Aafia Siddiqui

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Aafia Siddiqui

Suspected al-Qaeda facilitator
Wanted for questioning
Born March 2, 1972
Pakistan
Spouse 'Ammar al-Baluchi (a pseudonym)
Children (3, the youngest born c. 2001, the oldest c. 1991)

Aafia Siddiqui (Arabic: عافية صديقي‎) (DOB used: March 2, 1972) is an MIT alumna in biology, originally from Pakistan, wanted for questioning by the FBI in regard to terrorism. Her last known location was at or near the Karachi airport in March 2003, along with her three children. In 2004, she was identified along with six others by the United States Government as being "associated with al-Qaeda." Although wanted for questioning, Siddiqui is not under indictment in the USA and there is no reward offer for information leading to her capture or location.

Her ex-husband, anæsthesiologist Mohammed Amjad Khan, is now working as a physician at a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Khan and Siddiqui are divorced following vehement disagreements over how their three children should be educated. Siddiqui wanted the children to be educated in the West and to live in America. Khan wanted the children to be educated in Pakistan under strict Muslim supervision. Khan's family lives in a wealthy compound in Karachi. US authorities say[1] that Siddiqui married Ammar al-Baluchi shortly before the latter's capture in Pakistan in April 2003. Al-Baluchi is now in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, awaiting trial on terrorism charges.[1]

Aafia Siddiqui was born in Pakistan in March 1972. She came to the United States, and attended colleges in the Boston area. As a sophomore at MIT in 1992, Siddiqui received a Carroll L. Wilson Award for her research proposal, "Islamization in Pakistan and its Effects on Women." As a junior, Siddiqui received a $1,200 fellowship through MIT's LINKS program to help clean up Cambridge elementary school playgrounds. During her undergraduate career, she lived in McCormick Hall and worked at the MIT libraries. She graduated from MIT in 1995.

In 1996, a year after she graduated, she wrote an article for the MIT Information Systems newsletter about how to download computer programs using the File Transfer Protocol and the then-emerging World Wide Web.

She subsequently went on to graduate study in neuroscience at Brandeis University and co-authored at least one published journal article and completed her dissertation, although it is unclear whether she received a doctorate.

In 1999, while living in Boston, Massachusetts, she and Khan founded the nonprofit Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching.

On July 6, 2007, Amnesty International mentioned Siddiqui as a possible CIA "Secret Detainee", although there is no evidence or reason given, and despite the fact she remains on the FBI's Seeking Information - Terrorism list as of the published date (July 6, 2007).[2]

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[edit] 2001 money trail

Siddiqui was an account holder at Fleet National Bank in Boston. According to documents obtained by Newsweek, in 2001, Siddiqui was making regular debit-card payments to an Islamic charity front, Benevolence International, which is now banned by the UN. In addition, Siddiqui was found to be active with the Al Kifah Refugee Center, another Islamic charity that was ostensibly raising funds for Bosnian orphans but which also was under federal investigation. Fleet Bank security officers began tracking a money trail from the Saudi Embassy that led to Siddiqui, resulting in more "links" that "shocked" the bank security officers, according to Newsweek.[3]

The Boston Herald reported March 23, 2003 that until August 2001, she lived in a Mission Hill neighborhood high-rise apartment building in Boston that was frequented by Saudi Arabia nationals. Siddiqui's specific address in the building was identified as apartment number 2008. Another Fleet Bank customer, Hatem Al Dhahri, also listed his address as number 2008 in that same building. Al Dhahri and Siddiqui's accounts were both active and current in the fall of 2001, but it is unknown whether they shared the apartment at the same time. A Saudi Embassy spokesman said that Al Dhahri has been interrogated by the FBI and has denied any knowledge of Siddiqui.

Another Saudi national, named Abdullah Al Reshood, also lived in the same Boston high-rise Mission Hill building.

On July 10, 2001 Fleet National Bank's Financial Intelligence Unit was trying to trace $70,000 in wire transfers from the same source and on the same day that Abdullah Al Reshood, in Boston, received $20,000 in two wire transfers, through the Saudi Embassy, from the Saudi Armed Forces Account, at Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C.. Due to the subsequent wide-ranging investigation by the United States Treasury Department regulators, Riggs Bank in 2006 terminated the Saudi Embassy as a client and, according to The Wall Street Journal on April 7, 2006, may be planning to drop its diplomatic business entirely.

