U.S. boy in Afghan custody likely terror suspect's son
Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:51am IST|
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An 11-year-old boy detained with a Pakistani woman accused of trying to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan is believed to be her son, U.S. prosecutors said in a court letter obtained on Tuesday.
U.S.-trained neuroscientist and al Qaeda suspect Aafia Siddiqui, 36, was arrested in Afghanistan in mid-July and flown to New York earlier this month to be charged with attempting to kill and assault U.S. soldiers.
U.S. prosecutors told her lawyers in a letter that preliminary DNA testing on the boy who is in Afghan custody suggests that he is Siddiqui's son. The letter dated Friday was obtained from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Lawyers said the boy is named Ahmed and a U.S. citizen because he was born in Boston.
Siddiqui disappeared from her parents' home in Karachi, Pakistan in March 2003 and resurfaced in Afghanistan. Accounts of where she has been and of her arrest and a shootout in which she was wounded differ between U.S. prosecutors, Afghan police and her lawyers.
The letter said Siddiqui's son initially told United States agents in Afghanistan that he was an orphan and his parents were dead, but DNA testing "is consistent with that of a potential offspring of Aafia Siddiqui."
Siddiqui has two other children whose location is not known. Her lawyers say the boy should be returned to relatives living in the United States or Pakistan.
"He should be returned to his biological family as soon as possible," said Siddiqui's lawyer Elaine Sharp, who said the boy's grandmother in Karachi has been searching for her daughter and three grandchildren for the past five years and "is longing to have him home."
Last Thursday the Pakistani Parliament demanded Siddiqui be returned to Pakistan. It also demanded the United States give her proper medical assistance after she was shot in the abdomen when U.S. officials say she tried to fire on a group of American troops who wanted to question her in Afghanistan's Ghazni province.
Sharp said on Tuesday that medical tests showed Siddiqui had suffered a partial loss of intestine. They are awaiting the results of a CT scan.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-35186220080827
US claims Dr Aafia eldest son still in Afghan custody
| Pakistani woman's son believed to be in custody International Herald Tribune, France - 7 hours ago AP NEW YORK: The 11-year-old son of a Pakistani woman accused of trying to shoot a US Army captain is believed to be in custody, US authorities confirmed ... |
| 'Aafia not getting medical care' Daily Times, Pakistan - 9 hours ago WASHINGTON: Elizabeth Fink, a lawyer representing Dr Aafia Siddiqui, has accused US authorities of neglecting the jailed scientist's worsening medical ...
|
| |
Fate of Aafia's children |
| Wednesday August 27, 2008 (1103 PST) |
A foreign office spokesman has stated that the US has maintained that Dr Aafia Siddiqui's children were not in its custody. This cannot be true for reasons that follow
If the American claim were to be true, it would open up two possibilities:
a) The kids were in Dr Siddiqui's custody. This would mean that when she disappeared five years back, she would have either taken them along, or she would have left them with some close family members, such as their grandparents. However, we know that the lady and her three kids had been abducted together on their way to the airport. So, the children could not be with relatives.
b) The next possibility is that she was so crazed about carrying out jihad that she dumped her kids with someone else and started tearing around the world to fulfil her ambitions. It must be remembered that the children had been between the age of four months and seven years at that time. Obviously, no mother would leave such young offspring at someone else's mercy, particularly when the youngest one had reportedly been murdered two months later.
This brings us to the third possibility. The kids were actually in an American agency's custody all this while, although separated from their mother who was imprisoned, probably in Afghanistan. Now, when the FBI spirited her away to New York to stand trial, they left the kids with some person(s) in Afghanistan, so they wouldn't have to account for them. Therefore, they can, in a way, truthfully say that the children aren't in US custody.
But, this really is an attempt to fool the world. The answer lies in letting their mother come out with her side of the story. But, to keep her from revealing the facts, threats may been made about the safety of her kids who could be a hostage in the hands of those responsible for the whole drama.
Islamabad must forcefully pursue her case because it is causing much unrest, which can't serve Washington's interests, at all.
FATIMA
Karachi
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?204980
[* Moderator's Note - CHOTTALA is a non-profit, non-religious, non-political and non-discriminatory organization.
* Disclaimer: Any posting to the CHOTTALA are the opinion of the author. Authors of the messages to the CHOTTALA are responsible for the accuracy of their information and the conformance of their material with applicable copyright and other laws. Many people will read your post, and it will be archived for a very long time. The act of posting to the CHOTTALA indicates the subscriber's agreement to accept the adjudications of the moderator]
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
