Update - Aafia Siddiqi

I have followed the story of Aafia Siddiqi since I first read of her horrific ordeal last year. And her torture continues, in a more restrained way under the eye of media and the Pakistan government, as she remains in US custody. Keeping her case in the public eye is her only hope. Other stories on my blog can be found here.

I note here that a few of the more recent stories on her case are not accessible as the www.draafia.org site in no longer accessible (must be link decay?). However the following three stories are up to date. Two of her children are still missing and a third is severely disturbed. I would appreciate any info anyone has on this.

One of interrogators was Indian at Bagram: Aafia

Pakistani scientist detained in US told Senate body
she was arrested from Pakistan and later shifted to Bagram

By Muhammad Bilal
Source
ISLAMABAD: Dr Aafia Siddiqi — a Pakistani national on trial in the United States – has alleged that one of the interrogators at the Bagram airbase was an Indian, according to a report by the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Dr Aafia has narrated her entire story to a delegation of the committee that went to see her, telling them how she was arrested from Pakistan and later shifted to Bagram.

The delegation – headed by Mushahid Hussain Syed – visited the US in October last year and held a meeting with the detained Pakistani scientist.

The report presented to a joint meeting of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights and Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs here on Thursday says that Aafia told the senators that she was travelling in a taxi to her maternal uncle’s house when she was arrested, and she later found that she had been taken to Afghanistan.

She did not know where she was taken, as she had problem recollecting and reconciling dates and places.

The report says in Bagram, Aafia was ‘tortured’, but the Afghans did not ‘humiliate’ her. Her three children – two sons and a daughter – were taken away from her, and she was told her children would be returned only if she confessed to meeting certain people. She, however, did not disclose the names of the people in question. She feared that this forced confession could go against her in Pakistan. She also feared that her third child, named Suleman, may have been killed.

Dr Aafia alleged that one of the interrogators in Bagram was an Indian – who was her contemporary at MIT and was interested in her research work. She was repeatedly asked to do similar research for the ‘interrogator countries’. Her interrogators in Afghanistan spoke in American accent and Hindi. Dr Aafia also did not disclose the questions asked by the interrogators.

Referring to the incident which became a basis for the institution of a case against her in the US, she said that at the detention centre, she got up and heard a US soldier shouting ‘she is loose’ – and a US captain fired at her, injuring her abdomen.

She fell to the ground and when she regained consciousness, she heard one of the soldiers say ‘we could lose our jobs’. In the US court, she is charged with pulling a gun at a uniformed officer. Aafia denies that charge. The prosecutors deny that she was fired at, and to conceal the facts “a surgery was performed on me”.

Nisar urges charge sheet against US
for making objectionable video of Aafia

Source
ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate’s Standing Committee for Defence Nisar Memon has urged to summon US ambassador in the session and present a charge sheet against USA for an making objectionable video of Dr Aafia in New York jail. More here.

Senate bodies slam Aafia’s detention,
Gaza assault

Staff Report
Source
ISLAMABAD: A joint meeting of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights and Foreign Relations Committee passed two unanimous resolutions condemning Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui’s detention in the US and Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians.

Aafia Siddiqui - Again and again and again...

And again if need be....until her plight is known by all and the truth is revealed. There are moments when I think of the unnamed multitudes of people, unjustly and unlawfully detained, rotting away in some hell hole, under the power of not jailkeepers, but monsters of the US government and their mercenary counterparts. I can do nothing for these poor souls; except be a witness to their existence.

The case of Aafia Siddiqui, however, epitomises the countless who cannot be found or helped. To the extent of this blog, I can keep republishing her story until, single reader by single reader, her plight brings about more awareness and concern. Other postings on Aafia can be found by searching 'aafia' on this blog.

This particular article is long and in depth and I greatly appreciate the efforts of the author. At present, Aafia still rots in a US detention center, accused of 'terrorism' (a convenient label for any random activity the USA deems against its federal authority). For those who wish to know, the article linked below is comprehensive and well written.

For those readers who are familiar with this case, an update can be found here.US court extends Aafia’s sanity probe

The Abduction, Secret Detention, Torture, and Repeated Raping of Aafia Siddiqui

by Stephen Lendman

December 15, 2008

I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.

