UPDATE
WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ambassador to United States, Husain Haqqani has demanded that U.S. should immediately hand over Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to Pakistan.Earlier, U.S. State department apprised Pakistan embassy that Dr. Aafia has been moved to Texas from New York for psychiatric evaluation on court’s orders. Members of Foreign Affairs Committee of Pakistani Senate will not be able to see Dr. Aafia in New York at the moment, statement said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's envoy demanded the U.S. government to hand over Dr. Aafia to Pakistan. He said there are better facilities of psychiatric evaluation and treatment in Pakistan. Earlier, Dr. Aafia’s lawyer pleaded that she should not be sent to Texas where she could undergo psychiatric examination only, adding that Dr. Aafia requires medical treatment as well.
Dr Aafia Siddiqui's next hearing has been scheduled for December 17 in Manhattan federal court.

Saturday, October 04, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani has demanded that the US should immediately hand over Dr Aafia Siddiqui to Pakistan. According to Geo News, he said there were better facilities of psychiatric evaluation and treatment in Pakistan. Earlier, the US State Department apprised the Pakistan embassy that Dr Siddiqui had been moved to Texas from New York for psychiatric evaluation on the court’s order. Earlier, Dr Aafia’s lawyer pleaded that she should not be sent to Texas where she would undergo psychiatric examination only, adding Siddiqui required medical treatment as well.
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:http://karinfriedemann.blogspot.com/

Lord Ahmed Nazir, the British Member of Parliament, was passing through Boston on his way to New York, where he planned to speak to Aafia Siddique's lawyer and to put some pressure on the US authorities to allow the sister to be hospitalized and treated for her gunshot wound as well as severe post-traumatic stress. In a phone conversation the next day, the good man shared with me how he came to know about her tragic fate.

Lord Nazir prepared some questions for the UK government, inquiring whether the British intelligence service was involved in the interrogation of this woman, whether they were they aware of abuse, and if this lady was Dr. Aafia Siddique, the MIT and Brandeis-educated neuroscientist who mysteriously disappeared in Pakistan in March 2003 along with her 6 month old baby, and children aged 5 and 6?

Lord Nazir wrote a similar letter to the US ambassador in the UK, who passed it along to the British embassy in Kabul.

Pakistani politician Imran Khan held a press conference in Islamabad rallying public support for the "Grey Lady of Bagram." The Pakistani government denied any knowledge of Prisoner 650 or Aafia. The UK denied having custody of her and said she was in the hands of the US. The US claimed that Prisoner 650 was "a different woman," who had been released in 2005 to her (unnamed) country of origin.Yet that same day this past July, when Kabul received the letter from Lord Nazir, Aafia Siddique was strangely reportedly arrested wandering around in Afghanistan, "as if she were on bloody holiday," according to Lord Nazir, who rejects the bogus claim that she was carrying chemical, biological and radioactive weapons information as well as jars of chemicals in her purse. Siddique has no military expertise. Her primary focus of study was children's cognitive development.

Lord Nazir however informed me that according to witnesses, the US had told the Afghan authorities to hand Siddique over and the Afghan police were refusing. As they were negotiating, Siddique began to walk towards the US soldiers, complaining that the Afghan police were abusing her. One of the American soldiers panicked as she was walking toward them and shot the petite, unarmed woman in the stomach.

According to a cageprisoners.com report by Abu Sabaya, Siddique has not received adequate medical treatment for her bullet wound, other than a botched bullet-removal surgery under US custody, in which one of her kidneys and part of her intestine were removed, rendering her unable to properly digest food, and leaving her entire torso covered with layers of scar tissue. She was brought, emaciated and it terrible condition, to trial in New York in a wheelchair in September 2008, while doubled over in pain. Her condition has since worsened significantly. Her trial was then postponed indefinitely a couple weeks ago under the excuse that she had refused the body cavity strip search required for her to leave her cell.

Lord Nazir asked the US authorities for permission to see her and the US Justice Department said they would facilitate a visit. However, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has repeatedly tried to obstruct his access. Nazir has since decided it would not be useful for him to visit Siddique anyway, as she has reportedly gone mad. She is locked in solitary confinement in New York's Metropolitan Detention Center and can only speak to her lawyer through the slot for her meal tray. She is in tremendous physical agony and speaks only of waiting for God to take her and her children. She apparently believes her young children are in there with her, although this is believed to be the tragic maternal hallucinations of an emotionally destroyed human being, whose children had been stolen out of her arms by armed soldiers. According to one media report, she refused her dinner asked the prison guard to give the food to her son instead of her.

Siddique's lawyer feels that under the present circumstances, she is not fit to stand trial, and she needs to be moved immediately to a prison hospital for treatment of her gunshot wound as well as to get some psychological help.

