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Updates Regarding Aafia Siddiqui's Treatment

Abdullah_Khan & DontKhanMe,

Your efforts are much appreciated by this scribe.

What a dismal state of affairs – this is the worst catastrophe perpetrated by your erstwhile govt on its own people and continues under the present one – and yet there were only two of you discussing it.

Just have a look at Sania Mirza thread started only yesterday and it is running into scores of pages and people do not find time to devote to a sister who is one of their own.

Ashamed should this Nation be, that is so callous and refractory towards the plight of its own sister, sold out to a super power.

‘Do not pin your hopes on the Kings and the wealthy of this world.
It is a big feat to be accomplished by the poor’ – sms to Dr Afia’s Mother
 
A non-muslim article regarding Sister Aafia


Aafia Siddiqui: Victimized by American Depravity​

by Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays from 11AM to 1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national topics. All programs are archived for easy listening.

Mr. Lendman's stories are republished in the Baltimore Chronicle with permission of the author.


Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Her trial proceedings were carefully orchestrated. Witnesses were either enlisted, pressured, coerced, and/or bought off to cooperate, then jurors were intimidated to convict, her attorney, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, saying their verdict was "based on fear, not fact."

On February 3, 2010, after a sham trial, the Department of Justice announced Siddiqui's conviction for "attempting to murder US nationals in Afghanistan and six additional charges." When sentenced on May 6, she faces up to 20 years for each attempted murder charge, possible life in prison on the firearms charge, and eight years on each assault charge.

In March 2003, after visiting her family in Karachi, Pakistan, government Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agents, in collaboration with Washington, abducted Siddiqui and her three children en route to the airport for a flight to Rawalpindi, handed them over to US authorities who took them secretly to Bagram prison, Afghanistan for more than five years of brutal torture and unspeakable abuse, including vicious beatings and repeated raping.

Bogusly charged and convicted, Siddiqui was guilty only of being Muslim in America at the wrong time. A Pakistani national, she was deeply religious, very small, thoughtful, studious, quiet, polite, shy, soft-spoken, barely noticeable in a gathering, not extremist or fundamentalist, and, of course, no terrorist.

She attended MIT and Brandeis University where she earned a doctorate in neurocognitive science. She did volunteer charity work, taught Muslim children on Sundays, distributed Korans to area prison inmates, dedicated herself to helping oppressed Muslims worldwide, yet lived a quiet, unassuming nonviolent life.

Nonetheless, she was accused of being a "high security risk" for alleged Al-Qaeda connections linked to planned terrorist attacks against New York landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Building, accusations so preposterous they never appeared in her indictment.

The DOJ's more likely interest was her supposed connection, through marriage, to a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the bogusly charged 9/11 mastermind who confessed after years of horrific torture. US authorities tried to use them both - to coerce KSM to link Siddiqui to Al-Qaeda, and she to admit his responsibility for 9/11 - something she knew nothing about or anything about her alleged relative.

Her trial was a travesty of justice based on the preposterous charge that in the presence of two FBI agents, two Army interpreters, and three US Army officers, she (110 pounds and frail) assaulted three of them, seized one of their rifles, opened fire at close range, hit no one, yet she was severely wounded.

No credible evidence was presented. Some was kept secret. The proceedings were carefully orchestrated. Witnesses were either enlisted, pressured, coerced, and/or bought off to cooperate, then jurors were intimidated to convict, her attorney, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, saying their verdict was "based on fear, not fact."

Awaiting her May 6 sentencing, Siddiqui is incarcerated in harsh maximum security solitary confinement at New York's Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), denied all contact with friends and family, no mail or reading materials, or access to her previously allowed once a month 15 minute phone call to relatives.
Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC)

In February 2010, Muslim women in America, Britain, Canada, and Australia united in outrage over Siddiqui's treatment and bogus conviction, demanding her release and exoneration.

March 28 was the seventh anniversary of her abduction, commemorated by a global day of protest, JFAC saying it was "to have events, demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns, khutbahs (sermons or public preaching), etc. in towns and cities all over the world in solidarity with Aafia" - for justice, against sadism and barbarity against an innocent woman, guilty of being a target of opportunity, not crimes she didn't commit.

JFAC published a transcript of the March 26 Kamram Shahid-conducted Pakistan Front Line TV interview with Siddiqui family members, including her mother, Ismat, sister, Fowzia, and young son, Ahmed, who asked "why have they imprisoned her and why did they imprison me?" In response to whether he'd like to give his mother a message, he said

"I love you and I am waiting for you (to) come back soon, if Allah permits."
Ismat confirmed some of Aafia's torture in shocking detail, saying:

She endured a lot, some of the worst of it including "six men....strip(ping) her naked. All her clothes would be removed. She told this to the Pakistani senators too, that they would strip her naked, then tie her hands behind her back, and then they would take her, dragging her by the hair. You cannot imagine the cruelty they have done to her. They would take her like this to the corridor and film her there."

