Was Head Money Paid For Aafia Siddiqui?

Advocates of, and apologists for, the US government's position on Pakistani scientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui are arguing that she was a member of an al Qaeda sleeper cell and that she held extreme views.

This line of reasoning seeks to undermine the stronger case that exists in favor of the wrongs done to her, and the wrongs that US and the Pakistani governments have done to the rights and honor of Pakistani citizens.

There is little doubt that Dr. Siddiqui had weird ideas. She also tried hard to get in contact with al Qaeda terrorists wanted by law. And she is probably not telling the whole truth about her activities and intentions.

But it is also true that:

- She was tortured and turned into a human wreck
- She was illegally flown to the United States
- She was kidnapped in Pakistan
- Her kidnappers used her underage children to blackmail her
- Washington or Islamabad possibly tried to use her to inflitrate al Qaeda under duress
- The lives of her three underage kids, who are Pakistani citizens, have been destroyed
- She has not committed any act of terror
- US government has failed to prove her ties to al Qaeda [the excuse that US government is giving for this is that this would expose intelligence sources]
- US government's case on her attempt to kill US agents is fraught with legal loopholes
- Her indictment came because of the fear of terror manipulated by the US government more than the strength of evidence against her

Our contention is that she didn’t actually commit any act of terror. She is guilty of contacting people wanted by law. It is wrong to torture her like this until death. It is wrong to kidnap Pakistanis from our streets. It is wrong to destroy the lives of her three underage kids, who are Pakistani citizens, while the Pakistani government does nothing.

Other countries, including the US, do everything to protect their own citizens even when they have committed crimes. In US government's case, pressure was applied on foreign governments to hand back US citizens involved in prosecutable crimes, in places as diverse as Italy [murder], Iran [espionage] and Japan [rape by US soldiers].

In Dr. Aafia’s case, she’s received more than her share of punishment for committing no crime really, and her arrest through kidnap from Pakistan’s streets is wrong as a principle.

A point to ponder: someone in Pakistan pocketed the head money that US government put on her. As if it's not enough that Washington meddles in Pakistani politics and tries to influence who comes to power in our country, we have a rotten political system where people in politics, bureaucracy and military collude in humiliating Pakistani citizens. This has to stop.

Is the incumbent pro-US Pakistani government reluctant to take a stand on Dr. Aafia's case because head money was paid for her?

Why Pakistan's rulers ignore the wider implications of this case: the systematic way of humiliating Pakistani citizens that has become a policy under the so-called war on terror, practiced in the US and the UK? 

We want the government of Pakistan to stand up for its citizens. Period.

If it can't, Pakistanis should change this failed political system and replace it with new faces unburdened by a client relationship with Washington and London.