Inexplicably, the Federal authorities are obstructing her access to medical treatment. The US government is pressuring the judge, demanding that she remain alone in her cell. The American ambassador N.W. Peterson absurdly objected to Siddique receiving medical treatment on grounds that she is a "security threat."

It is fairly clear to the author that the US wants her to die, to prevent her from testifying about her prison experience, or else in order to inflame the Pakistani public into rioting against the US.

Pakistan is passionately demanding Aafia Siddique's re-patriation. She has huge public support.Benazir Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari, the recently elected President of Pakistan, said in a speech, "Aafia Siddique is my sister."

Lord Ahmed will continue to work with the US Justice Department, Homeland Security, and other intelligence agencies, Siddique's lawyers and the Prosecution to help facilitate family and doctor visits for her, and to bring about Siddique's return to Pakistan.

Aafia's brother in Texas has since been offered access to see her.

"Prisoner 650" Afia Siddiqui - raped & tortured at US Bagram prison ?

One of the most shocking stories I have read, I find it utterly unbearable, her children taken, her indictment non existent, and her wound untreated.Had she escaped to make her way to Pakistan and they are afraid she will reveal her ordeal?J.Braddell,editor

From: "Peace Seeker" <peaceseek@hotmail.com> Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008

19:58:53 September 09, 2008

Volume IV - Issue 28

by Ernesto Cienfuegos

La Voz de Aztlan

http://www.aztlan.net/strange_case_of_dr_siddiqui.htm

Los Angeles, Alta California - August 14, 2008 - (ACN) It appear that the Bush Administration may have another "Abu Ghraib Prison" type torture scandal in its hands that it is desperately attempting to cover up. The disturbing human rights case involves a Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University educated Pakistani national that mysteriously disappeared, along with her three children, in Afghanistan in 2003. This past week the seriously injured, bleeding, frail, traumatized and confused Dr. Siddiqui re-appeared in a wheel chair in a New York federal court accused of terrorism and to face charges that she attempted to kill FBI and US soldiers in Afghanistan.

No one would have known about what some Pakistanis are calling "one of the most deplorable crimes against womanhood" if it had not been for human rights organizations speaking out against the rape and torture of "Prisoner 650" that was being held at the US Bagram Theater Internment Facility, a miserable prison that was previously utilized as air base hangers by the Russians during their occupation of Afghanistan. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) just recently picked up the story and the Bush Administration seems to be acting quickly to cover up what many consider to be a war crime.

On Tuesday, they chose their front man, Brian Ross of ABC News, to begin propagandizing against Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in order to justify to the American people the gruesome treatment of the Pakistani neuroscientist at the hands of US authorities in Afghanistan and their lackey Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. Many of you may remember that Brian Ross was also the Neocon front man in the national news concerning the Anthrax Terrorist Attacks in 2001. He was reporting that the anthrax sent to U.S. political and media figures was linked to Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program. That was a lie. No tests ever revealed any such thing. Like Colin Powell, he was attempting to create the perception in the public's mind that Iraq was behind the anthrax attacks and that it possessed weapons of mass destruction.

The FBI has accused Dr. Siddiqui of being an al-Qaida terrorist. Her father was educated as a doctor in Britain. Her brother is an architect from Houston and her sister is a Harvard University-trained neurologist.

Because Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a Muslim, the FBI started investigating her as far back as 2001when she lived in Boston.

The FBI harassment of Dr. Siddiqui and her family prompted her to return to Pakistan around 2002. Soon after, the FBI issued a "Wanted Poster" on Dr. Siddiqui and alerted the Pakistani Pervez Musharraf's regime. After her picture appeared on the FBI "Wanted Poster", Dr. Siddiqui was picked up by alleged US/Musharraf operatives in 2003 while she was visiting, along with her three children, in Afghanistan and imprisoned in the notorious Bagram prison. Dr. Siddiqui, according to human rights organizations became "Prisoner 650" and for 5 years suffered repeated rapes, water boarding and other forms of torture.

Soon after the horrific story surfaced in the international media, it appears that the alleged torturers moved quickly to cover up their crime. There are serious allegations that Dr. Siddiqui was "framed" in order to justify the abominable human rights violations against her.

Credible human rights sources, including her US attorneys, are claiming that the Bagram prison torturers, temporarily released the traumatized and confused victim, planted evidence on her and re-arrested her on charges of terrorism in July of this year. They then set up a situation inside the prison to accuse her of attempting to kill FBI agents and US soldiers. The alleged torturers are saying that as she was about to be questioned by the FBI and US soldiers in a room in the Afghan prison, that she picked up an M4 rifle and fired at a US soldier. Another soldier fired at her with a pistol and wounded her in the abdomen. An Amnesty International official said "It seems extraordinary to imagine that four U.S. agents who'd gone to pick her up ˜ two military, two FBI ˜ along with at least two Afghan translators, were somehow surprised by this woman, who overpowered them, grabbed a gun, flipped the safety, fired off a couple of shots, and then could only be subdued by shots to the torso."

