'A Perfect Terrorist' was an American

THE SHOW "A Perfect Terrorist" on "Frontline," WNET/13, 9 p.m. Tuesday

REASON TO WATCH The American who helped plan the Mumbai terrorist attack.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT On Nov. 26, 2008, a terrorist group attacked Mumbai, India, killing more than 160 people including six Americans. A New York Rabbi, Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were gunned down at the city's Jewish center. A Pakistani terror group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, with reported ties to that country's intelligence service claimed responsibilities. But the person with the most unexpected -- in fact, shocking -- tie to the attack was this man: Daood Sayed Gilani, otherwise known as David Coleman Headley, an American with a mother from Philadelphia and a Pakistani father. ProPublica reporter Sebastian Rotella -- a veteran Los Angeles Times foreign reporter -- and producer Tom Jennings piece together Headley's story. A drug dealer who grew up in Pakistan and later moved back to Philadelphia, he had been enlisted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as an informant, but he ultimately used this as a cover to build ties with Lashkar, according to this report. Why "perfect"? Because, as an American, he appeared above suspicion. Headley planned the Mumbai attack simply by walking the streets, or staying at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, also attacked. He's now in federal custody after he was apprehended at Chicago's O'Hare, while planning an attack on Danish soil.

MY SAY Like any professional reporter, Rotella carefully avoids editorial asides that characterize the utter depravity of his subject. But he really doesn't have to make any. The story does the job for him. Headley or Gilani or whatever name he's going by these days avoided the death penalty and extradition by cooperating with the Feds -- a neat trick he had apparently deployed several times before. But there's a moment at the end of this film when Headley is seen in an interrogation room and slaps the air a high five after he realizes he's skated again. It'll make your blood boil and it's supposed to. Rotella and Jennings do a solid job of picking up the trail, but struggle to nail down U.S. authorities. Maybe they were just too embarrassed to talk.

BOTTOM LINE Bizarre, disturbing . . .

GRADE B+