U.S. Says Pakistani Suspect May Be Unfit For Trial

[Aapa]

Salaam,

FYI:

24/09/2008

By Edith Honan



NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge entered a plea of innocent on Tuesday on behalf of a Pakistani woman suspected of links to al Qaeda who prosecutors say may be unfit to face charges of trying to kill U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan.



Aafia Siddiqui, 36, a U.S.-trained neuroscientist who was shot in the abdomen by an officer after allegedly grabbing a U.S. soldier's gun during questioning in July, was brought to the United States on charges of attempted murder and assault.



Siddiqui's September 4 arraignment at Manhattan federal court was delayed after Siddiqui, a practicing Muslim, refused to submit to a strip search, a security procedure requiring inmates to undress and squat in front of guards.



Without the search, she cannot be brought to court.



At a hearing on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman entered the not guilty plea after finding that Siddiqui had refused to attend court to enter a plea herself. Siddiqui's lawyer, Elizabeth Fink, said she did not object.



Berman also ordered a psychiatric evaluation of Siddiqui, and, depending on its findings, set a tentative trial date of March 9.



On Monday, a U.S. prosecutor asked the judge to order a psychiatric evaluation of Siddiqui to determine if she is fit to stand trial. Its findings will be discussed at a December 17 hearing.



In a letter to Berman, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said that there was reason to believe Siddiqui, who has refused to cooperate with prison doctors, is suffering from a mental disease and is unfit to stand trial.



Garcia asked the court to find that "there is a reasonable cause to believe that the defendant may be suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering her incompetent to enter a plea or stand trial."



VICTIM OF TORTURE?



Fink asked that her client be placed in a hospital for medical and psychological care and be treated as someone who may have been the victim of torture.



"There is every reason to believe that her mental state is related to five years when she was kept in captivity," she told Berman.



Human rights groups had declared Siddiqui missing for five years before the incident in July, when she was arrested outside the governor's office in Afghanistan's Ghazni province. Her lawyers have said they believe she was secretly detained in Afghanistan's Bagram air base by U.S. authorities.



U.S. officials say police found documents in her handbag on making explosives, excerpts from the book "Anarchist's Arsenal" and descriptions of New York City landmarks.



The federal indictment says Siddiqui, while detained for questioning, grabbed a U.S. warrant officer's rifle and fired it at the interrogation team, which included two FBI agents in the room. The warrant officer then shot her with his pistol.



Prosecutors said Siddiqui had refused care and that strict security was needed given the serious charges against her.



In 2004, the FBI called Siddiqui an "al Qaeda operative and facilitator who posed a clear and present danger to America." U.S. intelligence says she was married to a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who helped plan the September 11 attacks.



(editing by Christine Kearney and Philip Barbara)



SOURCE: Reuters
http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=26269

[ShyHijabi]

U.S. officials say police found documents in her handbag on making explosives, excerpts from the book "Anarchist's Arsenal" and descriptions of New York City landmarks.

I wonder if they found the second bullet that shot JFK, the lost documents to the Iran Contra affair, as well as the undubbed tape from the Nixon years? Seriously, if your going to set someone up I think there is a more convincing method than planting that stuff on them and then dropping them off in front of the Afghani embassy while they can't even find their way to a bathroom. (due to her damaged psyche)

[warda A]

:salam2:

U.S. officials say police found documents in her handbag on making explosives, excerpts from the book "Anarchist's Arsenal" and descriptions of New York City landmarks.

usual conspiracy stories and lies

do they plant those? i always wonder

[Aapa]

Salaam,


FYI:


23/09/2008

The alleged US arrest in July of Pakistan-US national Dr Aafia Siddiqui has left a series of unanswered questions about her missing children.



With Dr Siddiqui now in US custody it is suspected that two of her children are still being detained illegally, and reports suggest that one child may have died. U.S. and Pakistan authorities have denied knowledge of their whereabouts.



Dr Siddiqui went missing from Karachi in March 2003 shortly after an FBI statement was issued, implicating her in terrorist activities. Neither Dr Siddiqui nor her three children, then aged six months, four and seven- were heard of again, until July 2008, when the US Department of Justice announced the doctor's arrest in Afghanistan with her eleven-year old son Muhammed Ahmad.



The boy disappeared into the system, but sustained protests throughout the world lead to his release to other family members after three months. No official explanation as to his detention has been offered to his family.



No information about the child's missing younger siblings, Marium, now aged nine and Suleman, five, has been released and the Asian Human Rights Commission is now extremely concerned for their welfare. Transparency in this case, which involves three minors and three state governments, has been disturbingly absent.



The AHRC would like to remind the state authorities in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States that they have ratified or signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN-CRC). Aside from a shocking lack of consideration for the children's basic human rights - from their right to life (Article 6) and health (Article 24), protection from maltreatment (Article 19) and to freedom from discrimination regardless of the their parents' actions (Article 2), we particularly wish to present Article 9 of the UN-CRC;



9.1: State Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review, determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary.



No public judicial review has taken place, no charges made against the missing children, or their formerly detained brother, Master Ahmad.



9.4: Where such separation results from any action initiated by a State Party, such as the detention, imprisonment, exile, deportation or death ... of one or both of the parents or of the child, that State Party shall, upon request, provide the parents, the child or, if appropriate, another member of the family with the essential information concerning the whereabouts of the absent members of the family.



The children's family - their aunt and grandmother in Pakistan, and their uncle in America - have been given no information about the location or welfare of the two children, just as they received none in the case of Ahmad until recently.