There is no information about what may have occurred to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's three children. Dr. Siddiqui is scheduled to appear again before a well known anti-Muslim United States Magistrate Judge of the Southern District of New York on September 3, 2008.

Children of Dr. Afia Siddiqui removed & she is denied permission to attend court

From: "Peace Seeker" <peaceseek@hotmail.com> Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008

14:59:36 +0300

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AHRC-STM-235-2008

September 5, 2008

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: Children of Dr. Afia Siddiqui are removed from Bagram and their whereabouts are unknown and Dr. Afia is denied permission to attend court proceedings

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2008statements/1681/

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that the two children of Dr. Afia Sidiqui, who is currently in custody in the United States on charges of assault and attempting to murder members of the American forces during her custody in Afghanistan, have been removed by Afghan and foreign forces from Bagram prison. The current whereabouts of the two children is unknown.

In a letter sent to the Attorney of Dr. Afia Sidiqui, on August 22, 2008, from the US Department of Justice, the attorney was informed about the identification of Mohammad, one of the children of Dr. Afia who has been missing since March 2003, according to Dr. Fauzia Sidiqui, Dr.

Afia‚s sister. She states that the letter informed that Mohammad is now in the custody of the Afghan National Police since his purported arrest in Afghanistan on July 17, 2008.

According to the details received later, Dr. Afia‚s children have been missing since August 31, 2008, after soldiers from the Afghan Army and Rangers from one of the foreign forces removed Master Mohammad, age 11, the eldest son, from the Bagram prison, where he was kept in illegal detention according to the laws of that country. Details with regard to the younger child are even scantier.

In between the dates of August 31 and September 3, a person Dr. Afia‚s sister, Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui was in contact with, suddenly disappeared and his cell phone no longer responds. He has not contacted Dr, Fauzia since September 1. She had been in contact with this person for some time and through him was able to talk to Master Ahmed on at least two occasions. Master Ahmed told her that he was just able to recognize Dr.

Fauzia from photographs of her press conferences, which he was shown by the man as Ahmed had accompanied her to a medical conference just one month prior to his disappearance.

After these contacts, Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui applied for a visa to Afghanistan on August 24, to meet her nephew. Again on August 25, she sent faxes to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and the Consul General of Afghanistan in Karachi. On August 26, she talked personally to one of the high officers of the foreign office who confirmed that she would get a visa. The Afghan Consul also confirmed this. Furthermore, on August 28, Dr, Fauzia received a phone call from the office of Mr.

Farooq Naik, the Minister for Law, who told her that she would get full support from the government to locate Dr. Afia‚s children. That same day, a Mr. Durrani, from the Pakistani embassy in Kabul phoned Dr.

Fauzia and confirmed that both the children, Master Ahmed and Marium, age 9, were in Afghanistan and they would both be provided full security and assistance in returning to Pakistan.

Then, on September 2, despite all the indications of promises of support from the Pakistan government, she was informed that she could not get a visa for Afghanistan. On September 3 Dr. Fauzia received a telephone call from the US State department that as the „family is disinterested in the children they may be transferred to the USA‰. Despite this statement by the US State Department there is still no information on the whereabouts of the children after they were removed from Bagram prison.

Meanwhile, it has also been reported by the media in New York that Dr.

Afia Siddiqui was denied permission to attend court proceedings on Thursday, September 4, 2008 as she had refused to submit to a body search. However, there is confusion as to this statement as Dr. Afia‚s family in the United States reported that she had specifically asked for her brother to be present in court as she wanted to speak with him about some important issues, particularly her children. This message was delivered to her brother, Mr. Mohammad Ali Siddiqui. The family sources claimed that she told the lawyer to emphasize that her brother should cancel all his engagements so as to be sure to attend the court.

The government of Pakistan and the United States owe an obligation to the family of Dr. Afia to inform them of the whereabouts of the two children, Master Ahmed and Marium. It would be a blatant violation of the rights of the child to keep them in secret places without access to their natural guardians. Since Dr. Afia is in the custody of the United States the natural guardians of her children would be her family. It is a matter of the absolute rights of children that whatever be the charges against the parents that they have the right of protection. Therefore the relevant UN agencies and all the authorities of the government of Pakistan and the United States should effectively intervene to return these two children to their natural guardians.

The American Ambassador is lying

The question is, how close to the truth are the Americans….

To find this out we spoke to Dr Fauzia Siddiqui who is Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s sister and Khalid Khawaja, a human rights activist. They have been involved in this case since day one and are aware of all the truths about this case.

Fauzia Siddiqui

Q: Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, the American ambassador has written a letter to the Pakistani media saying that they are twisting the truth. To set the record straight, they have explained 7 points. We would like you to hear your opinion.

