Barbaric: 86-Year Sentence for Aafia Siddiqui
23.9.10
To be honest, I can hardly express sufficiently my shock at the news that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist who was rendered to the US to face a trial after she reportedly tried — and failed — to shoot two US soldiers in Ghazni, Afghanistan in July 2008, has been sentenced to 86 years in prison.
Such a disproportionate sentence would be barbaric, even if Aafia Siddiqui had killed the soldiers she shot at, but as she missed entirely, and was herself shot twice in the abdomen, it simply doesn’t make sense. Moreover, the sentencing overlooks claims by her lawyers that her fingerprints were not even on the gun that she allegedly fired, and, even more significantly, hints at a chilling cover-up, mentioned everywhere except at Aafia’s trial earlier this year. Seen this way, her sudden reappearance in Ghazni in July 2008, the shooting incident, the trial and the conviction were designed to hide the fact that, for five years and four months, from March 2003, when she and her three children were reportedly kidnapped in Karachi, she was held in secret US detention — possibly in the US prison in Bagram, Afghanistan — where she was subjected to horrendous abuse.
The truth about Aafia’s story, as I have mentioned in previous articles here, here and here, is difficult to discern, but too many unanswered questions had already been brushed off before this vile sentence was delivered, which involve not only Aafia, but also two of her three children, Ahmed and Mariam, who only resurfaced last September, and in April this year. The whereabouts of Aafia’s third child, Suleiman, who was just a baby when Aafia first disappeared, has never been disclosed, and there are fears that he was killed when she was initially kidnapped.
As for Mariam, an article at the time of her reappearance stated that she “claim[ed] she was kept in a ‘cold, dark room’ for seven years,” allegedly in Bagram, and in late August 2008, Michael G. Garcia, the attorney general of the southern region of New York, “confirmed in a letter to Siddiqui’s sister, Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, that her son, Ahmed, had been in the custody of the FBI since 2003 and that he was currently in the custody of the Karzai government in Afghanistan,” even though the US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, had previously claimed that Washington “had no information regarding the children.” The article added that Ahmed was finally released to the custody of Siddiqui’s family in Pakistan in September 2009, and later “gave a statement to police in Lahore that he had been held in a juvenile prison in Afghanistan for years.”
Like everything in the story of Aafia Siddiqui, which remains, in many ways, the most opaque story in the whole of the “War on Terror,” it is difficult to say what is true and what is not, but these accounts, as well as eyewitness accounts from other prisoners, including the British resident and former Guantánamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed, who has stated that he saw Aafia in Bagram, serve only to demonstrate that, not only is an 86-year sentence the most abominable miscarriage of justice, but also that it meshes perfectly with the notion that this whole sad story is an enormous cover-up. As I asked six months ago:
If Aafia Siddiqui was indeed held in secret US custody for over five years, was the story of the attempted shooting of the US soldiers in July 2008 a cynical set-up, designed to ensure that she could be transferred to the US and tried, convicted and imprisoned without the true story coming to light?
For someone once touted as a significant al-Qaeda operative, it is, to say the least, convenient that she has been sentenced to 86 years in prison on charges that — beyond the prosecutors’ claim that she was an al-Qaeda supporter and a danger to the US — completely ignored her alleged role in al-Qaeda. The entire court case also avoided the valid presumption that, if she was indeed regarded as an al-Qaeda operative, it would not be surprising if, like many dozens of other “high-value detainees,” she suffered years of torture in US custody, and then, somehow, had to be disposed of.
While some of these prisoners ended up in Guantánamo, and others were stealthily delivered on one-way trips to prisons in their home countries, Aafia ended up in New York, rendered — there is no other word — from Afghanistan. And although she urged her supporters in court to remain calm today, telling them, “Don’t get angry. Forgive Judge Berman,” it may be that, in delivering what he referred to as an “appropriate” sentence of “significant incarceration,” Judge Richard Berman may have done just what the CIA wanted.
Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in July 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, currently on tour in the UK, and available on DVD here), and my definitive Guantánamo habeas list, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.
As published on the Huffington Post. Cross-posted on The Smirking Chimp, Cageprisoners, The Muslim Justice Initiative, Question Everything, Global Voice for Justice, One Heart for Peace, and New Left Project.
Who's still at Guantánamo?
72 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
Here are some comments from Facebook:
Ruth Gilburt wrote:
This is abominable…and goes on and on…
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:09 am
Andy Worthington says...
Sylvia Martin wrote:
I can’t stand to hit “like,” so I’ll just say duly noted, and what the hell happened to my country?
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:09 am
Andy Worthington says...
Esther Angel wrote:
I agree, and keeping her children locked up and out of sight for 7 years is a total disgrace.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Andy Worthington says...
Patrick O’Brien wrote:
… shared … thank you, Andy …
(home of the free, land of the brave)
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Andy Worthington says...
Heart Sees wrote:
You’ve gotta be kidding.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:11 am
Andy Worthington says...
Evie McKnight wrote:
Is Amnesty international aware of her plight?!
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:12 am
Andy Worthington says...
Sam Said wrote:
I am speechless too – how is this possible! I just don’t get it. This is insane.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:13 am
Andy Worthington says...
A Pierre Yurovski wrote:
Bad news, indeed. Another battle to wage.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:13 am
Andy Worthington says...
Esther Angel wrote:
Reading up on her story now. When I read the accounts from other prisoners held at Bagram, I had this faint hope that the Americans were only pretending to be torturing a woman to upset them. The truth, as always, turns out to be so much more horrifying.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:14 am
Andy Worthington says...
Lisa Gregory Koger Barr wrote:
yes. was just thinking about her last night. thank you for this.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:15 am
Andy Worthington says...
This was my reply:
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I’m still so shocked. 86 years! Who are these people?
And for what to do now, please see: http://www.justiceforaafia.org/take-action/act-now/645-aafia-siddiqui-the-next-chapter-in-the-fight-for-justice
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:16 am
Andy Worthington says...
Heike Winnig wrote:
She’s the example and “sacrificial lamb” to justify all the lies fed to the world about “the War on Terror”. Nothing is set in stone and anything can be overturned, it’s a matter of power in numbers, and how committed we are to help her !!
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:18 am
Chester Riese says...
I agree with Heike, we need to be committed to help her. Serial killers don’t get that much time to serve in jail here. In fact if they get 20 years for murder why should she she get 80 plus for not killing anybody.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 7:57 am
khanofleeds says...
Shows the level of cruelty and inhumanity to which american society has been rendered by oportunists whithin. These people are sowing the seeds of thier own destruction as they did in thier native europe.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 8:09 am
Lola Heavey says...
This is the way the secret services do their work. And for as long as the rest of us can do little about it, it will continue. It is called being unaccountable.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Fahima K says...
I Was Completely Shocked And Devastated By The news Yesterday. But What Is 86 Years In Return For Eternal Bliss In The Gardens Of Paradise?
“Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise.” [9:111]
...on September 24th, 2010 at 8:53 am
Andy Worthington says...
Also on Facebook, Malcolm Bush wrote:
I had no doubt this sort of sentence would be given. This is just one more piece of madness from the US Administration. I’ve received the campaign email from Cageprisoners and will campaign again. I have campaigned before and I have a letter on the way to Eric Holder now.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Andy Worthington says...
Willy Bach wrote:
US forces must not be shot at, even when they kidnap and murder at will. This is really the last straw. It is disgusting and obscene!
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Andy Worthington says...
Esther Angel wrote:
Even if she really did try and shoot anyone — which cannot be proved — then how would that be surprising after 5 years of torture and rape?
Usual cover-up for otherwise unexplained gunshot wounds to her abdomen?
Am not surprised she seems “unbalanced” after all she had to endure.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Andy Worthington says...
Susan Hall wrote:
This sentence is a vile crime against humans and especially against women everywhere.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Andy Worthington says...
