Excerpt taken from: VETERANS TODAY

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

... What is it like being married to a torturer and war criminal?  Are these harsh terms?  Whenever I hear from a member of Dr. Aafia’s family, I think of Laura Bush.

Dr. Aafia is Pakistani national, PhD from MIT in microbiology, a scientist of some real esteem who, at the “secret orders” of George W. Bush, was kidnapped with her small children, bought from a criminal gang in Pakistan to spend years of torture in an illegal prison.  After 5 years of rape and torture, Aafia is put on trial, not for any crime, but for trying to murder those who were torturing and raping her, 7 of them.  Do you think Laura woke up every morning feeling guilt because of rape and torture ordered by her husband, written off by the two of them as though it were all a college prank.

Laura Bush was silent on this and the fate of over a million Iraqis killed by her husband.  I wonder if she ever asked him where he spent his time in the military during the Vietnam War?  Records show Bush failing a drug test and simply disappearing.  Those records will never be released but the math is simple, not AWOL, but deserter.  “Daddy, what did you do during the war?”

Aafia, the 100 pound, wheelchair bound hellion who had to be shot twice in the abdomen by her “translator” to keep her from murdering her “interrogators”….

Now wait a second.  They speak English in Pakistan.  Aafia lived in the US for years and has a doctorate from MIT.  I would bet any amount that she speaks English much better than George W. Bush, in fact so much better it isn’t funny.  In fact, this isn’t speculation, but a fact.  How many innocent Muslims were kidnapped and thrown into the Gulag when President Bush sent out a “casting call” for dupes to be thrown into the CIA gulag, nobody in particular, just “numbers” so Ashcroft and Gonzales could claim “terrorist suspect” arrests....

Full article here

COME CLEAN, THERE IS STILL TIME

By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 13 Apr, 2010

It’s official: according to none other than this journal of record, the 12-year old child “left outside a house in Karachi [on Sunday, April 4, 2008] is the missing daughter of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, the neuroscientist who was convicted in a US court for shooting at her US interrogators in Afghanistan.”

The child was left at Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s house by an American the child referred to as ‘Uncle John’ and who has since disappeared into thin air.

I have long held that Dr Siddiqui’s case was/is a very curious one indeed. Let us recap from the time that she disappeared from Karachi in the company of her three children in March 2003 until the time (July 17, 2008) that she was found loitering outside the Ghazni governor’s compound in Afghanistan in the company of a young lad said to be her son and both were taken into custody by the Afghan police.

She was alleged to be carrying inflammable materials and maps of potential targets in the United States “in jars” in her handbag. How big these ‘jars’ were, and how many kilogrammes of explosives were being transported in them was not mentioned to astounded readers.

We were not told either what in the world Dr Siddiqui was doing in Ghazni, Afghanistan, right outside the governor’s compound and under the very noses of American and Afghan forces and police. I wrote at the time that mayhap she had gone to Ghazni to catch the United Airlines early evening flight to JFK.

We were also informed that the next day, Dr Siddiqui had been shot in the abdomen “at least once” by an American soldier in self-defence after coming under fire from Dr Siddiqui who had come rushing out from behind a curtain where she was being held “unrestrained” for questioning, and picking up an M4 service rifle that had been left “at his feet” by an American warrant officer, had fired at him. And that but for the timely deflection of her shot by an Afghan interpreter she should have killed the American.

Whilst her son was arrested with her in Ghazni we were also told in a letter penned to the press by the US ambassador to Pakistan H.E. Anne Patterson that the American authorities had absolutely no idea about what had happened to her three children who had disappeared with her in March 2003. And now this young child turns up at her grandparents home in Karachi in the company of ‘Uncle John’. Curiouser and curiouser.

This story was beyond belief then, it is beyond belief now. It defied credibility then, it defies credibility now. There are holes the size of the Titanic in this ‘official’ version of events and at the time that this seeming poppycock was being rolled out, I had written a riposte to the US ambassador’s letter on several aspects.

For example as someone who has handled small arms as a soldier in the infantry; has taught them, and therefore has fired thousands of rounds from all types of small arms, I couldn’t for the life of me imagine even a first-class shooter pick up a rifle he/she did not know, cock it, find the safety catch and flip it, and fire it in under the three seconds that it probably took the alleged Afghan translator to allegedly lunge at Siddiqui and allegedly deflect her alleged shot.

