“Why is there even a trial?” It was, of course, a rhetorical question and probably the most poignant and telling observation made during the opening proceedings against Dr Aafia Siddiqui in New York this week.
It is a question I hope every U.S. journalist and media group across the world keeps on asking every day as American tax dollars are squandered persecuting an innocent woman for no other reason than someone is incapable of saying: “I made a mistake”.
I don’t know who this individual is, other than he is very senior in U.S. intelligence and is directly responsible for ordering the kidnap, rendition, torture and abuse of Dr. Aafia and the disappearance of her three children.
In his drive to cover his own tracks and frame Dr. Aafia she ended up being shot several times by US guards in an Afghan police cell in the province of Ghazni.
Initially, he may have done nothing more than sign a piece of paper which brought about her kidnap from Karachi way back in March 2003 – but
by now he will know that the entire Muslim world is watching and waiting to see what happens when the trial gets underway for real on Tuesday, January 19.
Despite the judge’s futile attempts to keep switching and changing pre-trial hearings, supporters of Dr. Aafia still manage to fill the
spectator gallery and overspill room.
Judge Richard Berman will by now be acutely aware he is handling one of the most sensitive cases ever brought before a court in the
entire history of George W Bush’s ill-fated War on Terror.
I know he has received hundreds of postcards from those who have attended Cageprisoner meetings demanding he uses his influence to stop the
primitve and brutal strip searches Dr. Aafia has been forced to endure everytime she meets with her legal team and attends court.
Should she resist these searches, I can tell you having witnessed CCTV footage fo a woman prisoner doing the same, Dr. Aafia will be
held down by around four to five male prison warders while two female officers tear away at her clothes and then carry out full cavity searches.
What I witnessed on CCTV footage is tantamount to rape and had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would have thought it was filmed in a
third world country.
Sadly this primitive practice and the pleas of hundreds, if not thousands of westerners to Judge Berman to have the practice stop, has yet to take effect.
The trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, January 19 at 9am in the Federal Court in Manhattan, New York where the frail Pakistani
mother-of-three faces charges for an alleged crime which happened in Afghanistan in July 2008.
The pre-trial hearing on Monday was quite illuminating in itself after the prosecution ..
ADMITTED Dr. Aafia is not a member of al-Qaida
REVEALED she has no links to any terrorist organization
STATED there were no fingerprints on the gun she was supposed to have wrested from one of the soldiers.
CONCEDED no bullets were recovered from the cell
The defence complained that the prosecution had still not turned over the list of witnesses they intend to call so defence lawyers have no idea who those witnesses are.
It had previously been agreed that the legal team representing Dr. Aafia would get those names at least 1 week before the start of trial.
Dr. Aafia’s lawyers requested once again that she be spared the strip searches and have a video link. The judge said he wanted now for her to have the right to confront her accuser so she must be forced to court.
It should be noted that the defense made the argument that if Aafia's ability to face her accusers is so paramount, why is this not applied to the "evidence" when those who accuse her of having this evidence are not being brought to court and so she has no right to confront them? However she still must be strip searched and brought to trial against her will for the sake of this same right.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Aafia made one appeal to the public saying that she was for peace and wanted to help. She said that she was not against America and many injustices are being done to her. Many people in the audience cried as the U.S. marshalls again forcibly removed her, physically pushing her at times.
The defence lawyers pleaded with the U.S. marshalls and the MDC prison legal representative, Christa Colvin, to allow even a 5 minute meeting between Aafia and her brother but the U.S. marshals refused. When her brother attempted to say a few words to her, the marshals turned Aafia's head away so she could not respond.
So, this is justice U.S. style.
The case, outlined by the prosecution appears to be so thin it is anorexic. It all rests on whether this tiny framed, frail woman wrestled an assault rile from the hands of a burly U.S. soldier and fired off two rounds while she was in a dazed and confused state.
The fact that she was kidnapped from her home city in Pakistan at the behest of US intelligence, beaten, tortured and abused in Bagram for several years before being dumped outside the governor of Ghazni’s home five years later is not up for discussion.
The fact her three children, two of the US citizens, were also kidnapped and two of them are still missing is, apparently not relevant either.
All Judge Berman wants to establish is: “Did Aafia wrestle the gun for a US soldier with the intent to shoot him?”
And since there’s no forensic evidence tying Dr. Aafia to the gun, there seems to be no case. No fingerprints, no bullets, no residue – NOTHING.
The prosecution have even conceded there are no terror links which blows the New York tabloids’ headlines calling her the ‘Al-Qaida Mom’.