Jennifer Elaine Elliott wrote:
I know her case … I have seen pictures of her well and healthy. The war on terror … mostly the CIA Hoax for the narco/oil/propaganda war … This was the US Torture Program … many TI in the US not even cared about …
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Andy Worthington says...
Maria Allison wrote:
This is bad enough on so many levels that I don’t know where to begin. But we don’t even know if she did anything.
And Andy, you say 2 of her children eventually re-surfaced. I can’t imagine how horrible this whole thing was for them.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Andy Worthington says...
Jennifer Elaine Elliott wrote:
Very Shameful.. Makes me have more deep hatred for Nazi C*nts that live free … like GWB, Rummy, Gonzo, Cheney all of them … RRRRRR
Even more pissed at how Obama has turned his BACK to sell us the BS idea of look forward to a future … don’t look back we will all turn into a pillar of salt! BS! BS! BS! The Rome Statute … and if you are going to play war, War Laws for all.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Andy Worthington says...
Maria Allison wrote:
Don’t get me started on the Bush administration’s war crimes. You’re one step ahead of me in the pissed department. I don’t know whether I’m more pissed at Obama or Eric Holder. Both of them know that Bush et al are war criminals, Holder admitted as such when acknowledging that water boarding is torture during his confirmation hearing.
The Torture program when it comes down to it is only scratching the surface.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Andy Worthington says...
Jennifer Elaine Elliott wrote:
I live in Victoria Texas GWB landofthelost … anyhow I survived a brutal murder attempt for being an activist voice against war … BIG Time! Anyhow I’m alive despite this unconstitutional and illegal conflict of power abusing white Texas men …
I am better inside than a man with artificial lies created … My soul is clean.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Andy Worthington says...
Maria Allison wrote:
You’ve got a clean soul and a lot more guts than the men supposedly leading the country.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:32 am
Andy Worthington says...
San Fernando Valley Greens wrote:
If Obama had any heart, he would pardon this lady
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:32 am
Andy Worthington says...
Brian Devlin wrote:
So now we have show trials … Beria would have approved … anyone remember Roland Freisler?
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Brian. And just for some context, Lavrentiy Beria was Stalin’s head of secret police, and Roland Freisler was the Nazi judge who presided over the show trials of Hitler’s political opponents.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mujahid Ul-Haq wrote:
speechless … these dogs will pay, they kidnapped her, raped her, slaughtered her child, took her whole life!!! like she says “I am not alive…” Is This Life!!! Is this what the world is! Where is justice! Who will put an end to the tyranny that plagues this WHOLE WORLD!!!??? Words cannot express! She is a symbol for the impotence of humanity!… waAllah feel like crying :'( waAllah!
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Andy Worthington says...
Veronika Kozma wrote:
Somewhere in an article American justice was called an oxymoron, in Aafia’s case it definitely is …
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Alistair Hale says...
When they persuade more and more people that they really should hate them, they can work with that.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Veronica. Yes, it was just a few days ago that I wrote that for Fayiz al-Kandari, the Guantanamo prisoner who just lost his habeas petition despite there being no evidence against him, American justice has always been an oxymoron:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/09/22/fayiz-al-kandari-a-kuwaiti-aid-worker-in-guantanamo-loses-his-habeas-petition/
It’s not that I can see the future, of course. Sadly, it’s that miscarriages of justice, punitive, disproportionate sentencing, and executions (even of mentally damaged women) are what those in power in the US consider appropriate. It really does seem to me that, behind the veneer of modernity, Salem still lurks and frontier justice prevails:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10345398
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Andy Worthington says...
Lola Heavey wrote:
This is the way the secret services do their work. And for as long as the rest of us can do little about it, it will continue. It is called being unaccountable.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Andy Worthington says...
This was my reply to the messages above:
Thanks, everyone. And for those interested in digging further into the story, it’s the reappearance of her two young children, Ahmed and Marian, that not only seems crucial to confirming Aafia’s five lost years in US custody (which has never been admitted), but also for exposing a very very dark area of the “War on Terror” that has not yet been fully explored: what happened to all the children of those subjected to kidnapping, extraordinary rendition and torture?
...on September 24th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Andy Worthington says...
Huma Kashif wrote:
totally agree with you but they are ruthless and barbaric
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thaira Begum wrote:
this is just so sad may Allah make it easy for her.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Esther Angel wrote:
Andy, it would be good to compile a list of the disappeared children. Sounds like a lot of research!
It also sounds like Chile in 1973 all over again…
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Agreed, Esther. There have been discussions about it, but, as you say, it will be a lot of work.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
zara says...
put urself in the place of afia sadiqi n than tell me …. its wrong or right…. ur army destroyed her n her childrn life … shame on us …….fuck ….. u r all mother fuckrs
...on September 24th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Huma Kashif wrote:
i wonder after sentencing someone like this how can they sleep and carry on with their lives? they think they are god or what? this is insane
...on September 24th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Talat Gilani Hamdani wrote:
If this is justice, I wonder what is injustice.
...on September 24th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Andy Worthington says...
William Laman wrote:
Someone needs to help this woman. Maybe Wikileaks ?
...on September 24th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
DhafirTrial says...
[…] two US soldiers in Ghazni, Afghanistan in July 2008, has been sentenced to 86 years in prison. (more…) […]
...on September 25th, 2010 at 3:25 am
Carlyle Moulton says...
No one who knows anything about the US “Justice” system should be surprised at the 86 year sentence, The US “justice” system is notorious for its draconian sentences and mean spirited punitiveness.
That the US is not going to let Aafia Siddiqui ever get in the position where she is able to relate her experiences to the world outside is a certainty. I predict that she will be held under special administrative measures in a supermax prison with it being a condition of anyone being allowed to speak to her, including family and lawyers, that they sign agreements to not relate anything she says to the outside world. Any person failing to honour such an agreement would get the full Lynne Stewart treatment.
However, when such incommunicado conditions are imposed, all rational people should see them as proof that the Americans have done to her something so horrible that they cannot bear that knowledge of it to come to light.
It may be that those determining Aafia’s treatment rationalize it as a cover up to prevent damage to the reputation of the US, but it can’t possibly succeed as too much contradictory information is in the public domain. That Aafia and all three of her children disappeared from a Pakistan street at the same time is an incontrovertible fact but the US and their Afpakistan allies have made the mistake of allowing two of the children to survive and even returned them to their family. Sooner or later one or both of these children will tell the truth about being held by US, Afghan and Pakistan authorities and this will make the US assertion that they did not have Aafia herself in their custody absurd and make it obvious that the whole Kabuki play about the US rushing to take this dangerous terrorist into custody after she was found acting suspiciously in an Afghan street is a clumsy attempt to make her being in US custody official while concealing that they had her prior to this. In fact, according to Yvonne Ridley, Ahmad Siddiqui has already given a statement that he was held in the presence of uniformed US soldiers as well as Pakistanis and Afghans.
I suggest that Aafia Siddiqui’s show trial in New York was one of that type where the workings of injustice were meant to be visible albeit through a little concealing smoke. The purpose was to send a message of hatred and contempt to all Muslims, Arabs and people who oppose the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and so on. It is to show the power that the US has to destroy lives of those who hate them, no matter how justified is that hate. Those who orchestrated this circus want those at whom its message is directed to know that it is a show trial of Stalin/Hitler quality and that they are powerless to do anything about it.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Connie says...
In my latest two posts http://oneheartforpeace.blogspot.com I raise the questions: Can a Muslim Get a Fair Trial in the US? and WHO put those items in Aafia’s bag?
