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Aafia Siddiqui, The Most Dangerous Woman In The World

By Alexa

After more than five years of imprisonment at Bagram Air Force Base, years of physical abuse, repeated rapes, years of surgeries without anesthesia, years of starvation and isolation, years of psychological torture in the form of not knowing the whereabouts of two of her young children and having the third imprisoned with her, starved and abused and seeing everything that was done to her, Fox News-watching "patriots" can rest easily.

Dr. Aafia remains in US custody, but is confined to a Texas psychiatric hospital under maximum security, where, according to her attorney, she suffers hallucinations about her young children. She last saw Suleman at 7 months of age and Maryam at 5 years. The eldest child, Ali (now confirmed by DNA testing to be Aafia's son; the pobrecito had no memory of his family, nor did they have any recognition of him) was remanded to his tia, Aafia's sister, Fowzia, in Pakistan in November. Reported as "severely psychologically disturbed," tormented by night terrors, 11-year-old Ali Siddiqui may be, in the words of soon to be (but not soon enough) former President Bush:

"More than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate," she quotes Bush saying in 2003. "Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies."

What was Dr. Aafia's crime? Why did the late and unlamented John Ashcroft consider her "the most dangerous woman in the world?" What possible reason could there have been for disappearing this US-educated neuroscientist and her three young children?

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.

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.

The fact that Dr. Aafia was a practicing Muslim who attended mosque regularly with her children  probably didn't help matters.

After almost 6 years, none of the original allegations have ever been substantiated:

• Possessing detailed radiological, chemical and biological information, including possessing a liter of cyanide and instructions for a "dirty bomb;"
• More documents for a mass casualty attack;
• A list of New York targets, including the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Wall Street, and the animal disease center on Plum Island;
• "Terrorist recruiting;"
• Possessing excerpts from The Anarchist's Arsenal;
• "Documents detailing US military assets;"
• Methods of attack by reconnaissance drones, underwater bombs and gliders;
• A flash drive packed with emails detailing "specific cells" and planned attacks to carry out.

And yet:

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

And yet:

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. US DoJ

Houston, we have a problem. This chronology from the DoJ appears to infer that Dr. Aafia walked out of her mother's home in Karachi (with children) in 2003 and literally disappeared from the face of the earth until the purported reappearance in Afghanistan more than five years later. Weighing in at less than 100 pounds, having been tortured by countless accounts during the five lost years at Bagram, having had a kidney removed and two abdominal surgeries during her years of being nowhere, does it seem a little (or a lot) odd that this woman who can't walk would physically confront six armed officers?

• March 18, 2003: the FBI issues an alert requesting information about Aafia;
• March 29: UPI reports that the FBI believes Aafia may be an Al Qaeda "fixer," transferring money to support "terrorist" operations;
• March 30: Aafia disappears in Karachi;
• April 3: CNN reports that Al Qaeda figure Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (arrested March 1) mentioned Aafia during interrogation; Pakistani authorities deny any knowledge of her whereabouts;
• April 4: the FBI denies that it captured and is detaining Aafia;
• May 26: John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller cite reports that Al Queda plans an attack on the US in the summer or fall; Aafia is named as an Al Qaeda "operative and facilitator" and is one of seven Al Qaeda members being sought;
• May 28, 2004: Pakistan's Interior Ministry confirms that Aafia was turned over to US authorities in 2003 after it was unable to establish any links she may have had with Al Qaeda;
• A 2006 Amnesty International report includes Aafia as one of many of the "disappeared" in the "war on terror;"
• A 2007 Ghost Prisoner Human Rights Watch report said that Aafia "may have once been held" in secret CIA detention;
• A February 2008 Asian Human Rights Commission report said Aafia was brought to Karachi and severely tortured to secure her compliance as a government witness against Khalid Shiekh Mohammed;
• July 7, 2008: UK journalist Yvonne Ridley identifies Aafia as "Prisoner 650" at the US Bagram, Afghanistan torture-prison;
• July 11: US Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green denies that any women are being held at Bagram;
• July 31: FBI tells Aafia's brother that she's in US custody;
• August 4: DoJ press release says that Afghanistan National Police arrested Aafia in Ghazni on July 17 and that she was wounded the next day while trying to shoot US Army personnel;
• August 6: US Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis orders Aafia be held without bail; her court-appointed lawyer, Elizabeth Fink, says charges against her are "absurd;" a bail hearing was set for August 11 and another for August 18 to determine if she should be tried;
• August 12: Washington Pakistani embassy formally requests that Aafia be repatriated to Pakistan;
• August 13: US military in Afghanistan denies it ever held Aafia in detention and that an unnamed female prisoner was someone else;
• September 23: Judge Richard Berman enters a "not guilty" plea on behalf of Aafia; she refuses to come to court because "doing so requires she be strip-searched;" he sets December 17 as the next hearing date to determine her fitness to stand trial; he also sets March 9, 2009 as a tentative trial date;
• September 29: World Net Daily reports that for the "first time since 9/11, counterterrorism field agents have been authorized to spy on young Muslim men and women - including American citizens - who have traveled to Pakistan without any specific evidence (suggesting) wrongdoing;"
• October 2: Aafia is moved to the Carswell Federal Medical Center, Fort Worth, TX for psychiatric evaluation; in vain, her lawyer pleaded that she not be sent because she urgently needs medical treatment;
• October 6: Pakistani senators Mushahid Hussain Syed, Sadia Abbasi Mehmood, and SM Zafar met with Aafia; Faqir Saeed of the Pakistani embassy as well; she tells them of her ordeal - that she was abducted in 2003, given an injection, found herself in a cell, and was forced to sign papers and confess to things she didn't do; her children's lives were threatened and she was abused grievously;
• November 17: Judge Richard Berman indicates that a psychiatric evaluation indicates that Aafia is "not competent to proceed as a result of her mental disease, which renders her unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her;"
• December 17: the next scheduled date (in New York District Court) to determine if Aafia is fit to stand trial;
• March 9, 2009: Tentative date for Aafia's trial to begin.

Dr. Aafia is the sister-in-law of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

This is the one true thing, the one factual detail of her life before 2003 that hasn't been spun out into dozens of spiderwebs of deceit.

She dreams of her children. She dreams of baby Suleman and 5 year old Maryam, lost to her six years ago, disappeared as were the small children of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The dreams of a bereft mother are described as "hallucinations," because of that an open secret in Karachi; any member of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's family deemed to be "a 1% threat to US security" is in American custody.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on January 04, 2009 (boomark / email).