Aafia’s sentencing–> A question mark over USA justice system; Shame for Pakistan Army and Government

Dr. Aafia Siddiqi, mother of three children who was kidnapped from Karachi in 2003 by USA and Pakistani agencies, is sentenced for 86 years.

The charge is that this 5 feet weak woman  attacked well trained US marines by snatching their rifles and in the process no one was shot except Aafia herself.

All the principles of justice like innocent till proven guilty, fair defense and unbiased decision making were destroyed in the case by US judge , members of jury and the US government. They were well supported by Pakistani government and agencies in the fake trial.

The decision leaves a question mark on the justice system of USA and its effectiveness to protect human rights. USA civil society needs to think over it if they have some conscience as this can happen with them too.

This decision is a Shame for Pakistan Army, Agencies and Government especially the Pentagon Pet Dictator Musharraf and his junta. They not only sold Aafia but hundreds like her and sold their motherland to their imperialist masters for serving their greed and lust for power.

May Allah give justice to Aafia and bring to justice those who were involved in doing this with her.

Read also : Aafia Siddiqui Indictment

Support Appeal For Dr. Afia Siddiqi(Prisoner 650 Bagram Jail)–>AHRC

Imran asks three questions from USA and Pakistan about Dr. Aafia

Source : http://insaf.pk/News/tabid/60/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/3474/Imran-asks-three-questions-from-USA-and-Pakistan-about-Dr-Aafia.aspx

By Hammad Cheema

Imran Khan, Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), has expressed his disgust and anger over the way the whole Dr Aafia Siddiqui case has ended in what is clearly a travesty of justice. He has demanded three things from the State of Pakistan and the USA:

First: the Pakistani people have a right to know how Dr Aafia Siddiqui, with three minor children, landed up in Bagram Base. He demanded that the Pakistan government needs to answer this clearly as does the US. Did the Pakistani authorities covertly hand over Dr Siddiqui with her young children to the Americans? Or did the Americans kidnap her in Pakistan and successfully take her out into Afghanistan? What has been the fate of her children, since two of them are still missing?

How could a frail woman manage to attack US soldiers who surrounded her? Did she suddenly acquire superwoman or bionic abilities?

Second: Why has the Pakistan government not taken proper action to ensure her return to Pakistan? Are they not aware of the fact that apart from the injustice and abuse of a Pakistani woman, the injustice meted out to Dr Aafia is going to add to the difficulties of the Pakistani military’s fight in the tribal belt as well as increasing anti-Americanism and extremism? For Pakistan this will create more space for militancy.

Just as the Lal Masjid episode was a watershed for a qualitative change in the rising tide of militancy and extremism, so the Dr Aafia sentencing will become another watershed in this direction of creating more space for extremism and militancy.

Three: Who aided and abetted the Americans in Pakistan? The Pakistan government must not only expose those who aided and abetted the kidnapping of Dr Aafia, but must also mete out exemplary punishment to them. In 2003 when Imran Khan contacted Dr Aafia’s mother in order to give a statement in Aafia’s support, her mother was terrified and told Imran that she had been warned that if any such statements were made, Dr Aafia would be killed.

It is a national shame that the state of Pakistan, instead of protecting its citizens, has been aiding and abetting in their disappearances, their torture and their abuse. It is time to put an end to all this lest the nation take things into their own hands.

Write to Aafia Siddiqi

Please show your solidarity with Aafia Siddiqi by writing her letters.

The address is:
AAFIA SIDDIQUI # 90279-054 MDC BROOKLYN METROPOLITAN DETENTION CENTER P.O. BOX 329002 BROOKLYN, NY 11232

Please keep in mind that the letters should not contain any hate material for anyone as this may give chance to her enemies.

Special Report: Dr. A’fia Siddiqui: VICTIM OF BUSH RAPE AND KIDNAP SQUAD–>By Gordon Duff

Special Report: Dr. A’fia Siddiqui: VICTIM OF BUSH RAPE AND KIDNAP SQUAD

Source : http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=62041

By Gordon Duff

January 10, 2010

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:

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.

Ashcroft has many success in his career.  He is the only person in American history to have lost a seat in the US Senate to a dead man.