Post-9/11, the "war on terror" has been a jihad against Islam, the colonizers v. the colonized, or what Edward Said called "the familiar (America, Europe, us) and the strange (the Orient, East, them)." Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is one of its most tragic, aggrieved, and ravaged victims. Her ordeal continues horrifically.

Boston Magazine's Katherine Oxment asked: "Who's afraid of Aafia Siddiqui? She went to MIT and Brandeis, married a (physician, lived in Boston), cared for her children....raised money for charities....did other volunteer work, hosted play groups in her apartment, (is) deeply religious....distribute(d) Korans to inmates in area prisons," and did nothing out of the ordinary. (She) "was a normal woman living a normal American life. Until the FBI called her a terrorist....a high-profile Al Qaeda operative," but we've seen these charges before, and each time they were bogus. They're egregiously so against Aafia - a woman guilty only of being Muslim at the wrong time in America or elsewhere if you're on Washington's target list.

Against her and others, no evidence exists so prosecutors invent it. Most (or key parts) is kept classified, unavailable to the defense, and trials are judicial equivalents of circuses. Witnesses are enlisted, pressured, coerced, and/or bought off to cooperate. Proceedings are carefully orchestrated. Due process is effectively denied, and juries are intimidated to convict the innocent for political advantage.

The dominant media cooperate. Using information from Washington Post writer, Douglas Farah, and other sources, writer Lindsey Worth of FMS, Inc. referred to "the mysterious Aafia Siddiqui....allegedly Al Qaeda's only female leader" in connecting her to "the Al Queda diamond operation" in West Africa.

The Times Online calls Aafia "Al-Qaeda woman," and for ABC News she's "Mata Hari" in a lengthy report featuring unsubstantiated charges against her, including:
-- possessing detailed radiological, chemical and biological information, including possessing a liter of cyanide and instructions for a "dirty bomb;"
-- more documents for a mass casualty attack;
-- a list of New York targets, including the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Wall Street, and the animal disease center on Plum Island;
-- terrorist recruiting;
-- possessing excerpts from "The Anarchist's Arsenal;"
-- "documents detailing US military assets;"
-- methods of attack by reconnaissance drones, underwater bombs and gliders; and
-- a thumb (or flash) drive packed with emails detailing "specific cells" and planned attacks to carry out.

According to the FBI, she is, or was when captured, a potential "treasure trove" of information on terrorist supporters, sympathizers or sleepers in America and overseas. CIA officer John Kiriakou said she's "the most significant capture in five years," and an unnamed counterterrorism official called her "a very dangerous person, no doubt about it."

For Kiriakou, she's a "radical" involved in planning "a wide variety of different operations (perhaps with WMDs)," including a "possible attempt on the life of the President." Unnamed sources from three federal agencies accused her of an "ill conceived" and perhaps amateurish plot to "kill all living US presidents," including Jimmy Carter by poisoning.
Read the entire article at

www.opednews.com

The power you gave them...

"The power you gave them to torture me, rape me ... search me naked and to present me in court, I am dead....

I was dead the first time I was raped.

...I do not consider you a judge, a court!...

This country [USA]. Leave me alone or send me back to my country Pakistan."

-Dr. Aafia Siddiqui during court hearing Feb 2010

I do not wish to preach to the choir on the issue of Aafia Siddiqui: I have blogged several times on her plight. For those of you who are unfamiliar, click on one of the following links and read the first two paragraphs in any one. My purpose here is to get those who are too busy, just living, to ask questions about their own responsibility as to their role in creating governments who have such power and such control over the media, as to inflict upon a person, that which Aafia Siddiqui has, so far, suffered.

• Was neuroscientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui raped and tortured at US Bagram prison?
• US 'dark side' raised in Pakistani scientist case
• Aafia Siddiqui - Again and again and again..
• Update - Aafia Siddiqui
• Aafia Siddiqui was indeed Prisoner 650

My purpose here is to present for all readers the opportunity to awaken in themselves compassion, and courage to take back the power they have given away to their repressive governments, in many countries.

If the people lead, the government must follow. -anon

Before we can run we must walk, and before we walk we must crawl. First though, we must desire to move; and if in tiny episodes of awareness and compassion, we must crawl toward controlling our governments, then I hope Aafia's story is the beginning of a beginning for more and more people. A moment of curiosity is all it takes to stir the best in human nature. All that is required is a willingness to be aware.

