So far, the US government has rebuffed all appeals for her release despite the fact that evidence against her is so weak that it makes a travesty of justice even under the US criminal justice system. The thing to note is that she had only allegedly pointed a gun at US marines in Afghanistan without killing anybody and the US courts awarded her a harsh sentence of 86 years.

Compare this with Raymond Davis, who had killed two of our innocent citizens, but was safely repatriated to the US. On the one hand, we are letting American killers go scot-free and on the other, the US is punishing our citizens for merely being Muslims. The government must put pressure on the US to repatriate her to Pakistan, where she would have the opportunity to be with her family.

The issue is furthermore a source of fuelling anti-Americanism in the country and severely damages Washington’s credibility in the world.

SOURCE : Nation.com.pk

Dr Aafia’s sister, Fauzia Siddiqui, has accused the government of making massive funds available to some of its favourite on the pretext of pursuing her case but they were instead enjoying themselves with that money. Fauzia very rightly said that the golden opportunity for her sister’s release was when the decision to let Raymond Davis, who was guilty of killing two Pakistani citizens in broad daylight, go scot-free was taken.

There is hardly any doubt that it is the responsibility of the federal government to make an all-out effort to secure release of any Pakistani national being persecuted in a fake and highly ill-motivated case. Political and religious parties, NGOs and civil society as a whole have been demanding Dr Aafia’ Siddiqui’s immediate release.

But our ruling leadership is immune to the demand because it might annoy their American masters. It is high time the Pakistan government and its embassy in Washington launched a fresh effort for her release so that the family could have some hope of seeing her again.

SOURCE : Nation.com.pk

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SOURCE : Freeaafia.org Buy elavil online

A comparative analysis of the criminal cases involving three young women, two Americans and one Pakistani. The cases of Amanda Knox, Casey Anthony, and Dr. Aafia Siddiqui reveal just how arbitrary and capricious “justice” can be in the U.S. legal system, and how conceptually flawed it can be in the collective mind of the American people (generally speaking).

These three cases also reveal, in very graphic detail, the role that race, class, gender, religion and politics often play in the pursuit of  justice in the western hemisphere.

click on Image to see interview on PressTV

Amanda Knox was prosecuted and convicted in Italy (along with her Italian lover and an African immigrant) for the brutal murder of another young female foreign exchange student. Knox received a sentence of 26 years as a result. Now via the automatic appeals process in European law (a superior quality, in my view, to American law), and the recent decision by an appellate judge to allow an independent review of key forensic evidence that was used to convict her – because the evidence was reportedly contaminated by being mishandled by Italian investigators – Knox has a good chance of winning release in the near future.

(If I were a betting man, I would wage it all on my belief that Ms. Knox will be “legally” cleared and repatriated back to America sooner than later.)

Casey Anthony, a young woman from Florida, was charged in the death of her own child, Caylee Anthony. Despite the damning evidence against her, Anthony was recently found not guilty of the most serious charges in the murder indictment, and convicted only for giving false information to the law enforcement officers who investigated the case. Anthony has now been released to an undisclosed location, and reportedly stands to make a fortune when ever she decides to “tell her story.”

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani national, and committed Muslim woman, who came to the United States at the age of 18 for university study. She excelled academically at the University of Houston, MIT, and Brandeis University. She also distinguished herself as a young leader of the Muslim student organization(s) to which she belonged, and engaged in praiseworthy charitable work in the greater Boston area. Aafia would later become a person of suspicion (post 9/11), return home to Pakistan, and eventually become a target Buy propecia online of a rendition operation (along with her three young children – ages six, four, and six months) in March of 2003.

After five years of secret detention and torture, Aafia would mysteriously re-emerge in a weakened and disheveled state in Afghanistan; she would be shot and seriously injured while awaiting re-interrogation; and soon after be brought back to the United States, in 2008, to eventually stand trial (two years later) for allegedly “attempting to murder U.S. personnel” (FBI and soldiers) in Afghanistan in July 2008.

While Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony (young, white, non-Muslim females) became “tabloid darlings,” Buy lasix online whose trials played out in the public sphere like Reality TV dramas, the trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was shrouded under a cloak of near anonymity within the United States – despite the presence of a significant number of reporters in the courtroom each day of the trial.