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.”

and so it goes

American Jury Decides Against Aafia Over Baseless Charges–>Hypocrisy of so called civilized country exposed

The decision by American court against Dr. Aafia Siddiqi on baseless charges may not harm Aafia much as she has gone through worse already. But the case has really exposed the biased approach and hypocrisy of a so  called free country and its system of justice.

The court didn’t take into account Aafia’s abduction in 2003 and didn’t bother to look at the main accusation of her affiliation with Al-Qaida because FBI and USA army didn’t have any proofs against her in those charges.

The proofs fabricated to frame her on the charges of American soldiers had many flaws.

–          No bullet holes of M-4 rifle were found on the wall of interrogation cell.

–          No finger prints of Aafia were found on the rifle.

–          Witness accounts against her were contradicting and were clearly fabricated.

Apart from USA government and court, Pakistan security institutions and government deliberately destroyed the case by appointing a team of lawyers against the will of Aafia . The purpose of appointing those lawyers was to harm the case and the lawyers were clearly following the lines of Pakistani and American agencies.

American citizens need to think if this has happened to Aafia in their courts, it can happen to them as well. They can be framed and punished as well.

In simple words I can say:

SO CALLED NATIONAL SECURITY WON AGAINST JUSTICE!!!

Aafia turns out to be a credible witness–>DAWN

Source : http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/12-aafia-turns-out-to-be-a-credible-witness-010–bi-10

By Masood Haider

NEW YORK: Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui took the stand on Thursday afternoon to testify in a court where she is facing the charge of trying to kill American servicemen while in custody at Ghazni (Afghanistan).

While denying the attempted murder charge, Dr Aafia told the court that she was concerned she was going to be transferred to a ‘secret’ prison by the Americans and was trying to slip out of the room when she was shot.

“I’m telling you what I know,” she said in response to a question by Assistant US Attorney Jenna M. Dabbs.

“I walked towards the curtain. I was shot and I was shot again. I fainted.” Much to the surprise of her defence team, Dr Aafia turned to be a ‘credible witness’.

She was allowed to take the stand after Judge Richard Berman issued her caveats making her aware of the pitfalls and the dangers of such a move. Her defence team was literally scared that she could turn out to be her own worst enemy given her past record of outbursts.

She had been thrown out of the court several times after being admonished by the judge not to speak out of turn.

But on Thursday she surprised them all and remained calm and composed.Dr Aafia again denied picking up an M4 rifle and taking a shot at American soldiers and instead maintained that she was scared and wanted to run away as she heard conversations from behind the curtain during her incarceration at Ghazni.

She said as she peeked out of the curtain she was shot and injured. She also accused the FBI agents who questioned her time and again of threatening to hurt her children in order to scare her.

At one point she became so chatty that she was asked by the judge to just answer the question instead of elaborating them.

She also denied prosectuion’s claim that she was trained in rifle shooting, saying: “I took physical training but not to shoot a rifle.”

She said she was shot two or three times by one person in the room and then shot by someone else. She also said she did not believe any US soldier in the room would be irresponsible enough to leave his weapon lying around.

A group of FBI agents and US soldiers had travelled to Ghazni to interview Dr Aafia after she was allegedly found with materials that included hand-written notes referring to a “mass casualty attack” in the US and listed several landmark locations, including the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge, prosecutors have said.

Witnesses’ accounts differ at Dr. Aafia’s trial –>DAWN

Source : http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/14-witnesses-accounts-differ-at-dr-aafia-trial-zj-01

KARACHI: The trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui has taken a bizarre turn when a witness’s testimony came out to be different from the one given by American official Captain Schnieder, reports DawnNews.

Furthermore, an FBI agent testified that they did not find Dr. Aafia’s finger-prints on the rifle.

The US federal court in Manhattan heard Aafia Siddiqui and 5 other witnesses. Dr. Aafia told the court that she is being misrepresented by the prosecutor’s statement regarding the things she has said about America, that only negative thoughts are being portrayed.

According to DawnNews’ correspondent in New York, Masood Haider, the court heard witnesses who saw the incident including an Afghan interpreter, Ahmed Gul who became a green card holder in 2009 and was processed by the American government and now lives in New York. Abdul previously claimed that he saw Dr. Aafia shoot at the US soldiers.

