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| Woman scientist alive, in US custody |
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Monday, August 04, 2008
FBI linked Dr Aafia Siddiqi to al-Qaeda in Hub
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
WASHINGTON: Five years after her disappearance, an MIT-trained Pakistani neuroscientist, accused of belonging to an al-Qaeda cell based in Boston, is alive and in custody in Afghanistan, her family attorney said. “It has been confirmed by the FBI that Aafia Siddiqi is alive,” said Elaine Whitfield Sharp, a lawyer for Siddiqi’s family, who said she spoke to an FBI official on Thursday. “She is injured but alive, and she is in Afghanistan.”
The news sheds some light on one of the most intriguing local mysteries in the war on terrorism. Siddiqi, who lived in Roxbury and studied at Brandeis University as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), disappeared with her three children while visiting her parents in Karachi in March 2003, around the same time the FBI announced that it wanted to question her.
For five years, the US and Pakistani authorities have denied knowing her whereabouts. But human rights groups and Siddiqi’s relatives have long suspected that she had been captured in Karachi and secretly taken into custody.
If Siddiqi was arrested in Pakistan and turned over to the United States, it would highlight a crucial instance of intelligence cooperation between the two countries during a historic low point in their relations.
Earlier this week, US officials accused ISI of actively cooperating with tribal, pro-Taliban militants engaged in killing US troops in Afghanistan. In the White House meeting, President Bush confronted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani with the intercepted phone calls between ISI and the militants.
Marvin Weinbaum, a Pakistan specialist at the Middle East Institute, said Pakistan has a history of reacting to pressure from the United States by publicly revealing that it had captured and turned over high-value terrorism suspects. Usually, such cooperation is kept as secret because of anti-American sentiments.
“But when it suits their purpose to advertise that they are cooperative with the US intelligence, all too often, someone of high profile is revealed to have been captured and turned over,” he said.
On Thursday, an FBI official visited Siddiqi’s brother in Houston to deliver the news that she was alive and in custody, Sharp said, but the visit raised as many questions as it answered. The FBI officials would not say who was holding her or reveal the fate of her three young, American-born children.
“If she is in US custody, they want to know where she is,” Sharp said. “Who has got her? And does she need medical care?” The FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment. Late last week, Siddiqi’s photo still appeared on the FBI’s list of people wanted for questioning.
Military documents declassified in recent years suggest that Siddiqi is suspected of having ties to several key terrorism suspects being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. She is believed to have links to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and allegedly arranged travel documents for another suspected terrorist. Papers in Guantanamo Bay also indicate that she married Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, an alleged al-Qaeda facilitator, who intended to blow up gas stations or poison water reservoirs in the United States.
The three men were among 14 high-value suspects brought to Guantanamo Bay in 2006 after years of secret detention in CIA prisons in eastern Europe. At the time, Bush said no suspects remained in so-called black sites, but human rights groups contradicted him, saying there were still suspects being held incommunicado at the US facilities such as the Bagram airbase detention centre in Afghanistan.
In a 2006 report, the Amnesty International listed Siddiqi as among a number of disappeared suspects in the war on terrorism. In recent weeks, Pakistani newspapers reported that a lawyer, Javed Iqbal Jaffery, had petitioned a Pakistani court for Siddiqi’s release and vowed to bring her detention to the UN human rights commissioner.
According to the reports, Jaffrey alleged that Siddiqi was jailed in Kabul after being held in Bagram; a British journalist reached a similar conclusion, based on interviews with prisoners released from Bagram.
Sharp said she believes those reports increased pressure on the US and Pakistani authorities to divulge more information. “I do not believe that they just found Aafia,” Sharp said. “I believe that she was there all along.”
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Three killed as Sh Rashid escapes attempt on life
By Shakeel Anjum
RAWALPINDI: Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief and a candidate for NA-55 (Rawalpindi) by-election Sheikh Rashid Ahmad was wounded, while three people — a guard and two party workers — were killed when four gunmen more |
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12 soldiers killed in South Waziristan
ISLAMABAD: Twelve soldiers embraced martyrdom while two others were injured in a clash with militants during the ongoing operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), the ISPR said on Monday.
