Siddiqui Takes Stand in Her Own Defense In Federal Trial

By Mark Hamblett

January 29, 2010

Aafia Siddiqui yesterday denied attempting to kill U.S. personnel in Afghanistan in 2008 and insisted she was framed for the crime.

Speaking from the witness stand in Manhattan federal court, with much of her face obscured by a scarf, the U.S.-educated native of Pakistan said she had been trying to sneak out from behind a curtain and escape the police compound where she was about to be questioned on July 18, 2008, when she was shot by an American soldier. She denied seizing an unattended M-4 rifle and firing at FBI agents and military personnel.

"The next thing I know, somebody saw me and said something and shot me," Ms. Siddiqui told the jury during 30 minutes of questioning by defense attorney Elaine Sharp.

When asked by Ms. Sharp if she ever picked up a gun, Ms. Siddiqui called it "the biggest joke. I have sometimes been forced to smile under my scarf. Of course not."

Later, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna Dabbs asked her on cross-examination, "Are you saying you don't remember?"

Ms. Siddiqui responded, "I'm telling you what I know: I walked toward the curtain and then I was shot. My head does not believe that American soldiers would be so irresponsible to leave a gun around."

Ms. Siddiqui's testimony came after two days of arguments in which defense counsel for the 37-year-old neuroscientist said their client had mental health issues and diminished capacity, and should be kept off the witness stand for her own good. Prosecutors from the Southern District U.S. Attorney's Office insisted she had the right to testify.

Though Ms. Siddiqui had been found competent to stand trial she has had outbursts in court that have prompted Judge Richard M. Berman to order her removed.

But the judge ultimately decided that Ms. Siddiqui's right to testify carried the day and she had neither waived that right nor forfeited it by her conduct.

Ms. Siddiqui was arrested by Afghan authorities on July 17, 2008, while allegedly carrying in her purse chemicals, a list of terror targets in New York City, instructions on how to make a dirty bomb and drawings of weapons.

Yesterday, she denied to Ms. Dabbs having any knowledge of the bag's contents.

"I can't testify to that, the bag was not mine, so I didn't necessarily go through everything," she said.

"Did you have notes on a dirty bomb?" Ms. Dabbs asked.

"To answer your question, I do not know how to make a dirty bomb," Ms. Siddiqui said, adding later, "I did not draw those pictures. I'm definitely not that good an artist, I can tell you that."

Ms. Siddiqui repeatedly snuck into her testimony her claim that she had been held in "secret prisons" and tortured before her arrest in Afghanistan.

At one point, when her head scarf began to slip over her face, her attorney, Ms. Sharp, asked her to explain her attire.

"If you've been in a secret prison, abused, you get more modest. And it's part of the religion," Ms. Siddiqui said.

Judge Berman has had to chart a delicate course with Ms. Siddiqui, who boycotted several trial sessions, repeatedly disrupted proceedings and has been removed from the courtroom several times. Most of the time she spent in the courtroom she sat slumped over the defense table with her arms crossed as on a pillow.

The judge allowed her to testify yesterday only after a lengthy question-and-answer session on whether she understood her rights and a debate between prosecutors and defense lawyers over whether statements she made to FBI agents while being treated at the hospital for a gunshot wound could be admitted into evidence.

Judge Berman ruled that the statements could indeed be used to impeach Ms. Siddiqui, and Ms. Dabbs introduced several of them, including one in which Ms. Siddiqui allegedly told an agent she had fired the weapon.

Ms. Siddiqui denied it and making the other statements as well, telling the jury at one point, "If I messed up it was torture. It was the same game."

She also denied taking pistol lessons at the Braintree Pistol and Rifle Course in Braintree, Mass., while she was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When asked by Ms. Dabbs whether she had "fired thousands of rounds" at the club, Ms. Siddiqui answered, "I have no recollection."

The prosecution is expected to counter that testimony with a witness during its rebuttal case this morning.

@|Mark Hamblett can be reached at mhamblett@alm.com.