Today is Good Friday, the day on which Jesus was crucified. Though I do not celebrate Holy Days in the traditional sense, including Easter and Christmas, I always like to have a good think about the meaning of the event the holiday commemorates.

Many people have been crucified, physically and symbolically, through abuse of power throughout history. They lie in unknown graves,vanquished and anonymous, the pain which they suffered consigned to oblivion. They have been the victims of power weilded by those who wish to rule as much of the universe as they can manage. We shall never know them all.

If the lament of Good Friday is anything, it is the sadness we feel that Jesus, duly convicted in a court of law, was executed on Good Friday for his policy of preaching love and forgiveness. Sedition was his crime. He was convicted by the people themselves and meted the horrible death He suffered, by the people.

I think this should raise some questions in our collective psyche about the individual integrity that is required for a democracy to function for 'good' instead of 'evil'.

I hope this story of Aafia awakens in us the power we possess, unused, to create a better world for our children.


Links for Aafia's recent US trial:

Justice for Aafia

Aafia Siddiqui Update

Was neuroscientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui raped and tortured at US Bagram prison?


by Ernesto Cienfuegos Sunday Sep 21st, 2008 10:39 PM
It appears that the Bush Administration may have another "Abu Ghraib Prison" type torture scandal in its hands that it is desperately attempting to cover up. The disturbing human rights case involves a Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University educated Pakistani national that mysteriously disappeared, along with her three children, in Afghanistan in 2003. Last month the seriously injured, bleeding, frail, traumatized and confused Dr. Siddiqui re-appeared in a wheel chair in a New York federal court accused of terrorism and to face charges that she attempted to kill FBI and US soldiers in Afghanistan.

No one would have known about what some Pakistanis are calling "one of the most deplorable crimes against womanhood" if it had not been for human rights organizations speaking out against the rape and torture of "Prisoner 650" that was being held at the US Bagram Theater Internment Facility, a miserable prison that was previously utilized as air base hangers by the Russians during their occupation of Afghanistan. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) just recently picked up the story and the Bush Administration seems to be acting quickly to cover up what many consider to be a war crime.

On Tuesday, they chose their front man, Brian Ross of ABC News, to begin propagandizing against Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in order to justify to the American people the gruesome treatment of the Pakistani neuroscientist at the hands of US authorities in Afghanistan and their lackey Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. Many of you may remember that Brian Ross was also the Neocon front man in the national news concerning the Anthrax Terrorist Attacks in 2001. He was reporting that the anthrax sent to U.S. political and media figures was linked to Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program. That was a lie. No tests ever revealed any such thing. Like Colin Powell, he was attempting to create the perception in the public's mind that Iraq was behind the anthrax attacks and that it possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Tortured Dr. Siddique at US courtThe FBI has accused Dr. Siddiqui of being an al-Qaida terrorist. Her father was educated as a doctor in Britain. Her brother is an architect from Houston and her sister is a Harvard University-trained neurologist. Because Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a Muslim, the FBI started investigating her as far back as 2001when she lived in Boston.

There is no information about what may have occurred to two of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's three children; one son was returned to Pakistan last week.

The Horrendous Case of Aafia Siddiqui
http://www.counterpunch.org/mariner09102008.html

Now here is the American media spin on Aafia.

Al-Qaeda Targets Lethal Disease Research Facility on NY Island

Aafia Siddiqui's interest in the Plum Island facility shows terrorists aspire to a frightening form of mass-casualty operation.
September 14, 2008 - by Annie Jacobsen

Americans are just evil.

Aafia Siddiqui was indeed Prisoner 650

The story of Aafia Siddiqui is difficult to read, especially if one is not aware of it. It is difficult to believe that people can be so evil; yet, we know that agents of the US have done much worse to many people the world over. The particulars of Aafia's story are difficult to comprehend, such that one might believe earth is indeed purgatory or hell, a place to which we are sentenced to endure our own evil natures and perchance overcome them. Read the entire story here.

The lies that have been told by the US government about Aafia and what has happened to her for years while in US custody show the true ugliness of the US culture and its delusions about its right to perpetrate any type of atrocity for its own benefit. At last, there is proof which stands above the lies and a chance for us all to know the truth.