As I said at the start of this article the rhewtorical question asked by one observer was probably the most poignant one of the day: “Why is there even a trial.”
But here’s an even better question I challenge the U.S. media to ask: “Who is responsible for putting this innocent women through six years of hell and where are her missing children?”
* Yvonne Ridley is a patron of Cageprisoners, the first human rights organization which highlighted the mystery disappearance of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in 2003 and has campaigned for her release ever since.
STATEMENT BY FAMILY OF DR. AAFIA SIDDIQUI IN RESPONSE TO GUILTY VERDICT
February 3, 2010, New York, NY – The International Justice Network (IJNetwork) represents the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in the United States. Attorneys from IJNetwork have been monitoring her trial, which began on January 19, and ended with a guilty verdict today in U.S. Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.
"Today marks the close of another sad chapter in the life of our sister, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Today she was unjustly found guilty. Though she was not charged with any terrorism-related offense, Judge Berman permitted the prosecution's witnesses to characterize our sister as a terrorist -- which, based on copious evidence, she clearly is not. Today's verdict is one of many legal errors that allowed the prosecution to build a case against our sister based on hate, rather than fact. We believe that as a result, she was denied a fair trial, and today's verdict must be overturned on appeal."
February 3, 2010, New York, NY – The International Justice Network (IJNetwork) represents the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in the United States. Attorneys from IJNetwork have been monitoring her trial, which began on January 19, and ended with a guilty verdict today in U.S. Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.
"Today marks the close of another sad chapter in the life of our sister, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Today she was unjustly found guilty. Though she was not charged with any terrorism-related offense, Judge Berman permitted the prosecution's witnesses to characterize our sister as a terrorist -- which, based on copious evidence, she clearly is not. Today's verdict is one of many legal errors that allowed the prosecution to build a case against our sister based on hate, rather than fact. We believe that as a result, she was denied a fair trial, and today's verdict must be overturned on appeal."
Trial Update from Jan 25, 2010
The female medic who was present and treated Aafia after the shooting incident took the stand. Her testimony directly contradicted that of prior witnesses who placed the M4 rifle and relevant witnesses at differing locations at the scene. Next, the US Warrant Officer who shot Aafia took the stand -- but was unable to explain statements he gave to the FBI regarding the incident which significantly differed from his testimony at trial. To date, no two prosecution witnesses have provided a consistent account of the shooting incident.
Bring Aafia Back Vigil
Audio: Air America w/Petra Bartosiewicz of Harper's on Aafia and missing persons
Petra Bartosiewicz of Harper's Magazine covers many issues revolving around the prosecution of the war on terror, intelligence collection and Dr. Aafia's case in particular. The interview gives a very accurate and concise overview of Dr. Aafia's case.
/public_html/images/stories/jrpetra.mp3
U.S. Veterans Group - Injustices in Dr. Aafia's Case
Dr. A’fia Siddiqui: VICTIM OF BUSH RAPE AND KIDNAP SQUAD
January 10, 2010 by Gordon Duff WOMAN KIDNAPPED, RAPED AND HELD 5 YEARS IN SECRET BAGRAM PRISON NOW
FACING TRIAL FOR ATTACKING CIA TORTURE SQUAD
By Gordon Duff/STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
Next week, a mother of 3 children is facing trial for, supposedly, wrestling an M-16 away from a CIA torture squad and trying to kill them. How did the CIA get her? They bought her. She was sold to them by a corrupt official in Pakistan as a "terror suspect," a common problem and a well known ploy in the George W. Bush phony war on terrorism.
Was she a terrorist? There is no evidence of this, even after years of torture. The only serious crimes we find her guilty of is being a house wife, mother and Islamic and, I forgot, having an education. Her victims? Crippled and 100 pounds, she took on a room full of former Navy Seals, Special Forces and "private interrogators." The obvious truth, of course: the charges are a fabrication by a pack of cowards and liars.
What do we really know? We really don’t know anything at all. Nobody has any evidence that this woman, a scientist educated in the US did anything at all. There is talk, empty talk about her sending money to charities that might be tied to terrorism. The amount of money is about 2% of a typical payment from one of the Saudi royals that have funded terrorists and suicide bombers for years, but none of them are kidnapped, raped, shot or beaten.
They have oil.
The case against her is made, at length, in the Wikipedia article about her. It is a good read. It makes me proud to be an American. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aafia_Siddiqui
What we see exposed, however, is the slave trade in "terror suspects" created during the Bush Administration fear frenzy when intelligence agencies around the world started dragging innocent people off the streets and selling them to the US for millions of dollars to supply the needed number of "terrorist arrests" to justify wild claims of a successful war on terror continually being made by Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and the rest of the gang.