Riggs Bank also reported $19,200 in payments from the Saudi Embassy to Gulshair al-Shukrijumah, a Florida-based imam who once served as an interpreter for the "blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted in 1996 of a plot to blow up New York City landmarks. Gulshair al-Shukrijumah's son, Adnan al-Shukrijumah, also known as "Jaffar the Pilot", is a suspected Al Qaeda operative who is the subject of a worldwide FBI manhunt. (In response to U.S. demands to impose tighter controls, the Saudis have since terminated the payments to Gulshair al-Shukrijumah, along with a number of other clerics who were being supported by the embassy.)

Fleet National Bank security officers were concerned about the July 10, 2001 Saudi military account transactions from the start. Immediately after receiving the $20,000 wire from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, Abdullah Al Reshood wrote a $20,000 check to Hatem Al Dhahri. Five days later, Al Dhari in turn then wired $17,193 back to an account controlled by Al Reshood, overseas at the Al Rahji Bank in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi Embassy spokesman said that the payments to Al Dhahri were to pay for liver treatments for one of his children in the United States.

Subsequent to the Fleet National Bank investigation, Aafia Siddiqui was found to be purchasing high-tech military equipment, items that seemed unusual for her occupation as a microbiologist. According to Newsweek, FBI documents also stated that Khan, Siddiqui’s husband, had purchased body armor, night-vision goggles and a variety of military manuals that were supposed to be sent to Pakistan. Fleet National Bank accounts associated with the couple also showed "major purchases" from U.S. airlines and hotels in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and North Carolina as well as an $8,000 international wire transfer on December 21, 2001, to Habib Bank, a big Pakistani financial institution that has long been scrutinized by U.S. intelligence officials monitoring terrorist money flows.

Newsweek reported that Fleet National Bank investigators discovered that one account used by the Boston-area couple showed repeated debit-card purchases from stores that "specialize in high-tech military equipment and apparel", including Black Hawk Industries in Chesapeake, Virginia, and Brigade Quartermasters in Georgia. (Black Hawk's website advertises grips, mounts and parts for AK-47s and other military-assault rifles as well as highly specialized combat clothing, including vests designed for bomb disposal.)

The Fleet National Bank reports detailing all the transactions were filed with the U.S. Treasury Department, and suggest that Siddiqui and her estranged husband, Dr. Mohammed Amjad Khan, may have been active terror plotters inside the country until as late as the summer of 2002.

[edit] Disappearance and alleged al-Qaeda ties

On March 1, 2003, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the original 22 FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, was captured in Pakistan. Siddiqui may have drawn the FBI's attention when she was named by the captured senior al-Qaida operative, as CNN reported on April 3, 2003. According to Newsweek, FBI Agents also found evidence that she had rented a post-office box to help another Baltimore, Maryland-based al-Qaeda contact who had been assigned by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to blow up underground gasoline-storage tanks.

At that time, the Boston Herald also reported her being linked to alleged terrorist Adnan El Shukrijumah, "whose name surfaced among the belongings of" Mohammed. In any case, she attracted international attention at that time as the first woman to be sought by the FBI in connection with its pursuit of al-Qaeda.

On March 29, 2003 United Press International reported that the FBI purportedly believed Siddiqui may be a "fixer" for al-Qaeda, moving money to support terrorist operations.

But, as of April 2003, she was still merely being sought for questioning by the FBI, and was listed as such on the FBI's poster on its Web site, which stated merely that the FBI at that time had "no information indicating [Siddiqui was] connected to specific terrorist activities."[4]

Siddiqui's uncle claimed in the spring of 2003 that she had been detained in Pakistan[5] and was being questioned by or for the FBI, which was denied by the FBI. The lead FBI investigating office in Boston also stated that as far as the FBI was aware, Siddiqui was not arrested by any other nation either. On 28 February 2007 Human Rights Watch said that Siddiqui "may have once been held" in secret detention by the CIA[6], but they were merely repeating the 2003 rumour, for which they supplied no evidence.