We must demand this truth - and hold those responsible to account for their unforgivable atrocies, not only perpetrated on Aafia, but on countless faceless others whose stories will never come to light. Recently Seymour Hersh has come forward with shocking revelations about the Cheney murder and torture machine so well hidden for so long.

'Prisoner 650 was indeed Dr Aafia'

By: Asif Mehmood
April 02, 2009
Source

LONDON - A startling new development in the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui has emerged following the recent release of a British resident from Guantanamo as the torture victim Binyam Mohamed in a testimony has said he witnessed Dr Aafiya during her detention at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, which contradicts the official position forwarded by the US Government that she and her children were not in US custody prior to July 2008.

The latest twist in the dramatic case was revealed during a meeting hosted by British peer Lord Nazir Ahmed at the House of Lords here yesterday.

Lord Ahmed is now demanding the immediate return to Pakistan of the mother-of-three and urged the Pakistan government to directly intervene with the US to bring about a swift repatriation.

After a private viewing of the forthcoming documentary “In Search of Prisoner 650” by journalist Yvonne Ridley, the former Guantanamo detainee told Ridley he was “100 per cent sure” that the female prisoner he saw in Bagram was Dr Aafiya Siddiqui.

He made his astonishing claim during his first ever television interview on the international satellite Press TV, which is on aired at 8.07pm (in UK) on Thursday (00.07am Friday Pakistan time) on Ridley’s weekly political show “The Agenda”.

Ridley started her quest for the truth about Prisoner 650 in Pakistan last July and sought the help of the country’s media with the help and support of Imran Khan who organised a press conference at his party’s headquarter in Islamabad.

In this connection, Asim Qureshi from the international human rights organisation “Cage Prisoners” said, “With evidence continually mounting to suggest that she was abducted from Karachi in March 2003, the regurgitation of the same lies cannot be allowed to continue, especially in light of her prosecution in the US”.

Similarly, former Guantanamo another detainee Moazzam Begg who also spent time in Bagram detention facility praised Binyam Mohamed for coming forward to make his statement.

Begg said, “After my release I discovered females were indeed held by US forces in Bagram and elsewhere. One of them is Aafiya Siddiqui. Our suspicions were confirmed when Binyam Mohamed told Cage Prisoners during an exclusive interview that he had seen her whilst he was held in Bagram. It is time the US military to face up what they have done to this poor woman and her children”, said Moazzam Begg.

Commenting on the revelation, Chairman Tehreek-e-Insaaf Imran Khan is of the says, “It is obvious that Binyam Mohamed’s personal eye witness account of the woman he saw during his own incarceration in Bagram should be taken seriously. He says he is “100 percent certain” that the woman detainee he knew as Prisoner 650 is Dr Aafiya Siddiqui. He drew this conclusion after seeing photographs and images of Dr Siddiqui during a private screening of Yvonne Ridley’s documentary In Search of Prisoner 650".

Binyam Mohamed is a man who has endured horrific torture in Pakistan, Morocco and in Bagram - and yet despite enormous pressure from the US, he has continually refused to lie or give false accounts, even in exchange for his freedom. We know this to be true because of the recent release of secret documents from the British High Court.
Imran said the words by Binyam Mohamed could be trusted over that of the Bush administration exposed continually for its lies and deceptions, which became its hallmark during its War on Terror.

He said Tehreek-e-Insaaf, have been calling for full transparency since Dr Siddiqui had disappeared. After Yvonne Ridley came to Islamabad in July 2008 to tell me about her concerns and fears about the woman she described as the ‘Grey Lady of Bagram’, the US Administration continually misled us in our attempts to discover the true identity of Prisoner 650 and initially even denied her existence he added.

“There is a new administration in Washington now, one which we were told had a full desire for transparency - it was very much part of Barack Obama’s election pledge. In the spirit of this new era, I also want to know the extent of Pakistan’s co-operation in the involvement of Prisoner 650 and Dr Aafiya Siddiqui, especially if they now appear to be one in the same”, he concluded.

Aafia Siddiqui

I sometimes find stories on the internet that are so deeply moving, such profound mirrors of my own inadequacies, that I am silent, humbled in my own shame of lacking the courage I see others demonstrating.