Thank You, Andy for this ongoing work. Too bad so many of the comments under this same article at Huff Post were so off the wall
Do keep writing about Aafia…we need your insights…
...on September 25th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Connie. I should have mentioned that Huffington Post cross-post earlier, in case people would like to read, share and/or comment, to let the editors know that it’s important:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/barbaric-86-year-sentence_b_737738.html
And Carlyle, that is a really excellent analysis. Thank you!
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Andy Worthington says...
And a few more comments from Facebook:
Tulhut Khan wrote:
Oh Allah ar Rahmaan ar Raheem alleviate her pain and sufferings.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Adeba Khan wrote:
I’m stunned!!!
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Andy Worthington says...
And here are a few comments from the Huffington Post:
Zahid Khan wrote:
Judgment speaks itself of the American justice system influenced by its government. 86 years sentence just for a person, who, herself, was shot twice, lost her children, health and dignity, is the most condemnable verdict I have ever witnessed.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Jackson D asked:
But why Zahid? Why would they do this? It just doesn’t make sense.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Zahid Khan replied:
They would do this to cover up the crimes they committed during her detention. They don’t want her to reveal the horrible facts about her sudden disappearance to avoid the wrath of American public.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Andy Worthington says...
VictorPurinton wrote:
The whole thing is strange. What motive would the US have to kidnap and torture an innocent woman? I have never read even a plausible story as to what might have happened, so the 86 years makes it look like there’s something we don’t know. But the author seems to know a lot more than I do, since he is certain that this is a miscarriage of justice.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Andy Worthington says...
JacksonD replied:
Victor, this is what I don’t get. I don’t know what to think. Why would the government want to kidnap her for years and then set her up on trumped up charges? I’ve read several comments elsewhere saying that she was raped and tortured but in searching, I keep seeing it referenced but nothing that comes down to anything substantial.
There’s something going on here and while I’m not buying that she’s some innocent little thing in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don’t necessarily believe that she was some female al Qaeda mastermind.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Andy Worthington says...
MikeDu wrote:
U.S. has always had a ‘throw away the keys’ mentality. it was Bill Clinton who helped introduce the ‘3 strikes’ law in the U.S. where a person can find himself facing life in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. Congress imposed draconian ‘mandatory minimum’ sentencing straightjackets on court judges. No punishment is ever seen to be enough. 10 year sentence on an eighty year old? Give him 20! Cop shows regularly crack jokes about endemic prison rape as they handcuff prisoners. The U.S. justice system is like the U.S. healthcare system — we *imagine* it’s far more just and equitable than it really is.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Firbolg wrote:
Whatever lies behind the case – and it must be obvious from similar cases that the truth is unlikely to emerge in our lifetimes – and even if her conviction of being an al-Qaeda operative is correct, the effect of her sentence and the lack of explanation of how she arrived in Afghanistan and the intervening five years since she and her family disappeared in Karachi is working against the US.
Supported by the Pakistan Prime Minister, rioters are on the streets in Pakistan demanding her release and repatriation. This in a country that we claim to see as a strategic ally and where, before this incident, only 17% had a favorable view of the US.
To the disinterested observer it would appear that there are people with influence in and who could throw further light on such events who are instead looking for ways to keep animosity towards the US festering by any means possible.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Jamal London says...
It makes me very sad that there are many people who have at least slight suspicions about Aafia Siddiqui, including even journalists, human beings that they are. (There are also those who would plant misinformation, or coerce people in order to mislead). But EVERYONE PLEASE forget about the spectre of ‘al-qaida’, and put it this way, are you giving credibility to the official side, the side that originally said that they had Aafia when she went missing in 2003, and then denied that they had her. The side that had contradictory witness testimonies in the trial. The side that are known to have wrongly detained innocents and have had to release them. The side that practice questionable interrogation techniques on human beings they SUSPECT. Yes, aafia was a SUSPECT maybe (and it’s easy to be one), but NO, she was NEVER A TERRORIST (a gentle woman and mother of three kids, turns super terrorist – yeah right!!).
I would rather believe Aafia’s family, and people like Yvonne Ridley, and Aafia. WOULDN’T YOU!