Both Knox and Anthony misled investigators (aka, repeatedly lied) during their interrogations, while Aafia was forthright from start to finish.

Both Knox and Anthony initially tried to shift responsibility for the crime that they were accused of committing on to an innocent person, and both had strong circumstantial evidence against them. In Siddiqui’s case both the material and circumstancial evidence were strongly in her favor; it was the government’s star witnesses that perjured themselves on the witness stand during the trial (although they were never charged with perjury)!

Casey Anthony received an extreme presumption of innocence from a jury that saw a young white female who was facing the death penalty, if convicted. (I predict that the presumption of innocence principle will strongly kick in, post conviction, based on the alleged contamination of evidence, in the appeals process for Amanda Knox.) And while Ms. Anthony had a fair and impartial jurist to preside over her case, Judge Belvin Perry, Aafia Siddiqui had just the opposite. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman was openly biased against Dr. Siddiqui from start to finish.

Anthony’s jury was sequestered in a hotel, cutoff from the outside world; while Dr. Siddiqui’s should have been! The jury in Aafia’s case left the courthouse each day, and were continually exposed to the highly prejudicial, government-fed local media reports that contaminated the court of public opinion; reports that were so unfair and poisonous that they made any prospect for an impartial deliberation process almost impossible.

Anthony’s attorneys were given a lot of latitude in their defense of their client; while Siddiqui’s attorneys were hamstrung (and in the opinion of some observers, allowed themselves to be hamstrung) to such an extent, that the missing fives years of her secret detention were made off limits during the trial!

While Casey Anthony is a free woman (relatively speaking); and Amanda Knox – who has benefited from a growing defense lobby, and American press coverage that has been primarily positive – may soon be a free woman; Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (who is not accused of harming anyone!) received a sentence of 86 years on September 23, 2010, and is now being confined at a notorious institution (known as Carswell) on a military base in Fort Worth, Texas.

The well known peace activist, Cindy Sheehan, made a provocative observation regarding the outcome of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui case, not long after her sentencing:
“Even if Dr. Siddiqui did shoot at the Americans, reflect on this. Say this case was being tried in Pakistan under similar circumstances for an American woman named Dr. Betty Brown who was captured and repeatedly tortured and raped by the ISI. Here in the states that woman would be a hero if she shot at her captors, not demonized and taken away from her life and her children. I believe Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a political prisoner and now the political bogey-woman for two US regimes.”

I couldn’t agree more…and so goes the tale of three accused women.

El-Hajj Mauri’ Saalakhan

(c) 2011, All Rights Reserved

(permission is given to share this commentary with others, without any changes, and with the appropriate attribution)

SOURCE : Freeaafia.org

Since the release of The Guantanamo Files in April 2011 by Wikileaks, there have been a number of stories written in relation to those detained at the infamous base. One of the stories that received some mainstream coverage though, was that of Aafia Siddiqui. However, the coverage that was received, completely missed the point.

During Aafia’s years of disappearance, a number of allegations were made against her by the US, allegations that were circled within the mainstream on a consistent basis. Among the more ridiculous statements that were made included references to her purportedly having run conflict diamonds out of Liberia in the summer of 2001 in order to fund Al Qaeda operations. The sad fact remains, that very few have considered the ludicrous allegations that have been levelled against her.

The most important point to note, however, is that the US refused to prosecute Aafia on any terrorism related offences as part of their case. They started the case making that point, and references to terrorism did not enter until the judge chose to enhance her sentence claiming that he felt she had links.

But who wrote the narrative regarding these links, it was the US government. All the Wikileaks cables do, is to show a distorted view of Aafia’s case. If one is to look at her timeline of activity according to her lawyers and supporters, there was no time for her to be involved with any kind of Al Qaeda related activity.

Like many foreign Muslims living in the US after 9/11, Aafia Siddiqui and her family became suspects, and thus any kind of activity they may have been involved in, became suspicious.

Background

Within days of the 9/11 attacks, the FBI launched the PENTTBOM investigation – thousands of foreign Muslims were detained and placed through vigorous checks and, in many cases, detained for long periods without charge. The wide net of suspicion was cast and it soon became difficult for many Muslims to live in the US due to harassment they faced by the FBI and other authorities. As a result, Siddiqui and her husband returned to Pakistan.

