Marblehead Lawyer Defends al-Qaida Suspect
By Alan Burke
Staff writer
MARBLEHEAD — Marblehead lawyer Elaine Whitfield Sharp is telling the federal government to “put up or shut up” in the case of an MIT-educated Pakistani woman accused of being the only significant female member of al-Qaida.
Sharp, part of a legal team defending Aafia Siddiqui, has represented Siddiqui’s family for the past 51âÑ2 years, at one point counseling her mother through a grand jury appearance.
The government says that Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistan last month. While she’s been accused of involvement in terrorism, thus far she’s charged only with assault for allegedly shooting at the officials who attempted to arrest her. She was seriously wounded in the incident.
All the same, Sharp is adamant that the entire case is based on lies. “Nobody’s seen any paperwork. Nobody’s seen any evidence.”
Siddiqui has declared her innocence, Sharp said. “She is a very nice person. A very gentle person. Easygoing. … Everything she says is consistent with the truth.”
By contrast, the government says she is a Ph.D. in neuroscience from MIT and Brandeis with detailed knowledge of weapons of mass destruction. Further, officials have released information holding that when captured, Siddiqui carried a list of potential terrorist targets in America, including the Statue of Liberty, and that she carried a small computer storage device that contained e-mail to terrorist “cells.”
As early as 2004, she was linked by the Bush administration to a plan to kill all former U.S. presidents.
Finally, they’ve connected Siddiqui to Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad, stating that she was married to his nephew.
Sharp is forceful in rejecting all of this. She believes that Siddiqui has been held at Bagram in Afghanistan for the last five years, enduring “horrible” treatment from American officials.
“I know it’s true,” Sharp said. “I’m sure it’s true. … If they’ve got some evidence of what they claim — let’s see it. Instead, they’re providing the press with unnamed anonymous sources.”
Siddiqui’s reappearance was forced by circumstances in Pakistan, where officials were asking hard questions about her disappearance, according to Sharp. “And she’s suddenly picked up carrying a grab bag of terrorist goodies?”
Sharp snorts at a charge that a supposed high-level al-Qaida soldier was carrying “The Anarchist Arsenal,” calling it “The Idiot’s Guide to Terrorism.”
All this, Sharp maintains, is designed to sway the jury pool before Siddiqui can even be brought to trial. “Please presume her innocent. Let’s show that we’ve got a decent system of justice.”
It will be easily proven, Sharp indicates, that Siddiqui has no special expertise in the type of neuroscience useful to terrorists.
“Her degree is in education, not biochemistry. … Her lab in Brandeis was just a bunch of computers. … They are just wrong about her background.”
High-profile cases are no novelty for Sharp. Born in the United Kingdom, she defended British nanny Louise Woodward in the late 1990s. She dismisses the idea that this case could be still more troublesome for her personally. “You’ve got to do what you think is right. … I don’t believe she’s a terrorist.”
She links her client’s situation with what she denounces as a Bush administration that repeatedly lied to bring the country to war. Now, Sharp said, they’re trying to use resentment of Pakistanis to sustain some popularity by saying, “Let’s just string up a few people and be done with it.”
While sources have described Siddiqui as a Muslim Mata Hari, Sharp says, “She’s very fragile. Very small. Undernourished. Underfed.”
According to ABC News, Siddiqui appeared in a Manhattan court on Monday slumped over in a wheelchair, suffering bullet wounds traced to her capture. She allegedly grabbed a soldier’s carbine and fired, inviting a volley of fire in return.
Sharp, who was with her client in Manhattan, disputes this, too, calling it just a case of excessive police force. “We’ve heard that no one heard a rifle shot. The government’s complaint is not only full of holes — it’s false.
SOURCE: The Salem News
