Yesterday the long awaited trial of Aafia Siddiqui began in a federal courtroom in Manhattan. Her case has been one of the most baffling in the annals of post-9/11 terrorism prosecutions. Siddiqui, as regular readers of this website know, is a 37-year-old, MIT-educated neuroscientist, who lived in the U.S. for ten years before mysteriously vanishing from Karachi, her hometown, in 2003, along with her three children, two of whom are American born. For five years her whereabouts remained unknown, while rumors swirled that she was an Al Qaeda operative, and that she had married Ammar al Baluchi, the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and one of the five accused 9/11 plotters expected to face trial in the U.S. In July 2008 she was picked up in Ghazni, Afghanistan on suspicion of being a suicide bomber. The following day, as a team of U.S. soldiers and FBI agents arrived to question her at the police station where she was being held, she allegedly managed to get hold of an M-4 automatic rifle belonging to one of the soldiers, and, according to prosecutors, she opened fire. She hit no one but was herself hit in the abdomen by return fire. What is known is that the U.S. considered Siddiqui to be someone connected to a number of high level terrorism suspects. They say she went on the run and remained underground during her missing years. But human rights groups have long held that Siddiqui is no extremist and believe she was illegally detained and interrogated by Pakistani intelligence at the behest of the U.S. She now faces charges of attempted murder. Her trial is expected to last two weeks.
Jurors heard opening statements from the government and the defense, and the testimony of three government witnesses, U.S. Army Captain Robert Snyder, a former U.S. Army infantry captain named John Threadcraft, and an FBI agent, John Jefferson. Before the jurors were brought in Siddiqui once again protested against being forcibly brought to the courthouse. Judge Richard Berman gave her two options: come to the courthouse and be present during the proceedings, or come to the courthouse and remain in a holding cell next to the courtroom where she could view the proceedings via a television monitor with adjustable volume. But either way, she must come to the courthouse each day, which means undergoing a daily strip search. Despite pleas from both the defense and prosecution to excuse Siddiqui, the judge did not change his position. One of the prosecutors suggested that Siddiqui was being put in a Catch-22 situation, where if she abstained from the proceedings she would still have to go through the strip search which was her primary reason for not wanting to come to court.
Opening statements for the government were made by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna Dabbs, who recounted the events surrounding the shooting incident in Ghazni, Afghanistan in July 2008. She described how the group entered a room on the second floor that was divided by a curtain, and unbeknownst to them behind the curtain was the very woman they were there to see. Seconds later with no warning, the woman grabbed an automatic rifle and through a gap in the curtain she "raised the rifle to her shoulder, and in perfect English, she said, 'Get out of here!'"
"The defendant saw an opportunity and she acted on it. She picked up an assault rifle, pointed it at the soldiers, and tried to shoot them," said Dabbs.
"Moments later they were looking down the barrel of a gun. As everyone in the room realized what was happening it was absolute chaos. Everyone ran, jumped, dove, and scrambled." The interpreter grabbed the rifle by the barrel and stock and tried to pry it out of Siddiqui's hands. She continued to struggle. She was shot once in the abdomen.
"But the defendant wasn't done yet," said Dabbs. Even after she was shot, she struggled and shouted, "I hate Americans," and "You will die by my blood," and "Death to America." She is being tried in the U.S. because the victims of her crime are Americans, said Dabbs.
Dabbs indicated the government would present six eyewitnesses to the shooting. A point of contention between defense and prosecutors has been the admission of the contents of the documents Siddiqui was allegedly found with in Ghazni. Last week the judge ruled these documents could be presented to the jury, and based on today's proceedings it's clear they are a centerpiece of the government's case.
"How are we going to prove the charges?" asked Dabbs. "You'll hear from soldiers and agents, from an army captain, who only when he saw the defendant slightly fumble with the gun he realized he had a chance to get out." Other witnesses will include a female Army medic who was seated by the curtain when she saw it move, "almost as if it had been blown by a gust of wind." The government will present documents that refer to chemical and biological weapons and to attacks on the U.S. The defendant's fingerprints are on the documents and they are written in her own hand."