"After that, they observed that she would read the Qu'ran, from memory and from the book. They again would send six, seven men, who would strip her naked and misbehave etc. They took the Qu'ran and threw it at her feet and told her that only if you walk on the Qu'ran will we return (it) to you. She would cry and shout that she would not do it. Then they would beat her with their rifle ***** so much that she would be bloodied. All her face and body would be injured. Then they used to pull out her hair one by one, just like this....They threatened (to) take her to the court like this, naked."


After "beat(ing) her so much that she bled....they made her lie on a bed. Then they tied her hands and feet - hands and feet both tied so that she (could) not even... scratch her wounds. Then they applied torture to the soles of her feet and head. They put her in some machines to make her lose her mental stability. They gave her such injections on the pretext of medical treatment." When she pleaded not to do it, "they would make her unconscious and then give them to her. Such is (their) cruelty."

"This epic cruelty - and look at (the) Islamic world....They are all silent and making their palaces in Hell....She was not even a criminal in their law. And she has done no crime. They did not accuse her of terrorism. She is not a terrorist."


Her sister Fowzia said "It is all on tape. I am not making this up. They are sadists or whatever. All the strip searching was video-taped. (She called Aafia) a poster child for this torture and rendition," one of many others brutalized in American prisons. Court testimony revealed that her children were also tortured, Ahmed later released on condition he say nothing, two still missing and presumed murdered. "I think even Genghis Khan did not do this," said Fowzia.

In an August 2008 address to Pakistan's Senate, Fowzia explained that "Aafia (can't) get justice in the US....They are sure to make her out to be a major terror figure to mask the five years of torture, rape and child molestation as reported by human rights groups."

Her case is much more important than "my sister or one woman. Her torture is a crime beyond anything she was ever accused of (which was basically nothing) and this is a slap on the honor of our nation and the whole of humanity. The perpetrators of those crimes are the ones who need to be brought to account. That is the real crime of terror here."

Fowzia appealed for Aafia's extradition to Pakistan, despite little hope of expecting a government complicit in crime to cooperate beyond rhetoric. At first, it denied knowledge, then, after meeting with family, interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and other officials promised to work for her release, still denying complicity for what happened.

Because her ordeal sparked nationwide protests, Pakistan's government is in damage control, apparently wants to shift blame to Washington, investigating officer Shahid Qureshi, in a report to the judicial magistrate, saying "FBI intelligence agents without any warrants or notice" committed the abduction - knowing full well about ISI's complicity.

During conflnement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said Siddiqui had a kidney and her teeth removed. Her nose was broken and not properly set. Her gun shot wound was improperly treated. Reuters reported that she lost part of her intestines and still bleeds internally from poor treatment. Those around her notice she's deathly pale because of extreme trauma and pain.

After years of horrific torture and abuse, a federal Bureau of Prisons psychological evaluation diagnosed her condition to be "depressive type psychosis" besides the destructive physical toll on her body.
World Outrage and Support

The Muslim Justice Initiative (MJI) said Siddiqui's "recent guilty verdict....shocked and outraged masses across the globe" in announcing an April 2 online webinar discussion on her behalf, featuring her brother Mohammed, sister Fawzia, noted UK journalist and Siddiqui advocate Yvonne Ridley, and Tina Foster, Executive Director of the International Justice Network (IJN). Information on the event can be found at muslimsforjustice.org.

On February 3, Siddiqui's conviction date, IJN said the following:

It "represents the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in the United States," its attorneys "monitoring her trial, which began on January 19 and ended with a guilty verdict today in US Federal Court in the Southern District of New York."

"Today marks the close of another sad chapter in the life of our sister, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Today she was unjustly found guilty. Though she was not charged with any terrorism-related offense, Judge Berman permitted the prosecution's witnesses to characterize our sister as a terrorist - which, based on copious (exculpatory) evidence, she clearly is not. Today's verdict is one of the many legal errors that allowed the prosecution to build a case against our sister based on hate, rather than fact. We believe that as a result, she was denied a fair trial, and today's verdict must be overturned on appeal."

Himself victimized by US torture, including at Bagram, author of "Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back," Moassam Begg (like others), called Aafia "the Grey Lady of Bagram because she (was) almost a ghost, a spectre whose cries and screams continue to haunt those who heard her." So much so that for six days in 2005, male prisoners staged a hunger strike in protest.

