July 7th hearing on Aafia Siddiqui Competence

[TruthSeeker]

Court hearing to determine Aafia’s competence to stand trial on Monday

NEW YORK, July 5 (APP): A federal court in New York City is set to hold a hearing on Monday to determine whether Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is in US custody on terrorism charges, is competent to stand trial.Ms. Siddiqui, 37, was arrested and brought to New York in August last year for allegedly attempting to kill US personnel while in detention in Afghanistan. The FBI said she was picked up from outside the governor’s office in Ghazni and she was shot at twice in the encounter.

Later, Ms. Siddiqui was sent to the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, on the orders of Judge Richard Berman for psychological evaluation when her defence lawyers pleaded that she was unfit to stand trial. They cited the conclusions of an expert who found she is suffering from delusional disorder and depression.

The detainee was shifted back to New York on June 17 after the completion of her examinations in Texas and placed in a high security prison in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City.

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, an American news agency circulated the report of a psychologist, appointed by the prosecutors, who examined Ms. Siddiqui.

While asserting that she is competent to stand trial, the report goes on to make some statements that, according to experts, go beyond her mandate as a medical specialist. For instance, Leslie Powers, the psychologist, wrote in a document dated May 4 and put in the court’s public file late Thursday that new information helps show Siddiqui was living freely in Pakistan and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2008, according to Associated Press (of America).

That claim also contradicts assertions that the neuroscientist had spent those years in the custody of American authorities. Some of Ms. Siddiqui’s supporters and her former lawyers had argued she had likely been taken into custody by a U.S. intelligence agency during those years and was subjected to torture and abuse.

Incidentally, Dr. Powers had, in her first report in November, also concurred with the conclusion that Ms. Siddiqui was not in a shape to stand trial. But Dr. Powers changed her opinion in May, and Ms. Siddiqui’s family members say she did it under official pressure.

Associated Press Of Pakistan ( Pakistan's Premier NEWS Agency ) - Court hearing to determine Aafia’s competence to stand trial on Monday

 

[TruthSeeker]

In court records, psychologist disputes that woman accused of al-Qaida ties was held captive

Metro - In court records, psychologist disputes that woman accused of al-Qaida ties was held captive

LARRY NEUMEISTER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 04, 2009 7:28 p.m.

Prosecutors cite reports by psychologists who say Siddiqui's behaviour reflects malingering, the intentional production of grossly exaggerated psychological symptoms aimed at getting a result, such as avoiding trial.

Leslie Powers, a forensic psychologist, wrote in a document dated May 4 and put in the court's public file late Thursday that new information helps show Siddiqui was living freely in Pakistan and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2008.

Powers wrote that Siddiqui has told the FBI that she worked at the Karachi Institute of Technology in 2005, that she tried to look for her husband in Afghanistan in the winter of 2007 and that she stayed for a time in Quetta, Pakistan.

The psychologist also wrote that Siddiqui's ex-husband, Mohammad Amjad Khan, reported seeing either her or their children on several occasions in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

"While her accounts of her time are incomplete, her statements and other facts gathered seem to corroborate that she was not held captive from 2003 until 2008," Powers said.

Powers said Siddiqui was interviewed at length by the FBI for several days after her arrest on July 18, 2008.

She said FBI agents who accompanied Siddiqui on her 20-hour flight to the United States last Aug. 4 reported that she showed no signs of psychosis or psychological distress and that she was fully oriented and talkative throughout the trip.

Powers and two other experts have concluded Siddiqui is competent for trial.

In a defence exhibit, psychologist L. Thomas Kucharski, chairman of the Department of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, concluded that Siddiqui suffers from delusional disorder and is depressed.

Gregory B. Saathoff, an associate professor in psychiatric medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, said delusions Siddiqui had had involving flying infants, dark angels, a dog in her cell and children visiting her in her room were largely resolved after she believed she was found incompetent to stand trial.

Sally C. Johnson, a professor in the psychiatry department at the University of North Carolina, wrote in a March 16 report that Siddiqui's medical problems have been treated and stabilized.

Johnson said Siddiqui has given vague accounts of her whereabouts from 2003 to 2008, saying she was given shelter by different people.

