Pakistan political leader Imran Khan today pledged his full support behind a Cageprisoners' campaign to help a female detainee known only as The Grey Lady of Bagram.Horrific but totally predictable from the administration who brought us Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Prisons.
Details of the woman, known only as Prisoner 650, are being kept secret by the US Military, but at a press conference yesterday Khan and several human rights activists demanded justice for her.
Leading the attack was Cageprisoners' patron Yvonne Ridley who first read an account of the woman in Moazzam Begg's gripping account of his own detention in his book Enemy Combatant.
"I remembered Moazzam telling me about the woman's scream and how he first imagined they could be from his wife. In truth I thought may be he had just been listening to a tape recorder as part of a form of mental torture.
"However, we now know the screams came from a woman who has been held in Bagram for some years. And without compromising anyone, we can also reveal from impeccable sources that her prison number is 650.
Update 7/10: A commenter mentioned a petition to help free Prisoner 650.
Update 8/17: Diane of Cab Drollery:
And I strongly suspect that Prisoner No. 650 is none other than Dr Aafia Siddiqui. It is quite possible that her captors decided to end her isolation after the Pakistani Press and activists like Yvonne Ridley began increasingly talking about the Prisoner No. 650 and how she was tortured and abused physically, mentally and sexually for the past four years.
Pure speculation by Yvonne Ridley and Aijaz Zaka Syed? Perhaps. Anti-American rhetoric by a disgruntled Arab? It's certainly possible. Ten years ago I would have dismissed this report out of hand. After all, surely no civilized government would behave in such a fashion, and, if it did, surely our free press would have gone through walls to uncover the behavior.
That was ten years ago. Now, I'm not so sure.
Let's go back to that NY Times article:
The lawyer, Elizabeth M. Fink, told the judge that the allegation that her client, who the lawyer said weighed 90 pounds, had picked up the rifle and attacked the Americans, was “patently absurd.” [Emphasis added]
The article also mentions the disappearance of Dr. Siddiqui in 2003 and the contention by her lawyers that she was held by the Americans. The article states only that US authorities denied the detention.
And, as far as I can tell, that's the last of the coverage of Dr. Siddiqui's case in the NY Times or any other news outlet. One would think that the unusual circumstances of a woman terrorist, trained in the US, alleged to have close ties with the very organization blamed for 9/11 would have launched an avalanche of stories, you know, like the avalanche of stories on Dr. Ivins, the presumed anthrax terrorist. Instead ... crickets.
6 comments:
Its really sad! We have launched a petition to liberate her.
Please sign it below
http://www.pro-pakistan.com/2008/07/10/prisoner-650-sign-the-petition-to-liberate-her/
Thanks for your work, m junaid khan.
she has no name she has no family. Perhaps this is another Garbage story,
Easily. The fact remains there are hundreds perhaps thousands of 'disappeared' people who will literally rot in jail both in Iraq, Guantanamo and even within the US. Prisoner 650 may exist, she may not. She does represent those who have no voice.
We have no way of finding out the truth unless we demand information of our government.
It appears that many of you have been decieved.
Yvonne Ridley who came up with the 650 story has changed it.
"British journalist Yvonne Ridley who embraced Islam in Taliban captivity told that prisoners No. 650 was not Dr. Aafia Siddiqui rather another Pakistani woman who had been held in solitary confinement for years at the Bagram US base near Kabul"
http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=135352
The story was based on a presumption she made after reading Moazzam Begg's book. Her irresponsible public statements have caused a lot of undo stress. From now on I suggest people look for real evidence instead of embracing such charlatans.
thank you
Thank you for your comment, Bob, but you have missed the point. Read the comments and you will see the fervently held belief that NO ONE should be held incommunicado for years in a prison.
It does not matter if she is Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, although we'd like proof that she is not. Who is she and why is she held? Does she have a lawyer, access to due process of law, a voice? Has she gone insane during her captivity? How many like her will die unknown and lost in the prison system? Is there justice in such containment?
She represents thousands and thousands of desperate souls imprisoned in the US, by the US, by other nations, by indifferent governments. It is not justice and we must protest against it.
Prisoner 650 is just one woman, but she has become an icon.
Post a Comment