Dr Afia Siddiqui "The Grey Ghost Lady of Bagram"

[Jana]

Originally Posted by batmannow

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, August 4, 2008
WWW.USDOJ.GOVNSD
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888
Aafia Siddiqui Arrested for Attempting to Kill United States Officers in Afghanistan NEW YORK- Michael J. Garcia, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mark J. Mershon, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and Raymond W. Kelly, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced today the arrest of Aafia Siddiqui on charges related to her attempted murder and assault of United States officers and employees in Afghanistan. Siddiqui arrived in New York this evening and will be presented tomorrow before a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court:
On July 17, 2008, officers of the Ghazni Province Afghanistan National Police ("ANP") observed Siddiqui outside the Ghazni governor's compound. ANP officers questioned Siddiqui, regarded her as suspicious, and searched her handbag. In it, they found numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as excerpts from the Anarchist's Arsenal. Siddiqui's papers included descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City. Siddiqui was also in possession of substances that were sealed in bottles and glass jars.
On July 18, 2008, a party of United States personnel, including two FBI special agents, a United States Army Warrant Officer, a United States Army Captain, and United States military interpreters, 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. Shortly after the meeting began, the Captain heard a woman yell from the curtain and, when he turned, saw Siddiqui holding the Warrant Officer's rifle and pointing it directly at the Captain. Siddiqui said, "May the blood of [unintelligible] be directly on your [unintelligible, possibly head or hands]." The interpreter seated closest to Siddiqui lunged at her and pushed the rifle away as Siddiqui pulled the trigger. Siddiqui fired at least two shots but no one was hit. The Warrant Officer returned fire with a 9 mm service pistol and fired approximately two rounds at Siddiqui's torso, hitting her at least once.
Despite being shot, Siddiqui struggled with the officers when they tried to subdue her; she struck and kicked them while shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans. After being subdued, Siddiqui temporarily lost consciousness. The agents and officers then rendered medical aid to Siddiqui.

Siddiqui, a 36-year-old Pakistani woman who previously resided in the United States, is charged in a criminal Complaint filed in the Southern District of New York with one count of attempting to kill United States officers and employees and one count of assaulting United States officers and employees. If convicted, Siddiqui faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each charge.
Mr. Garcia praised the investigative work of the Joint Terrorism Task Force ("JTTF"), the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York City Police Department. He also expressed his gratitude to the Office of International Affairs of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of State for their assistance in the case. Mr. Garcia also thanked the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts for their assistance.
Mr. Garcia said that the investigation is continuing.

Assistant United States Attorney Christopher L. Lavigne is in charge of the prosecution.

The charges and allegations contained in the Complaint are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Criminal Complaint

This, is the official copy of the notification from DEPT. OF JUSTICE USA,

PAKISTANI govt. not doing anything why???

After true face of US and its brutalities expoed the US state dept could not have come up with more childish story than the above.

even an idiot can understand the level of authentication of the above story.

[batmannow]

Dear, MAM JANA ..... I fully , agree with you, its oky from USA point of view ,but what about our own fedral GOVT. our great leaders, i mean ZARDARI, NAWAZ or MUSHARF!!!No words, no official condmnation..... no, protest at least?

[roadrunner]

Originally Posted by dabong1

"Funnily enough, I work for a lottery company, and you have just won $2 million dollars."

"I'm saying there's 1 in a million chance it might be true, "

Perhaps, the world is flat

Well, I never denied it totally. I just did not see any evidence. Plus I don't like Yvonne Ridley, who I find really annoying.

But the FBI admission does not confirm Ridley's accusations. Ridley cites Moazzam Begg's evidence, who says he heard Aafia Siddiqui as early as 2004 wailing out. The FBI claim to only have arrested her 2 weeks ago (2008). So whoever the "gray lady of Bagram" was/is, it was not Aafia Siddiqui, if the FBI are to be believed.

[blain2]

Originally Posted by roadrunner

Well, I never denied it totally. I just did not see any evidence. Plus I don't like Yvonne Ridley, who I find really annoying.

But the FBI admission does not confirm Ridley's accusations. Ridley cites Moazzam Begg's evidence, who says he heard Aafia Siddiqui as early as 2004 wailing out. The FBI claim to only have arrested her 2 weeks ago (2008). So whoever the "gray lady of Bagram" was/is, it was not Aafia Siddiqui, if the FBI are to be believed.

And you take the FBI's claim that they only arrested her 2 weeks ago at its face value? The only reason that FBI is owning up to the arrest (which was made 4 years ago), is because the cat is out of the bag now. A lot of questions were being asked and since they were holding her for this long, they probably wanted to come clean with a part of it. I am sure that this lady has lost some of her mental faculties and may never be able to explain what she went through thus the FBI disclosure about the arrest. If this poor lady was in sound mental condition, this 4 year detention would have become indefinite detention. I don't even buy the BS that the super efficient Afghan police arrested her outside in Ghazni and lo and behold she was found carrying manuals detailing destructive materials etc. The whole case being put up is so flimsy that it screams "cover up".