The crime is an amusing one. A woman who was either just arrested or had been in custody for 5 years, depending on which of her captors you listen to. This should seem like an interesting read:
"On 4 August 2008, shorty after press rumors suggested that Siddiqui had been in Bagram for the last five years, the US government announced that Aafia Siddiqui was arrested on charges related to her attempted murder and assault of United States officers and employees in Afghanistan
The US claims that Siddiqui was not captured in March 2003, that she was arrested on July 17, 2008 outside the home of the Governor of Ghazni.[24][25] The US account of the July 18, 2008 shooting is that FBI agents, interpreters, and several GIs entered arrived at the Afghan facility where Siddiqui was being held. The personnel entered a second floor meeting room—unaware that Siddiqui was being held there, unsecured, behind a curtain.
The Warrant Officer took a seat and placed his United States Army M-4 rifle on the floor next to the curtain .[26] According to the US account the GIs set down their weapons, whereupon Siddiqui burst from behind a curtain, grabbed an M-4, and opened fire. One interpreter who was accompanying the officers seized the firearm from her.
US officials claim they have no idea where Siddiqui has been in the five years since she was captured on March 17, 2003.
Siddiqui arrived in New York on August 4, 2008, and was presented before a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Siddiqui refused to accept the charges.[27][28][29] Siddiqui’s lawyer stated that no one can believe the FBI story and that Siddiqui had actually been captured in Karachi, Pakistan along with three of her children.
On August 8, 2008 the Daily Times reported that Aafia was captured in Ghazni with her eldest son, Muhammad Ahmed.[31] The report stated that documents existed that confirmed that Affia and her children had been captured in March 2003."
REAL ISSUES FOR DECENT AMERICANS TO CARE ABOUT
This woman and her three children were kidnapped, and illegally held for 5 years under the most brutal conditions imaginable without any legal reason. She had been accused of no crime. After years of imprisonment, rape and torture, she is finally arrested for attacking those who tortured her.
REALITY CHECK: TIME TO STAND PROUD IN OUR WAR ON TERROR
After 5 years of imprisonment, Dr. Siddiqui was a total physical wreck, barely able to walk, and seriously disabled from hundreds of torture sessions. Yet she is accused of overpowering several Navy Seals and US Army Special Forces unarmed combat specialists, seizing a weapon and nearly killing all of them, this at a weight of 100 pounds.
"Nearly killing" is a bit of an overstatement. In fact, nobody was injured at all. The more we investigate this, the more this sounds like an outlandish war story cooked up to file for PTSD.
She faces 20 years for this crime and only this crime. Since when was it a crime to attempt to escape from illegal imprisonment? Any American who is illegally detained and imprisoned without due process can’t be charged with a crime for resisting torture or imprisonment.
Americans consider such actions their patriotic duty.
PHOTO STUDY OF OUR SECURITY FORCES IN KABUL PROVING THEIR CHARACTER AND DISCIPLINE:
Graphic Images removed (see orginial article at your own disgression)
ONE OF THE GREAT SUCCESSES OF THE WAR ON TERROR
Attorney General John Ashcroft considered the kidnapping of this woman, along with her 3 children, one of the great victories of the War on Terror. However, after 5 years of interrogation and 7 years of confinement, no charges could ever be filed against her other than trying to single handledly crawl out of her death bed and dispatch a room full of "drug store" Rambo types.
In an unpublicized but much more interesting case, Ashcroft and his band of merry US Attorneys, in their attempt to rack up arrests for terrorism without doing adequate homework actually managed to drag in an entire CIA intelligence organization which had, until broken up by John Ashcroft and gang, penetrated the highest levels of Al Qaeda.
Not much more can be said, but several top CIA operatives now have the embarassing history of having been arrested for terrorist related charges. Ashcroft and later Gonzales have, through incompetence, done more to cripple US intelligence efforts than any group other than the Mossad.
Even the "outing" of CIA nuclear proliferation specialist Valerie Plame, believed to be responsible for North Korea getting nuclear weapons, involved much less utter bungling and inanity.
OBAMA, HOLDER AND A BUSH ERA "WITCH HUNT"
Nearly every legal expert in the world, including almost universal outrage among the legal community is Israel, has called this one of the most insane acts of abuse of any country that claims to have a functioning legal system and representative form of government.
Even the alleged "suspicious acts," which are, by the way, buying totally legal and harmless gun accessories, is in itself totally insane. Am I going to have to register that dangerous combat assault flashlight I keep by my desk for when I drop my reading glasses?
