Site requires registration.. Aafia Siddiqui, a postgraduate in neurological science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became the first woman to be arrested for being allegedly connected to Osama bin Ladenâs Al Qaeda when a raiding party consisting of Pakistani and FBI officials picked her up Friday from a house in Karachiâs Gulshan-e-Iqbal area. TFT has learnt that her husband Dr Mohammad Khan is also wanted by the agencies. He was at large until the filing of this report on Wednesday.
A 1994 graduate of MIT, Aafia Siddiqui majored in biology, anthropology and archaeology and spent part of her college years in Pakistan. The MIT website informs visitors that university records show Siddiqui lived in an on-campus dorm in 1995 and listed her home address as Karachi. In 1992, Siddiqui received a US$5,000 Carroll L. Wilson Award, given to top students for research opportunities abroad for up to six weeks. Her proposed topic of study was "Islamisation in Pakistan and its Effects on Women.â An Islamic students Internet site also features articles posted by Siddiqui and containing instructions for handing out Islamic literature on campus and establishing Muslim college student associations. I guess she isn't aware how women are treated under 'Islamisation'..
Either that, or she regards herself as being just another head of breeding stock...
The FBI issued a worldwide search notice for her and the US media reported that Siddiqui was the first woman âactively helping Osama bin Ladenâs al-Qaeda organisationâ. According to reports, she lived in Boston before she disappeared. She was born on March 2, 1972, in Pakistan. In that notice, the FBI wrote: âAlthough Aafia Siddiquiâs current whereabouts are unknown, the FBI believes she is currently in Pakistan.â A terrorist in Pakistan?
The FBI alleges that she acted as a âfixerâ for Al Qaeda. The term means she moved money to provide logistical support for terrorist activities and had contacts with extremists in Pakistan. An FBI latest report accuses that being a woman helps Aafia, as âfew would suspect a Western-educated woman with children as a terrorist." Siddiqui is a mother of three children.
The US officials suspect that Siddiqui may have been providing logistical support to Adnan El Shukrijumah, a 27-year-old Saudi national, also known as Jaffar the pilot, sought by the FBI on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks in the United States. She may also have accompanied El Shukrijumah in his travels inside the United States. It is unclear when and where Siddiqui might have met El Shukrijumah, whose name surfaced among the belongings of reputed senior Al Qaeda organiser Khalid Shaikh Mohammad when he was arrested on March 1 in Pakistan. US officials believe El Shukrijumah was an associate of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago street-gang member who was arrested in the wake of September 11 attacks on suspicion of plotting a âdirty bombâ attack. FBI sources say El Shukrijumah is trained to carry out terrorist attacks and is not merely a senior planner or financier.
Recently, the FBI announced that it had obtained information detailing a chemical weapon made with easily available items. âThe device could produce toxic gas such as hydrogen cyanide or chlorine gas and be used as a weapon of mass destructionâ. The FBI warned that these weapons might include the use of a pierced canister, such as a paint can. The larger canister houses another container that may contain a liquid, which would be surrounded by a solid material. When combined, the chemicals produce the toxic gas which would leak through the holes in the outer canister. Sources said the FBI suspects that Aafia Siddiqui, her husband and some other âMuslims with advanced technical qualificationâ were involved in developing formulas that could enable the terrorist organisations making lethal weapons and explosives to be used across United States.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
04/06/2003 4:10:14 AM ||
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The US military says it has established that an airstrike has killed a bodyguard of senior Iraqi commander dubbed "Chemical Ali". Senior US briefers say they have had positive identification. It is still not known if Ali Hassan al-Majeed was killed when laser-guided missiles hit a house in Basra in which he was thought to have been staying. When news of the bodyguard's death reached local people, up to 3,000 took to the streets to celebrate, Sky's Geoff Meade has been told by the briefers at Central Command in Qatar. I guess they're still scraping up bits and pieces. Hope some of them belong to Ali Hassan...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/06/2003 11:10:54 AM ||
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Increased tension between Damascus and Washington is an ingredient of the American plan to refigure the political landscape of the region in the post-war phase, according to former Lebanon Foreign Minister Fares Boueiz. Boueiz said that at this stage it would be âprematureâ to draw conclusions regarding how the deteriorating bilateral relations between the two countries will affect Lebanon. However, he said that regardless of its alliance with Syria and based on all âavailable dataâ Lebanon could only be opposed to the war against Iraq. According to Boueiz, the accusations and warnings that US officials have been launching against Syria are âridiculous and donât convince anyone.â
âThose night-vision goggles that the Americans are accusing Syria of providing to Iraq are not even considered arms, and they could be bought off any market,â Boueiz said. Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Damascus of continuing to allow shipments of military equipment into Iraq in defiance of a US warning. And on Thursday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell accused Syria and Iran of backing terrorism and seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction. The Al-Sharq al-Awsat daily quoted âhigh ranking US sourcesâ Friday saying that Saddam Husseinâs wife, as well as the families of high-ranking Iraqi officials are now in Damascus.
According to Boueiz, the next âfileâ to be dealt with when the war is over in Iraq will be the Palestinian question and the Middle East peace process. He said that the US wants to make sure that things happen in a way that Israel wants, that is with Abu Mazen taking power in the Palestinian Authority and giving up Jerusalem in addition to 70 percent of the West Bank. He said that Washington now realizes there will be opposition to this plan in the Arab world, with Syria at the top of those criticizing it. âSo the US is putting a lot of pressure on Syria now to make sure that at the next stage, Damascus will be too busy looking after its own affairs,â he said.
An article published in Israeli daily Haaretz Friday mentioned a communique from the US administration that was received in Jerusalem saying: âThe US is operating with strong resolution to neutralize the Iraqi threat to Israel.â The message also said that after the war, the US will âdeal with other radical regimes in the region — not necessarily by military means — to moderate their activities and fight terrorism.â But Boueiz said that the crisis in relations between Damascus and Washington could also be the result of the US administrationâs belief that Syria has played a role in convincing Iran to influence and put pressure on the Shiites of Iraq not to fight the regime of Saddam Hussein. Accordingly, Boueiz said Americans believe that their plan depends on Iraqi Shiite opposition to Saddam and that it has been sabotaged by Syria. They accuse Damascus of causing them to lose the âvery important Shiite card,â he said.
He added that it is too early to start making conclusions regarding the outcome of such tension. âEverything will to a large extent depend on how the US wins the war in Iraq,â he said. âIt is one thing if the US achieves a prompt and smashing victory, and another thing if the victory comes at a high price, and a third thing if it finds itself in a quagmire it is difficult to get out of.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/06/2003 4:37:18 PM ||
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The Persian-language daily `Mardomsalari' reported on Sunday that the appeal of Narges Mohammadi has been referred to the Revolutionary Court. Mardomsalari quoted Mohammadi's defense lawyer Mohammad Sharif as saying that the office of the court had registered the receipt of the appeal on Saturday morning. Sharif also said that Mohammadi's case had been referred to the public court after her charges were announced to be beyond the authority of the Revolutionary Court. Mohammadi, the wife of political dissident Taqi Rahmani, has already received a one-year term for charges of insulting state officials following her interviews with the press about the imprisonment of her husband. Rahmani was arrested in March 2001 along with some 60 political activists with alleged links to the nationalist-religious group and the Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI). Almost all of those detained were released later and stood trial on various charges including plotting to topple the Islamic Revolution.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/06/2003 10:30:52 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
