Ms. Aafia Siddiqui

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  agonist.org/20080805/al_qaeda_woman_appears_in_court?hi - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/4/2008    Last Visited: 9/4/2008  

  BBC - Accounts differ as to how Aafia Siddiqui ended up in American custody
  
  A Pakistani woman scientist accused of links to the al-Qaeda leadership has appeared in a New York court charged with attempting to kill US soldiers.
  
  Aafia Siddiqui, 36, is accused of assaulting and attempting to kill the US personnel sent to take custody of her in Afghanistan last month.
  
  She faces 20 years in prison on each charge if convicted, but her lawyer dismissed the charges as ridiculous.
  
  Rights groups say she has spent the last five years in secret US jails.
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  Dr Aafia Siddiqui, in her mid-30s, has a PhD in neurological sciences from the US.She is believed to have Pakistani and US nationality.She is wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as an "al-Qaeda operative and facilitator" and in connection with "possible terrorist threats" in the US.September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (caught in Pakistan) is believed to have told authorities about Aafia.
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  dpa According to the complaint filed by Gracia, Siddiqui attacked a group of US officials who had come to the Afghan detention facility to interview her.
  
  The group, consisting of FBI agents and US military personnel, entered the room where she was being held behind a curtain, whereupon Siddiqui grabbed a rifle left on the floor and aimed the weapon at an army captain.
  
  She fired at least two shots before being secured, but failed to hit her target.At least one of two shots fired by an officer during efforts to subdue her struck her in the torso.
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  'After five years of detention, Aafia was suddenly 'discovered' in Afghanistan?
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  The woman could be Dr Aafia Siddiqui who was picked from a Pakistani airport few years back, Khan said, adding that keeping any one in illegal detention was violation of human rights.
  ...
  I wonder is the photo they use actually Siddiqui?
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  Siddiqui, 36, was arrested in the central town of Ghazni on July 17 by Afghan police who said they believed she had been planning a suicide attack.
  
  She has been described by US officials as a "treasure trove" of information on Al-Qaeda.
  
  Her arrest was the first time in five years she had been seen publicly and her family and lawyers allege she had been held captive since disappearing in Pakistan in 2003 -- possibly in a secret US or allied prison.
  
  The US military based at Bagram, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Kabul, said Siddiqui had only been to the base for military treatment for gunshot wounds after her arrest, and not before that.
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  Lavigne called Siddiqui a high-security risk because "she tried to shoot her way out" of custody.
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  In a letter to the family of Aafia Siddiqui, a suspected al-Qaeda operative who is in U.S. custody, federal prosecutors said photos and DNA tests strongly suggest that the youngster in Afghan custody is Siddiqui's son, Ahmed.
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  The boy was detained July 18 when Afghan police arrested Siddiqui in what they described as a shootout near a government compound in Ghazni.
  
  Siddiqui and her three children disappeared in Pakistan in 2003, and the case has been a cause celebre there ever since, prompting protests in Siddiqui's home town of Karachi and dozens of editorials in local papers.In the midst of an uproar over the disappearances of Pakistani suspects this summer, Afghan officials said they had captured Siddiqui after she fired on the compound.She is now in a federal prison in New York, charged with attempted murder.
  
  The FBI had spent years seeking information on Siddiqui, a U.S.-educated neuroscientist who officials feared was an al-Qaeda operative with knowledge of biological weapons.During that time, federal prosecutors and FBI officials have told Siddiqui's mother, Ismat, they had no information on the location of Siddiqui or her children, an attorney for the family said yesterday.
  
  The lawyers and Siddiqui family members yesterday questioned the U.S. government's account that Siddiqui had resurfaced five years after disappearing with her three young children in Pakistan and that she escaped Afghan and U.S. agents after she was taken into custody.
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  The CIA and the Justice Department denied that the United States had been holding Siddiqui or her children.

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  www.alrc.net/doc/mainfile.php/alrc_st2009/542/ - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/2/2009    Last Visited: 11/1/2009  

  In another case, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a female scientist was reportedly arrested in Karachi, Sindh province, on March 30, by Pakistani intelligence agencies while on her way to the airport and initial reports suggested that she was handed over to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). At the time of her arrest she was 30 years old and the mother of three sons, the oldest of which was four and the youngest only one month. Reports indicate that she was detained incommunicado in Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan by the US before being taken to the US for trial. The whereabouts of her children was also not known for lengthy periods and it is understood that one of them died in custody.
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  2- Provides all necessary legal support to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and probes her disappearance for more than five years during the military government of General Musharraf.

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  www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2008/august/aug52008 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/5/2008    Last Visited: 5/22/2009  

  Aafia Siddiqui, 36, a former US resident, was arrested on 17 July in Afghanistan's Ghazni province.
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  When US military officials went to pick Mrs Siddiqui up from the detention centre, she fired two rounds at them.
  
  While she did not hit anyone, she was shot in the chest by a US officer who returned fire.
  