FS: I congratulate the Pakistani media for covering the case splendidly and uncovering the truth behind this story. It is for this reason that the American ambassador found it necessary to provide justifications. Instead of accusing the Pakistani media, the American ambassador should look at what the American media is doing. Where are their etiquettes and manners? Look at the filth that their media is writing with regards to this case. Look at the New York media and the false accusations they are putting on Aafia. There is not a crime in the world that they are not accusing her of! I ask her (the ambassador), where is the evidence for these allegations? Why doesn’t she stop these false accusations? The fact that the ambassador is having to provide justifications and is angrily criticising the Pakistani media is proof that the Pakistani media is uncovering the truth, and this is worrying for the Americans.

Q: Madam, I want us to talk frankly and to the point. The American ambassador has said that the media’s claim is false and that before the 17^th of July 2008, Aafia was not in the custody of the Americans, in Bagram or anywhere else and that they had no knowledge of her whereabouts. What is your take on this?

FS: My innocent sister Aafia was kidnapped on the 30^th of March 2003 in Karachi, when she was with her three children, on the way to the railway station. The American ambassador says that they had no knowledge of this but this is a lie. The American television channel NBS news had a report about Aafia’s disappearance on the 22^nd of April 2003, exactly 23 days after she went missing. The report read ‘The FBI is interrogating the recently arrested Dr Aafia Siddiqui. Where this interrogation is taking place and where Dr Aafia is being held are unknown.’ This was their breaking news which stayed on their website for a long time. Maybe it is still there. If Aafia’s whereabouts were unknown to them then why didn’t they refute this story?

Q: It is said that Aafia has been injured due to a gunshot, but the injury is not life-threatening and she has not been mistreated. What do you think?

FS: I wasn’t there and none of us have been able to meet with her. All the allegations of mistreatment which have been brought forward so far have been through the lawyer Elizabeth Fink. Elizabeth doesn’t know us or Aafia. She has been appointed through the American judicial system. She certifies that Aafia is suffering and that she has been tortured. In addition to this, an American woman, who was allowed to watch the court case, wrote a letter to me in which she described Aafia’s condition. I can’t begin to describe to you what is written in that letter. She said that Aafia cannot even sit in the wheelchair properly. You can’t hear her speak. Even from the photograph that the Americans themselves have made public, it is quite clear what ordeal the Americans have put my innocent sister through. The American ambassador’s letter is a pack of lies and it states that no injustice has been done to Aafia. What more injustice can there be than the fact that they have said that if anyone comes to meet Aafia then the security guards will strip search her? Isn’t this injustice and mistreatment? The American ambassador is herself a woman. Is it not injustice that a woman be strip-searched by male security guards?

Q: They say that nobody was paid or rewarded for Dr Aafia’s arrest.

FS: I don’t know what the truth is about this. A lawyer in Islamabad has filed a case with regards to this but I am not aware of the evidence that they have.

Q: Was she arrested in Afghanistan by the Afghan police and handed over by them to the Americans?

FS: These are absurd stories. First NBS reported in 2003 that Aafia was being interrogated by the FBI. Now they say that she was captured on the 17^th of July 2008, that too by the Afghan police! How absurd! They say she was captured in Ghazni and they found in her possession, a map of New York! The question is, was she searching for New York in Ghazni and that was the reason she ended up in Ghazni with a map of New York? The governor of Ghazni has denied that they captured Aafia!

Their claims are easily proved false with a little thought. I think that they kept a lone woman locked up in a dark cell. 5 years later when people started demanding answers they released her in Ghazni themselves and told the Afghan police to [fatally] shoot her. The Afghans didn’t understand and they shot and injured her, then handed her over to the Americans. Their plot failed; they had wanted them to kill her.

Q: It is said that the Americans definitely have no knowledge of the whereabouts of her children.

FS: What does this ‘definitely having no knowledge’ mean? The American ambassador should explain this further. Furthermore, the order which came from the American courts, which the American government told the court to announce on oath, in it was stated that Aafia and her son had been captured. Now where has that son gone? Secondly, in America some people from the FBI came to my resident brother and said, ‘Look we have always been bringing you bad news with regards to your sister Aafia, but today we have brought you good news that next week, when you come to court, we will let you meet with Aafia’s son. They said, ‘If we show you a picture of the boy will you recognise him?’ He said, ‘I can’t say anything about a picture, but if you let me meet him then I will definitely recognise him.’ They had promised to arrange a meeting at the hearing, but then they didn’t let my brother meet him and he has disappeared. Tell us, where has her son gone and why weren’t we allowed to meet him? Why has he been made to disappear?

Q: The picture that America publicised of Aafia’s arrest in Ghazni, in which she was covering her face, was Aafia’s son in that picture as well?

FS: Definitely! Now let the American ambassador tell me what she hopes to achieve by lying.

Q: Aafia is accused of attempting to assault and murder American officers and employees.

