Prisoner
650
By Yvonne Ridley
05/07/08 "ICH"
-- - THE FBI lost much of its credibility when its chief J
Edgar Hoover was revealed to be a transvestite who preferred to
be called Mary.
Hoover, probably the most powerful men in America some say even
more powerful then the presidents he served under, was the
originator of dirty tricks campaign and kept a lot of dirt on
other people in his files.
The only players who were immune to Hoover's secret files were
those who had secrets of their own about his personal life -
namely, the Mafia. Mafia bosses obtained information about
Hoover's sex life and used it for decades to keep the FBI at
bay. Without this, the Mafia as we know it might never have
gained its hold in America.
In May of 1972, Hoover - approaching his fifty-five-year
anniversary with the Justice Department - boasted that the FBI
remained the organization that he built upon his own principles
and standards – of course now we know exactly what standards
Hoover aka Mary had.
The FBI never really recovered its power or prestige once Hoover
was outed as a cross dresser. There was more scandal to follow
when Acting Director L. Patrick Gray was forced to resign after
being caught up in the Watergate drama which brought down
President Richard Nixon aka Tricky Dicky.
The FBI is supposed to be an institute based around freedom and
democracy, instead it has become a factory from which lies and
deceit are manufactured.
The reason for this brief history lesson in to the FBI will now
become apparent.
You see it is quite obvious that from cross dressers, liars and
fraudsters, the FBI has now moved into the realms of fantasy
land with the news that Dr Aafia Siddique has "conveniently"
been found outside a governor's office in Afghanistan with her
12 year old son ... FIVE years after her disappearance in
Karachi.
According to the FBI she was in possession of "numerous
documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as
excerpts from the Anarchist's Arsenal, descriptions of various
landmarks in the United States, including in New York City" -
you know, all the regular stuff a female terrorist would carry
in her handbag!
The fantastists who concocted this story may as well have put Dr
Siddique in Hoover's old red dress while they were on with it.
What we do know is that she has been shot at and injured. She
was extradited to New York last night (Monday)and is being held
in a prison in Manhatten down the road from the night club where
Hoover used t o pose as Mary.
She faces charges of attempted murder and assault of a US
officer.
Does the FBI really think we are all that stupid and gullible?
Dr Aafia Siddiqui - who had been sought by the FBI for several
years regarding terrorism according to their website – is
accused of shooting at two FBI special agents, a US Army warrant
officer, an Army captain and military interpreters who
unknowingly entered a room where she was being held unsecured.
She fired two shots, but hit no one, officials said. The warrant
officer returned fire with a pistol, shooting Siddiqui at least
once. She struggled with the officers before she lost
consciousness, said officials, adding that she received medical
attention.
The day before the shootings, Afghan police had arrested
Siddiqui outside the Ghazni governor's compound after finding
bomb-making instructions, excerpts from the "Anarchist's
Arsenal," papers with descriptions of U.S. landmarks and
substances sealed in bottles and glass jars.
This all happened two weeks after I had given a press conference
in Islamabad calling on the US to handover Prisoner 650 – The
Grey lady of Bagram?
Coincidence? May be – but if the FBI think that we are going to
buy the bovine scatterings they've just released to the US media
they really do live in La La Land.
Let' look at the cold hard fact of the case.
Dr Siddiqui, 36, is an American-educated neuroscientist. Since
2003, Siddiqui's whereabouts have been the source of much
speculation. According to Amnesty International, Siddiqui and
her three small children were reported apprehended in Karachi,
Pakistan, in March 2003 after the FBI issued at alert requesting
information about her location earlier that month.
Several reports indicated Siddiqui was in US custody after her
arrest in Karachi. But in May 2004 then-Attorney General
Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller identified Siddiqui
among several sought-after al Qaeda members
Human rights group and a lawyer for Ms. Siddiqui, Elaine
Whitfield Sharp, say they believe that she has been secretly
detained since 2003, for much of that time at Bagram Air Base in
Afghanistan.
“We believe Aafia has been in custody ever since she
disappeared,” Ms. Sharp said in a telephone interview yesterday,
“and we’re not willing to believe that the discovery of Aafia in
Afghanistan is coincidence.”
American military and intelligence officials said that Ms.
Siddiqui was in Pakistan for most of the past five years until
she resurfaced last month and was captured by the Afghans.
She and her 12-year-old son were arrested in Ghazni,
Afghanistan, on July 17. The American officials accused Ms
Siddiqui trying to bomb the residence of Ghazni’s provincial
governor.
Someone who also does not buy this nonsense is Asim Qureshi,
Senior Researcher for the british-based international human
rights organisation Cageprisoners.
He has issued the following statement: "There are many questions
that the FBI and the Pakistani government need to answer in
light of this admission. Why have the FBI continued to pretend
to be seeking her while all the while knowing of her detention
in Afghanistan? Is Aafia indeed Prisoner 650 whose screams was
heard by former Bagram prisoners?
"Aafia Siddiqui is a woman who has been plagued by a number of
problems in her life, none of which have anything to do with
involvement with Al Qaeda. During the years the US claim she was
working as an operative for the organisation, she was in fact
the victim of domestic violence at the hands of an abusive
husband. Community members in Boston declare that she was
incapable of any violence, let alone being involved with a
terrorist group.
"Whilst we welcome this disclosure from the FBI, it has only
come after mounting international pressure, and five years of
detention and abuse. Siddiqui’s case represents the problem of
disappearances in Pakistan in the most tragic way. The
acceptance by the FBI that Siddiqui has been in custody in
Afghanistan raises important questions which must be answered by
the Pakistani and US governments. Siddiqui must be returned to
Pakistan in order to faces charges for any crime she may have
committed or released along with her children."
Cageprisoners has led the campaign for Aafia Siddiqui for the
past three years. Since her disappearance in March 2003 in
Karachi, along with her three young children, the FBI has
continually denied reports of her detention and that she was in
their custody.
I am proud to be a patron of Cage Prisoners. Less than two weeks
before this fiasco emerged I travelled to Pakistan with
Cageprisoners Director, Saghir Hussain, to launch their report,
Devoid of the Rule of the Law, at a press conference organised
by Imran Khan.
The press conference sparked an international storm of outrage,
when I asked my colleagues in the Pakistan media to put pressure
on the US to identify Prisoner 650 and the release of Aafia
Siddiqui.
I personally spoke with Lt Col Mark Wright at the US Pentagon
who denied all knowledge of Prisoner 650 or Dr Aafia Siddique.
Now I don't believe for one minute Lt Col Mark Wright was lying
– in fact I did suggest to him that the people he was speaking
to in Afghanistan (the FBI) might be lying to him. I did ask him
to call me back when he had the facts.
Perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Wright you might want to make that
call now and tell me the truth about Dr Siddique and Prisoner
650 ... but whatever you do mate, don't get your facts from the
FBI which stands for Fantasy Brigade International ... and
that's just the polite version.
Yvonne Ridley is a patron of Cage Prisoners
www.cageprisoners.com
as well as a broadcaster and journalist
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