10 February 2010 By Stephen
Lendman On February 3, a Department of
Justice press release headlined "Aafia Siddiqui Found
Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court of Attempting to
Murder US Nationals in Afghanistan and Six Additional
Charges." At her scheduled May 6
sentencing, she "faces a maximum sentence of 20 years
in prison on each of the attempted murder and armed
assault charges; life in prison on the firearms
charge; and eight years in prison on each of the
remaining assault charges. SIDDIQUI faces a mandatory
minimum sentence of 30 years in prison on the firearms
charge." On February 3, New York Times
writer CJ Hughes headlined: "Pakistani Scientist Found
Guilty of Shootings," convicting her on all seven
counts, including attempted murder - "capping a trial
that drew notice for its terrorist implications as
well as its theatrics," but omitting convincing
evidence of Siddiqui's innocence. Instead, Hughes said
she was arrested with "instructions (in her purse) on
making explosives and a list of New York landmarks,
including the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge
and the Empire State Building." Her defense team
acknowledged their existence, but Siddiqui denied
packing them or knowing of their origin. She later
suggested she copied them from a magazine, planned no
terrorist acts, nor did her indictment claim them. Hughes also said she "raised
suspicions when she and her three children vanished in
Pakistan in 2003." She didn't vanish. Her mother said
she "left the family home in Gulshan-e-lqbal in a taxi
on March 30, 2003 to catch a flight for Rawalpindi,
but never reached the airport." Pakistani intelligence
agents abducted her, turned her over to US
authorities, after which her long ordeal of secret
imprisonment, interrogations, and years of brutalizing
torture began, even though she wasn't charged. Her son Mohammed was later
released on condition he say nothing. Her other two
children, Maryam and Suleman, disappeared and may have
been killed. In May 2004, Pakistan's Interior
Minister confirmed she was turned over to US
authorities in 2003 after no link between her and Al
Qaeda was established. In 2006, Amnesty International
called her one of many of the "disappeared" in
America's "war on terror." In 2007, a Ghost Prisoner
Human Rights Watch report suggested she was held in
secret CIA detention. In February 2008, the Asian Human
Rights Commission said she was brought to Karachi and
severely tortured to secure her compliance as a
government witness against Khalid Shiekh Mohammed, the
alleged 9/11 mastermind, related to Siddiqui through
marriage to his nephew. He reportedly "gave her up"
after capture on March 1, 2003, after which she and
her children disappeared. The charges were bogus and
outrageous. Yet, on September 2, 2008, the Justice
Department (DOJ) indicted her "on charges related to
her attempted murder and assault of United States
nationals and officers and employees." According to
Michael Garcia, US Attorney for the Southern District
of New York (in his same day press release): On July 18, 2008, "a team of
United States servicemen and law enforcement officers,
and others assisting them, attempted to interview
Aafia Siddiqui in Ghazni, Aghanistan, where she had
been detained by local police the day
before....unbeknownst to the United States interview
team, unsecured, behind a curtain -- Siddiqui obtained
one of the United States Army's M-4 rifles and
attempted to fire it, and did fire it, at another
United States Army officer and other members of the
United States interview team....Siddiqui then
assaualted one of the United States Army interpreters,
as he attempted to obtain the M-4 rifle from her.
Siddiqui subsequently assaulted one of the FBI agents
and one of the United States Army officers, as they
attempted to subdue her." Left unexplained was how this
frail, weak, 110-pound woman, confronted by three US
Army officers, two FBI agents, and two Army
interpreters, inexplicably managed to assault three of
them, get one of their rifles, open fire at close
range, hit no one, and only she was severely wounded.