FS: An accusation is an accusation! Anyone can accuse anybody of anything! If they are truthful then they should let us meet Aafia. They should allow her mother to meet her. Let her have access to the media and the truth will come out.

Q: They say that they will give her full justice and even let her defend herself.

FS: We don’t believe this one percent. Why? I will explain this to you. The government isn’t even giving her the rights of an American citizen which the law states she should have, so what justice will they give her? According to American law, it is her right that she should be able to make phone calls. It was said that she would be allowed to speak to her mother by phone, but they didn’t allow it. This itself is an injustice. Secondly, because they wanted the court case to take place in New York, they made up the story about the map of New York, which they claim was found in her possession. There is now a trial by media taking place and many disgusting, false allegations are being levelled against Aafia. All this is being done so that the people of New York feel hatred for Aafia, and the court will already be prejudiced against Aafia so the outcome of the case will therefore be decided even before the court case begins. If our ambassador is so concerned then she should oppose the American media and tell them to put a stop to this behaviour. My appeal to the people of Pakistan is that they should make du’a to Allah that He eases the situation of this innocent woman. Ameen.

Khalid Khawaja – Chief Defender of Human rights

Q: Mr Khawaja. The American ambassador has stated that the Pakistani media is twisting the truth regarding Aafia. Is this true?

KK: I challenge the American ambassador to join me in a live broadcast on any television channel in the world. I will prove that she is lying. Dr Aafia was in the custody of the Americans for 5 years. They have oppressed her and I have proof of this. If the American ambassador is truthful then let her come forward and prove that I am lying.

Q: She has said that prior to the 17^th of July they did not know of the whereabouts of Dr Aafia.

KK: Aafia was not an illiterate. She obtained a doctorate from America’s top university and according to her she was also a terrorist! On the other hand they say that she was so mad and the world’s media says that she was prisoner number 650. So in these conditions she arrived in Ghazni, with a map of New York. She also had thousands of e-mails about terrorist activities in her bag. Along with this she also had literature about bomb-making in her bag and was also walking about with bomb making equipment! How stupid do they think people are?! And is the American officer stupid that he will capture the woman who was wanted by the FBI and let her go so that she can go behind the curtain, pick up a gun and start firing?! What do they take us for that they think we will accept this nonsensical story?

Let us say we accept that she was actually captured on the 17^th of July 2008. American law says that when a foreign national comes into their custody then they have to inform their embassy within 24 hours. Why didn’t they do this? They had the opportunity to bring her in front of the media at once and say ‘Look, the woman because of whom we are being accused, we have just captured her in Ghazni.’ Why are they silent?

Q: What will you say regarding their statement that they are definitely unaware of the whereabouts of her children?

KK: They had said that they captured one child with the mother. Now we don’t even know where he is. Secondly, since 2003, up to the present day, the American and Pakistani agencies have been threatening her family and brother not to ‘make any noise’ and that the children will be found and so will Aafia. Now, how can they say that they don’t know where the children are? May Allah protect them; we have heard that they may even have killed one child. The American ambassador should be ashamed of herself for lying and she should tell us about that child, whose capture was announced by the government, where is he now? I spoke to Hussain Haqaani myself and he says that the Americans are even claiming to be unaware about the whereabouts of this child. If this is not blatant transgression…..then what is it?

Q: They say that no maltreatment occurred.

KK: What do they call maltreatment? How did she get in the state that she is in today? And strip-searching a woman in front of men, is that not maltreatment? The American ambassador is herself a woman. She isn’t a Muslim, and she doesn’t observe Hijaab. She should tell me isn’t this maltreatment (that a Muslim woman who observes Hijaab is strip-searched in front of men)? They say that she was shot on the 18^th of July and after transferring her to America they didn’t give her medical treatment. What else is maltreatment? Isn’t what the American media is doing classified as oppression and maltreatment?

Q: It has been promised that justice will be served and she will also be given the right to defend herself.

KK: What justice will those people serve who aren’t even giving her basic human rights? Visitation rights are given throughout the world. In this case, either she is not allowed to meet with her lawyer at all, and when a visit did take place then there were cameras in all directions as well as six other people present. They couldn’t talk. When there was a meeting between Aafia and her brother they were not able to talk. They just looked at each other and cried. Leave aside everything else. After the 30^th of March 2003 when she went missing, Moin Haider, Muhammad Mian Sumro and Faisal Salih Hayat promised her family that she was safe and sound and would be released soon. They should be asked where she was until now.

Q: What is your opinion about the torture?

KK: Look, they made the poor woman a victim of torture for 5 years, up to the point that she is no longer normal. Her lawyer says that all she remembers is that she was kept in a cave. She has no idea how much time she has spent in captivity and is unaware of her children’s whereabouts. The question arises that when she was kidnapped on the 30^th of March, her 3 children were with her. There are eyewitnesses who can vouch for this. Now the Americans say they don’t know where her children are. If they are so unaware then they should ask her whether her children were with her. Two of her children are American citizens, at least find out about them. They are just conjuring up tales.

