"The mystery of Aafia Siddiqi", Woman Detainee Tortured by US!

The mystery of Aafia Siddiqi

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JH22Df05.html

By Zofeen Ebrahim


Fouzia's younger sister, Aafia Siddiqi, 35, made headlines after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on August 4 her "arrest" for attempting to "murder and assault" United States officers and employees outside the governor's office in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on July 17. No soldiers were reported injured in the incident but Aafia received bullet wounds.

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Aafia's resurfacing in Ghazni, five years after her disappearance in the southern port city of Karachi, has shaken the nation. The whereabouts of her three children, who were with her at the time she was kidnapped, remain unclear.

Aafia's story began in March 2003 when this Pakistani woman, then 30, along with her three children, then aged between four months and seven years, became one more victim of numerous disappearances that have been linked to Pakistan's role in the US-led "war-on-terror". The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has stated that she was initially picked up by an intelligence agency in Pakistan and so the "Pakistan government is also accountable for the crime".

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Two weeks prior to Aafia's arrest in Ghazni, a British journalist, Yvonne Ridley, held a press conference in Islamabad, in which she identified Aafia as "Prisoner No 650", being held in solitary confinement at the detention center attached to the US air base at Bagram.

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"Based on the testimony of detainees held in Bagram in 2003 and 2004, it is clear that there was a woman being held at the base. Whether or not that woman was Aafia Siddiqi is something that, at the moment, cannot be verified," said Asim Qureshi, senior researcher with the rights group Cageprisoners. "However, Dr Siddiqi has confirmed that she was held in Bagram for years," said Qureshi, responding to queries from Inter Press Service (IPS)


http://www.cageprisoners.com/prisoners.php?id=1367



Aafia Siddiqui, allegedly after her arrested in Afghanistan, July 2008


Soon after Pakistani authorities arrested Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Aafia and her children disappeared. A report in the Pakistani Urdu press said that Aafiai and her kids had been seen being picked up by Pakistani authorities and taken into custody.

According to Mrs. Siddiqui, Aafia left her mother's house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal in a Metro-cab on March 30, to catch a flight for Rawalpindi, but never reached the airport. Inside sources claim that Afia had been "picked-up" by intelligence agencies while on her way to the airport and initial reports suggest she was handed over to the FBI.

Aafia Siddiqui had been missing for more than a year when the FBI put her photographs on its website. The press was told that she was an Al Qaeda facilitator. After an FBI conference, a newspaper broke the story linking the woman involved in the 2001 diamond trade in Liberia to Aafia. The family's attorney, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, says the allegation was a blessing in disguise because it places Siddiqui somewhere at a specific time. She says she can prove Siddiqui was in Boston that week.

In Pakistan, there has been no official report registered with the police regarding her disappearance, and the police are doing nothing to trace her. Mrs. Siddiqui alleges that an intelligence agency official came to her house a week after the incident, and warned her not to make an issue out of her daughter's disappearance and threatened her with dire consequences.

Both the Pakistan government as well as US officials in Washington denied any knowledge of Aafia's custody.

We have 100 guantanamo jumpsuits. And a somber protest on Aug 31st with Vets for Peace carrying 800 tombstones of soldier's names.. and sign with innocent victims from Iraq/Afganistan.

I am making the signs of names of detainee's, and either ages, or occupation. and some signs that say short things done to them. Those in the jumpsuits will wear the cards/placards.

We hope enough peopel show up to wear teh suits and carry the tombstones.

This happens the day before RNC, and there will supposedly be 15,000 news people here.

so many americans have no clue what is done in their name.