S more |
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Plan to attack five-star hotel foiled
By our correspondent
LAHORE: The CIA police here on Monday claimed to have foiled an attack on Americans staying at a five-star hotel and arrested six terrorists, including a suicide bomber.
Addressing a press conference, SS more |
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Govt taking court for a ride
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: She fought her case in the media. She won her battle in the judicial forum too. But still the government is bent on making an example out of her for refusing to follow the illegal dictates of her min more |
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Pakistan against arms race: Gilani
By Azeem Samar
KARACHI: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said Pakistan does not want to be engaged in an arms race with any country.
Speaking as chief guest at the induction ceremony of second Chinese-m more |
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Punjab-Sindh water row Centre’s intervention sought
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Tension between Punjab and Sindh over opening of the Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Punjnad link canals has touched a new high as the former has sought the Centre’s intervention.
The Punjab has sai more |
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French, Dutch fight over giving LNG to Pakistan
By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin and his team is all set to thwart the attempt of an unscrupulous combine of oil industry heavyweights and some functionaries of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Re more |
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Nine killed as no let-up in rains
By Nisar Mahmood
PESHAWAR: Nine people were killed and scores of others injured as heavy rains and snowfall lashed various parts of the country for the fourth consecutive day on Monday.
Reports from the Shangla district more |
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Malik orders NUML closure as protest enters 5ht day
ISLAMABAD: The protest of the students of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) against thrashing of Professor Malik Tahir by Registrar Brigadier (R) Obaidullah Ranjha entered its fifth consecutive more |
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Malik insists no Blackwater in Pakistan
By Muhammad Anis
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik while responding to an accusation from a PML-N parliamentarian told the National Assembly that Blackwater was not providing security to the president and the prime mini more |
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FBR gets list of properties rented out to foreigners
By Hanif Khalid
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received list of properties from Foreign Office, which were in use of foreigners in Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore, but these were not shown in annual tax more |
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Repealing of 17th Amendment
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has begun efforts to create consensus on repealing the 17th Amendment before presidential address to the joint sitting of the parliament.
The prime minis more |
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Three suspects held in Mohmand
By our correspondent
GHALLANAI: The security forces arrested three suspected persons during search operation in Safi subdivision of Mohmand Agency, official sources said Monday. The sources said the security forces carried out sear more |
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No presence of Blackwater, DynCorp in Pakistan, NA body told
ISLAMABAD: Secretary Interior Qamar Zaman again negated on Monday the presence of Blackwater, DynCorp or any other foreign security agency in the country. “Neither the Blackwater and the DynCorp nor any other s more |
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Govt urged to take up water issue with India
By Asim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat while urging the government to take up the issue of ‘water terrorism’ with New Delhi, has question more |
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Avalanche kills 17 Indian soldiers in held Kashmir
HELD SRINAGAR: Seventeen Indian soldiers were killed on Monday in an avalanche that slammed into a group of 70 combat troops at a high-altitude warfare training camp in Kashmir, the army said on Monday.
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Taliban defiant as Afghans flee ahead of assault
KANDAHAR: The Nato commanders urged the Taliban to surrender as troops dug in on Monday for a major assault on their key stronghold in southern Afghanistan, sending thousands of residents fleeing.
The Ta more |
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Plea to freeze foreign accounts
By our correspondent
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday ordered the federal government to submit a reply within four weeks on a petition seeking freezing of accounts in foreign banks and recovery of illegal assets accumu more |
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Attack on Sh Rashid
RAWALPINDI: The PML-N candidate for by-polls from NA-55, Malik Shakil Awan, has announced suspension of electioneering for a day to mourn the death of those killed in the attack on the office of his rival, Shei more |
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Indian forces to halt Kashmir rally outside UN office
HELD SRINAGAR: The held Kashmir authorities deployed thousands of police and troops on Monday to prevent a protest outside the UN office here over the recent killing of two teenage boys by Indian security force more |
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briefs...
20 die in Afghan floods, avalanches
KANDAHAR: Twenty people have died in floods and avalanches triggered by some of the heaviest rain and snow in Afghanistan for 50 years, an official said on Monday. At more |
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ISSN 1563-9479 
