Either way, another US soldier is going to die at the hands of Jihadists motivated by Islamic doctrine.
PakTribune, 5 Feb 10: The Afghan Taliban on Thursday demanded the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist who has been convicted by the US court on charges of her alleged attempt to murder US soldiers in Afghanistan, and threatened to execute an American soldier they were holding currently.
“Being Muslims, it becomes our religious and moral obligation to help the distressed Pakistani woman convicted by the US court on false charges,” said a senior Afghan Taliban commander. The commander, whose militant network is holding the US soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, called our sources from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan and threatened to execute the American trooper if their demand was not met. He claimed Aafia Siddiqui’s family had approached the Taliban network through a Jirga of notables, seeking their assistance to put pressure on the US to provide her justice. . . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 361–The Global Jihadist Threat Doctrine
USAO/New York, 3 Feb 10: PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that AAFIA SIDDIQUI was found guilty in Manhattan federal court on charges related to the attempted murder and assault of U.S. nationals and U.S. officers and employees in Afghanistan. SIDDIQUI was found guilty of all charges against her following a 14-day jury trial before United States District Judge RICHARD M. BERMAN in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
According to the Indictment filed in Manhattan federal court and evidence presented at trial:
On July 17, 2008, SIDDIQUI was detained by Afghan authorities, who found a number of items in her possession, including handwritten notes that referred to a “mass casualty attack” and that listed various locations in the United States, including Plum Island, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Other notes in SIDDIQUI’s possession referred to the construction of “dirty bombs,” and discussed various ways to attack “enemies,” including by destroying reconnaissance drones, using underwater bombs, and using gliders.
The next day, on July 18, 2008, a team of U.S. servicemen and law enforcement officers, and others assisting them, attempted to interview SIDDIQUI in Ghazni, Afghanistan, where she had been detained by local police the day before. The U.S. interview team included, among others: three officers and employees of the U.S. Army; two officers and employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and two U.S. Army contract interpreters.
The interview of SIDDIQUI was to take place at an Afghan police compound in Ghazni. In a second-floor meeting room at the compound—where SIDDIQUI was being held, unbeknownst to the U.S. interview team, unsecured, behind a curtain—SIDDIQUI grabbed a U.S. Army officer’s M-4 rifle and fired it at another U.S. Army officer and other members of U.S. interview team. During the shooting, SIDDIQUI exclaimed her intent and desire to kill Americans.
SIDDIQUI then assaulted one of the U.S. Army interpreters, as he attempted to obtain the M-4 rifle from her. SIDDIQUI subsequently assaulted one of the FBI agents and one of the U.S. Army officers, as they attempted to subdue her. The evidence at trial showed that, while a student in Boston, Massachusetts, she had undertaken training and instruction on the handling and shooting of firearms.
On August 4, 2008, SIDDIQUI was brought from Afghanistan to Manhattan federal court to face a criminal indictment obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Trial began on January 13, 2010, and concluded today with the jury reaching a guilty verdict on all counts. Specifically, the jury convicted SIDDIQUI of the following crimes: (1) one count of attempting to kill U.S. nationals outside the United States; (2) one count of attempting to kill U.S. officers and employees; (3) one count of armed assault of U.S. officers and employees; (4) one count of using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; and (5) three counts of assault of U.S. officers and employees.
SIDDIQUI, 37, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6, 2010. SIDDQIUI faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each of the attempted murder and armed assault charges; life in prison on the firearm charge; and eight years in prison on each of the remaining assault charges. SIDDIQUI faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison on the firearm charge.
Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force—which principally consists of agents of the FBI and detectives of the New York City Police Department. He also expressed his gratitude to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the U.S. Department of State for their assistance in the case.
“Today, a jury has brought Aafia Siddiqui to justice in a court of law for trying to murder American military and law enforcement officers, as well as their Afghan colleagues. We are grateful for the efforts of the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force in this important case,” said U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys CHRISTOPHER L. LAVIGNE, DAVID M. RODY, and JENNA M. DABBS are in charge of the prosecution.
AP, 4 Feb 10: True to form, Aafia Siddiqui did not go quietly. Throughout a federal trial that featured compelling testimony about a perplexing case, the Pakistani scientist-turned-attempted murder defendant offered a running, combative commentary that sometimes got her kicked out of the courtroom.
Siddiqui greeted a Manhattan jury’s guilty verdict Wednesday by raising her arm, blaming Israel and declaring, “Your anger should be directed where it belongs.” Jurors had heard FBI agents and U.S. soldiers testify that when they went to interrogate Siddiqui at an Afghan police station in 2008, she snatched up an unattended assault rifle and shot at them while yelling, “Death to Americans.” She was wounded by return fire but recovered and was brought to the United States to face trial. . . .
. . . At trial, jurors were told that Siddiqui turned up in Afghanistan in July 2008. They also heard how Afghan police caught her carrying what prosecutors called “a road map of destruction” – bomb-making instructions, a list of New York City landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and documents referencing “mass casualty attacks.”
