Kenneth Haywood

Kenneth L. Haywood (born 1964) became involved in a 2008 controversy in the Indian city of Mumbai after his wireless connection was allegedly used by terrorists to transmit a message to Indian news networks before their attacks. It was subsequently revealed that Haywood had been living a double life as an "executive skills trainer" and a Christian pastor, while the firm that he worked for was a probable front for evangelical religious activities. Haywood was not charged by Indian authorities in connection with the blasts, which occurred at Ahmedabad and Surat, in late July 2008.
Arizona ministry and legal controversy
Haywood attended both Prescott, Arizona, and Kingman, Arizona High schools until graduation in 1981. After being honorably discharged from both US Marine Corps, and the US Navy, he became a "Born Again" Christian in 1984 in the First Baptist Church Kingman, Arizona. After his military service he was married to Anne Marie Carter of Prescott, Arizona in 1986 and began to pursue "A call to preach the Gospel of Christ" that same year. While preparing for ministry Haywood worked in the Land title Insurance industry, and allegedly continued this vocation even after taking his first Pastorate in 1990 in Lancaster, California. Haywood's life took on a dual role from that point as , according to him, he worked and pastored at small churches in Lancaster, and Glendale, California then later at Flagstaff, Arizona..
Career and controversy in Mumbai, India
In 2007 Haywood went to work for a firm named Campbell White in Mumbai, India. The Haywoods set up home in the Gunina apartment block in Sanpada Navi Mumbai, an up-market area home to many professionals.
Campbell White was said to be engaged in the training of corporate executives in public speaking, as well as international professional courtesy and protocols. Yet according to Indian media website Rediff, Haywood also took with him his role as a pastor for the Door Christian Fellowship Ministry., using it to send an email immediately before the bomb blasts in Ahmadabad, India. The e-mail, signed by members of a new group called the "Indian Mujahideen" and sent from a newly created e-mail address - alarbi_gujarat@yahoo.com - promised revenge for the Gujarat massacres of 2002.
Its text told viewers of television networks who received it that "In the name of Allah the Indian Mujahideen strike again! Do whatever you can, within 5 minutes from now, feel the terror of Death." Five minutes later, 21 bombs exploded in the city of Ahmedabad, killing 56 people. 25 bombs were also discovered in the city of Surat, but they failed to explode.
The message which originated from Haywood's IP address aroused the suspicion of anti-terrorist investigators in Mumbai, who began questioning him. Anti terrorist officials told the media that Haywood remained "very much on the radar of suspicion."
Questioning and flight to the U.S.
Haywood surrendered his computers, undergoing 3 weeks of interrogation, and a polygraph test. Yet following the results of the polygraph test, Haywood left India on the night of 16-17 August, despite a "lookout notice" being placed upon him.
Haywood told reporters that he had informed both the Navi Mumbai Police, and the local Anti terror squad of his intent to take a holiday to the States as soon as he was cleared. Nonetheless, anti-terrorist official Hernant Kakare said that "there must have been an error at the Delhi airport in not following the lookout notice issued by them" - implying that Haywood had not received permission to leave. Kakare's colleague Parambir Singh told the press that "We do not know how he managed to slip through authorities at the airport in New Delhi, and the Delhi police will be conducting a probe into the whole matter." while later reports suggested that "Haywood had given a written assurance that he would not leave the city until the probe was complete."
Later reports had it that Haywood's escape, which occurred via Indira Gandhi airport in New Delhi, was facilitated by a "goof up" amongst immigration officials. According to the Economic Times, reporting on 20 August, "Sources in the security establishment have confirmed that the government, obviously red-faced at Mr Haywood’s departure despite the lookout notice against him." Yet the Economic Times also wrote that "His sudden departure, which involved a Mumbai-Delhi domestic flight to Delhi followed by the international flight to US via Brussels, raises speculation about his likely links with a western intelligence agency."
Haywood's departure from India came days after the Indian press had printed investigative pieces linking his firm, Campbell White, with an evangelical Christian church organization. Express Online reported that Campbell White's offices amounted to "two small adjoining rented rooms on the ground floor of Sanpada railway station complex in Navi Mumbai" while they doubled as "prayer rooms on Sundays and Thursdays for the Potter's House" - a church based in Chandler, Arizona.
Return to Mumbai
Despite this, on August 17 the Haywood family cleared customs and returned to the US. He returned on Thursday September 11 at 1 in the morning, claiming that he was "never a suspect" and vowing to return to work.
After questioning Haywood on his return, the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad announced soon after that it had "washed its hands of the Delhi terror e-mail" sent from Haywood's IP address. That was despite the ATS' additional commissioner of police, Parambir Singh, saying that "The investigation in the terror e-mail is very much on. There is no such thing as a clean chit in investigation vocabulary. If there is any evidence at any stage then he will be questioned."
Frustrated at the lack of progress in its investigation, the ATS stated that "We have realised that the source of these e-mails is leading us nowhere at all" while "Our officers have taken down the statement of the person whose WiFi internet connection was used to send this e-mail, but we are not going to investigate this further." Haywood appeared to be in the clear.
When charges were filed against several alleged members of the Indian Mujahideen in February 2009, Mumbai police made no mention of the e-mail sent via Haywood's internet connection. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ashok Duraphe told the press that "We have not mentioned anything as the offence was not registered with us. It is now up to the relevant investigating agencies, the ATS or the Navi Mumbai Police, to seek the IM members and file a chargesheet in the Haywood case." But several members of the ATS, who investigated Haywood in August 2008, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks by alleged Jihadist terrorists in November of that year, leaving the investigation into the Ahmedabad blasts adrift.

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