Dabbs also mentioned a few things that the jurors would not see: fingerprints on the M-4 rifle Siddiqui is alleged to have shot, bullet fragments or shell casings from the M-4. The reason for this is that "the chaos that unfolded in that room was quickly matched by chaos at the compound," namely "dozens and dozens" of Afghan police who were holding automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades. The U.S. soldiers, she said, were not able to return for a week to secure the scene. She said the prosecution will present an expert who will tell the jurors that it is not unusual for an M-4 rifle not to retain fingerprints.
"They'll never forget the moment they were convinced they were going to die," said Dubbs of the soldiers in the room where the shooting occurred.
Attorney Charles Swift presented the defense team's opening statements. "This case is going to come down to a single question," said Swift. "Did Aafia Siddiqui gain control of an M-4?" Through a series of diagrams of the room where the shooting occurred, Swift reconstructed the timeline of events in the room at the time of the shooting, demonstrating where each of the U.S. soldiers and FBI agents in the room was positioned. He also told the jury the defense would present the testimony of Abdul Qadeer, a detective with the Afghan police, who interviewed Siddiqui after she was brought to the police station. Qadeer questioned Siddiqui, and also apparently admitted to beating her with a cane. But Qadeer was also present when the U.S. team arrived to question Siddiqui, and says he saw a very different scene unfold than what the government alleges. He said he saw the U.S. warrant officer, "walk to the curtain and behind the curtain. What he heard was a struggle and then shots fired. He didn't see the defendant get a rifle. He saw the rifle near the wall and says he didn't see the defendant anywhere near it." Swift also said the defense would prove that while there was ample forensic evidence that Siddiqui was shot (including shell casings, her blood on the carpet, bullet holes in the wall behind her), there was no forensic evidence that Siddiqui fired any shots herself or ever touched the rifle.
Immediately after Swift's opening statements, the government called its first witness, U.S. Army Captain Robert Snyder, who was present in the room at the Ghazni police station when the shooting occurred. Snyder explained to jurors the basic layout of U.S. military operations in and around Ghazni. When he was asked to summarize the events of July 18, 2008, his response was, "I was almost killed." He recounted how at around 1 a.m. on July 18, he was awoken by his staff with the news that a woman had been captured with documents that indicated threats against the U.S. "According to Afghan police, the individual appeared to be conducting an attack at the governor's house," said Snyder. He said he was shown a series of documents allegedly found on Siddiqui at the time of her arrest. The author of the documents "appeared American or had lived in America." The documents "very clearly indicated types of attacks," and "what appeared to be targets in New York City."
As the prosecutor began to show some of the documents to the jury, Siddiqui raised her head and addressed the courtroom, saying she'd been held in a secret prison and that her children had been taken from her. "This is not a list of targets," she said in reference to the documents. "I never was planning to bomb anything. You have to give me credit." After that she was removed from the courtroom and did not return for the rest of the day.
Snyder recounted how he and his team were initially given the runaround by the Afghans and were told by the governor of Ghazni Province, Usman Usmani, that they could not take custody of Siddiqui as they had wanted to. The governor indicated that he had been personally called by President Karzai and told not to turn Siddiqui over. The U.S. team was instead given permission to question Siddiqui and to establish her identity. Snyder said that after the team was granted permission they were led to a room on the second floor of the police station. Upon entering he said there were a number of Afghans and that eventually most of the U.S. team came in. Snyder described how he sat against a wall with the curtain two seats to his right. The U.S. warrant officer was nearest to the curtain. Snyder indicated that the team was not aware that Siddiqui was behind the curtain and that he was speaking to one of the Afghan counterterrorism officials to explain the team's intentions to question her. "I heard noise to my right," he said. He described a female voice saying, "May the blood of something be on your head or hands." He couldn't recall exactly what the speaker said, but remembered that it was in English. "I was the only one seated with a good line of sight. I turned to the right. The curtain was opened wider. What I saw was a female sitting on the bed attempting to shoulder a rifle pointed at my head. I could see the barrel edges." Snyder was still seated. "I looked at the individual holding the rifle and at that time I was certain there was nothing I could do to get out of the line of fire. It was at that point that she hesitated for a second. I figured she didn't know all the components." In that split second, Snyder says, he launched himself out of his chair and began to flee the room. Before he was out the door he heard several shots go off. He got out of the room but returned a few seconds later when he'd been able to unholster his 9 mm revolver. When he returned he saw the U.S. warrant officer standing over Siddiqui's body."He said he'd hit her. At that point she was on the bed fighting."