A decorated chief warrant officer told jurors he had set down his M4 rifle after being told Siddiqui had been restrained. He testified he was shocked when she suddenly appeared from behind a curtain wielding the rifle and yelling, “Allah akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.” “It was pretty amazing she got that thing up and squared off,” said the officer, who testified in uniform but was allowed to withhold his name. “She was looking at me and aiming dead at me.”
Hearing the rifle go off, the officer said, he followed his military training and pulled his pistol. Siddiqui was wrestling with an interpreter when he shot her in the stomach. “I operated within the rules of engagement to eliminate the threat,” he said. . . . .
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[Another person yelled "Allah Akbar" as he fired on US soldiers: Nidal Hasan.]
AP, 1 Feb 10: Jurors heard a U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist portrayed Monday in closing arguments at her attempted murder trial as both a would-be terrorist determined to kill Americans and a fearful woman framed by the government.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher La Vigne cited testimony that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui had bomb-making instructions, documents referencing a “mass casualty attack” and a list of New York City landmarks including the Statue of Liberty when she was detained in Afghanistan in 2008.
Siddiqui was carrying “a road map for destruction – documents about attacking the United States,” he said in federal court in Manhattan with the defendant not there.
During the two-week trial, FBI agents and U.S. soldiers testified that when they went to interrogate Siddiqui at an Afghan police station, she snatched up an unattended assault rifle and shot at them while yelling, “Death to Americans.” She was wounded by return fire but recovered and was brought to the United States to face charges.
La Vigne, sometimes holding up the U.S. military-issued M4 rifle, argued that to acquit Siddiqui jurors would have to conclude the government witnesses “lied to your face.”
Though Siddiqui was not charged with terrorism, authorities have portrayed her as a combative al-Qaida sympathizer who hated the United States. “She saw a chance to kill Americans and took it,” the prosecutor said. . . .
FrontPage/Michelle Malkin, 29 Jan 10: Imagine this nightmare courtroom scenario: Unhinged Jew-bashing, open mockery of American soldiers, juror intimidation and coldly calculated exploitation of U.S. constitutional protections by a suspected al-Qaida defendant. Well, there’s no need to wait for the Gitmo terror trial circuses. New York City is already getting a glimpse of the future.
Jihadi scientist Aafia Siddiqui is on trial right now in a federal Manhattan court for the attempted murder and assault of U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province two years ago. She’s an accomplished Karachi-born scientist who studied microbiology at MIT and did graduate work in neurology at Brandeis University before disappearing in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Counterterrorism investigators connected Siddiqui and her estranged husband, anesthesiologist Dr. Mohammed Amjad Khan, to Saudi terror funders. The couple’s bank account showed repeated purchases of high-tech military equipment and apparel, including body armor, night-vision goggles and military manuals. Her second husband, fellow al-Qaida suspect and 9/11 plot helper Ammar al-Baluchi, is one of five Gitmo detainees the Obama administration is planning to transfer to New York for trial.
Siddiqui was identified as an al-Qaida operative, financier and fixer by no less than 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed during U.S. interrogations. Al-Baluchi is KSM’s nephew. Mohammed reportedly enlisted Siddiqui in a Baltimore-based plot to bomb gas stations, fuel tanks and bridges, and to poison water reservoirs in the greater Washington, D.C., area. Siddiqui was taken into custody in Ghazni in July 2008 after attempting to shoot U.S. military interrogators and FBI agents.
Now, the savvy “Terror Mom” of three is pulling out all the stops to win a mistrial. Among her Cirque du Jihad antics:
- Demanding that jurors be genetically tested for a “Zionist or Israeli background” to ensure a fair and impartial jury of her Jew-hating peers.
- Ranting about 9/11 Israel conspiracies during voir dire.
- Screaming out loud during the testimony of U.S. Army Capt. Robert Snyder, who was in the room in Ghazni when Siddiqui allegedly grabbed an M-4 rifle and proclaimed, “Allahu Akbar!” and “I hate Americans! Death to America!” Before being ejected from the courtroom, Siddiqui shouted to Snyder, “You’re lying!” She also babbled about torture at a secret prison. . . .
. . . .Two government-retained psychiatrists, working independently, determined last year that Siddiqui’s so-called symptoms of mental illness were attributed to “malingering” and “manipulation.” The judge in the case concluded that she is competent and understands full well the charges against her.
The Crazy Jihadi tactic is in perfect sync with the al-Qaida training manual advising its operatives to claim victimhood status if arrested and put on trial. This act is also in keeping with a long tradition of terror defendants invoking the insanity card — from “20th hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui (whose lawyers chalked up his mass-murdering ambitions to a traumatic childhood) to Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan (whose defense will undoubtedly play up his lonely bachelorhood). . . . .
