The Aafia Files - Week 3
UNSILENCED FILES · WEEK 3 OF 7
The taxi was surrounded. She never arrived.
Five years. No confirmed sighting. No verified contact. No explanation from any government.
March 30, 2003 · Karachi, Pakistan
02 / 07
She was going to the airport. The taxi was surrounded.
She was on her way to the airport with her three children for a flight to Islamabad, where she had been offered an education job.
On the street, the vehicle was surrounded by Pakistani officers. The children were dragged out. Ahmad, 6. Maryam, 4. Suleman, 6 months old.
Ahmad watched through the rear window as his mother was hauled from the other car. The agents reportedly dropped Suleman on his head. He has never been found.
The FBI had issued a worldwide alert for her two days earlier on March 28. From that moment, five years passed. No confirmed sighting. No verified contact. No explanation from any government.
Source: Ahmad Siddiqui testimony · Clive Stafford Smith, 349-page court application · FBI worldwide alert March 28, 2003 · Deborah Scroggins, Wanted Women (2012)
What the US government says
03 / 07
She went into hiding. Voluntarily.
The US government claims she fled after the FBI alert and went underground with al-Qaeda operatives near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Their key sources: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Guantanamo detainees. All waterboarded before making these statements.
KSM named nine people under torture. Eight have since been exonerated. Aafia is the only one still in prison.
Source: US Department of Justice · FBI · US Senate Intelligence Committee Report on CIA Torture 2014 · Clive Stafford Smith court application
What her family and human rights groups say
04 / 07
She was abducted. Sold for a $55,000 bounty.
Her family says she was abducted by Pakistani intelligence working with the CIA and held at Bagram Air Base. Pakistan's President Musharraf boasted in his autobiography of selling 369 people for bounties. She was sold for $55,000.
Six human rights organisations including Amnesty International listed her as a possible ghost prisoner held by the US. Former Bagram detainees gave sworn statements describing having seen her there.
A senior ISI officer has detailed how she was abducted and turned over to the CIA. A former US intelligence officer has described the false intelligence that led the CIA to target her.
Source: Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire (2006) p.237 · Amnesty International · Human Rights Watch · Clive Stafford Smith, 349-page court application · ISI officer sworn statement
The children
05 / 07
Three children went with her. Their story is its own horror.
Ahmad, aged 6, was taken to Kabul and held in a juvenile prison for five years. He was told his name was now Ihsan Ali and would be killed if he said otherwise. He was eventually located by his aunt Fowzia through the ICRC.
Maryam, aged 4, was taken to Afghanistan and involuntarily placed with an American military family for seven years under a different name. She was later dropped outside Fowzia's home in Karachi wearing a sign with the family address. Confirmed by former President Hamid Karzai.
Suleman was 6 months old. According to attorney Clive Stafford Smith he was dropped on his head during the abduction. Defense attorney Elaine Sharpe stated Aafia was later shown a photograph of him lying in a pool of blood. He has never been found.
No government has ever formally accounted for what happened to these three children during those five years.
Source: Clive Stafford Smith, Aafia's attorney · Elaine Sharpe, defense counsel · Hamid Karzai confirmation · ICRC records · Clive Stafford Smith court application
What remains unanswered
06 / 07
Two versions. Neither proven. Three children. Zero official explanation.
The US government built its case on testimony extracted under torture. Eight of the nine people named by KSM under waterboarding have been exonerated. Her family's account is supported by a senior ISI officer, a former US intelligence officer, and sworn statements from Bagram detainees. Neither side has closed the gap. That is the documented record.
Source: US DOJ · FBI · Amnesty International · Human Rights Watch · UN Special Rapporteur · US Senate Intelligence Committee Report 2014 · Clive Stafford Smith, 349-page court application
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Next Monday
The trial. 86 years. Never charged with terrorism.