‘Mickey Mouse Project’ plotted to kill Muhammad cartoonist

US prosecutors said yesterday that they had broken up an international terror plot, codenamed the Mickey Mouse Project, against the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Two men from Chicago who went to military school in Pakistan face terrorism charges for allegedly targeting the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which outraged hardline Muslims by publishing the 12 cartoons in 2005.

The men allegedly planned to kill Flemming Rose, the cultural editor, and Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist. The editor of Jyllands-Posten, Jorn Mikkelsen, said that the alleged plot was “very unpleasant for the employees and we are all affected by these threats”.

David Headley, 49, a US citizen who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, was arrested at O’Hare International airport, Chicago, on October 3. Court papers say that he hatched the plot in 2008 and posted a message about the cartoons on an internet discussion group, saying: “I feel disposed toward violence for the offending parties.”

After his arrest Mr Headley allegedly told FBI agents that he began receiving training in 2006 from Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan terror group. He also worked with a Pakistani with al-Qaeda links named Ilyas Kashmiri, who was later reported killed in a US drone attack.

In an intercepted telephone conversation Mr Headley allegedly asked another Lashkar-e-Taiba contact in Pakistan, identified only as Individual A, about Kashmiri’s reported demise.

“This is business, sir,” Individual A said. “These types of things happen.”

In January Individual A allegedly urged Mr Headley by e-mail to carry out what he called the Mickey Mouse Project “as early as possible”.

Court papers said that Mr Headley told FBI agents that he went to Denmark in January and July this year to carry out surveillance on the newspaper’s offices in Copenhagen and Århus “in preparation for an attack to be carried out by persons associated with Kashmiri and Individual A”. Between the trips he allegedly met Individual A in Pakistan.

“Mr Headley stated that he proposed that the operation against the newspaper be reduced from attacking the entire building in Copenhagen to killing the paper’s cultural editor, Flemming Rose, and the cartoonist who drew the cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, Kurt Westergaard, whom Headley felt was directly responsible for the cartoons,” court papers said.

He also allegedly conducted surveillance at a synagogue because of a mistaken belief that Mr Rose was Jewish.

When he was arrested, Mr Headley allegedly had a ticket to fly from the US to Denmark on October 29.

Mr Headley is charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the US, which carries a life sentence.

While in Denmark he allegedly posed as a potential advertiser on behalf of a Chicago business, First World Immigration Services, run by Tahawwur Hussain Rana. Court papers indicate that Mr Headley and Mr Rana, 48, a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen, who is reported to be a former Pakistani army captain, went to the same military school in Hasan Abdal, Pakistan.

Mr Rana, who was arrested in Chicago on October 18, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of lending material support to a terrorist conspiracy.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), said that it had worked closely with the FBI to thwart the plot.

“PET and the FBI assess that the arrests and the uncovering of the terrorist plans have reduced the risk of an attack. PET and the American authorities, however, are continuing their intensive investigation in order to mitigate this threat,” Jakob Scharf, the head of the agency, said.