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01 October 2010 By El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):
On the morning of Thursday, September 23, 2010, Dr.
Aafia Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years of
imprisonment by a federal judge in New York City. The
sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Richard M.
Berman came as no surprise to this writer. I expected
the sentence to be harsh; that is precisely why in the
months leading up to this fateful day, we spoke about
the need for a mass mobilization at the courthouse.
After Aafia's unjust conviction in February of this
year (following a two week kangaroo court proceeding)
we instinctively knew that we needed to send a message
to the government, because the die had already been
cast in the U.S. Judiciary. Judge Berman would
follow a predetermined script which would result in a
life sentence for a woman already put through 7 ˝
years of pure living hell.
If anything surprised me it was how clumsy and inept
Judge Berman appeared to be in following the script.
He really exposed much of the corrupting rot
within America's judicial system, revealing, in a very
profound way, the extent to which America
has become a nation of laws without justice!
What follows is a summary of the notes taken by this
observer at last Thursday's sentencing.
The
Sentencing of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui
Notes from September
23rd
Judge Berman began by walking the court through the
accepted facts of the case. He noted, among other
things, that it has never been definitively
established why Aafia was in Afghanistan in July 2008.
As he proceeded to outline the differing points of
speculation as to why she may have been there, he
failed to even mention the possibility that she
may have been kidnapped and taken there! (I
found this deliberate omission glaring to say the
least!)
Berman spoke about the 2 lbs of sodium cyanide and the
documents in English and Urdu outlining U.S. targets,
and the means to conduct terrorist attacks, that Aafia
was allegedly carrying in the bag that she had with
her. (A bag that Aafia testified during the trial was
given to her when she was briefly released in
Afghanistan, in a severely weakened and disheveled
state by her captors, after five years of secret and
torturous imprisonment.)
There were a number of issues raised and statements
made during the proceeding that generated many more
questions for this observer.
According to the government, Aafia twice
attempted to escape from Afghan custody; she had
incriminating terrorism-related items in her
possession, and yet she was permitted to remain
unrestrained behind a curtain in a room of a
police compound. Why? Does this scenario even make
sense from a security standpoint?
Judge Berman made repeated references to Aafia's
mental state – acknowledging the damage done to her
psyche when it suited him to do so; and
ignoring the damage done when it didn't. He also noted
the frequent security searches that Aafia
objected to during the time she was in New York's
custody awaiting trial.
The "security searches," as he termed them,
were the strip searches (which also included a
cavity search) that this woman – already in
maximum security confinement – was made to
endure each time she was moved from one point to
another for any reason! This treatment alone is
severely damaging to the psyche of any modest
woman – but especially for a hijab observing Muslim
woman.
Berman stated that the jury convicted Aafia of all
seven counts in the indictment; that Aafia articulated
her belief during the trial that Israel was behind the
attacks of 9/11; and that one of the employees at the
Brooklyn detention center (where she was being held)
was conspiring against America. Berman also accused
Aafia's oldest son (Ahmed) of making contradictory
statements since his release; he noted that Aafia's
former husband (Mohamed Amjed Khan) claimed to have
seen her on a number of occasions, in passing,
during the time of her disappearance; and reiterated
the point that there was "insufficient evidence in the
record" to determine where she was between 2003-2008.
(A process that he, at the government's request no
doubt, helped to facilitate.)
Berman asserted that Aafia came into contact with
radical elements while in Boston, according to the
testimony of a professor whose name I didn't get. He
noted how "complicated" the case had been, and
referenced an incident during the trial that resulted
in his decision to excuse a juror from the case who
felt threatened by a conspicuously attired observer in
the courtroom - an observer who made threatening and
disruptive gestures before being removed by U.S
Marshalls.
Many of us in attendance that day felt that this
unknown person (who despite his arrest? was never
identified in media reports) may have been a plant of
the government, whose sole purpose was to sow
additional prejudice in the collective mind of the
jury against the defendant in the dock. We also felt
this way about the theatrics of one of the
government's witnesses (a soldier who took the stand
during the trial). I believe that may have been
Captain Robert Snyder.
The defense attorney, Dawn M. Cardi, began by stating
she respectfully disagreed with Judge Berman's
recitation of the so-called "facts" surrounding this
case. She noted how she had to get top secret
clearance – a very time consuming and cumbersome
process - to be able to have access to certain "top
secret" documents; only to later be told, "there is
no classified evidence relevant to this case!"
Cardi argued that Aafia suffered from "mental illness"
and "diminished capacity" – and, according to one of
the experts at Carswell, where she spent the first few
months of her return to the U.S. receiving medical
treatment and psychological evaluations - she was
possibly schizophrenic.
She also argued that while the government has
repeatedly used Aafia's academic major as an
indication of the potential threat she posed to
America, Aafia was not a "biologist." Her academic
focus, as reflected in the title of her thesis, was on
how children learn. She also noted that the
jury found Aafia not guilty on "premeditation"
(a finding that Judge Berman deliberately chose to
ignore).
Cardi also noted the Wiki-leaks reference to Dr.
Siddiqui, and that according to these documents, Aafia
was reportedly reaching for the gun (M4 rifle) when
she was shot! In referencing the judge's assertion
that, "There is no question about the jury's
verdict," Cardi insisted that there were indeed
questions about the verdict. She spoke about the
manipulation of fear, and asked for as maximum
sentence of 12 years without the enhancements.
The government's closing arguments could be summed up
in the words of lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S.
Attorney Christopher LaVigne (who stated, in the
government's successful pursuit of a Life sentence):
"Any fear that was injected in this courtroom came
from witnesses like Captain Robert Snyder of the
United States army…looking down the barrel of a loaded
gun and believing he would die… This [Aafia's
alleged assault on U.S. personnel] was not some random
act. On that day the bottom line is, she saw her
chance and she took it."
(In my humble opinion, this narrative was
successful - despite all of the contradictory material
evidence and testimony in Aafia's favor - for
three reasons: (a) the way this case was consistently
portrayed in the mainstream media; (b) the court's
decision to bar certain exculpatory testimony that
could have proved Aafia's innocence; (c) and the
failure of Aafia's well paid defense team to
vigorously put on the type of defense that a
political trial of this nature required!)
Aafia's defense kept emphasizing mental illness, and
at one point Judge Berman interrupted (and in his own
manipulation of this argument) alternately
raised doubts about the severity of Aafia's mental
state, and then raised doubts about the prospect of
Aafia getting any better.
Aafia flatly rejected the mental illness defense,
defiantly stating in a strong, clear voice: "I am
not paranoid. I am not mentally sick, I disagree with
that!
(For the record, while there is no question that
serious damage has been done to our sister's psyche, I
personally believe Aafia Siddiqui is very, very sane –
in a morbidly insane world!)
And while Berman spoke of how Aafia consistently
failed to cooperate with "authorities" – he said
nothing about the conditions of confinement which, no
doubt, factored into Aafia's failure to "cooperate." El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan, director of THE PEACE
Thru JUSTICE FOUNDATION, 11006 Veirs Mill Rd, STE
L-15, PMB 298, Silver Spring, MD. 20902
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