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 U.S. to face a trial after she reportedly tried -- and failed -- to shoot two U.S. 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 Dr. Siddiqui'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 U.S. detention -- possibly in the US prison at Bagram, Afghanistan -- where she was subjected to horrendous abuse.
The truth about Aafia Siddiqui'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 Dr. Siddiqui, but also two of her three children, Ahmed and Mariam, who only resurfaced last September, and in April this year. The whereabouts of her third child, Suleiman, who was just a baby when she 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 U.S. 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 Siddiqui 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 U.S. soldiers in July 2008 a cynical set-up, designed to ensure that she could be transferred to the U.S. 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 U.S. -- 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 U.S. 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 Siddiqui ended up in New York, rendered -- there is no other word -- from Afghanistan. And although she urged her supporters in court to remain calm yesterday, 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 (Pluto Press), and the co-director, with Polly Nash, of the documentary film, "Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo." He maintains a blog here, where a version of this article was first published.
Follow Andy Worthington on Twitter: www.twitter.com//GuantanamoAndy
sans conscience world.I wonder why someone is not bothered by this brutal se-
ntence.Just because of her religion she is unable to be treated as a normal human
by the same species.I am extremely grieved on listening this unjust verdict.I just
believe that we should assess the things on the grounds of humanity and consc-
ience irrespective of anyone's creed,this is what humanity is!
I suppose it is just easier to lie than be big enough to apologize and make sure this never happens again.
Same will happen to any one who takes life of Jihad. Pass it on.
Please give them fair trials. Dr. Siddique's after picture is proof of her mistreatment and that is a shame for America!
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.
74.5- year sentence would've been much more appropriate.
Obviously not... then shut your malodorous trap.
I think there are some very just and fair countries with excellent judicial traditions, wonderful law abiding citizens and great faith in the almighty would stone her to death for crimes less serious.
She did get an open trial. But if you do the crime and do not cooperate with your defense team, you will do the time. She does have the chance to appeal.
Whereas the Jihadist global networks have the "take off the infidel head" mentality.
And this is what we're struggling with
And this is what we're struggling with"
ur struggling with???? u obviously either live in Pakistan or Afghanistan to say that bc as far as i know the Muslims that live in these countries are dealing with it not you...and as far the mentality is concerned then US has a wipe the Muslims from the face of the world mentality too u know and it is known as war against terrorism or should i say war against Muslim...bc they murdered innocent Muslims of Iraq and Afghanistan....when u kill muslims its war against terror and when muslim kills u its terrorism and islam is violent scenario...
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.
Well now they don't have to. She'll rot in a cell and nobody will be the wiser.
A Pakistani scientist convicted of attempting to kill US military personnel has been sentenced to 86 years in prison. Aafia Siddiqui's sentence was handed down by a federal New York court on Thursday. http://www.newslook.com/videos/252703-us-sentences-pakistani-to-86-years?autoplay=true