Any idiot who goes to gun shows knows that the weapons that small children carry around in Afghanistan are ten times better than the things Americans can get from sporting good stores or thru mail order. Every time an American collector sees a photograph of a Taliban member who owns 2 goats carrying an AK rifle with forged receiver and top quality ART sniper scope, something worth $3000 or more in the US, the insanity of purchasing 3rd rate clone parts in the US to ship to a country that has enough assault rifles to supply the world for centuries begins to sink in.
Where is the NRA and ACLU?
AMERICAN ANTI-GUN CRAZIES
Even if we weren’t dealing with a kidnapped and raped mother facing trial for, not terrorism but for showing super human powers and violating, not terrorist laws but, moreover, the laws of physics themselves, I can’t help but come back to an old theme.
If I buy a semi-automatic shotgun and the Black Helicopter Secret Police raid my home, is a US Attorney going to call it a "ultra-high powered special operations assault mid caliber artillery piece?"
Is my Ruger 10/22, purchased for plinking tin cans going to be an assault machine gun?
However, when Dr. Hasan went on his terror campaign at Ft. Hood using an FN Herstal 5.7mm 20 round assault pistol with classified ammunition available ONLY to our special operations troops, ammo specially designed for penetrating body armor, newspapers, TV, everyone was silent. We can be so very "uncurious" when we need to. I am still waiting to find out why we are concealing this. WHO IS THE VICTIM HERE?
These things are obvious. We paid criminals to kidnap an innocent person for cheap public relations gain, elections were coming up and our War on Terror was looking as phony as, well as phony as it actually is.
Then, after years of rape and torture, this frail Islamic woman tries to fight back, or so we are told, told by people who imprison innocent people, rape and torture. Are these witnesses we would have in an American court?
She already considers herself dead. What human can survive such brutality, injustice, humiliation and abuse. Who are the real victims here?
Americans who know nothing of the trial, American who sat silently while this went on, Americans who thought their cowardice was buying them "safety."
We are the victims because we are despised around the world for brutality and injustice we know nothing of because we gave up our free press and our love of honor for, well, I don’t actually know. A picture of Sarah Palin comes to mind, her or "Joe the Plumber."
^"Release her children at least". The International News. 2008-08-07. http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=128570. Retrieved 2008-08-07. "I don’t know if Dr Siddiqui has done anything illegal or not but the way she has been picked and handed over to US authorities along with three innocent children is a violation of basic human rights and human dignity. What happened to moral values, respect for law and human rights? If she has done something wrong, she should have been held accountable in the court of law and punished. But why detain her illegally, along with three children, without any charge whatsoever for five years?" mirror
^ Aijaz Zaka Syed (2009-07-29). "New York, the Untold Story". Khaleej Times. Archived from the original on 2009-07-29. http://www.webcitation.org Retrieved 2009-07-29. "The witch-hunt and victimisation of innocent Muslims as portrayed in the movie, New York, is not the figment of Bollywood’s imagination. It is a frightening reality that is not limited to some unfortunate individuals like Sameer, Omar and Maya who happened to be at the wrong place at a wrong time. The horrific ordeal of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a MIT-trained neuroscientist who disappeared with her three children five years ago from Islamabad to mysteriously resurface in US custody as a terror suspect and al-Qaeda mastermind, is a case in point. Who knows how many Aafia Siddiquis, Sameers and Omars are out there, waiting for justice and freedom? I can hear their helpless, terrifying cries all the time…"
^ Aijaz Zaka Syed (2009-07-29). "New York, the Untold Story". Khaleej Times. Archived from the original on 2009-07-29. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khaleejtimes.com%2FDisplayArticle.asp%3Fxfile%3Ddata%2Fopinion%2F2009%2FJuly%2Fopinion_July154.xml%26section%3Dopinion%26col%3D&date=2009-07-29. Retrieved 2009-07-29. "The witch-hunt and victimisation of innocent Muslims as portrayed in the movie, New York, is not the figment of Bollywood’s imagination. It is a frightening reality that is not limited to some unfortunate individuals like Sameer, Omar and Maya who happened to be at the wrong place at a wrong time. The horrific ordeal of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a MIT-trained neuroscientist who disappeared with her three children five years ago from Islamabad to mysteriously resurface in US custody as a terror suspect and al-Qaeda mastermind, is a case in point. Who knows how many Aafia Siddiquis, Sameers and Omars are out there, waiting for justice and freedom? I can hear their helpless, terrifying cries all the time…"
Distrubing Image Aafia used by U.S. Gov. during jury selection
Click here to see the latest image of Dr. Aafia used by the Prosecution and released to the U.S. media.