In 2002 Aafia and her husband returned to the US where they separated and were eventually divorced on 21 October 2002. An argument between Aafia and her husband at her parent’s home resulted in a heart attack and the eventual death of her father. Within a few weeks of this incident she gave birth to her youngest child.

On 25 December 2002 Aafia Siddiqui returned to the US in order to look for work in the Baltimore area where her sister Fowzia now lived – she had job offers lined up at John Hopkins and SUNY. She remained in the US until 2 January 2003 – having used the time in order to search for work.

In March 2003, Aafia Siddiqui disappeared and there was very little evidence as to where she and her children may be.

Disappearance between March 2003 – July 2008

During much of this period of disappearance, there was very little in the way of evidence as to where Aafia Siddiqui and her children were, or indeed where they were being kept.

According to Pakistani officials who commented on the case of Siddiqui’s disappearance for the government, they had no knowledge of her whereabouts and were officially still looking for her. A senior Pakistani security official explained to the Association Press that they were attempting to locate her but that she had gone underground.

On 8 August 2008, the Daily Times newspaper in Pakistan made reference to documents that existed which confirmed that they Military Intelligence of Pakistan had detained Aafia Siddiqui and her three children on 30 March 2003 and, that they had been handed over to the FBI.

In March 2010 – a senior security official from Buy Doxycycline Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed Pakistan confirmed to Cageprisoners that an internal investigation into the Pakistani government had revealed that Pakistan was involved with her detention in 2003.

During the period of her disappearance, the FBI released a seeking information poster relating to her questioning in 2004. She appeared on the poster with six men.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III on 26 May 2004 made a public appeal to the American people in helping the law enforcement agencies to find six men and one women with ties to terrorism. The one women that was shown in the pictures was Aafia Siddiqui. Ashcroft specifically commented that, “credible intelligence from multiple sources indicate that al Qaeda plans to attempt an attack on the United States in the next few months.” He further added that the seven, including Siddiqui, “…should all be considered armed and dangerous.”

In an article written by Robert Fisk for the Independent on 19/03/2010, Aafia Siddiqui’s uncle, Dr Shams Hassan Faruqi allegedly made the claim that he saw Aafia free in 2008 before the incident in Ghazni and further in an article in the New York Times that he had submitted an affidavit to the Pakistani authorities about her to that effect.

Dr Faruqi has now released an officially signed declaration to negate such speculation within the media:

“With reference to the news item published in the Urdu daily ‘Jang’ Rawalpindi of 8 March 2010 on some news published in New York Times, regarding my submission of an affidavit to Pakistani authorities about my niece Dr Aafia Siddiqui. I hereby declare that I have not given any statement to anybody including the concerned or unconcerned government authorities about Dr Aafia. The news published in the New York Times to this effect is totally false and baseless.

I further declare that Dr has never requested me to get established contact with the Pakistani or Afghani Taliban.”

US transfer of jurisdiction

According to the US indictment, Aafia Siddiqui was extradited (although no extradition process was used) to the US from Afghanistan for allegedly, “unlawfully, willingly, and knowingly…[prepared to]use a deadly and dangerous weapon and…forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, and interfere.” Also she is alleged to have attempted to kill officers and employees of the United States.

The above two counts of criminality Buy Inderal online without prescription serve to act as one of the most confounding conundrums of the eight years of the War on Terror. Siddiqui was allegedly found in Afghanistan, attempting to attack an Afghani compound (at least according to the Afghanis) – thus, she should be tried for committing a war crime in the arena of conflict, or she should be tried for attempting to commit an act of terrorism, or even for having a child soldier with her. The internationally serious crimes of terrorism and war crimes were completely ignored by the US in their indictment of Siddiqui. They have indicted her for two far lesser offences and, in a jurisdiction which is outside of the country where the incident took place. Aafia Siddiqui was not extradited to the US, no such formal process was used rather she was placed on a rendition flight without being given the opportunity to challenge her transfer.

Further, this is one of the first times that a non-US citizen has not been designated an ‘enemy combatant’ and detained at one of the many bases around the world. Why was Aafia Siddiqui sent to the US mainland when no foreign detainee before her was treated in such a way? Why was Siddiqui not sent to Guantanamo Bay?

Considering the list of allegations that have been levied against Siddiqui over the last five years, there was not a single reference to her involvement in international terrorism during her indictment.

