American Pleads Not Guilty in Mumbai Siege

A Chicago man has pleaded not guilty to charges that accuse him of conspiring in the deadly 2008 terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai and of planning to launch an armed assault on a Danish newspaper.

David Coleman Headley appeared Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber for an arraignment that lasted only about three minutes. He then was led away, guarded by a phalanx of federal marshals.

The charge of conspiracy to bomb public places in India that resulted in death carries a possible death penalty on conviction.

Leinenweber scheduled the next hearing in the case for Jan. 12.

Headley was charged Monday with conducting surveillance on potential targets in the Indian city of Mumbai before terrorist attacks there in 2008 that killed 166 people.

He faces 12 counts, including six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim individuals in India and Denmark and other offenses. He could be sentenced to death if convicted on the charges involving the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Indian police, who have been showing his passport picture around Mumbai for weeks, have lots of questions for Headley, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.

Headley, 48, an American citizen formerly named Daood Gilani, and Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, 48, a Canadian national, were charged in October with plotting to attack the Jyllands Posten newspaper in Denmark. The newspaper had published 12 cartoons in 2005 that depicted the Prophet Muhammad and set off protests in parts of the Islamic world.

Federal prosecutors said at the time of his arrest that Headley admitted his role in a plot against the newspaper and that he had received training from Lashkar-e-Taiba - a group that specializes in violence against India.

The charges filed in U.S. District Court on Monday said Headley had attended Lashkar-e-Taiba training camps in Pakistan earlier this decade and conspired with members of the group to launch terrorist attacks in India.