After sentencing, her next journey may be to isolated life confinement in federal Supermax hell - according to the US Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections, intended for the most dangerous criminals, guilty of "repetitive assaultive or violent institutional behavior," the worst of the worst who threaten society or national security.

Hardly the place for a woman called shy, soft-spoken, deeply religious, polite, studious, thoughtful, and considerate of others, especially persecuted Muslims being brutalized in America's global gulag, courtesy of an administration that pays lip service to ending torture but practices it as sadistically as George Bush and the worst of history's tyrants.

Steve Lendman




---end---​
 
Aafia: Fact vs. Fiction Webinar

April 2nd 2010


fstt63.jpg


Mohammad Siddiqui(Dr. Aafia’s Older Brother) - Radio Broadcast


---------- Post added at 07:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:17 AM ----------

Aafia: Fact vs. Fiction Webinar

April 2nd 2010


Tina Foster(Siddiqui family spokes person) - Radio Broadcast


---------- Post added at 07:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:18 AM ----------

Aafia: Fact vs. Fiction Webinar

April 2nd 2010

Fawzia Siddiqui (Dr. Aafia’s Sister) - Radio Broadcast
 
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Dr. Aafia’s 12 year old daughter liberated from US Bagram Airbase

aafia-daughter-mariam.jpg



Posted on 10 April 2010


US citizen, and MIT graduate, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui mysteriously disappeared on a trip to Pakistan. Six years later Dr. Aafia was discovered at the American Air Force base at Bagram in Afghanistan. She had been brutally raped and tortured for years. The woman was then transferred to the US and charged with wrestling a gun from a marine in a room full of US armed force personnel. Despite the fact that Dr Aafia’s finger prints was not found on the weapon that she had supposedly used, and the inconvenient truth that the walls of the room did not have any bullets, Dr. Aafia was convicted for firing at the marine–she was given a sentence of 40 years.

Dr. Aafia had three children. One son is stil missing. The middle daughter Mariam was found from the Bagram Air Force base. The firl is 11 years old and could only speak English.

Mr. Karzai had told the family that if no questions were asked, he would return the child to the family. The young daughter Mariam was left at the gate of the Siddiqui family’s home. Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui adopted her even before the DNA results were in.

The daughter is in a frail and precarious condition, and doesn’t recognize anyone. The American born child was kept in incarceration for seven years in what she described as a “cold and dark room” at the American Airbase in Bagram–Afghanistan.

ISLAMABAD: Senate Committee for Interior Chairman Senator
Talha Mehmood told media today that the daughter of Dr Afia Siddique was recovered from Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan. She was with an American there named ‘John’. He was briefing media beside Dr Afia’s daughter. He threatened to block Nato logistics if Dr Afia was not brought back to Pakistan. Some days back some unidentified people left an 11-year-old girl outside Dr Fauzia’s house. The girl told the Siddiqui family that her name was Fatima and could speak English and Persian only while Dr Fauzia to confirm her as Aafia’a daughter Mariam got her DNA test done which came as positive today.

Earlier today, the government formally declared 12 years old Maryam as daughter of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui after proved by DNA Test and the girl handed over to the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui, sister of Dr Aafia Siddiqui visited the Interior Ministry with 12 years old Maryam on Saturday and held a meeting with Interior Minister Rehman Malik Saturday. Talking to media after holding the meeting, the Interior Minister said that Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani wanted to make the announcement himself but he asked him to announce this. Rehman Malik said that the DNA Report has proved that 12 years old Maryam is daughter of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, adding the girl only speak English.

According to reports, the girls’ DNA matched that of Ahmed, Dr Aafia’s son. The report has been handed over to the investigation police. Dr Afia’s daughter recovered from Bagram Airbase: Senator Talha, Updated at: 1642 PST, Saturday, April 10, 2010,




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US censured for keeping child captive

Published: April 11, 2010

ISLAMABAD – Senator Talha Mahmood criticised the US authorities for keeping the minor daughter of Dr Aafia Siddiqui into illegal detention for more than seven years, who went missing in 2003, and termed it as a clear violation of the human rights.

“The only sin of Maryum was that she was Aafia’s daughter, an accused who was being tried by a US jury over allegations of attacking US marines”, he added. Senator Talha Mahmood, who is also the Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior disclosed, during a press conference that Maruym remained into the custody of US authorities for seven years at Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan.” She remained into the custody with Mr John, a US national, during this time period”, he added. He also astonished the media persons by disclosing that she was kept in a dark room for years. He along with Maryum and her cousin Aalia was talking to media persons at this residence.