Questions must be raised as to why such seemingly important points have been completely ignored for the sake of indicting on lesser offences? It is indeed these last points that are so troublesome for those who have studied this case in detail. They do not correspond at all with the history of the case.

The real questions relating to Aafia Siddiqui’s case are not being asked. When an entire background story was established to portray her as a terrorist, why was she never tried or indeed even accused of being one before a court of law?

SOURCE: Cageprisoners.com

On February 3, 2010, a Pakistani – Aafia Siddiqui – was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder, armed assault, using and carrying a firearm, and three counts of assault on U.S. officers and employees. Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison (effectively a life sentence) by the federal judge Berman in Manhattan on September 23, 2010. She is a Ph.D and an MIT graduate. She was reported as being a polite, not unusually religious, non-assertive woman by her fellows at MIT. Pakistan’s government had no power and control over the U.S. in Aaafia’s case and hence could do nothing to get her released.

Raymond Davis is a staff member of the U.S. consulate in Lahore. He shot dead two Pakistani men on Thursday the 27th of January 2011, in a crowded part of Lahore (Mozang Chowk.) A vehicle of the U.S. consulate rushed to Mr Davis’ ‘rescue’ ran over a third person, who also died. A murder case was registered against Raymond Davis, who was handed into police custody. Raymond Davis was released by Punjab officials on 16th March 2011 after a reported deal was negotiated with the families of the two men he was accused of murdering. Davis was scheduled to be indicted for murder charges on the same date.

Security forces picked up the victims’ families last night. A payment Buy amoxil online estimated at $2 million was made to secure the release. The families are still in police custody. Davis is now at an undisclosed location, rumored to be Bagram Air Force Base in Kabul.

“Blood money” was given to the families who now have denied that they had agreed to the deal. One of the family members told the media in Pakistan; “Family members were told they were being taken to the police station to make statements. Instead, they were taken to a secret location and held in isolation and told that unless they signed a letter pardoning Davis, ‘you will never see daylight’.”

Senator John Kerry flew to Pakistan on February 16, 2011. He met with Punjab’s ruling duo, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his brother Nawaz Sharif, heads of the PML, Pakistan Muslim League. Kerry announced that the release would occur in a few days, although families refused to meet with him. Rana Sanaullah the Punjab Law Minister played the lead role. Sources in Pakistan indicate that government and police officials in Punjab received millions in CIA payoffs in the deal.

My question to the respected people of the world is whether one person could be so superior to the other simply because of the geographical location in which he is born. Is luck such a great factor in determining the human rights of a person that simply being a citizen of a super power provides a person the liberty to kill. Where are the so-called champions of human rights and international law when an attempted murder gets 86 years in jail and a double murder goes unpunished. Where were the saviors of humanity who killed thousands in the name of war on terror when families were terrorized into signing an agreement for the freedom of the one who killed their sons! Is the only form of terrorism visible to the international community Islamic terrorism and doesn’t any other form of violence against humanity classify as terrorism in the eyes of the intellectuals of this world? Ask yourself and be ashamed of the world that you live in because that is the least we can do!

SOURCE : Technorati.com

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 butts 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.

SOURCE : Baltimorechronicle.com

By Nighat Leghari

After having implicated Dr Aafia Siddiqui in a false and fabricated case and keeping her in a secret prison for seven long years, the US court of justice have given the verdict which provided a laugh line to the world jurists community. Coming out form the court house even the defense Attorney, Linda Moreno wearing a worn out smile said, “Now I have no faith in American justice system. I completely disagree with this partisan verdict we will go into an appeal against this verdict. She further revealed in her closing statement “The case is about “Fear versus Facts”.

The prosecutor portrayed Dr. Aafia as a terrorist, though she was not charged with any terrorism offences but prosecutor charged her as “would be terrorist”. The verdict she said explains the fear versus facts but I say there is no room for fear in the court room, it indicated that verdict of the jurors took over fear of the US justice system. The verdict confirmed that it is impossible for Muslim terrorism suspects to receive a fair trial in USA courts. Is it not a biased behavior of the court that no Muslim media was allowed to cover the proceedings of the court or snapping up Dr. Aafia a torn up Muslim convict. Defense Attorney cleared up that prosecution had proved no physical evidence and their witness testimonies were inconsistent.