Snyder then described how he and the warrant officer restrained Siddiqui and after she'd received medical aid they carried her down the stairs to a waiting vehicle and drove her to the U.S. forward operating base. Snyder said Siddiqui fought the soldiers even after she was shot. "She was very very resistant. She was pleading off and on for us to just kill her instead of detaining her. I said that's not going to happen."
Snyder said that after the shooting incident he did not see Siddiqui again. He said the U.S. warrant officer, whose M-4 Siddiqui allegedly took, appeared to believe he'd "saved the day" by shooting her. But Snyder said he disagreed and that he felt the warrant officer was partly to blame for the incident because he'd left his weapon unsecured. Snyder said that shortly after the incident he was approached by the warrant officer's captain who wanted to write the warrant officer up for a Silver Star for valorous conduct in the incident. Snyder said he "wouldn't support it."
The next witness for the prosecution was John Threadcraft, an infantry captain in Ghazni at the time of the shooting. Threadcraft said his primary duty was to serve as a liaison with the National Security Forces (which include the Afghan National Police, the Afghan National Army, and the National Security Directorate, which serves as Afghanistan's equivalent to the CIA).Threadcraft also said he'd developed a close working relationship with Governor Usmani, who called him on Jan. 17 and said, "I captured a female bombmaker." Usmani brought Threadcraft a black handbag allegedly belonging to Siddiqui and turned the bag's contents over to him, including a women's clothing, a thumb drive, documents, and various jars of substances that looked like makeup. Threadcraft said he saw words written in English in the documents such as "dirty bomb," "bioweapons," and "Ebola." Threadcraft then attempted to broker an agreement with the Afghans to turn Siddiqui over to the U.S., but despite having the governor's support he was unable to gain custody of her. He was not part of the team that went to interview Siddiqui.
The third witness for the prosecution was FBI Special Agent John Jefferson, who was one of the agents sent to Ghazni shortly after Siddiqui was picked up. He and his partner, Special Agent Eric Negron, arrived in Ghazni by helicopter from Salerno, in the Khost Province on the morning of July 18. Like Snyder, he described the difficulties the team had in getting permission to take custody of Siddiqui. He was in the room when the shooting incident took place, but there were several differences in his version of events. Snyder had said the curtain behind which Siddiqui was located was partially open when he first came in, but Jefferson said it was closed to the wall. Jefferson also said that the warrant officer "pulled the curtain to his left," and looked to the left and right, but apparently did not see Siddiqui. (Note: According to the diagrams shown to the jury earlier in the day, the dimensions of the room are approximately 12' by 26' and the area in which Siddiqui was located was approximately 12' x 12', and was empty except for two cots.) Jefferson said the warrant officer "didn't walk back there." Approximately two minutes later he said the shooting started. He looked to the left and saw his partner, Negron and the warrant officer standing over Siddiqui, and that the two were attempting to subdue her. "JJ I need cuffs," Negron said to Jefferson. "We were on the ground with her and Eric was trying to apply some medical treatment."
Tomorrow, Day 2, USA v. Siddiqui, will begin with the government's continued direct examination of FBI Special Agent John Jefferson...
Petra Bartosiewicz is a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including The Nation, Mother Jones, and Salon.com. Her forthcoming book on terrorism trials in the U.S., The Best Terrorists We Could Find, will be published by Nation Books early next year. You can find her investigation ofAafia Siddiqui's case in the November 2009 issue of Harper's magazine (www.harpers.org) and at her website www.petrabart.com She can be reached at petrabart@petrabart.com.
