Opinion Editorials, September 2010

Aafia Siddiqui Sentenced:

A Grievous Miscarriage of Justice

By Stephen Lendman

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, September 27, 2010

 
On September 23 in federal court, US District Court Judge Richard Berman sentenced political prisoner Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in prison. Outrage most accurately expresses this gross miscarriage of justice, compounding what she's already endured following her March 30, 2003 abduction, imprisonment, torture, prosecution, and conviction on bogus charges.
 
Earlier articles explained her case in detail, accessed through the following links:
 
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/12/abduction-secret-detention-torture-and.html
 
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/02/aafia-siddiqui-victimized-by-american.html
 
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/aafia-siddiqui-victimized-by-american.html
 
In modern times, she's one of American depravity's most aggrieved victims, now given a virtual life sentence for a crime she didn't and couldn't have committed, explained in the above articles.
 
In recent months, she's been in New York's Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in maximum security solitary confinement, during her trial, conviction and September 23 sentencing. Importantly, her life was effectively destroyed by years of horrific tortures, repeated rapings, and other abuses in Bagram Prison at America's Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.
 
Addressing the court, said said "I'm not paranoid. I'm not mentally ill. I don't agree with" anyone saying so, though it's hard imagining why not after years of horrific brutalization. A Pakistani/American scientist, years of torture and abuse destroyed her persona, yet somehow she survived and endured more stress from prosecution, a travesty of a trial, conviction and sentencing.
 
Reporting on the court's decision, the BBC repeated government lies, including her possessing bomb making instructions to blow up New York landmarks - "evidence that she was a potentially dangerous terrorist." Yet her indictment was on totally different charges - preposterous ones accusing her of the following:
 
In the presence of two FBI agents, two Army interpreters, and three US Army officers, this frail 110 pound woman allegedly assaulted three of them, seized one of their rifles, opened fire at close range, hit no one, yet she alone was severely wounded.
 
At trial, no credible evidence was presented. The charges were concocted and bogus. None accused her of plotting to blow up New York or any other landmarks or facilities. 
 
Yet proceedings were carefully orchestrated. Witnesses were enlisted, pressured, coerced, and/or bribed to cooperate. Jurors were then intimidated to convict, her attorney Elaine Whitfield Sharp, saying their verdict was "based on fear, not fact." No evidence was presented except claims government prosecutors invented to convict.
 
The International Tribune also highlighted today's proceedings, headlining "Dr. Aafia sentenced to 86 years imprisonment," saying:
 
It was on seven counts "for allegedly firing at US troops in Afghanistan." After the announcement, protests erupted across Pakistan. In Karachi, civil society and political party workers rallied "in front of the Karachi Press Club....ask(ing) the federal government" to intervene on her behalf.
 
Jamaat-e-Islami, PASBAN, Defense of Human Rights, and other civil society members marched toward the US Embassy, expressing outrage and demanding she be released "as a goodwill gesture."
 
"Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister Ms. Sharmila Farooqui asked the United States to release (her) on humanitarian (grounds) as a goodwill gesture to Pakistan....Now is the time for the US to show goodness and pardon a Pakistani woman who is innocent."
 
Farooqui said Aafia was wrongly abducted, then handed over to US authorities. She's "an innocent woman," outrageously treated, convicted and sentenced.
 
Explaining further she said:
 
"In Islam and Pakistan, handing over a woman to foreign countries is a sin, but it is a pity that an innocent woman was mercilessly given in(to the) hands of the (previous) US" government.
 
She also urged international human rights organizations to actively pursue her release.
 
A Final Comment
 
At issue is 9/11 truth, the subsequent bogus "war on terror" based on a lie, America's war on Islam that followed against Iraq, Afghanistan, and Muslim Americans, victimized for political advantage. Aafia is perhaps its most aggrieved living victim, her persona destroyed and life ended by a virtual life sentence unless clemency or world pressure saves her. 
 
Her case should incite everyone's moral outrage. It also reveals America's true face, its rogue agenda, targeting Muslims for their faith and ethnicity, making us all equally vulnerable.
 
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected]. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/

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