According to her attorney, Elaine
Whitfield Sharp: "how did this happen? And how did
she get shot? I think you can answer that, can't you
(and question the outrageous charges against her)?" During proceedings, another
defense lawyer, Linda Moreno, said no forensic
evidence proved the rifle Siddiqui allegedly used had
been fired since no bullets, shell casings, or bullet
debris were recovered and no bullet holes detected. Garcia didn't explain, nor about
her abduction, torture and repeated raping at Bagram
prison, Afghanistan where, as Prisoner 650, she was
called the "Gray Lady of Bagram" because her screams
were heard for years. Nor did he discuss her physical
and emotional destruction. She was a pawn in America's
"war on terror," used, abused, now convicted, and
facing life in prison when sentenced, a victim of
gross injustice. Some Background A Pakistani national, Siddiqui is
deeply religious, attended MIT and Brandeis University
where she earned a doctorate in neurocognitive
science, married a Boston physician, raised money for
charities, did volunteer work, distributed Korans to
inmates in area prisons, and did nothing out of the
ordinary. Yet the UK Times Online called her "Al-Qaeda
woman." For ABC News, she was "Mata Hari," and the
Justice Department targeted her as a terrorist, a
woman guilty only of being Muslim in America at the
wrong time. When seized, the FBI said she was
a potential "treasure trove" of information on
terrorist suspects, sympathizers, or sleepers in
America and overseas. CIA officer John Kiriakou called
her "the most significant capture in five years," and
an unnamed counterterrorism official said she's "a
very dangerous person, no doubt about it." FBI
Director Robert Mueller said she's "an Al Qaeda
operative and facilitator." He and the others lied. Those who knew her recalled she
was very small, quiet, polite, and shy, barely
noticeable in a gathering. However, she'd say what was
needed when necessary. Her fellow students described
her as soft-spoken, studious, religious, but not
extremist or fundamentalist. She taught Muslim
children on Sundays, and was dedicated to helping
oppressed Muslims worldwide. She spoke publicly, sent
emails, gave slideshow presentations, and raised
donations as part of her faith, activism, and
sincerity. Yet she was targeted as "a high security
risk" despite no evidence then or now to prove it. Siddiqui is innocent of all
charges, yet the DOJ claimed she was involved in
biochemical warfare. In fact, she devised a computer
program, enlisted adult volunteers to watch various
objects move randomly across the screen, then
reproduce what they recalled. The idea was to learn
how well they retained information after viewing it on
a computer. It had nothing to do with terrorism,
biochemical warfare, or blowing up New York targets,
charges never appearing in her indictment. Siddiqui's Trial and Conviction Against her lawyers' advice, she
spoke publicly for the first time, despite the risk
and her frail condition. She explained her academic
work, her post-doctorate teaching, her interests that
included studying the capabilities of dyslexic and
other impaired children, then recounted her ordeal. After being abducted, she
agonized over the fate of her children. In US custody,
the relevant incident leading to her indictment went
as follows: -- at one point, she was tied
down; -- then untied; -- left behind a curtain; -- peaked through it; and -- an American soldier shot her
in the stomach; -- another in her side; -- then violently threw her to
the floor unconscious. She vaguely remembered being on a
stretcher, placed in a helicopter, and getting a blood
transfusion. She emphatically denied seizing and
firing a weapon. Under cross-examination, she said
she was given the bag with incriminating documents,
didn't know its contents or whether handwriting on
them was hers. She explained her repeated torture at
Bagram, the effects of the strong medications given
her, and at one point said, "If you were in a secret
prison, or your children were tortured," after which
she was forcibly removed from court and the
proceedings continued without her. According to media reports, these
revelations were "outbursts." On January 25, New York
Times writer CJ Hughes reported numerous
"disruptions....plagu(ing) the trial. Monday (January
25) was hardly an exception. The defendant was ejected
from (court) - not once, but twice (for) loudly
proclaiming her innocence." On January 19, she "had
several outbursts in previous court appearances,
raising questions about her competency to stand
trial." On February 4, AP writer Tom Hays
said "True to form, Aafia Siddiqui did not go
quietly," called her comments "combative," then
claimed the prosecution presented "compelling
testimony." On February 5, the Islamophobic
frontpagemag.com headlined "How a 'Nice American Girl'
Became a Jihadist," saying "veiled Muslim women can be
very aggressive, murderously so." On February 3, the New York Daily
News headlined, "Lady Al Qaeda Aafia Siddiqui
convicted of attempted murder." Writer Alison Gendar
accepted DOJ's charges as fact and added some of her
own, saying: "She grabbed a rifle at an
'Afghan police station' (she was at Bagram) and
started shooting at the Americans sent to grill her.
