Daughter of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui Mysteriously Returned?‏
Sun 4/11/10
THE PEACE AND JUSTICE FOUNDATION
Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):
Over the past few days I've been following, with guarded optimism, reports of a young girl who was mysteriously dropped off at the doorstep of the Siddiqui family in Karachi, Pakistan, with the message that she was Aafia's missing daughter. After seeing the initial report, I had a long conversation with Aafia's older brother, Muhammad, concerning the young orphan and some other related matters.
The Peace And Justice Foundation purposely avoided making any public statements on the matter - or even forwarding reports - until we could see more verification on who this young female orphan truly was. The Pakistani government now claims that this is indeed Aafia's daughter based on DNA testing. Given its corrupt history, however, in these and other related matters, the Pakistani Government, by itself, is far from a reliable source.
While stating their intent to engage in another round of independent DNA testing, it appears that the Siddiqui family has leaned toward
acceptance of the government's findings (see reports below). It is for
this reason that we are now sending out this report. We pray that the
young orphan is indeed Aafia's daughter, Maryam (now being called in
published reports, Fatima); and that the whereabouts of the youngest
child, Suleman, will soon follow.
On a final related note, after speaking engagements in Raleigh, NC, yesterday, I received a query from a Muslim mother whose youngest son is also a political prisoner in the U.S. (one of the Raleigh 7). The
question raised provides us with one of those very important "teaching
moments." The question reads as follows:
A question I have; how come bad things happen to good people? Why would someone so sweet like sister Afia be punished and tortured so severely, and as you mentioned, she was such a good person?
Insha'Allah, I will respond to this question to the best of my ability and understanding, in a later posting that will also address the question of why the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is so important.
El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan says the missing daughter of a Pakistani scientist convicted in the US of trying to kill Americans has been identified after mysteriously reappearing on her family's doorstep.
Twelve-year- old Fatima Siddiqui is one of three children of Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated woman who disappeared for five years and was long considered an Al-Qaeda suspect.
Aafia Siddiqui was found guilty Feb. 3 of shooting at US personnel after being found in Afghanistan in 2008. One of Siddiqui's two sons was with her. The other son's whereabouts is unknown.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Saturday that Fatima was identified using DNA tests. She'd recently been dropped off at a family residence in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. – AP
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The Daughter of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui Mysteriously Returned
Saturday, 10 April 2010
JFAC have confirmed with Dr Aafia's family today's report
that Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik revealed the DNA test
proved that the child found outside the residence of Dr Fowzia Siddiqui is the daughter of Dr Aafia. Her DNA apparently matched that of Ahmed Siddiqui, Aafia's eldest son.
Dr Fowzia, Aafia's sister, said that they will be carrying out their
own independent investigation to confirm the girl's identity.
Govt Formally Declares Teenage Girl as Aafia's Daughter
The Government has formally declared 12 years old Maryam as daughter of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui after proved by DNA Test and the girl handed over to the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.
Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui, sister of Dr Aafia Siddiqui visited the Interior Ministry with 12 years old Maryam on Saturday and held a meeting with Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
Talking to media after holding the meeting, the Interior Minister
said that Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani wanted to make the
announcement himself but he asked him to announce this.
Rehman Malik said that the DNA Report has proved that 12 years old Maryam is daughter of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, adding the girl only speak English.
Responding to a question, the Interior Minister said that the
government is taking all possible measures for the return of Dr. Aafia, saying the Prime Minister during his stay in the United States would strongly raise the issue of release of Dr. Aafia with the leadership of the United States.
The Minister on the occasion congratulated the entire nation and the
family of Dr. Aafia.
Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui while talking to media said that the DNA test has proved that the girl is daughter of Dr. Aafia and praised the efforts of the government regarding repatriation of Dr. Aafia and her children and specially mentioned efforts of the Interior Minister.
On current visit of the Prime Minister to the United States, Dr.
Fauzia expressed her hope that he (Gilani) would raise the issue
regarding release of Dr. Aafia with US Leadership.
Terming the visit of Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, a key factor in making the efforts of the government and the Interior Minister productive, she said that the rehabilitation of Maryam would be started soon.