Johnson said Siddiqui has also given varying accounts of where her children were during those years but told one agent that sometimes one has to take up a cause that is more important than one's children.

Johnson left a warning at the end of her report, saying that in spite of Siddiqui's frail and timid appearance - she has weighed as little as 90 pounds (40 kilograms) - "her potential for aggression towards herself or others might be underestimated."

She cited reports that Siddiqui had taken actions to try to escape from custody before she was transferred to the United States. Johnson recommended that adequate care be taken to protect Siddiqui.

"Given her expressed degree of devotion to her belief system," she wrote, "it is possible that she could perceive herself as a martyr for a cause."

 

[Coolyo]

Afia is innocent, and these fascist-American terrorists must be stopped!

Free Afia!

 

[TruthSeeker]

Afia is innocent

How do you know Aafia is "innocent"? All of the publicly available information points to her as being guilty of being an al Qaeda irhabi. What evidence do you have that she is not? Where are her children? Do you know? Why not?

 

[zubair723]

How do you know Aafia is "innocent"? All of the publicly available information points to her as being guilty of being an al Qaeda irhabi. What evidence do you have that she is not? Where are her children? Do you know? Why not?

And where are her children?

 

[Coolyo]

How do you know Aafia is "innocent"? All of the publicly available information points to her as being guilty of being an al Qaeda irhabi. What evidence do you have that she is not? Where are her children? Do you know? Why not?

Nope, we all know how the US loves to spread nonsense and lies!

Maybe you should ask yourselves why the Abu Ghraib US soldiers who tortured and raped so many are now free and on the streets of America (most of them anyway)!

 

[TruthSeeker]

Maybe you should ask yourselves why the Abu Ghraib US soldiers who tortured and raped so many are now free and on the streets of America (most of them anyway)!

More lies from Mr. Coolyo. You are just full of lies, distortions and propaganda. No one was raped at Abu Ghraib and no one was tortured. Why don't Aafia's children come forward and tell where they have been? They are old enough to tell the world their story. Why does A. Siddiqui's family hide them? Are they afraid of the truth??? The children are not in US custody. Who's custody are they in? Pakistan's? Afghanistan's? Al Qaeda's? Ask yourself.......

 

[Lockheed F-16]

More lies from Mr. Coolyo. You are just full of lies, distortions and propaganda. No one was raped at Abu Ghraib and no one was tortured. Why don't Aafia's children come forward and tell where they have been? They are old enough to tell the world their story. Why does A. Siddiqui's family hide them? Are they afraid of the truth??? The children are not in US custody. Who's custody are they in? Pakistan's? Afghanistan's? Al Qaeda's? Ask yourself.......

Dude are you serious!? No one was tortured in Abu Ghraib? Bad sense of humour

 

[TruthSeeker]

Dude are you serious!? No one was tortured in Abu Ghraib? Bad sense of humour

I'm serious. Maybe torture occurred there when it was under the control of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, but not while the US controlled abu Ghraib. Mental games were played with people's heads. Some people are terribly frightened about being nude in front of women. But that's all that happened. No fingernails were pulled out, no waterboarding, no bones broken, no one beaten, no heads cut off. No torture. Just loads and loads of propaganda crocodile tears from the press, irhabis, and irhabi sympathizers.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Outbursts by Terror Suspect at a Competency Hearing

By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: July 6, 2009


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/nyregion/07competency.html?ref=global-home

Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist accused of trying to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan, repeatedly interrupted a hearing on Monday about her competency to stand trial. She declared in a series of rambling, often disjointed outbursts that she had not shot anyone and was not against the United States.

“I didn’t fire any bullets,” she said at one point.

“I’m really not against America. I never was. I still am not,” she said later.

During the hearing in Federal District Court in Manhattan, psychological experts differed on whether Ms. Siddiqui had faked symptoms of mental illness or suffered from a genuine mental disorder, and if she was competent to stand trial.

But as the experts vied to talk about her mental state, it was Ms. Siddiqui who seemed to be most intent on getting in the first and last words, and many in between.

“I’m not psychotic — I can assure you I am not,” she said in a discourse after the cross-examination of a psychologist who had concluded that she was suffering from mental illness and was not competent to stand trial.