This is a complete travesty of justice.

[roadrunner]

Originally Posted by blain2

And you take the FBI's claim that they only arrested her 2 weeks ago at its face value? The only reason that FBI is owning up to the arrest (which was made 4 years ago), is because the cat is out of the bag now. A lot of questions were being asked and since they were holding her for this long, they probably wanted to come clean with a part of it. I am sure that this lady has lost some of her mental faculties and may never be able to explain what she went through thus the FBI disclosure about the arrest. If this poor lady was in sound mental condition, this 4 year detention would have become indefinite detention. I don't even buy the BS that the super efficient Afghan police arrested her outside in Ghazni and lo and behold she was found carrying manuals detailing destructive materials etc. The whole case being put up is so flimsy that it screams "cover up".

This is a complete travesty of justice.

At no point in any of my quote did I say I believed the FBI claim. That would be your assumption that I did. The FBI claim to have arrested her 2 weeks ago, Moazzem Begg or Yvonne Ridley claim to have heard her wailing away in 2004. The conclusion is that someone is lying in this whole incident. That is all that can be determined from the facts presented.

[blain2]

Originally Posted by roadrunner

At no point in any of my quote did I say I believed the FBI claim. That would be your assumption that I did. The FBI claim to have arrested her 2 weeks ago, Moazzem Begg or Yvonne Ridley claim to have heard her wailing away in 2004. The conclusion is that someone is lying in this whole incident. That is all that can be determined from the facts presented.

You are right, you did not. I assumed to cast doubt over the whole FBI claim.

[batmannow]

Pakistani Suspected of Qaeda Ties Is Held


By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: August 5, 2008
WASHINGTON — An American-trained Pakistani neuroscientist with ties to operatives of Al Qaeda has been charged with trying to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in a police station in Afghanistan last month, the Justice Department said Monday night.

The scientist, Aafia Siddiqui, who studied at Brandeis University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was transferred to New York on Monday, and is to be arraigned Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the department said in a statement.

Ms. Siddiqui, 36, disappeared with her three children while visiting her parents’ home in Karachi, Pakistan, in March 2003, leading human rights groups and her family to believe she had been secretly detained. But in interviews Monday and in a criminal complaint made public later Monday, American officials said they had no knowledge of Ms. Siddiqui’s location for the past five years until July 17, when Ms. Siddiqui and a teenage boy were detained in Ghazni, Afghanistan, after local authorities became suspicious of their loitering outside the provincial governor’s compound.

When they searched Ms. Siddiqui’s handbag, the Afghan police found documents describing the creation of explosives as well as excerpts from the “Anarchist’s Arsenal.” She also carried sealed bottles and glass jars filled with liquids and gels.

The day after she was detained, an American team, including two F.B.I. agents, two American soldiers and interpreters, went to the police station to talk to her. The F.B.I. has wanted her for questioning since May 2004, a Justice Department spokesman said.

The complaint gave the following account of what happened next. Americans entered a room in the police station, unaware that Ms. Siddiqui was being held there, unsecured, behind a curtain. One of the soldiers, a warrant officer, sat down and placed his M-4 rifle on the floor next to the curtain.

Shortly after the meeting began, the other soldier, a captain, heard a woman yelling from the curtain. He turned to see Ms. Siddiqui pointing the warrant officer’s rifle at him.

The interpreter sitting closest to Ms. Siddiqui lunged at her and pushed the rifle away as she pulled the trigger and shouted, “God is Great.” She fired at least two shots, but no one was hit. The warrant officer returned fire with his 9mm pistol, hitting Ms. Siddiqui at least once in the torso.

Ms. Siddiqui struggled when officers tried to subdue her, shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans. After she was subdued, the complaint said, she “temporarily lost consciousness.”

Ms. Siddiqui was charged Monday with one count of trying to kill American officers and employees and one count of assaulting them, the Justice Department said. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count.

The wild scene in the police station is the latest chapter in one of the strangest episodes in the American campaign against terrorism.

Human rights groups and a lawyer for Ms. Siddiqui, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, said they believed that Ms. Siddiqui had been secretly detained since 2003, much of the time at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

“We believe Aafia has been in custody ever since she disappeared,” Ms. Sharp said in an interview on Monday before the complaint was made public, “and we’re not willing to believe that the discovery of Aafia in Afghanistan is coincidence.”

But American military and intelligence officials said Ms. Siddiqui was in Pakistan until she was detained by Afghan authorities.

“She was not in U.S. custody,” said a senior American intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the pending legal action.

