During the standoff, the armed gunman, Malik Faisal Akram, a British man, repeatedly called for Dr. Siddiqui’s release. She is currently serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell prison in Fort Worth, which is like 20 miles from the Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. In Pakistan, she’s considered a political prisoner. In the United States, some call her “Lady al-Qaeda.”
In 2010, the MIT-Brandeis-trained Pakistani neuroscientist was convicted of attempted murder for allegedly shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents while jailed in Afghanistan in 2008. In fact, none of the Americans were injured, but Dr. Siddiqui was shot and wounded while she was in their custody. Many questions remain unanswered about her time in U.S. custody. Dr. Siddiqui’s supporters say she was forcibly disappeared, along with three of her children, by Pakistani authorities in 2003 and interrogated and tortured for years by the United States at the Bagram Air Base and other locations. U.S. authorities say Siddiqui was never held by the U.S., was arrested in July 2008 by Afghan police and handed over to U.S. authorities.
— source democracynow.org | Jan 18, 2022
