Miss Kelly

I've been remiss in covering this, but last week, Aafia Siddiqui was found guilty of attempted murder of an American soldier:

"An MIT-trained Pakistani woman was convicted this afternoon (2-3-2010) for trying to kill Americans while detained in Afghanistan in 2008."

"The tirade-prone Aafia Siddiqui, 37, was found guilty of attempted murder by a jury in Manhattan federal court, even after she denied charges that she had opened fire on US soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan."

"After the verdict was read, Siddiqui turned to the gallery, pointed her finger in the air and said, 'This is a verdict coming from Israel, not America, and that is where the anger belongs. I can testify to this and I have proof.' "

Ms. Siddiqui is decidedly not fond of Jews.  She tried to have jurors tested to see if they had "Jewish blood," and she tried to fire her Jewish lawyers.  Brandeis may want to be choosier about who they let in.

Aafia has been found guilty and now awaits sentencing.  We didn't learn during the trial where she was during her missing years of 2003 to 2008.  We don't know what happened to two of her three children.  (One son, Ahmad, is now in the custody of Aafia's sister, Harvard-trained doctor Fouzia, and the Siddiqui family has refused to let Dr. Muhammed Khan, the child's father ,to see him. And I thought shariah law gave greater custody rights to the father than the mother.)  We don't know how or when Aafia was  pulled into the Islamist jihadi world, although it's likely that it was through people she met at Muslim groups at MIT and at Boston area mosques, where she gave lectures and raised funds for Chechnya and Bosnia. 

Blogger Bobalu Chowdury pointed me to this hand-written letter from Aadfia.  He's transcribed it here. Excerpts:

To all Americans loyal to the USA: This comes from someone the ignorant among you may consider to be their “enemy” based on the propaganda put forth by the Zionist controlled US media. I am someone who spent in 12 years in the US and am grateful to the US for my college education, that with God’s will has allowed me to be able to analyze things and see them for what they are.

.....The US economy CANNOT handle more wars, especially wars designed to “benefit” Israel at the expense of the existence of the USA. Study the history of the Jews. They have always back-stabbed everyone who has taken pity on them and make the “fatal” error of giving them shelter. This was the “crime” of the Arabs of Palestine and least is the “crime” of th USA – and it is this cruel, ungrateful back-stabbing of the Jews that makes these has caused them to be mercilessly compelled from whatever thy gain strength. This is why “holocausts” keep happening to them repeatedly! If they would only learn to be grateful and change their behavior!! But they will not! And history will repeat itself, as it always does!

"Met Aafia Siddiqui in a social setting. She was charming and absolutely nothing she said of substance was true. She was clearly at that gathering to obtain information, if she could, from certain people there. She very closely shadowed people in the US who would have been of value to al qaeda, if kidnapped. When I questioned her about the details of her 'dance company' and her decision to dance her way into MIT, she turned on a dime and became who she was…a terrorist. She told me that she was in town on business for her charity, Benevolence International, and that she was certainly here to visit her good friend, Tanya binLaden.She escaped to Pakistan shortly afterwards, ahead of the feds."

"She didn’t like Jews and she was shadowing one at this social event."

"She wasn’t the sort of person to carry a laundry list of places to bomb…but perhaps a laundry list of databases to access, buzz words to allow her to visit other cells of al qaeda worldwide, or perhaps she was simply in charge of destroying leftover data the day she was captured."

"I know nothing about studying the proclivities of women to violence, but she is not a nice woman. She is a terrorist. I would hope the Pakistani government would not support extended appeals of her sentence. They have much to regret".

But Aafia promised no more outbursts in court! The shenanigans continue at the Aafia Siddiqui trial in NYC. From the New York Times:

"The defendant was ejected from a Lower Manhattan courtroom — not once, but twice — on Monday (1-25-2010) for loudly proclaiming her innocence. And, in a separate episode between the two ejections, a spectator who pointed his thumb and index finger like a gun at the jury while mouthing an expletive was taken into custody and later released."

Isnt that contempt of court or something like that? Juror intimidation? They should have kept him in custody for the remainder of the trial.  The two jurors who said they felt threatened were dismissed by Judge Berman, and replaced by alternates. 

"The trial, which is in its second week, is taking place under heavy security in United States District Court, with a metal detector and guards at the courtroom door. Still, there have been breaches. On Monday, Judge Richard M. Berman noted some of them in explaining his ruling against a defense motion for greater public access to the court."

"So far, three people have sneaked recording devices into the courtroom, said Judge Berman, adding that one audience member had even passed a cellphone, which is also banned, to a member of the defense team."

The defense asked Judge Richard Berman for a mistrial on Monday, "saying her (Aafia's) constitutional rights to a fair trial and presumption of innocence have been violated."  AP of Pakistan provides more details on the court case:

"Other grounds for a mistrial cited by (defense lawyer) Ms. Moreno were beefed up security measures outside the courtroom requiring visitors to the trial to provide personal identification and sign in."

Judge Berman denied the motion. More details on this matter from a Caged Prisoners article on Day 5:

"After jurors were dismissed for the day, defense attorney Linda Moreno once again asked for a mistrial, saying that the U.S. Marshals had removed Siddiqui roughly from the 'courtroom in front of the jury in a manner that 'denigrates the presumption of innocence.' The judge declined Moreno's request and said that perhaps the defense should focus more on 'reigning in' their client. 'Dr. Siddiqui doesn't talk to us,' Moreno said in reference to herself and the other members of the defense team. 'I tried to talk to her today,' said Moreno. 'She indicated if I didn't leave immediately she was going to accuse me of harassment.' "

This is a zoo, a fiasco and an outrage. As Michelle Malkin notes:

Update on the Aafia Siddiqi case, from Dawn (Pakistani news network): 

"New York Federal Court Judge Richard Berman on Monday decided that the jury selection for the trial of Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist, will begin on Wednesday, Jan 13, and the trial will begin on Tuesday Jan 19."

"Dr Siddiqui is charged with attempted murder of American troops while in custody in Kabul in July of 2008. She was flown to New York in August, 2008, and formally charged."

Siddiqui expressed disatisfaction with her attorneys again) in court Monday this week:

"Siddiqui had vowed at previous pre-trial hearings to ignore her legal team and demanded a meeting with US President Barack Obama about bringing peace to Pakistan and Afghanistan. 'They are not my attorneys,' Siddiqui blurted out to spectators moments after being escorted into a Manhattan courtroom Monday. 'I have fired them many times'. "

Aafia previously objected to the "Jewish background" of her attorneys.  Silly rabbit! Who the heck doesn't want a Jewish lawyer?!  Even the ISB and MAS use Jewish lawyers!

This promises to be a zoo-ey trial. 

Declan Walsh had a good summary of this strange case in The Guardian in November 2009. My previous blogposts on Aafia Siddiqui can be found here.