United States intelligence agencies have said that Ms. Siddiqui has links to at least 2 of the 14 men suspected of being high-level members of Al Qaeda who were moved to Guantánamo in September 2006.

A government statement said that Ms. Siddiqui helped Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident and terrorism suspect held in Guantánamo, get documents to re-enter the United States. The statement said Mr. Khan was directed by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the chief organizer of the Sept. 11 attacks, to conduct research on poisoning reservoirs and blowing up gas stations in the United States. The statement also said he had delivered money for terrorist attacks to another operative and discussed a plan to smuggle explosives.

The government said that Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Mr. Mohammed’s, ordered Ms. Siddiqui to help get Mr. Khan’s paperwork. The statement said Mr. Baluchi and Ms. Siddiqui married shortly before his capture.

Mark Mazzetti and Eric Lichtblau contributed reporting from Washington, and William K. Rashbaum
from New York.
NYTimes.com
A VIEW FROM NEWYORK TIMES..........

[ejaz007]

Actually FBI never said they arrested her. They said she was discovered when some one from FBI accidently entered the room she was being held in and she shot FBI agents and the marine accompanying them. Then she was arrested and taken to USA.

In any case FBI has made a mess and don't know how to clean it. Out of frustration they have come up with a story any sensible person would find difficult to believe. Lets wait and see what US justice system does to her.

[ejaz007]

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui declines U.S charges in NY court
Updated at: 0200 PST, Wednesday, August 06, 2008


NEW YORK: A Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three, who is accused of Al-Qaeda links and shooting at US officers in Afghanistan has refused all the U.S allegations leveled against her that she tried to kill U.S. agents and military officers in New York court here on early Wednesday.

Wearing a maroon headscarf, she talked very softly and was asked by the judge to speak up. Down with the weakness and having a bullet wound in her leg she refused to admit allegations leveled against her by nodding her head slowly.

US officials paint Siddiqui as a desperate, highly dangerous figure arrested in Afghanistan on July 17, 2007, in possession of bomb-making instructions.

Aafia Siddiqui didn't enter a plea at her Tuesday arraignment in Manhattan federal court.

Prosecutors say she was stopped last month for questioning by Afghan police who found in her handbag documents including recipes for explosives and chemical weapons and descriptions of New York landmarks. Prosecutors say she pointed a rifle at an Army captain and fired two shots, which missed.

Siddiqui's attorney says the case against her is absurd.

A bail hearing is set for Monday.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui declines U.S charges in NY court

[PakistaniPatriot]

Originally Posted by ejaz007

In any case FBI has made a mess and don't know how to clean it. Out of frustration they have come up with a story any sensible person would find difficult to believe. Lets wait and see what US justice system does to her.

You got that right ejaz bhai....Now they are freakin charging her for killing the people sent to get her. They expect a lady who has been tortured for 5 continuous year to co-operate and not shoot any american who comes to arrest, kill, and/or torture. They don't freakin realize their own mistake. I just don't know how to restrain myself from losing my mind.
And where was Afia Siddiqui's sister for the past 5 yrs.

Look at the poor condition they put on Afia Siddiqui. And they are still charging her with crap.
BBC NEWS | Americas | 'Al-Qaeda' woman appears in court

[Jana]

Dr Afia's picture before before abduction in 2001-2





And now, after facing five years of torture in US custody:




This miserable condition is not only for her but for every Pakistani and Muslim.

:(

This shows the true face of US, US fake democracy and US values. This shows how much US FBI has tortured Dr Afia

[Invincible]

The danger of all this publicity is that this is one individual whose gender is the cause of a high profile case.

It is alleged that hundreds maybe in similar predicaments and they should not be forgotten either.

How many more Aafia Siddique's are waiting to be found?

[ejaz007]

Even dangerous question is how many of these Musharaf handed over to US for interrogation without any investigation.

[roadrunner]

Originally Posted by ejaz007

Even dangerous question is how many of these Musharaf handed over to US for interrogation without any investigation.

This is where you start going all fictional again. You don't know Musharraf had anything to do with this. it has not even come from her own mouth as yet that Musharraf had anything to do with this (even if it did, it would not make it definitely true). You need to stop making baseless conclusions unless the evidence points that way.

Her just turning up in Afghanistan with an "Amateur's Arsenal" handbook is very strange but not altogether beyond belief. Anyhow now is her chance to give her side of events. She will have a public court (presumably) to tell her views of where she was the last 5 years. If Musharraf has held her, she can say this. And then the GoP can give their version of events.

[Invincible]

Mystery of Siddiqui disappearance

Aafia Siddiqui, whom the US accuses of al-Qaeda links, vanished in Karachi with her three children on 30 March 2003.

The next day it was reported in local newspapers that a woman had been taken into custody on terrorism charges.

