The Ghost of Bagram: Aafia Siddiqui

Boston Supermom, Aafia Siddiqui, a mother of three, and a Neuroscientist with degrees from MIT and Brandeis, was certainly a superachiever. But the petite brunette also had a keen sense for community service -- once heading a program to clean up Boston's elementary school playgrounds. During her sophomore year at MIT, she lived at McCormick Hall and worked at the University Library to help pay for her way through college.

Aafia was also keenly interested in the role of Islam in the modern world. Her research paper on "Islamization in Pakistan and its Effect on Women" won her the prestigious Carrol L. Wilson Award at MIT. Not content with just writing papers, she and her later estranged husband Anastheseologist Muhammad Khan established "The Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching." Yet, Aafia was an avid admirer of American values; the reason behind her divorce was that her husband wanted to bring their children up in Islamic Pakistan, while she wanted them to be brought up in the USA.

A few years back, over one hundred thousand Muslims had been massacred by the Serbs in Bosnia -- creating tens of thousands of orphans in a war ravaged country with a non-existant Government social support system.

Aafia sent money to a charity organization that claimed to provide for Bosnian orphans. Here is where the trouble apparently started. Following post-911 money trail hunt, the FBI found that the charity had links with Al Quaida and began monitoring Aafia. Also Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an Al Quaida leader arresting by Pakistani intelligence, named Aafia as an Al Quaida Asset. The FBI sent out an international alert in 2004 that stated: " Although the FBI has no information indicating that this individual is connected to specific terrorist activities, the FBI would like to locate and question this individual."

Then in March 2003 Aafia and her three children dissappeared in Karachi, Pakistan. Her family alleged that Pakistani intelligence had kidnapped her and handed her over to the USA. But both the Pakistan and the US Governments denied the allegation. Meanwhile, persistent stories appeared in the press about a "Grey" woman, resembling Aafia, in the US Bagram Military Base located on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad in Afghanistan. The woman was reported to be held in solitary confinement and to have lost her sanity.

Following exposure in the press, the US Government finaly admitted that it had Aafia in custody but stated that she had been picked up on July 17, 2008 outside the home of the Governor of Ghazni -- an Afghan province. On July 18, 2008 Aafia was alleged to have shot at US Military personnel while under detention in Bagram. Interestingly none of the military persons were hit, but Aafia did receive a bullet wound.

Here is what the Human Rights Commission reported on Aafia's state: "One kidney removed while in captivity; her teeth removed; her nose broken and improperly reset; her recent gun shot wound incompletely bandaged, oozing blood and soaking her clothes in blood."

Aafia Siddiqui has undergone no judicial process or even military trial where she has had an opportunity to defend herself. She is stuck in an extra-judicial hell where neither the laws of USA or Pakistan apply. Neither the Bagram nor the Guantanamo Military Base, where Aafia has now been shifted, fall under the writ of the USA judicial system. Meanwhile Chief Justice Iftikhar Chowdry, who was investigating missing persons cases in Pakistan and who was awarded the exclusive Medal of Freedom by Harvard University, was unceremoniously removed by President Musharraf in March 2007.