Word: siddiqui
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...Siddiqui has done little to clarify the mystery of her disappearance. After resurfacing in Ghazni in 2008, she gave conflicting accounts of her absence. According to court records filed by the government, she allegedly told FBI agents who questioned her in Afghanistan that she was the wife of Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Al-Baluchi is one of the five accused 9/11 plotters who are expected to face trial in the same courthouse as Siddiqui. She has also alternately claimed that she was kidnapped by U.S. intelligence, kidnapped by Pakistani intelligence and that she was working...
Adding to the confusion are questions over Siddiqui's mental state, which psychiatrists who examined her said could be the result of posttraumatic stress. She was initially ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial last year, a decision that was reversed after she underwent an extensive psychological evaluation at a federal prison in Carswell, Texas - where psychiatrists were divided over whether she was delusional and possibly psychotic or merely faking her symptoms...
...While Siddiqui's trial has been highly anticipated, especially in Pakistan, it is unlikely to resolve any of the bigger mysteries surrounding her disappearance. Prosecutors have tailored the case narrowly to the shooting incident in Ghazni and told Judge Richard Berman last week they will avoid any mention of her suspected ties to al-Qaeda. The government's scenario of the shooting in Ghazni has been vigorously disputed by her defense attorneys, who at a pretrial hearing last week offered a preview of their case, saying there were no fingerprints or forensic evidence on the gun that would indicate Siddiqui...
...Siddiqui, who has been held in the U.S. as she awaits trial, has appeared unstable during her court appearances and seems intent on sabotaging her own defense. During two days of jury selection last week, she announced that she would boycott the trial and reiterated her desire to dismiss the U.S. attorneys who were hired for her by the Pakistani government. "I've fired them many times," she said. She then told the judge she didn't want any Jews on the jury "if they have a Zionist or Israeli background," adding, "I have a feeling everyone here is them...
...keeping the focus on Ghazni, the trial will avoid becoming, as human-rights groups had hoped, a referendum on the issue of enforced disappearances. Siddiqui has achieved cult status in much of the Muslim world, where she is a symbol of hundreds of individuals believed to have been "disappeared" in connection with the war on terrorism. Groups like the British-based Reprieve have argued that the practice of enforced disappearances begun under George W. Bush has continued apace under the Obama Administration, and that the use of foreign intelligence to detain and interrogate suspects has in the worst instances amounted...