(And what happened to ‘innocent until proven guilty’, or is it ‘guilty until proven innocent’? -“The rules of the game have changed”, and so have many of us, it seems). Thank you.
...on September 25th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Fred says...
If the US simply wanted to keep her from telling her story, she would have been killed. I think they want her alive to see if they can finish what they started, which George Orwell called “the obliteration of the self.” So, they have to keep her breathing and in hell, without being able to get her story out. I’ll leave it up to others to speculate on how they will try to accomplish this. I doubt she’ll be released, although they might raise her hopes once in a while, so they can be dashed. The injustice will help the “Islamic”-terror-choreographers recruit new cannon fodder, and keep the “war on terror” going.
If they can destroy her, they can do it to the vast majority of people, and that is their goal: to destroy mankind forever, to eradicate mankind’s higher self from the world and create an “animal planet.” The “war on terror” is intended to destroy civilization so that what Michael Ledeen called “universal fascism” can be erected on its ashes, with the intent of creating a world order that literally drives the human self out of the world. (This is their goal, but they’ve tried and failed before. Hopefully, exposing them will help to destroy their plans.) Aafia Siddiqui is being used, perhaps because she is intelligent and strong-willed, and has children, to develop techniques for this purpose which would be incorporated into this new world order:
[O’Brien]: Do you [Winston Smith] begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. from 1984 by George Orwell
...on September 27th, 2010 at 6:35 am
Nuts and Dolts » Secret trials and Torture programs - A P2Blogs Partner Site says...
[…] After all, we are prosecuting Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay for war crimes. We did sentence Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in prison, that is after torturing her for several years. Who knows what we did to […]
...on October 9th, 2010 at 8:10 am
WikiLeaks: Numerous Reasons to Dismiss US Claims that “Ghost Prisoner” Aafia Siddiqui Was Not Held in Bagram + Bring Aafia Home « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] to the United States, where she was put on trial for attempted murder, and was convicted and given an 86-year prison sentence in September this […]
...on December 6th, 2010 at 2:08 am
Aafia Siddiqui’s Lawyer: “She was Detained for Five Years in a Black Site” and “Forced to Create Documents to Incriminate Herself” « Peace and Justice Post says...
[…] Elaine Whitfield Sharp, the lawyer for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist whose 86-year sentence in a New York courtroom last September — for allegedly trying and failing to shoot at her US […]
...on January 25th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Aafia Siddiqui's Black Site says...
[…] […]
...on January 26th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Compelling New Evidence About Aafia Siddiqui’s Detention by the ISI, and Her Rigged Trial in the US « Eurasia Review says...
[…] Regular readers will know that I have long been concerned by the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist whose story is one of the murkiest in the whole of the “War on Terror.” Dr. Siddiqui disappeared with her three children in Karachi in March 2003, and for five years neither the US nor the Pakistani authorities acknowledged holding her, even though she was reportedly seen in the US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. In July 2008, she mysteriously reappeared in Ghazni, Afghanistan, where she was arrested for behaving strangely, and then reportedly tried to shoot at a number of US soldiers, but only ended up being shot herself. She was then rendered to the US, where she was put on trial in New York for the alleged incident in Ghazni, and not for any of the al-Qaeda allegations that had been put forward during her lost years, and where, last September, she received an 86-year sentence. […]
...on February 14th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Compelling New Evidence About Aafia Siddiqui’s Detention by the ISI, and Her Rigged Trial in the US « Dandelion Salad says...
[…] Regular readers will know that I have long been concerned by the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist whose story is one of the murkiest in the whole of the “War on Terror.” Dr. Siddiqui disappeared with her three children in Karachi in March 2003, and for five years neither the US nor the Pakistani authorities acknowledged holding her, even though she was reportedly seen in the US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. In July 2008, she mysteriously reappeared in Ghazni, Afghanistan, where she was arrested for behaving strangely, and then reportedly tried to shoot at a number of US soldiers, but only ended up being shot herself. She was then rendered to the US, where she was put on trial in New York for the alleged incident in Ghazni, and not for any of the al-Qaeda allegations that had been put forward during her lost years, and where, last September, she received an 86-year sentence. […]
...on February 15th, 2011 at 3:20 am
Compelling New Evidence About Aafia Siddiqui’s Detention by the ISI, and Her Rigged Trial in the US By Andy Worthington | Sailan Muslim - The Online Resource for Sri Lanka Muslims says...