  A US attorney said Mrs Siddiqui, who is married with three children and is a former student of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is scheduled to appear at New York's Southern District court.
  
  At the time of her arrest, Mrs Siddiqui was carrying documents on how to make explosives and descriptions of various US landmarks, including in New York City, in her handbag, said Michael Garcia, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
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  Mrs Siddiqui is charged with assaulting US officers and employees and attempting to kill US officers and employees.
  
  If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each charge, Garcia said.
  
  Mrs Siddiqui's lawyer, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, called the charges "a tall story" and disputed claims by the US that her client had gone underground for several years before her capture.
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  Her family believes that Mrs Siddiqui was secretly held by US agents since her disappearance in Pakistan in 2003, before authorities finally brought charges to justify her detention.
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  The scientist, Aafia Siddiqui, who studied at Brandeis University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was transferred Monday to New York and was expected to be arraigned Tuesday on charges of attempted murder and assault, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement.
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  Siddiqui disappeared with her three children while visiting her parents' home in Karachi, Pakistan, in March 2003, leading human rights groups and her family to believe that she was being secretly held.
  
  But in interviews and in a criminal complaint made public Monday, U.S. officials said they had had no knowledge of Siddiqui's location for five years, until July 17, when Siddiqui and a teenage boy were seized in Ghazni, Afghanistan, after the local authorities became suspicious of their loitering outside the provincial governor's compound.
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  Americans entered a room in the police station, unaware that Siddiqui was being held there, unsecured, behind a curtain.
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  The interpreter sitting closest to Siddiqui lunged at her and pushed the rifle away as she pulled the trigger and shouted, "God is great! She fired at least two shots, but no one was hit. The warrant officer returned fire, hitting Siddiqui at least once in the torso.
  
  Siddiqui struggled when officers tried to subdue her, shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans. She eventually lost consciousness.
  
  Siddiqui was charged Monday with one count of trying to kill U.S. officers and employees and one count of assaulting the officers and employees, the Justice Department said. If convicted she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count.
  
  The wild scene in the police station is the latest chapter in one of the strangest episodes in the U.S. campaign against terrorism.
  
  Human rights groups and a lawyer for Siddiqui, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, said they believed that Siddiqui had been secretly held since 2003, much of the time at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Human rights groups and a lawyer for Siddiqui, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, said they believed that Siddiqui had been secretly held since 2003, much of the time at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
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  "We believe Aafia has been in custody ever since she disappeared," Sharp said in an interview before the complaint was made public, "and we're not willing to believe that the discovery of Aafia in Afghanistan is coincidence."
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  "We believe Aafia has been in custody ever since she disappeared," Sharp said in an interview before the complaint was made public, "and we're not willing to believe that the discovery of Aafia in Afghanistan is coincidence."
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  U.S. intelligence agencies have said that Siddiqui has links to at least two of the 14 men suspected of being high-level members of Al Qaeda who were moved to the U.S. detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in September 2006.
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  A government statement said that Siddiqui had helped Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident and terrorism suspect now being held in Guantánamo, get documents to re-enter the United States.

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  www.pakwatan.com/latest_news1.php?id=8557 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/16/2008    Last Visited: 9/16/2008  

  "Aafia was first taken to a US military base from where she was flown to New York where she is facing charges of assault on US personnel in Ghazni," the reports added.
  
  Aafia Siddiqui, 36, came to the United States in 1990 and studied at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she got a bachelor's degree in biology in 1995.She later studied neuroscience as a graduate student at Brandeis University.Aafia went of missing from Karachi in 2003.

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  www.agonist.org/20080805/al_qaeda_woman_appears_in_cour - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/5/2008    Last Visited: 8/5/2008  

  BBC - Accounts differ as to how Aafia Siddiqui ended up in American custody
  
  A Pakistani woman scientist accused of links to the al-Qaeda leadership has appeared in a New York court charged with attempting to kill US soldiers.
  
  Aafia Siddiqui, 36, is accused of assaulting and attempting to kill the US personnel sent to take custody of her in Afghanistan last month.
  
  She faces 20 years in prison on each charge if convicted, but her lawyer dismissed the charges as ridiculous.
  
  Rights groups say she has spent the last five years in secret US jails.
  ...
  Dr Aafia Siddiqui, in her mid-30s, has a PhD in neurological sciences from the US.She is believed to have Pakistani and US nationality.She is wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as an "al-Qaeda operative and facilitator" and in connection with "possible terrorist threats" in the US.September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (caught in Pakistan) is believed to have told authorities about Aafia.
  ...
  dpa According to the complaint filed by Gracia, Siddiqui attacked a group of US officials who had come to the Afghan detention facility to interview her.
  
  The group, consisting of FBI agents and US military personnel, entered the room where she was being held behind a curtain, whereupon Siddiqui grabbed a rifle left on the floor and aimed the weapon at an army captain.
  