Does it not sound ridiculous that verdict charges her for assaulting 4 US nationals with M 4 riffle and had got a list of terror targets in New York landmarks including the State of Liberty, Brookly Bridge and the Empire State Building, and instructions how to makes a bomb. Another defense attorney, Charles Swift said, “my client Dr. Aafia who has earned her Doctorate Degree in Neurocongnitive science degree from Brandies University of America was kept in secret prison for seven long years without any legal representation.

The ill-fated Dr. Aafia narrating the gory story of her long agonizing arrest in US said, “I was kidnapped with my three small kids and kept in a secret jail where I suffered unbelievable physical mental and psychological torture by the US soldiers during interrogation, many times I confronted death owing to pains but I think pain is a state of mind either your give into it or not and I chose “NOT”. The cruel culture of US prospects of justice are not good for any Muslim than how Dr. Aafia could receive any genuine justice form it.It is said that after the jurors left the court room Dr. Aafia showing no emotions shouted, “I know where the verdict has come from”. Dr. Aafia has been declared as the terrorist but the jury could not prove it.

Factually she did not practice terrorism but the Americans dugout in her inner the hatred against the US terrorism against the Muslims and now the only alternate was with them to declared her terrorist. Dr. Aafia is a Muslim through and through how long she could see and hear the massive killings of her innocent co-Muslims. Being a weaker gender she was not in a position to express her anguish and alarm in practical form but she developed hatred against the US terrorists in her mind. May she had expressed her inner hatred at any place and the US forces like a sniffer dog held her.

The strange fact is this no Pakistani official of the Pakistan Embassy was present on the seat reserved for them. If a female member of one family is kidnapped the whole of the family even if it is on rifts get together and sit not silent unless they recover the female, but to our great disappointment US has kidnapped a young Fulbright doctor (Dr. Aafia ) of Pakistan in daybright light, but we are not in a position to snub our Exacting Master (USA). We cannot show even our anger or anguish to US because the United States of America has the power to make and break the Kings in Pakistan. If somewhat is being done in this case by the Government it is all under wrap and under lip, this apathetic action is shameful. Dr. Aafia I have no words on my command to express my grief over your griefs. I believe religion must has provided you the opportunity to peep into your Inner self and you must have come across with various pleasant spiritual experiences during your odd moments. You must have Meditated on the real purposes of life which had provided you a super human stamina. God does not put burden greater that one can bear. All nights give way to bright mornings. You are still in US snare but being Muslim look forward for a Divine Interrerence.

You have been declared guilty in Mahattan Fedral Court of America but I believe you will be released from the “Supreme Court of Almighty” who commands the whole world and who is not vindictive or biased for any one of His creatures. Bravo, Dr. Aafia I wish you all the Best for all the times to come. I salute to your self-restraint, with which you rebounced the ruses of US rafians.

SOURCE : Pakobserver.net

We met dozens of Pakistani military, including nearly all of their highest ranking retired officers, from Admiral Sirohey, Chairman of their Joint Chiefs of Staff to General Alsam Beg, Head of the Army to Lt. General Hamid Gul, former head of the ISI.

In our party were our other Veterans Today contributors, BG Asif Haroon Raja and BG Raza Ali, of “Charlie Wilson’s War” fame.

Today, I received an email from Admiral Sirohey. His office is lined with memorabilia from a long career of service, service as an ally and friend of the United States.

Sirohey and the rest were America’s most stalwart allies during the Cold War. These were the real allies that helped us bring about the downfall of the Soviet Union.

I was honoured to be among them.

Today Admiral Sirohey is scheduled to attend a rally protesting the illegal kidnapping, brutalizing and conviction of Dr. Affia Siddiqui.

America’s best friends in Asia, the finest soldiers in the world are horrified at what we have done.

Can it be that bad?

Bagram Air Base Afghanistan, Jan 2007 photo by Tim King

The Bush administration, when it saw its “War on Terror” wasn’t getting enough suspects, hired drug cartel members and criminal elements to kidnap innocent civilians to fill our secret prisons.

Yes, we actually did this.

In this case, we kidnapped a mother with 3 children, tortured her for years, murdered a small child and then charged her with attempting to murder her captors after years in a secret prison on Bagram Air Force Base. Every soldier on that base; everyone who has served there has to live with the dishonour of this act until something is done.