Initially, confirmation came from a Pakistan interior ministry spokesman.

But a couple of days later, both the Pakistan government and the FBI publicly denied having anything to do with her disappearance.

Two days after Aafia Siddiqui went missing, "a man wearing a motor-bike helmet" arrived at the Siddiqui home in Karachi, her mother told the BBC.

"He did not take off the helmet, but told me that if I ever wanted to see my daughter and grandchildren again, I should keep quiet," Ms Siddiqui's mother told me over the phone in 2003.

The mother, who has since died, also related the affair to other newspapers.

But the government continued to deny having anything to do with her daughter's disappearance.

This is despite the fact that Mrs Siddiqui's other daughter, Fauzia, says she was told by then Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat in 2004 that her sister had been released and would return home shortly.

Research at the time refused to turn up anything on the status of Aafia Siddiqui - she was not listed as wanted by any federal or Pakistani agency.

At that point, it seemed she had vanished off the face of the earth.

Islamic activities

Aafia Siddiqui is the youngest of three children of a British-trained doctor.

Her brother is an architect based in Houston, while Fauzia is a neurologist who used to work at Mount Sinai hospital in New York.

Aafia Siddiqui went to school in Karachi and graduated with a biology degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

It was during this time that she got actively involved in on-campus Islamic activities.

A fellow Pakistani student recalls her as being one of the "hello, brother" types.

"They were the ones with scarves who used to get after us to come to the association meetings," the student, Hamza, told the BBC.

"I remember Aafia as being sweet, mildly irritating but harmless. You would run into her now and then distributing pamphlets."

After graduation, Aafia Siddiqui married Muhammad Amjad Khan, a young Pakistani doctor in Boston.

She continued with her studies, enrolling in Brandeis University near Boston for a PhD in neuro-cognitive science. Her degree has often been misreported as being in microbiology or genetics.

US discrimination

At that time, her main problems arose from married life. She and her husband argued over where to bring up their children.

"Aafia wanted them to be brought up in the US and receive a Western education, but Amjad was against it," her mother said in 2003.

The 11 September 2001 attacks in the US changed everything. Her husband was detained by the FBI for questioning.

The reason was his purchase of night vision goggles, body armour and military manuals.

He is said to have told the FBI it was for big-game hunting.

Aafia Siddiqui was also questioned briefly, but later released, as was her husband.

Soon, they decided to return to Pakistan, citing the increasing discrimination against Muslims in the US following the 9/11 attacks.

In Pakistan, the already estranged couple soon separated, and they divorced in 2002, while she was pregnant with their third child.

Following the birth, Aafia Siddiqui worked briefly in Baltimore, US, before returning to Pakistan in December 2002, where she disappeared months later.

Mounting charges

Various theories about her disappearance started to appear in international and local publications.

The first of these was on 23 June 2003 - three months after her disappearance - in Newsweek.

An investigative report, calling her a micro-biologist, said she and her husband were part of an al-Qaeda sleeper cell.

In Baltimore, she is alleged to have opened a mailbox for a suspected al-Qaeda operative now in Guantanamo Bay.

Majid Khan has been accused of planning to blow up petrol stations across the US.

The charges started to mount.

In 2004 then-FBI director Robert Mueller announced at a press conference that Aafia Siddiqui was wanted for questioning.

She was later named as part of an alleged al-Qaeda diamond smuggling operation in Liberia.

Publications such as Newsweek quoted the FBI as saying this was to finance al-Qaeda's biological and chemical weapons programme.

After that, her name remained on the list of disappeared - until she surfaced last month in Afghanistan in US military custody.

Sister speaks out

Aafia Siddiqui is now in the US facing charges of assaulting and attempting to kill US personnel while in detention in Afghanistan.

The FBI has been unable to make any of the other charges stick.

"It is always believed one is innocent until proven guilty, not the other way round," her sister, Fauzia, told reporters in Karachi on Tuesday.

She added that every time she had met US officials, they had said they had never formally accused Aafia Siddiqui of being a terrorist.

Ex-security officials also point out that if Ms Siddiqui was detained for being a terror suspect, her ex-husband, who is free, should have been too.

Why, then, would Aafia Siddiqui have been arrested and kept in secret confinement for so long?

The answer may lie in her relationship with the family of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Aafia Siddiqui is said to have married Ali Abd'al Aziz Ali, one of his nephews following her divorce.

Although her family denies this, the BBC has been able to confirm it from security sources and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's family.

It is an open secret in Karachi, that any member of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's family deemed to be "a 1% threat to US security" is in American custody.

That may be the only "crime" that Aafia Siddiqui has committed.

In the eyes of US and Pakistani security officials, it was apparently too big to ignore.

Another view this time from the BBC reveals yet even more twists and turns in this case.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7544008.stm