Q: Why are these lies being told?

KK: For 5 years America has been accused of the abduction and torture of Aafia. Now they want to reassure the American public that the accusations are false and so they are making scapegoats of others and concocting false stories which they are propagating through their media. Only the Pakistani media is spreading the truth and the Americans are worried by this.

alistiqaamah.wordpress.com

Prisoner 650 – The Grey Lady of Bagram

YVONNE RIDLEY on 05 August, 2008 16:05:00 | 113 times read

THE FBI lost much of its credibility when its chief J Edgar Hoover was revealed to be a transvestite who preferred to be called Mary.

Hoover, probably the most powerful men in America some say even more powerful then the presidents he served under, was the originator of dirty tricks campaign and kept a lot of dirt on other people in his files.

The only players who were immune to Hoover's secret files were those who had secrets of their own about his personal life - namely, the Mafia. Mafia bosses obtained information about Hoover's sex life and used it for decades to keep the FBI at bay. Without this, the Mafia as we know it might never have gained its hold in America.

In May of 1972, Hoover - approaching his fifty-five-year anniversary with the Justice Department - boasted that the FBI remained the organization that he built upon his own principles and standards – of course now we know exactly what standards Hoover aka Mary had.

The FBI never really recovered its power or prestige once Hoover was outed as a cross=2 0dresser. There was more scandal to follow when Acting Director L. Patrick Gray was forced to resign after being caught up in the Watergate drama which brought down President Richard Nixon aka Tricky Dicky.

The FBI is supposed to be an institute based around freedom and democracy, instead it has become a factory from which lies and deceit are manufactured.

The reason for this brief history lesson in to the FBI will now become apparent.

You see it is quite obvious that from cross dressers, liars and fraudsters, the FBI has now moved into the realms of fantasy land with the news that Dr Aafia Siddique has "conveniently" been found outside a governor's office in Afghanistan with her 12 year old son ... FIVE years after her disappearance in Karachi.

According to the FBI she was in possession of "numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as excerpts from the Anarchist's Arsenal, descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City" - you know, all the regular stuff a female terrorist would carry in her handbag!

The fantastists who concocted this story may as well have put Dr Siddique in Hoover's old red dress while they were on with it.

What we do know is that she has been shot at and injured. She was extradited to New York last night and is being held in a prison in Manhatten down the road from the night club where Hoover used to pose as Mary.

She faces charges of attempted murder and assault of a US officer. Does the FBI really think we are all that stupid and gullible?

Dr Aafia Siddiqui - who had been sought by the FBI for several years regarding terrorism according to their website – is accused of shooting at two FBI special agents, a US Army warrant officer, an Army captain and military interpreters who unknowingly entered a room where she was being held unsecured.

She fired two shots, but hit no one, officials said. The warrant officer returned fire with a pistol, shooting Siddiqui at least once. She struggled with the officers before she lost consciousness, said officials, adding that she received medical attention.

The day before the shootings, Afghan police had arrested Siddiqui outside the Ghazni governor's compound after finding bomb-making instructions, excerpts from the "Anarchist's Arsenal," papers with descriptions of U.S. landmarks and substances sealed in bottles and glass jars.

This all happened two weeks after I had given a press conference in Islamabad calling on the US to handover Prisoner 650 – The Grey lady of Bagram?

Coincidence? May be – but if the FBI think that we are going to buy the bovine scatterings they've just released to the US media they really do live in La La Land.

Let's look at the cold hard fact of the case.

Dr Siddiqui, 36, is an American-educated neuroscientist. Since 2003, Siddiqui's whereabouts have been the source of much speculation. According to Amnesty International, Siddiqui and her three small children were reported apprehended in Karachi, Pakistan, in March 2003 after the FBI issued at alert requesting information about her location earlier that month.

Several reports indicated Siddiqui was in US custody after her arrest in Karachi. But in May 2004 then-Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller identified Siddiqui among several sought-after al Qaeda members.

Human rights group and a lawyer for Ms. Siddiqui, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, say they believe that she has been secretly detained since 2003, for much of that time at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

“We believe Aafia has been in custody ever since she disappeared,” Ms. Sharp said in a telephone interview yesterday, “and we’re not willing to believe that the discovery of Aafia in Afghanistan is coincidence.”

American military and intelligence officials said that Ms. Siddiqui was in Pakistan for most of the past five years until she resurfaced last month and was captured by the Afghans.

She and her 12-year-old son were arrested in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on July 17. The American officials accused Ms Siddiqui trying to bomb the residence of Ghazni’s provincial governor.

Someone who also does not buy this nonsense is Asim Qureshi, Senior Researcher for the British-based international human rights organisation Cageprisoners.

