"Pakistan angry over Siddiqui conviction in US" with comment by John Whitbeck‏

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TO: Distinguished Recipients
FM: John Whitbeck
 
Transmitted below is an Associated Press news report on the reaction in Pakistan (where the U.S. was already fighting a losing battle for hearts and minds) to the 86-year prison sentence inflicted yesterday on Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated Pakistani neuroscientist, for the alleged crime of trying to shoot at an American interrogator in Afghanistan during an incident in which, in fact, she herself was severely wounded and no one else was hurt. (She denies the charge.)
 
Dr. Siddiqui's case may not have attracted great attention in the United States, but it has long been a cause celebre in Pakistan and throughout the Muslim world. It may rank as one of the two most notorious perceived abuses, in Muslim eyes, of innocent Muslims by the U.S. system of "justice" -- the other being the flagship "military commission" trial, currently in progress at Guantanamo Bay, of Omar Khadr, who, at age 15, was dug out of the ruins of a home in Afghanistan attacked and destroyed by American forces and then charged with "war crimes" for allegedly throwing a grenade at one of his attackers. (He denies the charge.)
 
Setting aside issues of morality and human decency, one must seriously wonder what practical benefits the U.S. government hopes to derive from persecuting Muslim women and children in such a public and highly publicized manner, knowing (as it surely must) that, as a result, Muslim public opinion can only be further outraged and Muslim hatred of the United States can only be further intensified. Hatred of the United States for its invasions and occupations of Muslims countries and its unconditional support for Israel are inevitable and unavoidable. Making matters even worse through obscenely unjust treatment (including torture) of individual Muslims like Aafia Siddiqui and Omar Khadr is neither inevitable nor unavoidable. It suggests a lack of wisdom and common sense -- and an intensity of Islamophobic rage and blind vengeance-seeking -- verging on mental derangement, not simply at the lowest levels of American society but also at high levels of the American government.
 
Unfortunately, already being perceived by roughly half of Republican voters as a closet Muslim, Barack Obama is poorly positioned to act in accordance with wisdom, common sense, morality or human decency and to call off the dogs with respect to such egregious cases -- even if he were personally inclined to do so.
 

Pakistan angry over Siddiqui conviction in US

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: September 25, 2010 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The country's leaders were quick to show their outrage at the sentence handed down to a Pakistani woman convicted of attacking US agents, as were opposition politicians. By the time weekly prayers rolled round, protesters were battling police and the Pakistani Taleban had offered its support.

 

The sentencing of Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in an American jail left enemies and political opponents reading from the same script Friday, riding a wave of anger on behalf of a woman widely believed to be an innocent victim of a vengeful, post 9/11 American justice system.

The reaction was a reminder of the deep mistrust many Pakistanis have of the United States nine years after the two countries formed an uncomfortable alliance in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. While Washington tries to impress on the country it is a long-term partner, many Pakistanis persist on seeing it as a threat.

Siddiqui, a 38-year-old American-educated neuroscientist, was detained in Afghanistan in 2008 by Afghan authorities.

She was convicted of seizing an M4 rifle weapon from one of her US interrogators there and attempting to kill them.

She was severely wounded in the incident.

Siddiqui and her defense lawyers deny she ever fired a weapon. Her family and supporters say she disappeared along with her three children five years before she turned up in Afghanistan and allege she was either held in a secret jail by American authorities or Pakistan's spy agency.

US and Pakistani officials have denied that, and there has been little evidence to support their claims. But they have been repeated so often they are taken as the standard version by many of her supporters and much of the media, which has largely rallied in her defense.

The claims of secret detention have resonance because Pakistani security forces have rounded up many terror suspects and handed them over to the United States in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Under a military ruler at the time, its government has never admitted how many people it arrested at the behest of Washington.

Such is the perceived force of public opinion, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other leading officials have had to stress their efforts over the last three years to try and get her back to Pakistan. The government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to give her quality legal representation in New York.

Gilani said he had lobbied US officials for Siddiqui's release to "improve the US image in Pakistan." "We all are united, and we want the daughter of the nation to come back to Pakistan," he told parliament, which unanimously adopted a resolution demanding Siddiqui's repatriation after her sentencing Thursday. "I fought for her, my lawyer fought for her and now I will take up this matter on a political level." Despite his remarks, there is little the government can do to get bring Siddiqui home. Islamabad has no agreement with the United States that allows Pakistanis convicted of crimes there to serve part of their sentences at home. A presidential pardon for Siddique looks very unlikely.

Much of the criticism over the last 24 hours has been directed at the government, which is already unpopular in many circles because of its failure to improve the economy, its alliance with the United States and faltering efforts to respond to this summer's floods.

"Due to the shameless rulers of Pakistan, the United States got the courage to take Aafia to the United States and punish her there," said Munawar Hassan, the chief of Jamat-i-Islami, the country's largest Islamist party, in a rally attended by around 8,000 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Fauzia Siddiqui, Aafia's sister, has led a tireless and vocal campaign for her release since 2008 and looked after two of her children.

"This verdict is a test for the Muslim global community and the Pakistanis," Fauzia told a gathering of Jamat-i-Islami female activists in Karachi. "It is mandatory on all Muslims to get the daughter of the Muslims free from the prison of the infidels." Before her arrest in Afghanistan, Siddiqui had been accused by the US of links to Al-Qaeda. Prosecutors said they found her carrying notes referencing a "mass casualty attack" on New York City landmarks and a stash of sodium cyanide. But she was only ever tried in relation to the attack on her captors in Afghanistan.

Her loudest supporters have been Pakistan's Islamist political parties and groups, which have embraced the opportunity to be seen defending a Pakistan Muslim woman as well as accusing the government of collaborating in her arrest and trial.

In Karachi, police fired tear gas to disburse rock-throwing protesters trying to march to the US Consulate. At least five people were arrested. In Islamabad, 100 people attempting to reach the US Embassy scuffled with police near a five-star hotel, witnesses said.

"Down with America! Jihad, Jihad!" the protesters shouted.

The Pakistani Taleban, which is waging war against the Pakistani government and has killed scores of innocent men, women and children in bombings over the last three years, also spoke out in support of Aafia.

"We will not appeal or beg to America for the release of Aafia Siddiqui," said Taleban spokesman Azam Tariq by phone from an undisclosed location. "We will bring her back by using the power of the gun."

 
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