He grew up a child of two nations -- the United States and Pakistan -- with a parent from each . He was born Daood Gilani , the son of a prominent Pakistani broadcaster , but in 2006 he changed his name to David Headley . In a federal courtroom in Chicago on Thursday , he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in the 2008 attacks in Mumbai , India , that killed 164 people , including six U.S. citizens . Headley has admitted conducting advance surveillance for the operation in India . Although Headley , 52 , was facing up to life in prison , the Justice Department recommended that the judge sentence him to the term he eventually got after the defendant cooperated with U.S. authorities . Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for his plea on terrorism charges . He signed that agreement in 2010 and promised to cooperate with U.S. authorities . Attorney General Eric Holder noted at the time that he had provided extensive `` valuable intelligence about terrorist activities . '' Name change helped facilitate the surveillance in India . Headley was arrested by federal agents on October 2009 in Chicago , accused of helping plan terror attacks against a Danish newspaper that ran cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed , sparking Muslim anger worldwide . He was later linked to the bloody four-day terrorist siege in Mumbai . Headley cooperated with the authorities investigating both terror plots . Headley received a Social Security number in Pennsylvania sometime in the late 1970s , public records show . He changed his name from Daood Gilani to David Headley on or about February 15 , 2006 , in Philadelphia in order to present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani , according to a criminal complaint against him . The Justice Department also accused him of attending terrorism training camps in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003 , and working with the group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba to carry out terror attacks . The United States lists Lashkar as a terrorist organization . India blamed the group for the Mumbai attacks . Terror testimony . Headley testified against a Canadian man who was sentenced last week to 14 years in prison for aiding a plot to attack the Danish paper . Gary Shapiro , the acting U.S. attorney in Chicago , issued a lengthy sentencing memo to the federal district court on Tuesday concluding that the 30- to 35-year sentence the government recommended for Headley was fair . `` While his criminal conduct was deplorable , the uniquely significant cooperation which he provided to the government 's efforts to combat terrorism support the government 's recommendations , '' Shapiro said . The Indian government wants to conduct another trial for Headley , but the United States has said it would not send him to any other country . Algeria attack changes terror landscape .
David also receives sentence that he recommended . He faced up to a life sentence for conviction related to the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks . Prosecutors say Headley has cooperated with government efforts to combat terrorism . Headley is accused of attending terrorism training camps and plotting attacks .