31 December 2010 By Stephen
Lendman A full account of her case from
March 2003 through December 2008 can be accessed
through the following link: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/12/abduction-secret-detention-torture-and.html Numerous follow-up articles
discussed subsequent events to the present. All are
posted chronologically on sjlendman.blogspot.com. Wrongfully persecuted, she was
sentenced to 86 years in prison on September 23, 2010,
a gross miscarriage of justice since her March 30,
2003 abduction, imprisonment, torture and witch-hunt
prosecution, providing no evidence whatever to
convict. Supporters want her freed. The
web site freeaafia.org posts updates on her case and
status. It has petitions to sign on her behalf as well
as actions to take, including writing her as follows: Aafia Siddiqui # 90279-054 FMC Carswell Federal Medical Center PO Box 27137 Fort Worth, TX 76127 It also asks those able to
contribute to her legal defense and investigation into
the disappearance of her son, Suleman, missing for
nearly eight years. Suburban Boston-based Elaine
Whitfield Sharp represents Aafia. So does the New
York-based International Justice Network (IJN), the
only organization representing Bagram, Afghanistan
detainees. It: "leads human rights initiatives
around the world by providing direct legal assistance
and expertise to victims of human rights abuses and by
creating a global network of legal professionals,
(NGOs), and community-based human rights advocates in
order to protect and promote human rights and the rule
of law." Its November 30 press release
headlined, "Kidnapping Attempt on Children of Aafia
Siddiqui," saying: Armed gunmen broke into her
family home in Karachi, Pakistan. "The incident was
apparently a failed attempt to kidnap Dr. Siddiqui's
two minor children - both of whom are US citizens, but
now reside with relatives in Pakistan." Since US authorities released her
eldest son, Ahmed, in August 2008, he's been living
with his grandmother and aunt in Karachi. Pakistani
police provide round the clock protection, so it's
unknown how the men gained access. They also managed
to avoid capture, suggesting perhaps authorities
aren't as protective as they claim. IJN's Executive Director Tina
Foster said: "Those responsible for the March
2003 kidnapping of Dr. Siddiqui and her two children
have yet to be identified and held to account. But
there can be no doubt that the Pakistani government
would bear responsibility for any harm that comes to
(her) family (because) not only does the government
have a general duty to protect the safety of its
citizens, but in this case it also has affirmatively
undertaken the responsibility for the Siddiqui
family's safety and insisted on the security
procedures now in place at" their home. She also said "this kidnapping
attempt is simply the latest in a series of incidents
which suggests that there are individuals - who remain
at large - (who) would stop at nothing to prevent the
truth about what happened to Dr. Siddiqui and her
three children to be revealed." It's not unlikely that
Pakistan's government is involved, one of many
services performed for Washington. An October 25 IJN (ijnetwork.org)
posting quoted the ACLU saying a same day federal
court ruling affirmed the Defense Department's right
to withhold key information about hundreds of Bargram
detainees. The court denied an ACLU FOIA lawsuit for
public disclosure. Names of 645 prisoners were
released, but nothing about their citizenship, length
of imprisonment, and location and circumstances of
capture. The ACLU accused the Defense Department of
"improperly withholding these basic facts." ACLU's Melissa Goodman said: "Despite concerns that Bagram has
become the new Guantanamo, the public remains in the
dark when it comes to basic facts about the facility
and whom our military is holding in indefinite
military detention there. The public has a right to
know...." No transparency "is even more disturbing
considering the possibility that the US will continue
holding and interrogating prisoners at Bagram well
into the future." The right-wing US District Court
for the Southern District of New York went along,
violating international and US law, including
provisions of Common Article 3 of the Geneva
Conventions prohibiting: -- "violence to life and person,
in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel
treatment and torture; -- outrages upon personal
dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading
treatment; -- the passing of sentences and
the carrying out of executions without previous
judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court
affording all the judicial guarantees which are
recognized as indispensable by civilized people;" and -- requiring humane treatment
under all circumstances. It's well known that Pentagon/CIA
prisoners at Bagram, Guantanamo, and other American
torture prisons are brutalized, at times murdered, and
denied all basic rights under international law that
automatically is US law under the Constitution's
Supremacy Clause, Article VI, Clause 2. It states: "This Constitution, and the Laws
of the United States which shall be made Pursuance
thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be
made, under the Authority of the United States, shall
be the supreme Law of the Land; and Judges in every
State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the
Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary,
notwithstanding." On December 22, The International News (thenews.com) headlined, "Counsel urges unity to bring to bring Aafia home," saying: Tina Foster said Muslims get second class justice in America, and unless Pakistan pressures Washington to send Aafia home, all Pakistanis will be at risk. Others as well everywhere, including American citizens at home or abroad. Washington's extremism is so out-of-control that US and international laws don't matter, nor do those of other countries violated with impunity on their territory. At the Lahore Press Club, Foster said Aafia's court-appointed attorneys would appeal her sentence, challenging both her conviction and 86 year imprisonment. If all Pakistanis and political parties were united on her behalf, she said, Washington might listen. "The United States claims to have arrested Aafia in Pakistan (so America) should have sent her (there). But instead, they took a Pakistani sister and illegally transferred her all the way to the US," after torturing her for years at Bagram. Foster added that Washington claims the right to imprison Aafia for life far from home and family. If Pakistan lets this "stand, the US government would have a green light to hold any Pakistani citizen traveling abroad and illegally send them to the United States, a country where Muslims get second class justice. If Pakistanis don't stand up for Aafia, no one will be able to stand up for other Pakistanis at their hour of need." In fact, most Muslims get no justice. They're illegally entrapped and imprisoned for crimes they never planned or committed. Yet America's media affirms guilt by accusation. Reports vilified Aafia when she was charged with offenses never included in her indictment. Foster stressed her appalling confinement, for months in isolation in a small prison cell. She's now at FMC Carswell, a so-called medical center, known more for punishment than proper care. A Final Comment Kevin Cooper's case is also disturbing, an earlier article accessed through the following link: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/12/kevin-cooper-victimized-by-american.html A Black American citizen, he was framed and wrongfully convicted of four June 1983 murders. Evidence proved him innocence, yet he's languished on death row ever since, and faces execution without gubernatorial clemency, pardon, or commutation of his sentence to life. On December 23, the Los Angeles was supportive in its editorial headlined, "Governor, save inmate's life," saying: "Even supporters of capital punishment should object to the execution of someone whose guilt is in serious doubt." Since judicial action didn't save him, "the burden is on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger...." California has 717 inmates on death row. With near certainty, many there are as innocent as Cooper. However, no one intervenes on their behalf because they're poor, Black or Latino - throwaway people out of sight and mind until lethal injections painfully kill them. "Much of the evidence against Cooper has been seriously questioned, most comprehensively in an opinion by Judge William A. Fletcher of the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, who dissented from a decision not to hear" Cooper's appeal. The above link covers his dissent in detail and his belief that Cooper is innocent, saying: Based on convincing evidence, Cooper "is probably innocent of the crimes for which the state of California is about to execute him." The LA Times "opposes the death penalty under any circumstances, and....wouldn't object if the governor commuted" all 717 death row inmates. "But execution is especially outrageous when the prisoner may be innocent. Gov. Schwarzenegger should commute Cooper's sentence." In fact, he should pardon him (and others wrongfully convicted), make full restitution for nearly three decades of injustice, and provide substantial aid to help him readjust in society, free at last and fully exonerated.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/. Comments 💬 التعليقات |