Dr. Aafia's Revenge: A Blow To US And Its Pakistani Friends

Those who wanted Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to rot in jail and never come out to tell her story got what they wanted.
Interestingly, there are Pakistanis who assisted the Americans in achieving this, [British journalist Yvonne Ridley allegedly points the finger toward one of them in her recent article].

And it doesn't matter if she's guilty or not. Most Pakistanis know she was involved al Qaeda wannabe, although there is no evidence she was part of the terror group. She appeared more as a fan than a real member.

None of this, however, justifies the wrong done to her and her three underage kids. And this wrong was done to her by both the United States and its client government(s) in Pakistan. Government officials and a few unscrupulous elements within our military, unfrotunately, played roles in this tragedy.

For us Pakistanis, her case will forever remain a blot on the face of our ruling elites, civilian and military, despite the fact that most of our civilian or military people today are simply carrying the sin of the few who did this and knew about it.

For Pakistanis, her case is now is about how Pakistani rulers have sold Pakistan, its interests, and its citizens, cheap, time and again, for a few dollars and temporary gratification.

Some 1,200 innocent Pakistanis rot in Indian jails. An equal number has been rotting in Afghan jails for almost a decade now. FBI and MI5 have been harassing and implicating innocent Pakistanis in fake cases in US and Britain since 9/11. The famous case of 11 Pakistani college students in Britain is case in point, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown created a false alarm in 2009 over a 'terror ring' that turned out to be a ruse, most probably meant to scare the British public into approving more troops for Afghanistan.

Or the case of Adnan Mirza in Houston, Texas, where FBI agents posing as American Muslims prodded the young Pakistani college student into talking about Iraq and Afghanistan during a hiking trip and the conversation was presented in court as evidence he was planning to support Taliban and Al Qaeda. A bunch of FBI agents got promotions and citations while this young kid rots in jail without conviction, and without support from the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, which, instead of raising the issue of lack of evidence, is supporting FBI's contention the kid accept the charges against him and consent to deportation.

Dr. Aafia is a sign of the injustice done to Pakistanis. And this is why those who convicted and jailed her will never win.

From A US Citizen On Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

Salute to this US citizen who restores our faith in the basic goodness of the American people and all peoples. Pakistanis never doubted for once this fact, despite the propaganda that some in Washington indulge in, scaring the Americans about Pakistan and its people, spreading anti-Pakistanism inside the US and worldwide. Elements within the US government and the mainstream US media continue to demonize Pakistan and spread alarm about Pakistanis. US continues to jail innocent Pakistanis. So does Britain, followed suit by their new slave-soldier in Asia, superpower-wannabe India, where some 800 Pakistanis rot in jail without trial and with a proven track record of extreme torture.

This video from a US citizen is also a message to the handful of pro-US defeatists sitting in the Pakistani government, who speak Washington's language, and to the few journalists in some cornders of the Pakistani media who are in the 'Good Guys' list prepared by the US Embassy in Islamabad. 'Good Guys' of course being anyone who agrees to peddle US propaganda in order to please US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson.

Dr. Siddiqui is not perfect, we know. She held extreme views and did seek to mingle with men wanted by law. But she symbolizes now the humiliating treatment meted out to Pakistanis - by their own government and by allied governments in the US and the UK - during the course of the past eight years.  Terrorism or not, Pakistanis won't take now even the impression of humiliation.

Here is a message to all of you: We, the Pakistani people, will hold the Government of the United States responsible if Dr. Aafia Siddiqui dies in your custody. Justice will be done. We, the ordinary Pakistanis, will bring a government to power in Islamabad that will ensure this. You just watch.

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.

Where Is Pakistan's National Honor?

Surrendered by Musharraf and almost abandoned by Zardari and Nawaz and a long list of US apologists in a nation seething with anger, isn’t it time for Pakistan’s rulers to take a stand? US, Britain and India top the list of countries where Pakistani citizens are abused as a state policy. Imagine 60 Indians or Americans or Brits burned alive on Pakistani soil? It happened to us but our failed rulers have hushed it because they can’t stand up for national honor. War on terror or not, the policy of humiliating Pakistanis must come to an end.

Read the full column here.

My Sister Aafia Siddiqui, In English & French

By Dr. M.K.Sherwani
( French version by Samia of Mauritius (9rubi@live.com)

The anguish and pain on your face,
Have wreaked a havoc in my heart ;

My soul is now seething with rage,
As surging waves erode the shores.

Curse be on me, but more on those,
Who are called as Kings and Heads;

Whom you may call as your brothers,
Who are under your tormentors’ shoe.

But your luck will soon see the spring,
Have patience, Oh the woman of faith!

The Supreme Justice is about to dawn,
Again you will be blushing with smile.

Those, who think, have all the power,
Will stand before you as tiny creatures ;

On the ruins of today’s mighty empires,
‘Aafiya’ will stand as a towering figure.

**********************************

Ô Ma Soeur Aafia Siddiqui!

L`angoisse et la douleur sur votre visage,
Ont fait des ravages à mon coeur;

Mon âme maintenant se met à bouillir de colère,
Comme les grosses houles qui érodent les plages.

Malédiction sois sur moi, mais plus sur ceux,
Qui se sont proclamés Rois et Chefs ;

Que vous pouvez les appeler vos frères,
Qui sont sous les bottes des votre tortionaire.

Mais votre chance va bientot appercevoir le printemps.
Aie de la patience, ô dame de foi inébranlable;

Le Juge Supreme est presque à l`aube
À nouveau vous serez toute rose de sourire.

Ceux, qui pensent qu'ils ont tout le pouvoir,
Seront debout devant vous comme des créatures minuscules ;

Sur les ruines des puissants empires d'aujourd'hui,
«Aafiya», lui, elle affichera une stature imposante.

Dr. Mustafa Kamal Sherwani,LL.D. is Chairman, All India Muslim Forum in Lucknow, U.P.,  India. He can be reached at sherwanimk@yahoo.com