There was also a cross examination of witnesses and forensic experts and FBI. On the second day of the trial, four witnesses came under cross-questioning.

In the previous hearing, Captain Schnieder told the court that Dr. Aafia shot at him while she was on her knees.

But on the second day of the trial, Ahmed Gul told the court that Dr. Aafia was standing when she fired the gun and the gun was pointing at some other official.

The Afghan interpreter also told the court that he has been granted a green card and has been settled in America by the officials who brought him to testify in the trial.

During the hearing, one FBI official told the court that they found Dr. Aafia’s fingerprints on the documents but not on the gun, Masood Haider said.

Imran warns of protests if Aafia convicted–>The Nation

Source :http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/10-Jan-2010/Imran-warns-of-protests-if-Aafia-convicted

By Khalid Aziz

ISLAMABAD – Chairman Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf Imran Khan Saturday warned of countrywide protest against the prospective conviction of Dr Aafia Siddiqui in USA.
Khan while addressing a students’ seminar said that the US court was going to deliver an ex-party sentence against Dr Afia who was not pleading her case for having no hope of justice from American courts. PTI’s Women Wing had organised the seminar at party’s central office.
He regretted that our own agencies handed over a daughter of nation to foreign powers for the sake of dollars, adding that rulers were keeping mum over her possible conviction. He, however, warned that PTI workers would come on streets in each and every corner of the country if Dr Aafia were convicted by US court.
Recalling his youth days before the students, PTI chief said by then Pakistan was a fast progressing country and the nation was proud and confident. Later, it became slave of foreign powers due to the misdeeds of its rulers. He said that rulers were worshipping the dollar, who, he said, had sold out the nation for minting dollars from USA.
He said that PPP should ask Zardari to explain from which source or business he earned the millions of dollars kept in foreign banks.
Khan also condemned military operations in FATA and other parts of the country and called for withdrawal from the foreign war. He said operations were not a solution to the problem but produced more militants and suicide bombers. Once again he offered mediation between the Taliban and government with guaranteed success provided Pakistan withdrew from the so-called war on terror.

He also denounced US drones’ attacks inside Pakistani territory, saying that 42 drone attacks carried out during the last year killed only eight terrorists and 708 innocent Pakistanis. PTI Chief said people were not paying taxes due to lack of trust in government, adding that rulers were spending taxpayers’ money on their lavish foreign trips having no benefit for the country. “Zardari is once again out on begging trip,” he said.
Responding to a question regarding government response to his earlier mediation offer, Khan said that rulers had not yet obtained NOC from USA. He asked why government was not establishing its writ in Karachi and why judicial inquiry of the May 12, 2007 carnage in Karachi was not being carried out.
Imran Khan also regretted that at times when rest of the world was asking US for withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan, Pakistan Foreign Minister was requesting them for staying in Afghanistan for at least five more years. He said government was shedding the blood of its own people for the sake of dollars.

A Poem On Aafia –>kitni ajeeb si baat hai ke

Mina sent a really good poem for Dr. Aafia Siddiqi in the comment area of our post:

https://united4justice.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/support-appeal-for-dr-afia-siddiqiprisoner-650-bagram-jail-ahrc/

———————————————————————————————————————-

kitni ajeeb si baat hai ke
vo ekk guriya marmarri

apne hi mulk se hai biqqiiii
or lutt rahai hai gharri ghari

vo is watan ki beeti hai
or us watan ki bandhani

vo asmaan ko takti rehti hai
khuda ko dhoondti rehti hai

kiya mojze ajj bhi hote hain
kiya farishte ajj bhi hote hain

koi aa ke bachay lee mujh ko abb
Pakistani to gheerat per marte hain ,

kitni ajeeb si baat hai ke
betiyaan to sanjhi hoti thein

ab to jiss ki beeti hai
bass usi ki beeti hai

baqqi to sabb lutere hain
joo noch noch kar khate hain

jane qayamat kabb aye gi
shayed jabb Afia marr jaye gii……………

Imran Khan on Dr. Aafia an interview with Yvonne Ridley

 

Source : http://freeaafia.org/