  She fired at least two shots before being secured, but failed to hit her target.At least one of two shots fired by an officer during efforts to subdue her struck her in the torso.
  ...
  'After five years of detention, Aafia was suddenly 'discovered' in Afghanistan?
  ...
  The woman could be Dr Aafia Siddiqui who was picked from a Pakistani airport few years back, Khan said, adding that keeping any one in illegal detention was violation of human rights.
  ...
  I wonder is the photo they use actually Siddiqui?

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  www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NzgzODI1NzM4 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/17/2008    Last Visited: 8/17/2008  

  The call for the rally was given by Jamaat-e-Islami, the main Islamic religious party of Pakistan, to demand the release of scientist Aafia Siddiqui, charged with trying to murder US officials in Afghanistan.
  
  Siddiqui, 36, a mother-of-three who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was arrested on July 17 in Afghanistan, extradited to New York on August 4 and indicted the next day on a charge of attempted murder.
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  The US should immediately release Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
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  Siddiqui was wounded during an alleged shootout with FBI agents and US military officers when she was questioned in Afghanistan.A US court put her in medical care.She was on a 2004 US list of suspects linked to Al-Qaeda.

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  www.startribune.com/world/28389694.html?elr=KArksLckD8E - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/15/2008    Last Visited: 9/16/2008  

  Officials say the boy, Ali Hassan, and his mother, Aafia Siddiqui, were detained outside the governor's house in Afghanistan's Ghazni province in July.
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  Aafia Siddiqui came to the United States in 1990 and studied at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she got a bachelor's degree in biology in 1995.She later studied neuroscience as a graduate student at Brandeis University.
  
  She vanished in Pakistan in 2003.
  
  In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III identified Siddiqui as one of seven people the FBI wanted to question about suspected ties to al-Qaida.

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  www.kansascity.com/449/story/797352.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/15/2008    Last Visited: 9/16/2008  

  Fauzia Siddiqui, left, aunt of Ali Hassan, reacts with her nephew in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Sept 15, 2008. The 12-year-old son of an al-Qaida suspect who was taken into U.S. custody with his mother and held for two months has returned to his relatives in Pakistan. Afghan officials handed the boy over on Monday. Pakistan's foreign ministry said he was with relatives and TV footage showed the boy hugging an aunt after his arrival. His mother, Aafia Siddiqui, was detained in Afghanistan in July. Siddiqui was taken to a U.S. military base and then to New York, where she faces charges of assault on U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
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  Fauzia Siddiqui, aunt of Ali Hassan, reacts with her nephew in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Sept 15, 2008. The 12-year-old son of an al-Qaida suspect who was taken into U.S. custody with his mother and held for two months has returned to his relatives in Pakistan. Afghan officials handed the boy over on Monday. Pakistan's foreign ministry said he was with relatives and TV footage showed the boy hugging an aunt after his arrival. His mother, Aafia Siddiqui, was detained in Afghanistan in July. Siddiqui was taken to a U.S. military base and then to New York, where she faces charges of assault on U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
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  Officials say the boy, Ali Hassan, and his mother, Aafia Siddiqui, were detained outside the governor's house in Afghanistan's Ghazni province in July.
  ...
  Aafia Siddiqui came to the United States in 1990 and studied at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she got a bachelor's degree in biology in 1995.She later studied neuroscience as a graduate student at Brandeis University.
  
  She vanished in Pakistan in 2003.
  
  In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III identified Siddiqui as one of seven people the FBI wanted to question about suspected ties to al-Qaida.

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  www.sacbee.com/830/story/1237134.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/15/2008    Last Visited: 9/16/2008  

  Officials say the boy, Ali Hassan, and his mother, Aafia Siddiqui, were detained outside the governor's house in Afghanistan's Ghazni province in July.
  ...
  Aafia Siddiqui came to the United States in 1990 and studied at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she got a bachelor's degree in biology in 1995.She later studied neuroscience as a graduate student at Brandeis University.
  
  She vanished in Pakistan in 2003.
  
  In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III identified Siddiqui as one of seven people the FBI wanted to question about suspected ties to al-Qaida.
  ...
  His mother, Aafia Siddiqui, was detained in Afghanistan in July.
  ...
  His mother, Aafia Siddiqui, was detained in Afghanistan in July.

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  www.journalstar.com/articles/2008/09/15/ap/internationa - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/15/2008    Last Visited: 9/15/2008  

  Officials say the boy, Ali Hassan, and his mother, Aafia Siddiqui, were detained outside the governor's house in Afghanistan's Ghazni province in July.
  ...
  His mother, Aafia Siddiqui, was detained in Afghanistan in July.
  ...
  His mother, Aafia Siddiqui, was detained in Afghanistan in July.
  ...
  Aafia Siddiqui came to the United States in 1990 and studied at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she got a bachelor's degree in biology in 1995.She later studied neuroscience as a graduate student at Brandeis University.
  
  She vanished in Pakistan in 2003.
  
  In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III identified Siddiqui as one of seven people the FBI wanted to question about suspected ties to al-Qaida.

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