During another expert’s testimony, when the discussion turned to her not eating in prison, she interjected, “It was Ramadan, just for the record.”

“Excuse me,” said the judge, Richard M. Berman. She replied, “I didn’t ask to come here.”

Judge Berman did not rule on the competency issue on Monday, and asked for further filings from both sides.

Her client’s interruptions, Ms. Cardi said, were “an example of her mental illness.”

“You could see that I have no control over her, her speaking under circumstances where it is not in her best interest to speak,” she said.

Prosecutors had no comment. In court, a federal prosecutor, Christopher L. LaVigne, cited findings by psychiatrists that Ms. Siddiqui was competent to stand trial. “This is malingering,” he told the judge, adding, “It’s Miss Siddiqui’s attempt to avoid responsibility for these crimes.”

Ms. Siddiqui, who studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, wore a white fabric head covering that left only her eyes visible.

Her outbursts alternated with periods of quiet, sometimes seeming to listen intently, sometimes placing her head down on her arms on the table. As the afternoon progressed, her commentary grew heated at times, as she touched on war and peace, Zionists and Jews, and her anger at being strip-searched. She occasionally even turned to address the spectators.

On the United States, she said, “America as a nation has been framed to look bad.” She added later: “I want to make peace with the United States of America. I’m not an enemy. I never was.”

 

[TruthSeeker]

Aafia Siddiqui denies charges in court

Aafia Siddiqui denies charges in court

Updated at: 0500 PST, Tuesday, July 07, 2009
NEW YORK: Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist under U.S.detention, Monday firmly rejected government allegations that she tried to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan, saying she was dedicated to peace.

“ I did not shoot anybody, and I did not fire at any body,” Dr. Siddiqui, 37, told a U.S. District Court, which is holding a hearing being held to determine whether she is competent to stand trial.

Governmment psychiatrists claim that she has been faking symptoms of mental illness in the hope of avoiding a criminal trial set for in October. They also accused her of doing so in order to be repatriated to Pakistan.

But a psychologist retained by Ms. Siddiqui’s lawyers, she suffers from a genuine mental disorder, and is incompetent to stand trial.

Sitting next to her lawyer, Dawn Cardi, she told the packed court, “God has brought me out of death for peace. I can assure that I want to stop these wars. Wouldn’t be nicer to bring peace. I am among the very few people who have inside view of the war... I was in Afghanistan...”

 

[Lockheed F-16]

I'm serious. Maybe torture occurred there when it was under the control of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, but not while the US controlled abu Ghraib. Mental games were played with people's heads. Some people are terribly frightened about being nude in front of women. But that's all that happened. No fingernails were pulled out, no waterboarding, no bones broken, no one beaten, no heads cut off. No torture. Just loads and loads of propaganda crocodile tears from the press, irhabis, and irhabi sympathizers.

Proof?

 

[TruthSeeker]

Afghans free son of Pakistani woman detained by US

Afghans free son of Pakistani woman detained by US | Reuters

KABUL, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Afghan authorities handed over to Pakistan on Monday the son of a Pakistani woman who is held by the United States for suspected links with al Qaeda members.

While Siddiqui was flown to New York to face federal charges of assault and attempted murder, her 12-year-old son remained in Afghan custody prompting calls by Pakistan and rights group for his release.

"Under the presidential order of Hamid Karzai, we hand over Ali Hassan, 12, to Pakistan authorities," Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman, Sultan Ahmad Baheen, told reporters during a ceremony in Kabul.

"We hope this step should symbolise friendly ties with our neighboring nation Pakistan," he said.

It was not immediately clear if Hassan would be returned to his family in Pakistan.

Siddiqui was married to a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Her husband was captured in 2003 and is now held at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

_____________________

Yo, Coolyo, where is he?

 

[ajpirzada]

i dont know where are her children but afia was living freely (till late 2007)accordin to her husband. he wrote a really really big article in one of the urdu new paper. he also said that she always used to talk about jihad etc
im only sayin wat his husband said so dont blame for not takin her side. only God knows the truth.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Proof?

How can I or you prove a negative? It is up to the accusers, like yourself, to prove their charges. Prove that what I said is NOT true. Like the charge: "When did you stop beating your wife?" It is a specious charge masquerading as a question.