[…] Regular readers will know that I have long been concerned by the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist whose story is one of the murkiest in the whole of the “War on Terror.” Dr. Siddiqui disappeared with her three children in Karachi in March 2003, and for five years neither the US nor the Pakistani authorities acknowledged holding her, even though she was reportedly seen in the US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. In July 2008, she mysteriously reappeared in Ghazni, Afghanistan, where she was arrested for behaving strangely, and then reportedly tried to shoot at a number of US soldiers, but only ended up being shot herself. She was then rendered to the US, where she was put on trial in New York for the alleged incident in Ghazni, and not for any of the al-Qaeda allegations that had been put forward during her lost years, and where, last September, she received an 86-year sentence. […]
...on March 12th, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Andy Worthington and Omar Deghayes Discuss Aafia Siddiqui in East London, Saturday February 23, 2013 – AlHittin.com says...
[…] the sentence was first delivered, I wrote an article entitled, “Barbaric: 86-Year Sentence for Aafia Siddiqui,” and I have made several appearances at events since (see here, here, here and here), as […]
...on February 22nd, 2013 at 6:06 am
Compelling New Evidence About Aafia Siddiqui’s Detention by the ISI, and Her Rigged Trial in the US | Dandelion Salad says...
[…] Regular readers will know that I have long been concerned by the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist whose story is one of the murkiest in the whole of the “War on Terror.” Dr. Siddiqui disappeared with her three children in Karachi in March 2003, and for five years neither the US nor the Pakistani authorities acknowledged holding her, even though she was reportedly seen in the US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. In July 2008, she mysteriously reappeared in Ghazni, Afghanistan, where she was arrested for behaving strangely, and then reportedly tried to shoot at a number of US soldiers, but only ended up being shot herself. She was then rendered to the US, where she was put on trial in New York for the alleged incident in Ghazni, and not for any of the al-Qaeda allegations that had been put forward during her lost years, and where, last September, she received an 86-year sentence. […]
...on November 16th, 2013 at 9:28 am
ibn Abdullah says...
You have to know that Siddiqui Has to tell something very important: The truth! US American democRATS Are Not intressted in that to keep up their way of life. So they gurantee that she was locked up her whole life. This is western understanding of demoCRAZY
...on May 10th, 2014 at 10:36 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for the comments, Ibn Abdullah.
...on May 10th, 2014 at 11:58 am
Where is Aafia Siddiqui? Was she tortured in US prisons? Why has no one seen her in a year in the prison in Texas where she has been? | Eslkevin's Blog says...
[…] Barbaric: 86-Year Sentence for Aafia Siddiqui | Andy … […]
...on April 21st, 2015 at 7:11 am
Rallies Worldwide to Mark the 9th Anniversary of the Disappearance of Aafia Siddiqui – Justice for Aafia Coalition says...
[…] be well, although her mental health was not considered to be an issue worthy of scrutiny, she was sentenced to 86 years in prison, which she is serving in a notorious psychiatric prison, FMC Carswell, in Texas. Please click on […]
...on February 11th, 2016 at 8:30 pm
Andy Worthington and Omar Deghayes Discuss Aafia Siddiqui in East London, Saturday February 23, 2013 – Justice for Aafia Coalition says...
[…] the sentence was first delivered, I wrote an article entitled, “Barbaric: 86-Year Sentence for Aafia Siddiqui,” and I have made several appearances at events since (see here, here, here and here), as […]
...on February 11th, 2016 at 8:32 pm