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JFAC Responds to Claims Siddiqui's Missing Daughter
Held in Bagram for Seven Years
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11th 2010
Contact: info@justiceforaafi a.org
In response to the information issued by Senator Talha Mahmood at a press conference in Pakistan Saturday, that Aafia Siddiqui's daughter Maryam, four years old at the time of her abduction, was held in a `cold, dark room' in Bagram for the past seven years, Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC) founder, Maryam Hassan commented:
"After years of repeated denials, claiming ignorance of the
whereabouts of Aafia Siddiqui and her children, the US Government's lies are finally unravelling, yet many troubling questions remain
unanswered.
Whilst overjoyed that Maryam has finally been released and reunited with Aafia's family – and we pray that their independent verification of her identity confirms that of the government's - we must still ask what has become of Aafia's youngest child, Suleman, only six months old at the time of his abduction? For years there have been distressing rumours that Suleman had been killed in US custody and reports that Aafia was shown photos of the baby lying in a pool of blood. His welfare needs to be immediately disclosed.
That the media and international bodies can remain deafeningly silent when confronted with the case of a four year old child separated
from her parents and held in inhumane conditions for seven years at the detention facility in Bagram, notorious for the torture and murder of detainees, is both outrageous and appalling. Seven years too many have passed and an independent inquiry into the circumstances of their disappearance, detention and alleged torture is long overdue and now a matter of urgency. Those responsible must be held to account."
Additional Notes:
1. The Justice for Aafia Coalition is an umbrella body for a number of
organizations, groups, and activists created in February 2010 to
campaign for the release and return of Aafia Siddiqui and for the
opening of a full investigation into the circumstances of her detention and the whereabouts of her children.
2. Aafia Siddiqui's lawyers maintain that she was abducted by the
Pakistani and US agents along with her three children in 2003 and
rendered to Afghanistan where she was detained by American forces for
over five years. Siddiqui claims she was abused, raped and tortured
throughout her detention. She was convicted in February 2010 of
allegedly firing on US soldiers while in custody in what appears to have been a grave miscarriage of justice. Her son Ahmed was released in September 2008 from Afghan custody.
3. Earlier this week a 12 year old girl was left outside the
residence of Aafia Siddiqui's family in Karachi. Although initial tests suggested she was not Siddiqui's missing daughter, Pakistani Interior Minister disclosed on April 10th that DNA tests matched that of Aafia's son and confirmed she was her offspring. The girl who identified herself as `Fatima' was recovered from the US airbase at Bagram, reportedly in the custody of an American known only as `John'. She is said to speak only English and Persian.
For full details of the case, please visit www.justiceforaafia .org
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Malik: DNA Proves Girl as Aafia's Daughter
Saturday, 10 April 2010
http://www.justicef oraafia.org/ index.php/ articles/ press-releases/ 507-reports- dna-proves- girl-as-aafias- daughter- malik
JFAC have confirmed with Dr Aafia's family today's report that Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik revealed that the DNA test proved that the child found outside the residence of Dr Fowzia Siddiqui is the daughter of Dr Aafia and that her DNA matched that of Ahmed Siddiqui, Aafia's eldest son. Dr Fowzia, Aafia's sister, said that they will be carrying out their own independent investigation to confirm the girl's identity.
Senate Committee for Interior Chairman Senator Talha Mehmood also
told media today that the girl was recovered from Bagram Airbase,
Afghanistan. She was with an American there named 'John'. She apparently only speaks English and Persian.
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News and Info re: Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.... {both public and private}
To: ssaala@aol.com
THE PEACE AND JUSTICE FOUNDATION
11006 Veirs Mill Rd, STE L-15, PMB
RABI AL-THANI 1431 A.H. (April 12, 2010)
"Kept in a dark room in solitary confinement, she is unable to stand the broad daylight. Once the public outcry against her disappearance has seen her release, even the most naïve can see that the girl, now 12, stands traumatised.
Heading the criminal band of perpetrators was the superpower US, the
indefatigable champion of human rights: two other governments, Pakistan and Afghanistan, whom the official moralists at Washington never tire of blaming for human rights violations, were complicit in the crime." - from an editorial in The Nation
This statement alone reflects the depths to which man's inhumanity to man can sink in the pursuit of political fortune and depraved self-interest. Please read the forwarded newsletter below for additional details.
El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
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In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA)
April 9, 2010
In the matter of: Dr. Aafia Siddiqui
The Muslim Alliance of North America is deeply troubled by the ongoing
plight of one of our sisters, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui– from her disappearance and secret imprisonment in 2003, to her trial and conviction earlier this year in spite of the compelling evidence in her favor.