One such story it that of Aafia Siddiqui. Pakistani born, Aafia was American educated, eventually becoming a doctor of neuroscience with a degree from MIT, and an impressive array of published papers through 1999. She became the focus of 'terrorist witchhunters' in 2001 and in 2003, she and her 3 children disappeared into the torturous labrinth of renditions; she has been deposited, sans children, in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan for more than five years.

Pursuant to legal requests for her whereabouts (recall the Pakistan Judges were castrated by Musharraf in 2007), Aafia was finally located and brought to New York to be charged for shooting an FBI agent. However, after five years in isolation and enduring various interrogation methods by her captors, she was unable to appear in court; and the presiding judge so ordered her to receive medical treatment before her next appearance (she appeared incoherent, in a wheelchair).

The details of the alleged shooting are contradict0ry in the extreme; one can only imagine how a lone woman overpowered American and Afghani men, armed to the hilt, stole one of their guns and shot an agent. The FBI then of course shot her. She must have been a very clever woman to overpower all those military men, fully armed; especially since she had just come out of 5 years in isolation (with no knowledge of her children), had her teeth pulled, liver removed and most likely have severe bowel problems after having been repeated raped.

I can see why the USA would find her dangerous alright.

It is even painful to try and imagine the physical and psychological pain Aafia has endured, year after year; yet she had the courage to keep living, perhaps for her children. There is no moral or legal justification for what has been done to her, in any civilized society anywhere. There should be a trial alright; but it is her Pakistani/USA torturers who should be in the spotlight.

Now you know about her. I have provided a link below, but perhaps you prefer your own research. I can do nothing to help her. But I can tell you, and ask you to sign the petition.
Scales tilt by adding grains of sand to one side or the other. Please add your grain to her side..

http://www.petitiononline.com/af258633/petition.html

You can find updated reports at http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/1162264. I recommend an image search of 'Aafia Siddiqui' for the very best articles giving all sides to the situation. Video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMcJr0NbzNA

Fourteen year old tortured and held in Gitmo for 8 years - Update

Omar Khadr

Do you ever wonder what happens to those unfortunates like this boy: Another proud moment in US history -Omar Kahdr's Interrogation Video From Guantanamo, and Aafia Siddiqui both in US custody after years and years have past? Mostly, they are still being held and noone can help them. And no trial for 5-8 years.

Here is an update on the boy who has been held in US custody since 2002 without a trial - he is finally getting one - a military one.

KADR GITMO TRIAL BEGINS THIS WEEK

Rape Pix Obama won't release

I have posted these pictures before. They are some of those Obama does not want released. Many more can be found on the porn sites of the web - if you care to look. I recommend you search this blog for 'aafia' and read her story too. There is little doubt these horrors occurred - are we going to let them get away with it so they can be repeated again and again?

"A released Iraqi POW has come forward and stated to the internationl media that that he was sodomized at the Abu Ghraib prison while a female US soldier cheered and the entire incident filmed."

Read entire article and view pictures here.

Los Angeles, Alta California - May 2, 2004 - (ACN) The release, by CBS News, of the photographs showing the heinous sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi POW's at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison has opened a Pandora's box for the Bush regime. Apparently, the suspended US commander of the prison where the worst abuses took place, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, has refused to take the fall by herself and has implicated the CIA, Military Intelligence and private US government contractors in the torturing of POW's and in the raping of Iraqi women detainees as well.

Things I read - December 12, 2008

Inventor builds She-3PO robot
Errr...can I get one in the opposite sex?













Mexico to fingerprint mobile-phone owners
Big brother will not neglect Mexico. Doesn't this sound desperately similar to USA legislation? Maybe Mexico should just open a New Amsterdam and tax drugs; it might simplify things.

The Purpose Behind The Financial Crisis
The disappearance of the middle class? Where have I heard that before?

Police taser man in diabetic shock
Who cares?

ISPs Give Rudd Government Two Finger Salute
I love Aussies.

CIA holds young sons of captured al-Qa'eda
chief
2003 - the CIA is interrogating children. Wonder what they did with Aafia Siddiqui's two young children?

Secret ‘EU President’ talks begin as Ireland is forced to vote again on treaty
No matter what concessions the EU grants especially for Ireland, I will never tolerate Tony Blair as EU President, or Nicholas Sarkozy. For this reason alone, I will vote NO.