She was shot by the soldier whose weapon she swiped.
(In 2008, she was) caught in 'Afghanistan' with '2
pounds of poisonous chemicals.' (During the trial),
she disrupted the proceedings several times with
'strange outbursts.' " An August 22, 2008 Fox News
report said "emails obtained by FOXNews.com show
messages sent by Siddiqui (during her time at MIT)
soliciting money for Al-Kifah Refugee Center - a known
Al Queda charitable front tied to Usama bin Laden and
the 1993 World Trade Center bombing." After a three week trial and two
days of deliberation, a federal jury of eight women
and four men convicted her on all charges, including
attempted murder, armed assault, discharging a firearm
during a violent crime, and assaulting US officers and
employees. As a result, she potentially faces life in
prison at her May 6 sentencing. It's not confirmed,
but her lawyers may appeal given the bogus charges,
long detention, and brutalizing torture, leaving her a
shell of her former self, so physically and
emotionally shattered she was in no condition to stand
trial. After the verdict, aljazeera.net
headlined "US verdict sparks Pakistan protests,"
saying thousands in several cities rallied in her
defense. Her relatives spoke publicly condemning the
decision, her sister Fauzia saying "we're proud to be
related to her. America's justice system, the
establishment, the war on terror, the fraud of the war
on terror, all of those things have shown their own
ugly faces." Her mother, Ismat said "I did not
expect anything better from an American court. We were
ready for the shock and will continue our struggle to
get her released." Pakistan's foreign ministry
spokesman, Abdul Basit, said the government would try
"to get her back to Pakistan and we would do
everything possible and we'll apply all possible tools
in this regard." Al Jazeera's Islamabad
correspondent, Kamal Hyder, explained the public
disappointment "for failing to find a diplomatic way
out and getting (her) back home, because they feel she
was innocent." She was missing for five years like
"many hundreds of (others who've) disappeared from
Pakistan - still not accounted for - and now that Dr.
Aafia's case has come up, that's likely to be a
rallying point for the anti-American sentiment." The UK-based Cageprisoners
spokesman, Asim Qureshi, said "The case of Aafia
Siddiqui carries great significance in terms of the
ability of the Obama administration to administer
justice. Already we have seen a blanket refusal to
look at the facts of her detention prior to 2008. This
verdict will only confirm what many already believe,
that it is impossible for Muslim terrorism suspects to
receive a fair trial in the US." Defense lawyer Elaine Whitfield
Sharp called the verdict unjust, in her opinion "based
on fear....not fact," and the result is the continued
ordeal of an innocent woman facing a potential life
sentence. Carefully orchestrated, the trial
proceeded like numerous others, targeting innocent
victims because of their faith, ethnicity, prominence,
benevolent charity, activism, or other reasons for
political advantage, ending with convictions and
punitive incarcerations against innocent defendants,
guilty of being Muslims in America at the wrong time
when we're all just as vulnerable. In a manipulated climate of fear,
the same process repeats, using bogus charges, secret
evidence, enlisted witnesses to cooperate, the defense
prohibited from introducing exculpatory evidence, and
proceedings carefully scripted to intimidate juries to
convict. Justice is again denied, Siddiqui
another victim, a human tragedy, portrayed by the
dominant media as a jihadist, and getting public
sentiment to agree because disturbing truths are
carefully suppressed. Stephen Lendman is a Research
Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog
site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to the
Lendman News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday -
Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on world and
national issues. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
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