Dr. Siddiqui is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6, 2010, and according to published reports, she potentially faces a sentence of life imprisonment.
Given the known circumstances, MANA believes that such an outcome would constitute a terrible miscarriage of justice. This statement serves as a formal announcement of MANA's endorsement of The May 6, 2010 Mobilization for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in New York City. We also encourage our members and friends to support this very important
initiative.
In solidarity and seeking the pleasure of Allah!
Imam Khalil Abdurrahman
Social Justice Committee
MANA
Special Note: A full list of endorsers of The May 6 Mobilization for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui will soon be forthcoming, insha'Allah.
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The poem below by Aafia's sister, Fauzia, is an attempt to express these complex feelings...
AAFIA, YOU ARE MISSED
by Dr Fauzia Siddiqui
Aafia my dear,
Today, Aafia
you are missed
While the Nation celebrates,
Aafia you are missed
As friends and family rejoice,
Your little daughter, I embrace
Aafia, You are missed
I hug and kiss little Maryam,
My hands and lips are numb
Aafia, You are missed
A scared, fearful little girl cries
Holding on to cousin's
friendship ties
Aafia, you are missed
Longing for mommy's reassurance
Her woeful eyes full of
innocence
Aafia, you are missed
Longing
for comfort and security allied
Alas, only mother's love can
provide
Aafia, you are missed
Mubarak,
Mabruk, congratulations
Soars in the air, my heart
weighs tons
Aafia, you are missed
I
cannot stop my tears rolling
I cannot hold my heart sinking
What can I do what can I say
I thank God Almighty for this day
Aafia, you are missed
Lord, I am both weak and sinful
You are always Kind and Merciful
As brother sister re-unite
Lord, end my sisters plight
Aafia, you are missed
Missed more than ever,
Aafia, you are missed
===
Freeing Dr. Aafia, a Matter of Honour
Gordon Duff Salem-News.com
http://www.freeaafi a.org/
The Service and Sacrifice of All American War
Veterans is at stake.
Dr. Affia Siddiqui has been held in the Bagram Air Base prison, notoriously associated with severe mistreatment of prisoners, for years.
(BAGRAM, Afghanistan) - Veterans Today Editors, Jeff Gates, Raja Mujtaba and I were in the AF-Pak region over the last couple
of weeks. Jeff and I are Vietnam veterans, Raja a decorated combat
veteran, tank commander, from the India/Pakistan war.
We met dozens of Pakistani military, including nearly all of their highest ranking retired officers, from Admiral Sirohey, Chairman of their Joint Chiefs of Staff to General Alsam Beg, Head of the Army to Lt. General Hamid Gul, former head of the ISI.
In our party were our other Veterans Today contributors, BG Asif Haroon Raja and BG Raza Ali, of "Charlie Wilson's War" fame.
Today, I received an email from Admiral Sirohey. His office is lined with memorabilia from a long career of service, service as an ally and friend of the United States.
Sirohey and the rest were America's most stalwart allies during the Cold War. These were the real allies that helped us bring about the downfall of the Soviet Union.
I was honoured to be among them.
Today Admiral Sirohey is scheduled to attend a rally protesting the illegal kidnapping, brutalizing and conviction of Dr. Affia Siddiqui.
America's best friends in Asia, the finest soldiers in the world are horrified at what we have done.
Can it be that bad?
The Bush administration, when it saw its "War on Terror" wasn't getting enough suspects, hired drug cartel members and criminal elements to kidnap innocent civilians to fill our secret prisons.
Yes, we actually did this.
In this case, we kidnapped a mother with 3 children, tortured her for years, murdered a small child and then charged her with attempting to murder her captors after years in a secret prison on Bagram Air Force Base.
Every soldier on that base; everyone who has served there has to live
with the dishonour of this act until something is done.
Remember when America, after World War II, painted the people of Germany with the stain of guilt for not knowing about the death camps? Tell me what is different here?
We didn't know that druglords and gangsters were stealing people off the street to fill our prisons with "terror suspects" so Bush/Ashcroft and Cheney could crow about their successes?