Remember when America, after World War II, painted the people of Germany with the stain of guilt for not knowing about the death camps? Tell me what is different here?

We didn’t know that druglords and gangsters were stealing people off the street to fill our prisons with “terror suspects” so Bush/Ashcroft and Cheney could crow about their successes?

Veterans Today Editors Raja Mujtaba & Jeff Gates in Islamabad, Pakistan Feb 2010 Photo by Gordon Duff

If you didn’t know before, this is what all the secret “torture memos” were all about, not real terrorists, but innocent people we “bought” as though we were slave runners of old.

A few years after we bought our phony terror suspects, tortured, raped and brutalized them, most were released.

They had committed no crime other than to be standing on the wrong dark street corner when the druglords working for Bush were out hunting “meat” for America’s gulags.

Dr. Aafia had to be convicted, had to be jailed and silenced.

The crimes against her and her children were so heinous, only a kangaroo court in America, a country whose news is orchestrated by the Islam hating MSM/Corporate media and powerful Israeli/AIPAC lobby, would have the audacity to bring her to trial.

Do we need to review the case? Remember the OJ case? He was released because of a glove not fitting. Dr. Aafia was shot by the “translator” during her “debriefing.”

She has a Doctorate from an American university. She comes from a country where everyone speaks English.

“If the translator doesn’t fit, you must acquit!”

Do we now call a person with a cattle prod a “translator?”

When the My Lai massacre happened, I was with a Marine unit less than 50 miles away.

All of us who were there then, not so many are around any more, carry the stain of that dishonour and have for decades.

I can talk of honour or service but all people see is babies and their mothers, shot to death, lining the bottom of a ditch.

It is a matter of honour.

There are no “secret prisons” and nobody is tortured without someone knowing about it.

We are all responsible, I don’t care if you are serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere around the world, active duty, reserve, National Guard, retiree or veteran. We are nearly 30 million strong.

Many of us don’t have much; memories, wounds, a small pension and our honour.

Our silence strips our honour away.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was not a terrorist. The newspapers lied, we all know why. Either she is guilty or we all are. Better to destroy her than to arrest those guilty of real crimes, arrest people some of us voted into high office.

“We were just taking orders.”

Where have we heard that before, Nuremberg? It isn’t just this one life. We’ve already killed over a million people in our ill fated invasion of Iraq.

Fog of War. We know better, everyone with eyes to see knows better, know it now. Then why are we still acting like criminals? No more lies. We are at war, a war with real enemies. We have so little; our short lives, our families and what we believe in.

Did a tiny crippled woman, illegally imprisoned for years, try to murder a roomful of FBI, Special Forces and Blackwater/CIA operatives?

I can tell you this: If I get my butt kicked by a 100 pound woman in a wheel chair, you won’t see me in front of a jury in New York City crying for my mama.

The only possible answer is that everyone involved in the trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a liar. Nothing else is possible. I know why they lied, they were ordered to “for the good of the service.” Was there something in the oath involving “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America unless told to lie for the good of the service?”

What are we protecting?

Once the public learns that we are buying phony terror suspects from the world’s largest drug dealers, people we are protecting, people flooding our streets with narcotics, there might be problems. Best not let the public know why we never found those weapons of mass destruction, that yellow cake uranium, those mobile bio-weapons labs or why our continual search for Osama bin Laden keeps failing.

The deal of the century, destroying an innocent life and earning the hatred of a valued ally, all to stand behind the lies and rhetoric of America’s “dark age.” We would be lucky if it were only every citizen of Pakistan that was enraged at us for this travesty. It is worse, far worse.

Who are the real terrorists? In Pakistan, Admiral Sirohey, friend to half a dozen American Presidents is heading to a peaceful protest. What can we, Americans, claim? If kidnapping, torture, rape and covering it up by letting the victim rot in prison isn’t terrorism, I don’t know what is.

We should be thankful for that seat on the UN Security Council. We may need it for more than covering up for Israel. The next nation facing sanctions for international crimes may be us.

All that stands between us and being cut off from the world is our veto. All that is keeping an entire administration from War Crimes trials is the Bush administration’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court at the Hague.

Why is President Obama allowing the outrages of the Bush administration to continue?

SOURCE : Salem-news.com