I also asked why Siddiqui had been shot at after she had been overpowered by the Afghan translator and had probably been well and truly subdued, for she is no Samson.

To prove the point that it was highly unlikely for this frail woman to do what she was alleged to have done, I suggested to the ambassador who seems to have the same dimensions as Dr Siddiqui to get one of her Marines at the embassy to place a loaded M4 service rifle (on ‘safe’ as is the standard operating procedure) on the ground near her. She should then pick it up, cock it, flip the safety catch and fire it. I had suggested that she may well fail to even cock the seven-pound heavy rifle in 10 seconds, let alone fire it in three.

I had reminded the ambassador of the embarrassment, nay disgrace, his handlers brought her former boss, the good Gen Colin Powell, when they made him tell white lies on live TV about Iraq’s so-called weapons of mass destruction.

I had said that whilst America had its Sarah ‘Barracuda’ Palins also, who can shoot and skin (and eat?) a moose in under 17 minutes, what we Pakistanis must do is to pray with all our might that Barack Obama and Joe Biden beat the living daylights out of McCain and the Barracuda. And that we are rid of the neocon madmen and women who not only hold America the Beautiful by the jugular, but the rest of the world by the throat too.

Well, friends, we are rid of the mindless ‘Dubya’ and his keepers; the intelligent and compassionate Barack Obama is now the president of the mightiest country on the face of the planet. Now then Excellency, who is this Maryam girl; and who is her Uncle John? And where is Dr Siddiqui’s third child please?

As I have said earlier, if some foolish official has messed up on the Afia Siddiqui case please do not exacerbate the matter by covering up for him/her and bringing America the Beautiful into more disrepute. Tell the whole truth even now; put the matter right even now. Dr Afia Siddiqui is accused of crimes ranging from buying blood diamonds to planning terrorist attacks to being the vilest person on earth. Yet, she was charged in court with what can only be called an impossible crime.

Please act now, if only for the reason that America is home to some of the kindest hearted and generous and warm and disarmingly simple people anywhere on this planet.

April 25, 2010
OPINION

THE PPP-led government has been evading Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s issue as if it was fearful of the US. However, the-God fearing people from within the country and the world over have been making their voices heard, strongly condemning the US highhandedness and its imperialist agenda for the Muslim world that demonised an innocent woman as a terrorist as part of its vilification campaign against Islam. The sight of civil society members in Lahore on Friday protesting against her imprisonment was reassuring in that it provided some hope that Dr Aafia would soon make it to freedom. Apart from the demonic way, the entire drama leading to her arrest was fabricated against her leading to a sham trail that only made a travesty of justice, the torture she has suffered at the hands of the FBI reflects poorly on the state of democracy in the USA. More importantly, it lays bare the truth behind the American penal system.
But while this collective voice of the public is undoubtedly a ray of hope, it is a matter of grave concern that Islamabad is not playing its part. In the face of popular anger, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira’s remark that the government may not demand her release shows that the rulers do not care a fig about the people and their suffering. The government must realise that its paramount duty is to ensure the safety of its citizens. Failing to come to her rescue at a time when the people are all rage at the shameless act by the US will further destroy its reputation as a representative government.

April 14, 2010

EDITORIAL

A BLATANT OUTRAGE!

TO abduct a five-year old girl and subject her to torture and the most inhuman treatment, just because her mother is accused of a certain crime, is heinous child abuse, a violation of international law; it reeks of a most ignoble form of vengeance, and constitutes an affront to human decency. That’s what has been, for seven long years, the fate for Maryam Siddiqui, the daughter of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who was left outside the house of Dr Fauzia, Dr Aafia’s sister, by “unidentified persons” at Karachi a couple of days back. Maryam was indoctrinated by her captives to call herself Fatima but the DNA test leaves little room for doubt that she was, indeed, Dr Aafia-Dr Amjad Khan’s daughter. Kept in a dark room in solitary confinement, she is unable to stand the broad daylight. Once the public outcry against her disappearance has seen her release, even the most naïve can see that the girl, now 12, stands traumatised.

Heading the criminal band of perpetrators was the superpower US, the indefatigable champion of human rights: two other governments, Pakistan and Afghanistan, whom the official moralists at Washington never tire of blaming for human rights violations, were complicit in the crime. Nothing could be more hypocritical and shameful. Rather
than adopting all available means to get the custody of Dr Aafia and her children, even resorting to cutting off the supply line of US and NATO forces, as urged by Senator Talha Mahmood, Chairman Standing Committee on Interior, the Pakistan government chose to cooperate with the US Administration in this blatant act of outrage.