He has issued the following statement: "There are many questions that the FBI and the Pakistani government need to answer in light of this admission. Why have the FBI continued to pretend to be seeking her while all the while knowing of her detention in Afghanistan? Is Aafia indeed Prisoner 650 whose screams was heard by former Bagram prisoners?

"Aafia Siddiqui is a woman who has been plagued by a number of problems in her life, none of which have anything to do with involvement with Al Qaeda. During the years the US claim she was working as an operative for the organisation, she was in fact the victim of domestic violence at the hands of an abusive husband. Community members in Boston declare that she was incapable of any violence, let alone being involved with a terrorist group.

"Whilst we welcome this disclosure from the FBI, it has only come after mounting international pressure, and five years of detention and abuse. Siddiqui’s case represents the problem of disappearances in Pakistan in the most tragic way. The acceptance by the FBI that Siddiqui has been in custody in Afghanistan raises important questions which must be answered by the Pakistani and US governments. Siddiqui must be returned to Pakistan in order to faces charges for any crime she may have committed or released along with her children."

Cageprisoners has led the campaign for Aafia Siddiqui for the past three years. Since her disappearance in March 2003 in Karachi, along with her three young children, the FBI has continually denied reports of her detention and that she was in their custody.

I am proud to be a patron of Cage Prisoners. Less than two weeks before this fiasco emerged I travelled to Pakistan with Cageprisoners Director, Saghir Hussain, to launch their report, Devoid of the Rule of the Law, at a press conference organised by Imran Khan.

The press conference sparked an international storm of outrage, when I asked my colleagues in the Pakistan media to put pressure on the US to identify Prisoner 650 and the release of Aafia Siddiqui.

I personally spoke with Lt Col Mark Wright at the US Pentagon who denied all knowledge of Prisoner 650 or Dr Aafia Siddique.

Now I don't believe for one minute Lt Col Mark Wright was lying – in fact I did suggest to him that the people he was speaking to in Afghanistan (the FBI) might be lying to him. I did ask him to call me back when he had the facts.

Perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Wright you might want to make that call now and tell me the truth about Dr Siddique and Prisoner 650 ... but whatever you do mate, don't get your facts from the FBI which stands for Fantasy Brigade International .. and that's just the polite version.

Yvonne Ridley is a British renowned journalist, captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, while on assignment with the London’s Sunday Express in 2001. She subsequently converted to Islam and now works for the Iranian-based 24-hour English language news channel Press TV, where she fronts her own London-based current affairs show, The Agenda. She was a regular contributor and columnist of defunct Muslims Weekly-New York, the parent newspaper of DailyMuslims.com. She continues her column for DailyMuslims.com.

Lord Nazir seek permission to visit Aafia Siddique in New York

LONDON, (APP): The British member of Parliament Lord Nazir Ahmed has sought permission to visit Pakistan neuro-scientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui under US custody in New York on alleged charges of terrorism.

Speaking at a news conference at his Central London office on Tuesday accompanied by former British journalist Yvonne Ridley who had first raised concerns about Dr. Aafia, Lord Ahmed expressed fears over the health of the incarcerated Pakistani national.He demanded that Dr. Siddique relatives including her mother and sister be allowed to proceed to USA and visit her and clear the mystery behind her disappearance from Pakistan in 2003.

Lord Ahmed released the response of his letter he had addressed to the US Embassy in London in which Richard LeBaron, Charged’Affaires wrote: “Prior to Ms. Siddique’s detention by Afghan police on July 17,2008, the United States did not have knowledge of her whereabouts and Ms. Siddique had never been in US custody including in Bagram.”He further claimed that charges against Ms. Siddique are serious and well-founded and assured that she has not been mistreated by US personnel

Regarding Lord Ahmed’s desire in visiting Ms.Siddique, the US diplomat said his country is prepared to facilitate such a visit consistent with the applicable rules and procedures of the Detention Centre and contingent on Ms.Siddique’s consent.

On Lord Ahmed’s query regarding “Prisoner 650,” LeBaron wrote that Ms. Siddique is not prisoner by that number. At the press conference the British Parliamentarian posed a question that if Ms.Siddique was not “Prisoner 650? then who is the actual woman by that serial number and that all facts must be brought to light by the US and Afghan authorities.Lord Ahmed also asked that all arrangements must be made to unite Ms.Siddique’s three children with their mother.

A statement by former Bagram and Guantanamo detainee and author of “Enemy Combatant” Moazzam Begg was released at the press conference.He said: “As the case of Dr. Aafia Siddique gains wider public attention the matter of US detention policy pertaining to women in Afghanistan is once again the focus of controversy and outrage.“Since hearing the screams of a woman I used to hear many years ago, when I was detained in Bagram, I have always believed women brought there were brutalised.He said he had made his belief clear to visiting British intelligence agents at the time. “Despite past repeated denials by the US Administration of the existence of Prisoner 650 many of us imprisoned in Bagram prayed for day when the truth would come out. That day is here.”

