(CNN) -- The path that brought U.S. citizen David Coleman Headley to the point of pleading guilty to involvement in two international terrorism plots is complicated and twisted. His life, in many ways, is far from the average American experience, but he's also very much a product of a typical American upbringing. He's an unusual fusion, a product of two worlds, a rare blending of East and West. And because of his unusual background, Headley, experts say, is one of the most unusual and important American-born terrorists. Even his eyes -- one blue and one brown -- reflect the double life he has lived almost since the day he was born.
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David Coleman Headley is a product of two worlds, a rare blending of East and West
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His mother was a fun-loving Philly socialite; his father was a strict, formal Pakistani
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His arrest in a heroin sting was a turning point in his life, an uncle says
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He's been tied to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba; India says group carried out Mumbai attacks
Headley, the son of an American mother and @placeholder father, was accused of extensive involvement in planning the devastating attacks on hotels in Mumbai, which the Indian government says were carried out by the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.
Headley, the son of an American mother and Pakistani father, was accused of extensive involvement in planning the devastating attacks on hotels in @placeholder, which the Indian government says were carried out by the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.
"This is someone who clearly lived in two different worlds and grew up in two different worlds and had an awareness of both the @placeholder -- having spent much of his adult life and later childhood life here -- as well as in Pakistan," said Cilluffo.