August 11, 2008

Did Aifia Siddiqui WANT to get Captured?

Pakistani women protest the detention of Aifia Siddiqui today

I'm assuming that by granting al Qaeda operative Aafia Siddiqui access to doctors that they mean she will be taken to a hospital and not simply see the in-house medical staff. You'll recall that she was caught in Afghanistan and later shot as she tried to kill her captors. As I've said in the past, expect further charges for Siddiqui who was mentioned by her former uncle-in-law Khalid Sheik Mohammed as a possible facilitator & financier.

Reuters:

A frail-looking Siddiqui appeared in a wheelchair as her lawyers argued for her release in Manhattan federal court.

At the hearing, initially scheduled to discuss bail, her lawyers said she was in dire need of medical care. That was granted by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Pitman, who also ordered she continue to be held without bail.

The timing here just stinks to high heaven. This story is BIG NEWS amongst the radical Islamist community. Siddiqui is now claiming that the long held Islamist conspiracy narrative that she has been held in secret for years by the U.S. is true.

Siddiqui's lawyer claims that she was held for years by the US, tortured, and raped. A nearly identical story first put forth by al Qaeda about "Prisoner 650" who last month began to be associated with Sidiqqi through al Qaeda sympathizers at Cage Prisoners.

Here is what Cage Prisoners reports:

A Pakistani woman charged with attacking US army officers in Afghanistan last month has told her lawyer that she was in US custody for years, despite claims that she was only arrested last month....

Her US lawyer, Elaine Sharp, who interviewed her for three hours on Wednesday, said her description of the place she was detained meant it could only be Bagram, the US base in Afghanistan.

"The abuse was horrendous, it was physical, as well as psychological. It was torture," Sharp said. "When you're locked up in such a place and treated so horrifically, they don't exactly give you a calendar, but she says it was a very long time, years for sure ... They [her captors] were Americans, there's no doubt about it."

While Sharp declined to give details of the alleged abuse, Siddiqui's sister, Fauzia, told a press conference yesterday in Islamabad that Siddiqui had been "raped repeatedly". Sharp said Siddiqui was not getting proper treatment for a bullet wound, which may have gone septic.

The line being given by the Islamists is that Siddiqui has been held at Bagram in Afghanistan since 2003 where she has been tortured and raped. Thus they believe she is "Prisoner 650", a woman who Abu Yahya al-Libi and other al Qaeda members claim the U.S. has been holding in Afghanistan for years.

Even worse? They now also claim that the U.S. is holding Siddiqui's three young children.

But the association of Siddiqui as "Prisoner 650" only came early last month with a press conference organized by British al Qaeda supporters was held in Pakistan. That press conference was held the first week of July. Siddiqui was captured on July 17th.

Doesn't the timing seem a little odd to you? That Siddiqui would suddenly appear a few weeks after Islamists began agitating for her 'release'?

The timing is explained by Islamists as being somehow related to the upcoming elections. I suppose this goes hand in hand with their narrative that the War on Terror is really a horse-and-pony show designed to give Americans a pretext to attack Islam and Muslims.

But it seems to me that there is alternative explanation for the timing: maybe Siddiqui wanted to get captured.

What if Siddiqui planned to get caught and then, once caught, claim she is "Prisoner 650"? It would spark, as it has, worldwide outrage and protest. And had she been killed, as may have been her wish given her attempt to kill two Americans while in custody, then the worldwide Islamist movement would have a martyr on their hands.

Not Aiffa Siddiqui the al Qaeda financier, but Aiffa Siddiqui the innocent mother of three who has been tortured and raped for years before the Americans murdered her.

I don't know, maybe the theory is wrong. Maybe the whole thing is just bad---and I mean terrible--timing. But the notion that Siddiqui is the much discussed "Prisoner 650" is just way too incredible to believe. It's far more plausible to me that al Qaeda would sacrifice one of its own to garner public sympathy--at a time when much of the Muslim world has lost interest in supporting them.

I just wanted to get these thoughts down. Like I said, this is a BIG DEAL with tons of petitions being circulated for her release and talk of vengeance in her name. If you'll remember, one of the major justifications al Qaeda in Iraq had for killing civilian hostages was the claim they made that the U.S. routinely detained, tortured, and raped Muslim women in Iraq.

Don't be surprised if the next wave of terrorist attacks by al Qaeda and their fellow-travelers were done in the name of revenge for Aifia Siddiqui.

Related:
And So the Lies About Aafia Siddiqui Begin

Full Complaint Against Aafia Siddiqui: Wanted al Qaeda Terrorist