¶5.   (SBU) If Kasab's trial ends now, the confession blocks the 
testimony of Federal Bureau of Investigation experts who 
interviewed Kasab shortly after his arrest, and the testimony of 
FBI officials and communications technology experts concerning 
GPS evidence used to track Kasab's path to India and identify 
the location of the terrorist training camp. (Note: LEGATT in 
New Delhi is requesting a transcript of the confession to review 
it in further detail. End note.) 
 
 
 
¶6.   (SBU) The court must first decide whether to accept the 
plea, and if accepted, must determine the punishment.  Parvez 
Memon, a criminal attorney in Mumbai, told Congenoff that 
Kasab's only hope to avoid the death penalty was to plead 
guilty.  His confession also sought to mitigate his culpability 
for the deaths of police.  In his confession, Kasab said that 
his partner, Abu Ismail, killed Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad 
Chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte, and 
another senior police official.  He blamed another team member, 
Abu Shoaib, for the murder of the boat navigator, Amar Singh 
Solanki, which occurred en route to Mumbai.  Kasab also sought 
to exculpate himself from the death of policeman Tukaram Ombale, 
claiming his own AK-47 had already been snatched from him by the 
policemen who pounced on him. "I did not get a chance to fire. 
I heard a lot of firing.  The next thing I knew I was in the 
hospital." Kasab said.  These exculpatory claims contrast with 
the confession he had originally given at the time of his 
arrest, which was subsequently withdrawn when Kasab entered his 
not guilty plea to the court at the start of the trial. 
 
 
 
IMPLICATIONS FOR PROSECUTION OF CO-CONSPIRATORS 
 
 
 
¶7.   (SBU) The implications of this confession on the 
prosecution of co-conspirators in India or in Pakistan are as 
yet unclear.  A legal source told Congenoff that the confession 
was taken under oath before a judge, making it valid as 
corroborating evidence against the two co-conspirators under 
trial with Kasab, but, the source said, the testimony could not 
be used as direct evidence.  Indian jurisprudence, as in 
America, generally requires the right to cross examine 
witnesses, making Kasab's testimony in this case useless in 
other prosecutions if he is not presented as a witness in those 
trials.  (Note:  Legal contacts could not opine whether this 
would also be the case for trials in Pakistan.  End note.) 
Further, if the death penalty is exacted against Kasab before he 
can testify in those cases, his confession may be unusable as 
evidence. 
 
 
 
DEFENSE CLAIMS RIGHT TO AN ATTORNEY ABRIDGED 
 
 
 
¶8.   (SBU) In addition to the complications added by the 
confession, Kasab's attorney, Abbas Kazmi, complained to the 
court that meetings he had with his client were always in the 
presence of jail officials, denying Kasab the right to 
confidential communications with his attorney.  Further, Kazmi 
said that his visits with his client were limited to 15 minutes 
per day, hardly sufficient to fully brief his client on the 
charges, the legal implications, or to plan a trial strategy. 
 
 
 
¶9.   (SBU) Comment:  Most legal observers in Mumbai agree that 
Kasab's turnaround is an effort to avoid the death penalty, and 
to credit the most heinous acts of their terror spree to his 
dead co-conspirators.  Throughout his public statements, Kasab 
has never espoused jihadist ideology; to the contrary, he sought 
to exculpate himself from direct blame for several deaths. 
Also, by pointing the finger at the ISI and Indian Mujahideen, 
Kasab has increased his value as a source of information for 
India's security experts, helping to ensure his survival.  This 
guilty plea has come as a relief to many of the victims of the 
attacks, who are hopeful that justice will be meted out sooner 
than later.  End Comment. 
FOLMSBEE