Pakistan’s complicity is also evident from the child’s removal from Pakistan to Afghanistan way back in 2003 and now her sudden reappearance in Karachi. Neither of the acts could have been committed without the clear knowledge and cooperation of our intelligence agencies. Afghanistan’s dirty role comes out not only in the fact that
she was kept at Bagram airbase, but also from President Karzai’s admission, while he was last at Islamabad, that the children were in his country.

No less chilling is the story of Dr Aafia herself. Her agony is not merely the ordeal, physical as well as moral, she is going through but the suffering, unknown to her, that her minor missing children might have had to bear. One of them, a son, was released last year, but another, also a son, still continues to be missing. Prime Minister Gilani, at present in Washington, is supposed to be meeting President Obama. He must strongly demand their immediate release before Dr Aafia is awarded any punishment.

AAFIA, YOU ARE MISSED

by Dr Fauzia Siddiqui

Aafia My dear, Today Aafia you are missed
While the Nation celebrates, Aafia you are missed
As friends and family rejoice,
Your little daughter, I embrace
Aafia, You are missed

I hug and kiss little Maryam,
My hands and lips are numb
Aafia, You are missed

A scared, fearful little girl cries
Holding on to cousin’s friendship ties
Aafia, you are missed

Longing for mommy’s reassurance
Her woeful eyes full of innocence
Aafia, you are missed

Longing for comfort and security allied
Alas, only mother’s love can provide
Aafia, you are missed

Mubarak, Mabruk, congratulations
Soars in the air, my heart weighs tons
Aafia, you are missed

I cannot stop my tears rolling
I cannot hold my heart sinking
What can I do what can I say
I thank God Almighty for this day
Aafia, you are missed

Lord, I am both weak and sinful
You are always Kind and Merciful
As brother sister re-unite
Lord end my sisters plight
Aafia, you are missed

Missed more than ever,
Aafia, you are missed

Sunday, April 11, 2010

By Tahir Niaz

“The DNA profile obtained from blood samples of Maryam Khan alias Fatima, Ahmad Muhammad – her brother – share the STR Genetic Markers with the DNA profile obtained from blood sample of Dr Amjad Khan. Based on the DNA analysis, Dr Amjad cannot be excluded as the biological father of Maryam alias Fatima,” concludes the National Forensic Science Agency’s report, an exclusive copy of which is available with Daily Times. The laboratory is run by the Interior Ministry.

Ahmed, Dr Aafia’s 12-year-old son, was recovered in 2008 and now lives with his aunt, Dr Fauzia in Karachi.

Recovery: Meanwhile, Senate Standing Committee on Interior Chairman Talha Mehmood told a press conference that Maryam – left by unidentified men on the doorstep of her aunt’s house a few days back – was recovered from the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.

Talha said Maryam was found with an American named John, adding the Pakistan government was not making enough efforts to secure Dr Aafia’s release.

He said if the US convicted the “innocent” Dr Aafia, it would distort its image among the community of nations. He said the standing committee would continue to struggle for her release, the same way it did for the recovery of her missing children. “The release of Dr Aafia is a one-point agenda of the entire nation, but the apologetic attitude of the rulers has encouraged foreign forces to bring disgrace to the Pakistani people,” the senator added.

He said Prime Minister Gilani should take up Dr Aafia’s issue when he meets the US president to secure her release and bring back to Pakistan.

April 7-9;  Rallies held in parts of Pakistan for Dr Aafia..

Salem-News.com (Mar-05-2010 02:08)
Gordon Duff Salem-News.com

The Service and Sacrifice of All American War Veterans is at stake.

(BAGRAM, Afghanistan) - Veterans Today Editors, Jeff Gates, Raja Mujtaba and I were in the AF-Pak region over the last couple of weeks. Jeff and I are Vietnam veterans, Raja a decorated combat veteran, tank commander, from the India/Pakistan war. We met dozens of Pakistani military, including nearly all of their highest ranking retired officers, from Admiral Sirohey, Chairman of their Joint Chiefs of Staff to General Alsam Beg, Head of the Army to Lt. General Hamid Gul, former head of the ISI. In our party were our other Veterans Today contributors, BG Asif Haroon Raja and BG Raza Ali, of “Charlie Wilson’s War” fame.