Veterans Today Editors Raja Mujtaba & Jeff Gates
in Islamabad, Pakistan
Feb 2010 Photo by Gordon Duff
If you didn't know before, this is what all the secret "torture memos" were all about, not real terrorists, but innocent people
we "bought" as though we were slave runners of old.
A few years after we bought our phony terror suspects,
tortured, raped and brutalized them, most were released.
They had committed no crime other than to be standing on the wrong dark street corner when the druglords working for Bush were out hunting "meat" for America's gulags.
Dr. Aafia had to be convicted, had to be jailed and silenced.
The crimes against her and her children were so heinous, only a kangaroo court in America, a country whose news is orchestrated by the Islam hating MSM/Corporate media and powerful Israeli/AIPAC lobby, would have the audacity to bring her to trial.
Do we need to review the case? Remember the OJ case? He was released because of a glove not fitting. Dr. Aafia was shot by the "translator" during her "debriefing. "
She has a Doctorate from an American university. She comes from a country where everyone speaks English.
"If the translator doesn't fit, you must acquit!"
Do we now call a person with a cattle prod a "translator? "
When the My Lai massacre happened, I was with a Marine unit less than 50 miles away.
All of us who were there then, not so many are around any more, carry the stain of that dishonour and have for decades.
I can talk of honour or service but all people see is babies and their mothers, shot to death, lining the bottom of a ditch.
It is a matter of honour.
There are no "secret prisons" and nobody is tortured without someone knowing about it.
We are all responsible, I don't care if you are serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere around the world, active duty, reserve, National Guard, retiree or veteran. We are nearly 30 million strong.
Many of us don't have much; memories, wounds, a small pension and our honour.
Our silence strips our honour away.
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was not a terrorist. The newspapers lied, we all know why. Either she is guilty or we all are. Better to destroy her than to arrest those guilty of real crimes, arrest people some of us voted into high office.
"We were just taking orders."
Where have we heard that before, Nuremberg? It isn't just this one life. We've already killed over a million people in our ill fated invasion of Iraq.
Fog of War. We know better, everyone with eyes to see knows better, know it now. Then why are we still acting like criminals?
No more lies. We are at war, a war with real enemies. We have so
little; our short lives, our families and what we believe in.
Did a tiny crippled woman, illegally imprisoned for years, try to murder a roomful of FBI, Special Forces and Blackwater/CIA operatives?
I can tell you this: If I get my butt kicked by a 100 pound woman in a wheel chair, you won't see me in front of a jury in New York City crying for my mama.
The only possible answer is that everyone involved in the trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a liar. Nothing else is possible. I know why they lied, they were ordered to "for the good of the service." Was there something in the oath involving "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America unless told to lie for the good of the service?"
What are we protecting?
Once the public learns that we are buying phony terror suspects from the world's largest drug dealers, people we are protecting, people flooding our streets with narcotics, there might be problems. Best not let the public know why we never found those weapons of mass destruction, that yellow cake uranium, those mobile bio-weapons
labs or why our continual search for Osama bin Laden keeps failing.
The deal of the century, destroying an innocent life and earning the hatred of a valued ally, all to stand behind the lies and rhetoric of America's "dark age." We would be lucky if it were only every citizen of Pakistan that was enraged at us for this travesty. It is worse, far worse.
Who are the real terrorists? In Pakistan, Admiral Sirohey, friend to half a dozen American Presidents is heading to a peaceful protest. What can we, Americans, claim? If kidnapping, torture, rape and covering it up by letting the victim rot in prison isn't terrorism, I don't know what is.
We should be thankful for that seat on the UN Security Council. We may need it for more than covering up for Israel. The next nation facing sanctions for international crimes may be us.
All that stands between us and being cut off from the world is our veto. All that is keeping an entire administration from War Crimes trials is the Bush administration' s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
Why is President Obama allowing the outrages of the Bush administration to continue?
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and a regular contributor to Veterans Today. He specializes in political and social issues. You can see a large collection of Gordon's published articles at this link: VeteransToday. com.
He is an outspoken advocate for veterans and his powerful words have brought about change. Gordon is a lifelong PTSD sufferer from his war experiences and he is empathetic to the plight of today's veterans also suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to feature Gordon's timely and critical reports on Salem-News.com, a news organization staffed by a number of veterans, particularly former U.S. Marines.
You can send Gordon Duff an email at this address:
Gpduf@aol.com
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