The family of Aafia Siddqiui asked attorney Elaine Whitfield Sharp of Marblehead, Massachusetts, to serve as their spokeswoman in the media.

[edit] Summer 2004 terror alert

Leading up to the summer of 2004, several scheduled high-profile national events had become widely predicted as likely targets for a potential major upcoming terror attack. One of the first among them was the 2004 Democratic National Convention, scheduled for Boston, July 26 through July 29, 2004.[7] Aafia Siddiqui had lengthy ties to the Boston area, and that connection may have been what brought her to the forefront of the FBI's attention a year after her disappearance from the area.

On May 26, 2004, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that reports indicated that al Qaeda planned to attempt an attack on the United States that summer or fall. In addition, Director Mueller named Aafia Siddiqui as "an al Qaeda operative and facilitator", and as one of seven al-Qaeda associates who were being sought in connection with the possible terrorist threats in the United States, though they did not have any reason at that time to believe that the seven were working in concert. Ashcroft went on to say of the seven that they all posed "a clear and present danger to America, and should all be considered armed and dangerous." The other alleged terrorists named on that date were Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Amer El-Maati, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, Abderraouf Jdey, and Adnan G. El Shukrijumah. The first two had been listed as FBI Most Wanted Terrorists since 2001, indicted for their roles in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. Jdey was already on the FBI's "Seeking Information" wanted list since January 17, 2002, to which Siddiqui and the other three were added as well.[8]

Despite the more serious allegations made by the Director on May 26, 2004, about Aafia Siddiqui, her FBI Seeking Information Alert continues to merely state that "Although the FBI has no information indicating this individual is connected to specific terrorist activities, the FBI would like to locate and question this individual." In contrast, the other four alleged al-Qaeda associates who had been named along with Siddiqui by the FBI Director on that day are all "being sought in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States", according to the specific text in their Seeking Information Alerts.

In the press conference, the Director further emphasized that "Each of these seven individuals is known to have a desire and the ability to undertake planning, facilitation and attack against the United States whether it be within the United States itself or overseas." However, no Justice Department explanation has been given for why Siddiqui remains listed as "wanted for questioning" — not for terrorist activities -- (That terrorist action never occurred; Nor was a credible threat of such ever made public.) The announcement sparked fear that the face of terrorism was changing, i.e., that women and children were traveling incognito to accomplish terrorist goals.

[edit] Allegations of handling conflict diamonds for al-Qaeda

Following the capture of A. K. Ghailani on 25 July 2004, several press reports, claiming UN and other sources, described the participation of several al-Qaeda personnel, including Siddiqui, in the acquisition and movement of diamonds in Liberia.[9][10] The Boston Globe reported[9] that Siddiqui had stayed in Monrovia for one week at the invitation of Charles Taylor's regime, to compile a report for her superiors in Pakistan on the state of al-Qaeda's gem business.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Biographies of 14 Guantanamo Bay suspects, Office of the Director of National Intelligence
  2. ^ USA: Off the Record. U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the "War on Terror" | Amnesty International
  3. ^ Terror Watch:Tangled Ties, MSNBC, Newsweek, April 7, 2004, Column/Terror Watch, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
  4. ^ Reported Capture of MIT Alumna Denied by FBI, Keith J. Winstein, MIT, NEWS AND FEATURES DIRECTOR, Friday, April 4, 2003. Volume 123, Number 16, copyright The Tech 1985-2003
  5. ^ Dr Aafia Siddiqui's disappearance, a plea from her uncle, 2004/05/02
  6. ^ Ghost Prisoner, Human Rights Watch, February 2007
  7. ^ Democratic Convention Guide Boston 2004, 2003, Boston Web Hosts
  8. ^ Transcript: Ashcroft, Mueller news conference, CNN.com, Wednesday, May 26, 2004 Posted: 8:19 p.m. EDT (0019 GMT)
  9. ^ a b Liberia's Taylor gave aid to Qaeda, UN probe finds, Boston Globe, August 4, 2004
  10. ^ "Aafia Siddiqui bought diamonds for Qaeda", Daily Times (Pakistan), August 9, 2004

[edit] External links