Today, I received an email from Admiral Sirohey. His office is lined with memorabilia from a long career of service, service as an ally and friend of the United States. Sirohey and the rest were America’s most stalwart allies during the Cold War. These were the real allies that helped us bring about the downfall of the Soviet Union.  I was honoured to be among them.

Today Admiral Sirohey is scheduled to attend a rally protesting the illegal kidnapping, brutalizing and conviction of Dr. Affia Siddiqui. America’s best friends in Asia, the finest soldiers in the world are horrified at what we have done.

Can it be that bad?

The Bush administration, when it saw its “War on Terror” wasn’t getting enough suspects, hired drug cartel members and criminal elements to kidnap innocent civilians to fill our secret prisons.

Yes, we actually did this.

In this case, we kidnapped a mother with 3 children, tortured her for years, murdered a small child and then charged her with attempting to murder her captors after years in a secret prison on Bagram Air Force Base.

Every soldier on that base; everyone who has served there has to live with the dishonour of this act until something is done.

Remember when America, after World War II, painted the people of Germany with the stain of guilt for not knowing about the death camps? Tell me what is different here?

We didn’t know that druglords and gangsters were stealing people off the street to fill our prisons with “terror suspects” so Bush/Ashcroft and Cheney could crow about their successes? If you didn’t know before, this is what all the secret “torture memos” were all about, not real terrorists, but innocent people we “bought” as though we were slave runners of old.

A few years after we bought our phony terror suspects, tortured, raped and brutalized them, most were released.

They had committed no crime other than to be standing on the wrong dark street corner when the druglords working for Bush were out hunting “meat” for America’s gulags.

Dr. Aafia had to be convicted, had to be jailed and silenced.

The crimes against her and her children were so heinous, only a kangaroo court in America, a country whose news is orchestrated by the Islam hating MSM/Corporate media and powerful Israeli/AIPAC lobby, would have the audacity to bring her to trial...

....I can talk of honour or service but all people see is babies and their mothers, shot to death, lining the bottom of a ditch.

It is a matter of honour....

...Our silence strips our honour away.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was not a terrorist. The newspapers lied, we all know why. Either she is guilty or we all are. Better to destroy her than to arrest those guilty of real crimes, arrest people some of us voted into high office.

“We were just taking orders.”

Where have we heard that before, Nuremberg? It isn’t just this one life. We've already killed over a million people in our ill fated invasion of Iraq. Fog of War. We know better, everyone with eyes to see knows better, know it now. Then why are we still acting like criminals? No more lies. We are at war, a war with real enemies. We have so little; our short lives, our families and what we believe in...

...The only possible answer is that everyone involved in the trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a liar. Nothing else is possible. I know why they lied, they were ordered to “for the good of the service.” Was there something in the oath involving “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America unless told to lie for the good of the service?”

What are we protecting?

Once the public learns that we are buying phony terror suspects from the world's largest drug dealers, people we are protecting, people flooding our streets with narcotics, there might be problems. Best not let the public know why we never found those weapons of mass destruction, that yellow cake uranium, those mobile bio-weapons labs or why our continual search for Osama bin Laden keeps failing.

The deal of the century, destroying an innocent life and earning the hatred of a valued ally, all to stand behind the lies and rhetoric of America’s “dark age.” We would be lucky if it were only every citizen of Pakistan that was enraged at us for this travesty. It is worse, far worse.

Who are the real terrorists? In Pakistan, Admiral Sirohey, friend to half a dozen American Presidents is heading to a peaceful protest. What can we, Americans, claim? If kidnapping, torture, rape and covering it up by letting the victim rot in prison isn’t terrorism, I don’t know what is.

We should be thankful for that seat on the UN Security Council. We may need it for more than covering up for Israel. The next nation facing sanctions for international crimes may be us.

All that stands between us and being cut off from the world is our veto. All that is keeping an entire administration from War Crimes trials is the Bush administration's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court at the Hague.

Why is President Obama allowing the outrages of the Bush administration to continue?

Full article can be seen here

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Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and a regular contributor to Veterans Today. He specializes in political and social issues. You can see a large collection of Gordon's published articles at this link: VeteransToday.com.