He also criticised the US Government for violating international laws as well as human rights, saying that if Aafia did any crime in Afghanistan, then she should also be tried in the same country not in the US. He also urged the Government to cut the supply line of NATO, if US refused to repatriate Dr Aafia. “If US judiciary awarded any sentence to Aafia, which is scheduled to be announced on 6th of May, it would create a bad image of the US in the whole world and effect its efforts in the war against terrorism”, he maintained. He also said that the incumbent Government was least interested in the issue, adding that PM should keep the issue of Aafia’s release at the top of agenda during his meeting with US President Barak Obama scheduled to be held today.

Earlier, Interior Minister, Rehman Malik disclosed that 12-year-old teenager that found outside of the house of Dr Fauzia in Karachi was Maryum, the daughter of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, as the DNA samples of Maryum matched with Mohammad Ahmed, the elder son of Aafia. Dr Fauzia also confirmed the reports after meeting with the Interior Minister at the Ministry of Interior. She while talking to media appreciated the efforts of the Government in repatriation of Aafia as well as of his children, especially, of Interior Minister, Rehman Malik.

Islamabad_Mariyam_L_12_daughter_10956.jpg

However, sources in the Interior Ministry claimed that recent visit of Afghan President, Hamid Karzai was a key factor in the return of Maryum, as the Afghan President during the visit had disclosed that Aafia’s children were in Afghanistan.

The Interior Minister after meeting with Aafia’s sister, Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, avoided the journalists and no press conference was held in this regard possibly to avoid some questions that might be raised by the civil society and human rights activists about the return of Maryum. The human rights activists are raising questions that how Maryum reached Karachi from Afghanistan and who left her outside Dr Fauzia’s house. They are also raising questions that if Afghan Government claimed that it knew the whereabouts of Aafia’s missing children, then why Afghan Government did not hand over Maryum through proper channel. However, another son of Aafia, Mohammad Suleman was still missing and the Government was still unable to trace his whereabouts.

It is pertinent to mention here that some unidentified persons had left a 12 year old girl out side Dr Fauzia’s house in Karachi. The girl introduced herself as Fatima and she could only speak English. Later, Fatima’s DNA test was done on the directives of the Interior Minister that matched with the elder son of Dr Aafia.




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Return of Dr Aafia’s daughter welcomed​


Karachi: The Human Rights Network (HRN) on Saturday welcome the return of Marium, the daughter of noted Pakistani scientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui who is presently languishing in a US jail, and demanded from the Pakistani government to take more serious efforts for the early repatriation of Dr Aafia.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, here on Saturday, HRN president Intikhab Alam Soori, and general secretary Shahzad Mazhar said that the return of Marium from illegal US detention has proven that America has double standards on human rights of women and children.

They said the abduction and illegal detention of Dr Aafia and her children shows how powerful the American agencies are and how little care they pay to the rights of women and children. They appealed to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to put the issue of illegal detention of Dr Aafia Siddiqui on top of his priorities during his coming visit to the US and ensure early release and return of Dr Aafia. They requested the Pakistani media to highlight the issue of Dr Aafia Siddiqui like it highlighted the issue of Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza’s upcoming marriage.


Do you remember this news report




Search for Dr Aafia’s daughter yields startling results




Summary:


  • International NGOs stumble upon a dozen incarcerated non-Afghan girls
  • DNA tests fail to turn up missing Mariam
  • Pak govt asks Afghan, US authorities to aid search
  • Govt trying to ensure Aafia serves out sentence back home



ISLAMABAD: During efforts to trace Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s missing 11-year-old daughter Mariam, international organisations have stumbled upon nearly a dozen juvenile girls who have been languishing in several Afghan jails, sources privy to the search told Daily Times on Tuesday.

Not much is known about these girls, and most are referred to by the numbers allotted to them, just like Dr Aafia was. Sources said that during their visits to some of the jails, they requested the authorities to transfer these girls out of captivity to a safer place because the harsh environment in these prisons might “ruin their lives”.

Daily Times also learnt that DNA tests of three girls aged between 11 and 12 – who did not appear to be Afghans – were conducted in an attempt to find Mariam, but the tests came back negative.

However, sources said a number of international NGOs working on child trafficking and human rights, have been contacted by the Pakistani government to try and locate Mariam in other jails in Afghanistan. Islamabad has also contacted the Afghan government and the US CENTCOM to cooperate with the NGOs in this regard.

Mariam is the second child of Dr Aafia and was only three-and-a-half-years old when she, her five-year-old brother Ahmed, six-month-old baby brother Suleman and their mother were picked up from outside their Karachi home by US Marines and local police in 2003, according to Dr Aafia’s friends and family members.............


now what do you think?

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A blatant outrage!


Published: April 12, 2010


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.
 

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