The Asian Human Rights Commission is concerned that the children may have been used in the interrogation of their parents (the father being held in Guantanamo Bay), and that they may be at risk because of what they have seen and experienced in Afghan prisons. The AHRC demands the transparency and accountability expected of these UN member states, and it demands the immediate release of the two remaining Siddiqui children. (AHRC)





SOURCE: Mindanao Examiner

http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=26265

[Aapa]

Salaam,


FYI:

25/09/2008

By NISAR MEHDI



KARACHI - A four-member parliamentary delegation, formed to meet Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and to visit Guantanamo Bay prison, has failed to finalise the date of its departure for the US, The Nation learnt here on Wednesday.



The delegation will comprise on the members of foreign affairs and human rights committees of the Senate, namely Mushahid Hussain Syed, Talha Mehmood, Saadia Abbasi and Allama Abbas Kumaili.



During their visit, the delegation members will meet with Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is still in US custody since last five years, and also visit Guantanamo Bay prison.



It may be noted here that the US authorities have reportedly allowed Pakistani parliamentarians to meet Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently detained in the US, but have not given the Pakistani parliamentarians permission to visit and assess the condition of Pakistanis detained in Guantanammo Bay prison.



Earlier, in August, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, along with members of Senate Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committees, announced to meet Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in the US custody but his preoccupation in the last presidential elections disturbed his schedule regarding this mission.

When contacted, Senator Allama Abbas Kumaili told The Nation that the date to visit US in order to meet Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and other Pakistani prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison has still not be finalised but it would be possible that after Ramadan, a parliamentary delegation would visit the US. He added the said delegation would also visit the Guantanamo Bay prison to witness the treatment being meted out to the detainees.



“We will also meet Pakistani prisoners and ask the US authorities to close down the notorious prison,” he added. “US authorities have still declined to give the permission to visit the Guantanamo Bay prison but we will do our best to visit the detention facility,” he further said.



Kumaili said that “The Senate delegation will meet Dr Aafia Siddiqui and inquire about her ordeal in the prison and will try to get maximum relief for her in the US custody”.



SOURCE: The Nation.com.pk


http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=26283

[Munawar]

:salam2:
U.S. officials say police found documents in her handbag on making explosives, excerpts from the book "Anarchist's Arsenal" and descriptions of New York City landmarks.

Normally they also find a copy of Quran in the bag. So what happened to that Quran? Maybe these procecuters are short of money these days due to the financial crisies. Aowww ... They couldn't even buy a Quran from eBay to plant with other so-called evidance. Or maybe they are getting sloppy. :D:
:wasalam:

[Aapa]

Salaam,

If this is a bit too much, I suggest members look at the Gitmo craziness. A judge has to quit, information is being denied, etc. etc.
This would be comical except it is macabre;


Guantánamo Bouncy Castle – in America: The Gift Shop
25/09/2008
by Andy Worthington




torture as official US policy, the Constitution under perpetual attack, the Geneva Conventions shredded and children facing war crimes trials — to cite just a few of the wrongs that preoccupy me on a daily basis — it’s easy to forget that, outside of the secretive “War on Terror” prisons and the farcical courtrooms of Guantánamo, some artists are also focusing on the moral quagmire created by the Bush administration.




A case in point is Philip Toledano. In his new online installation, America: The Gift Shop, Toledano asks, “If American foreign policy had a gift shop, what would it sell?” and presents a series of mixed media works — about Guantánamo, Iraq and secret prisons — which, as he describes it, “reflect the current foreign policy in the fun-house mirror of American commerce.”




Along with T-shirts that look like they should be available to buy on the way out, an Abu Ghraib coffee table, and other barbed souvenirs of the last eight years, Toledano has recreated, as a kind of bouncy castle, one of Guantánamo’s notoriously Spartan maximum security cells, in which prisoners held for nearly seven years without charge or trial spend up to 23 hours a day.




As the website daddytypes.com explained, in its appraisal of Toledano’s Gift Shop, “the must-have is probably the Guantánamo Bay bouncy cell, authentic in every detail, except that you can get out at some point. Watch for it at edgier birthday parties near you.”


http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=26275

[Munawar]

:salam2:
This is also a somewhat hopeful news. Please make dua for our sister Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, that she return home as soon as possible. Ameen.

Judge enters Aafia Siddiqui’s not guilty plea

NEW YORK, Sept 24: Judge Richard M. Berman entered on Tuesday not guilty plea on behalf of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui as she again refused to come to the court.

At the Manhattan court hearing Judge Berman said he would order a “full medical and physical” evaluation of Ms Siddiqui next week whether or not she was competent to stand trial.

The judge also set Dec 17 as the next hearing date and set a tentative trial date for March 9, 2009.

Ms Siddiqui’s lawyer, Elizabeth M. Fink, has also written to the judge about her client’s mental state, citing what she called “the urgent need to treat her in a hospital setting”.

:wasalam:

[justoneofmillion]

:salam2:
This is also a somewhat hopeful news. Please make dua for our sister Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, that she return home as soon as possible. Ameen.

Judge enters Aafia Siddiqui’s not guilty plea

NEW YORK, Sept 24: Judge Richard M. Berman entered on Tuesday not guilty plea on behalf of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui as she again refused to come to the court.

At the Manhattan court hearing Judge Berman said he would order a “full medical and physical” evaluation of Ms Siddiqui next week whether or not she was competent to stand trial.

The judge also set Dec 17 as the next hearing date and set a tentative trial date for March 9, 2009.

Ms Siddiqui’s lawyer, Elizabeth M. Fink, has also written to the judge about her client’s mental state, citing what she called “the urgent need to treat her in a hospital setting”.

:wasalam::salam2:,She will be in my duas.

wassalaam
jameel

[amna_muslimaa]

:salam2:
i felt so sorry for her childrens :SMILY252:
:wasalam: