Who is Dr. Aafia Siddiqui?
By Saleem Khan • Jul 30th, 2008 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look • 58 CommentsAafia Siddiqui was born in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 2, 1972. She was one of three children of Mohammad Siddiqui, a doctor trained in England. She is a mother of three.
Aafia moved to Texas in 1990 to be near her brother, and after spending a year at the University of Houston, transferred to MIT. Aafia then married Mohammed Amjad Khan, a medical student, and subsequently entered Brandeis University as a graduate student in cognitive neuroscience.
Citing the difficulty of living as Muslims in the United States after 9/11, Aafia and her husband returned to Pakistan. They stayed in Pakistan for a short time, and then returned to the United States. They remained there until 2002, and then moved back to Pakistan.
Some problems developed in their marriage, and Aafia was eight months pregnant with their third child when she and Khan were estranged. She and the children stayed at her mother’s house, while Khan lived elsewhere in Karachi.
After giving birth to her son, Aafia stayed at her mother’s house for the rest of the year, returning to the US without her children around December 2002 to look for a job in the Baltimore area, where her sister had begun working at SinaiHospital.
Soon after Pakistani authorities arrested Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Aafia and her children disappeared. A report in the Pakistani Urdu press said that Aafia and her kids had been seen being picked up by Pakistani authorities and taken into custody.
According to Mrs. Siddiqui, Aafia left her mother’s house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal in a Metro-cab on March 30, to catch a flight for Rawalpindi, but never reached the airport. Inside sources claim that Aafia had been “picked-up” by intelligence agencies while on her way to the airport and initial reports suggest she was handed over to the FBI.
Aafia Siddiqui had been missing for more than a year when the FBI put her photographs on its website. The press was told that she was an Al Qaeda facilitator. After an FBI conference, a newspaper broke the story linking the woman involved in the 2001 diamond trade in Liberia to Aafia. The family’s attorney, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, says the allegation was a blessing in disguise because it places Siddiqui somewhere at a specific time. She says she can prove Siddiqui was in Boston that week.
In Pakistan, there has been no official report registered with the police regarding her disappearance, and the police are doing nothing to trace her. Mrs. Siddiqui alleges that an intelligence agency official came to her house a week after the incident, and warned her not to make an issue out of her daughter’s disappearance and threatened her with dire consequences.
Both the Pakistan government as well as US officials in Washington denied any knowledge of Aafia’s custody.
Aafia and her three young children remain missing.
Source: cageprisoners.com
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Bagram Ka Bhoot, is what she is called in the Bagram Jail. Just wait, and very soon we would hear even more horrendous stories about Bagram Jail than the Abu Gharib Jail.
US has become a superpower due to their unflinching justice system. But now as the justice is being put aside by them, its just a matter of time that they decline.
Oath of Allegiance for Naturalized Citizens
Oath of Allegiance
The oath of allegiance is:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
In some cases, USCIS allows the oath to be taken without the clauses:
“. . .that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by law. . .”
Saleem Bhai, I commend you for trying to give support to Dr. Siddiqui and her case, but I caution you and other readers to be careful of coming to conclusions. Please do some more research (aside from what you have read on the site cagedprisoners.com) and not fall prey to your emotions. I would like to say more but I know if I do, I will be labeled as being not sensitive to a woman and her children, that are “missing”.
Just like anything of what we read on the Internet, do not take it to be the “truth”.
Allah knows best!
couple or 3 days before i read this story quite jumbled up in an article of IRFAN sahab in JANG.at the time of reading i was speechless,though i had to give an important exam just after a day ,but i was so emotionally bound that i read that article again and again.unfortunately author gave wrong information regarding her educational qualification or it was some mistake in proof what ever but today i found out that women was microbiologist .
My heart again and again asked me a question (i m a believer of heart talk) …THEY DONT EVEN TRUST PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING ON THEIR LAND ,EDUCATED ,QUALIFIED AND TALENTED .ARE THEY INSANE .
today i read an important story regarding this in JANG ,saying that her HUSBAND GAVE HER DIARY TO FBI IN WHICH THERE WERE SOME FORMULAS DESTRUCTIVE TO HUMANITY ,THAT LEAD AMERICANS TO GET HER ANYWAY PLUS HER RESIDENCE USED TO BE PLACE WHERE SOME arab S correspondence used to come cause past owner was some arab.
For me its again confusing what sorta formulae a microbiologist could write in her diary ……..did she discover some MICROORGANISM which was as destructive and fearful as was ANTHRAX. …….and why this all her husband did …………….WHY …………………………..DID HE SUSPECT HER …………………………its not a small thing …….
can any respected participator increase my info …..do these americans have any platform where we could ask them these questions……….is there any single sensitive human there asking them , what their agencies doing and on the basis of what sorta proof…………..such educated people whose whole families are there and serving in best way ,cud suffer this way ………for me its still unbelievable.
,,,
wearing scarf is not that big sin ,if we could bear their TOPLESS (rather enjoy ,our so called muslim male bros…………….on the advice of respected forum participator AFTAB sahab ..i m not using word THARKI ,,,.) …………………could not they bear our woman head covered ….could not they ….
Dr Sahab,
In my post, I haven’t gave any final verdict about her missing story. It is posted for discussion, based on her profile. Most of readers had no idea about her at all. I ve not even touched topic of presence in Afghanistan.
Kind regards.
Saleem
Amber Ghaffar, “on the advice of respected forum participator AFTAB sahab ..i m not using word THARKI ,,,”
?????????
Saleem Bhai, good! Please also take a look at the following article from Boston Magazine:
who is afraid of aafia siddiqui
I hope the link works.
Regards
Nazar Atay Hien Kuch, Hien Kawakib Kuch
Boston Mag’s story is very unbiased and factual. Thanks for the link dr.
Welcome Sameera!
It is one thing to post an article for discussion, but it has to be fair and balanced. To write on a hot topic as Dr. Siddiqui, it is easy for the reader to be confused and enraged with anger. This was my basis of my earlier comments to Saleem Bhai. Little bit of research has greater impact, when one is trying to convey a message for dialogue/discussion. Otherwise, it is nothing but conspiracy theories.
I hope you don’t mind an American jumping into this discussion. First, I get real disappointed when everyone assumes that ALL Americans are behind the Bush policy of picking up, holding, and torturing people in secret. They aren’t. Truth is, many Americans are ignorant about what is even going on and it’s near impossible to have a discussion about it here without authorities making your life hell. The Bush administration - despite what they publicly claim - does not believe in freedom or the rule of law.
I don’t know about Dr. Siddiqui. What I do know is that if there was a charge against her then she should’ve been charged - not kidnapped - and tried in a court of law for all to see. If the authorities can’t do that then obviously there is no hard evidence against her.
Bush has used 9/11 to attack anyone - including many of his own people - who think or believe differently. While it may not happen, one can only hope that Bush and his gang, when their time is up, face the court of law they’ve denied others for the crimes they’ve comitted.
I think for kidnapping of this women Imran Khan is spreading his voice for more than one year.
Please sign a petition online for her release and raise your voice if that’s all you can do.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/liberate-the-prisoner-650—the-grey-ghost-lady-of-bagram-jail
Somebody needs to come out and speak for these innocent detained people.
Anybody could have been this unlucky person, you just need a bad luck.
I would urge every reader to try to do everything they can! I know these days PTI (Pakistan Tehreeq-e-Insaaf) is holding some protests to get released.
I request everyone to participate to show our concern towards human rights violations.
USA should do such a cruel that on its return can bear
I would like to ask the government to immediately locate the whereabouts of Dr Afia Siddiqi, a PhD from the MIT and mother of four children, who has been missing since March 2003 and allegedly in the custody of the US government on charges of terrorism. A few days after her disappearance, an American news channel reported that she had been arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of facilitating money transfers for Al Qaeda.
Whatever she has been accused of, the charges against her are yet to be proven. The fact also is that she has been missing since the past five years now. Has she disappeared off the face of the earth? Will the government please answer?
There are reports that in a prison at Bagram in Afghanistan there is a woman prisoner known as Prisoner 650 and that she has been severely tortured. Some people say that this prisoner could well be Dr Afia Siddiqi. This prisoner has reportedly lost her mind due to constant ill-treatment.
I remind the government that it is its duty to investigate Dr Siddiqi’s disappearance. The government needs to inform the Pakistani people about the whereabouts of Dr Siddiqi and also ensure the safety of her children.
What should i say about this…I have really no comments ..I cant Understan untill now that How is it possible for us to give our sister to FBI …I have read several Forums regarding this and came to know that its very Disgracefull for us I dont know what ( DR.ALSHAER ) is thinking nd want to conwey..I sorry for him about this…I want to say that Our Government Should enquire the whole situation and told the Pakistani people….May Allah give strength to our so called Government to take any kind of action on this….