Meanwhile, the arraignment hearing of Dr Aafia Siddiqui on charges of attempted attack on US officials in Afghanistan has been postponed to September 22 by a New York district court. Her defence lawyer had complained about lack of proper treatment of her client.

Associated Press Of Pakistan ( Pakistan’s

NY terror trial of Pakistani woman may lead to first investigation of US secret intelligence techniques

By ALLISON HOFFMAN, JPOST CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK

A Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three suspected of being a “fixer” for al-Qaida, moving money to support terrorist operations, has been charged with assault and attempted murder in federal court in Manhattan.

Aafia Siddiqui, 36, holds a bachelor’s degree from MIT and a doctorate from Brandeis University.

Siddiqui’s lawyers and human rights groups claim Siddiqui was abducted by intelligence agents and tortured at secret interrogation facilities for five years, until she became a cause celebre in Pakistan and authorities engineered her sudden reappearance with her eldest son, an 11-year-old, in Afghanistan this summer. It is thought she may have been held at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, an American detention facility located at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.According to the indictment, Siddiqui appeared in Ghazni on July 17 carrying a bag packed with chemicals and notes about a “mass casualty attack” involving the Empire State Building or other US landmarks. The following day, she allegedly grabbed an M-4 rifle from a US Army officer and fired it, while stating “her intent and desire to kill Americans.”

She had vanished with her children in March 2003, while the FBI sought her for questioning about suspected ties to al-Qaida and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

She is not accused of any terrorist crimes, though prosecutors say the investigation is ongoing.“There’s all the noise of terrorism, but it’s not in the charges,” said Joanne Mariner, an attorney with Human Rights Watch in New York who has followed the case.

Legal experts say if her lawyers are right, Siddiqui, already unique for being the only woman suspected of high-level al-Qaida involvement, would be the first person to face prosecution in a US criminal court after being held in secret intelligence custody. “It could be precedent-setting in terms of transitioning people from extralegal detention into the criminal justice system,” said Jonathan Hafetz, director of litigation for the Liberty and National Security Project at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. “You could have a judicial inquiry into how someone was treated at a black site - it would be incredibly valuable.”

Siddiqui’s lawyers acknowledge they cannot prove Siddiqui was illicitly held. A spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan reiterated the government’s assertion that Siddiqui was not in US custody at any time during the period she had vanished from the radar. Court documents make no mention of her whereabouts prior to July. The mere existence of the abduction claim by her lawyers underscores how difficult it may be to navigate such uncertain legal territory.

On Thursday, Siddiqui refused to appear before a federal judge in Manhattan for arraignment because she did not want to undergo a mandatory strip search.

Siddiqui’s attorney, Elizabeth Fink, told the court that her client, who was shot in the abdomen during her struggle with the US interviewers she is charged with threatening, was incapacitated by a surgical wound stretching from her sternum to her pelvic area.In addition, Fink said Siddiqui was mentally incompetent to stand trial because of the treatment she suffered prior to her arrest while she was held in custody “by somebody - Pakistani or American intelligence - on the dark side.”

In a letter submitted to the court, Fink wrote that Siddiqui cried constantly and asked jail staff to send her food to her son, who was still in Afghanistan, so he would not starve.“Although her concerns about him being starved and tortured sound somewhat paranoid on the surface, it is also possible they represent an accurate portrayal of Ms. Siddiqui’s experiences with detainment prior to her arrival in Bureau of Prisons custody,” a jail psychologist wrote in a report quoted by Fink.

Fink asked the court to transfer Siddiqui to a medical facility run by the Mayo Clinic to be assessed by psychologists experienced in dealing with torture survivors.Prosecutor David Raskin objected, arguing Siddiqui had been told by her attorneys not to cooperate with prison psychiatrists in New York.

“We are really in a predicament here,” he told US District Court Judge Richard Berman.Berman set a hearing for September 22, and told Fink he wanted to see Siddiqui in his courtroom, in part to convince her that she was in a legitimate legal proceeding where she would be treated fairly.“She could get the opportunity to see that this is a professional setting, that she is, as I said at the beginning of this hearing, presumed innocent,” Berman said.

Siddiqui faces life imprisonment if convicted of all charges.

She came to the US in 1991, first joining her brother in Houston and then transferring to MIT for her undergraduate degree in biology. In Boston, she was active in Muslim student groups, and wrote guides about converting people to Islam. Her passion for her faith didn’t stop her from applying to Brandeis, a secular Jewish university, for a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience.“It’s just where she was accepted - there’s nothing nefarious about it,” said her family’s attorney, Elaine Sharp.Siddiqui’s ex-supervisor, Robert Sekuler, declined comment on his former student through a university spokesman.

Siddiqui was publicly identified by US authorities in 2004 as one of seven people the FBI wanted to question about their suspected ties to al-Qaida. Sharp denied any link.