U.S. Treasury Standing By to Begin Nationalization of Big 3 Automakers
I wonder how fast than can re-tool to make armaments?

Our Vanishing Night - Most city skies have become virtually empty of stars.
















EU parliament body scanners offer ‘virtual strip search’





















Iraq plans EU-style Middle East union
Soon, there will be only regional unions in currency and politics; which means stand alone countries will be at a great disadvantage if not members. There is some good here and some bad.

Bratislava resident renounces American citizenship, becomes stateless person Can't say as I blame him.

US 'dark side' raised in Pakistani scientist case

NEW YORK (AFP)
November 20, 2008
The "dark side" of US counter-terrorism took center stage in the court case of a mentally ill Pakistani woman accused of attacking US officers in Afghanistan.

The New York federal judge in the case of Aafia Siddiqui highlighted defense allegations that Siddiqui was abducted and tortured by US or allied forces prior to extradition from Afghanistan on attempted-murder charges in August.

Siddiqui, 36, is undergoing psychiatric treatment at a government center in Texas and, according to her lawyer, suffers hallucinations featuring her dead or missing children.

Judge Richard Berman on Monday said the preliminary evaluation showed Siddiqui unfit to stand trial.

On Wednesday, he called for more information regarding allegations that the accused, once a high-flying, US-trained neuroscientist, vanished in 2003 and was held in secret captivity for five years.

The allegations, which the US government rejects, are not part of the court case, but still need to be addressed, Berman told prosecution and defense teams.

"Certainly it has a bearing on the clinical treatment ... and the issue of competence," he said.

The US government says Siddiqui had Al-Qaeda links and that if she went missing between 2003 and this year, that's simply because she was in hiding.

Prosecutors allege she was first detained in July by Afghan police and that shortly after, while in custody, she grabbed a rifle and shot at visiting US officers.

Defense lawyer Elizabeth Fink says that Siddiqui is not only innocent of those charges, but the victim of five horrific years in custody -- an experience responsible for her current mental illness.

According to her supporters, Siddiqui was abducted in Karachi in 2003 along with her three young children and held secretly, probably at a US military base in Afghanistan.

Fink quoted a 2001 statement by Vice President Dick Cheney in which he acknowledged that US anti-terrorism bodies use "the dark side," working "quietly, without any discussion."

Obtaining the truth is almost impossible, Fink told the court, although with Barack Obama's election as president, "God knows what's going to happen to this 'dark side' stuff."

Prosecutor David Raskin said there was "not a shred of evidence" that Siddiqui had been in the hands of US or allied forces prior to her July arrest.

"I can say to the court we have found zero evidence that Ms Siddiqui was abducted, tortured -- any of the things we hear repeated."

Siddiqui and her children were "certainly not in US custody, certainly not kidnapped by US forces, the 'dark side,'" he told the court.

"A more plausible inference is that she went into hiding because people around her started to get arrested and at least two of those people ended up at Guantanamo Bay," Raskin said.

However, both Raskin and Fink admitted they had little hard evidence to prove Siddiqui's whereabouts in that mysterious period.

With Siddiqui apparently in mental distress, and not attending her court hearings, she is unlikely to shed much light in the near future.

According to the preliminary medical report, as quoted by Fink, Siddiqui suffers visual hallucinations of one child, who is believed to be dead, and another, who is missing.

"She believes she lives with two of the children," Fink said.

The next court session, in December, will merely provide an update on Siddiqui's medical condition.

Meanwhile, Siddiqui's 12-year-old son, who was with her at the time of her arrest, was released by the Afghans in September, and lives with his extended family in Karachi.

However, Fink said the boy is also suffering mental illness. "He is heavily medicated, he is seriously disturbed. He is under psychiatric care."

Siddiqui's sister in Karachi "probably knows more about Mrs Siddiqui than anybody," Fink said, but "I can only speak to her on the phone, which is tapped."

Fink said she was considering a meeting with the sister in Europe.

Despite repeated allegations and media reports linking Siddiqui to Al-Qaeda, the accusations have failed to stick. She is not charged with terrorism but attempted murder of army and Federal Bureau of Investigation officers.

Siddiqui faces 20 years prison if convicted.

Source