- 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:
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- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/12/abduction-secret-detention-torture-and.html
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- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/02/aafia-siddiqui-victimized-by-american.html
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- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/aafia-siddiqui-victimized-by-american.html
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- 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:
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- 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:
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- "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.
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- She also urged international human rights organizations
to actively pursue her release.
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- A Final Comment
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at <mailto:lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net>lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
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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