Pakistani scientist lawyers seek 12-year sentence

NEW YORK: A U.S.-trained scientist from Pakistan who was convicted of trying to murder U.S. agents and military officers in Afghanistan should be sent to prison for 12 years rather than life because she is mentally ill, her lawyers said in court papers Wednesday.

Lawyers for Aafia Siddiqui, 38, made the request in a filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where she was convicted in February of two counts of attempted murder in the July 2008 attack on U.S. authorities while she was detained in an Afghan police station.

The lawyers said Siddiqui was “driven” to her crime by mental illness.

“While the degree and extent of Dr. Siddiqui”s mental illness has been the subject of much discussion in this case, one thing stands perfectly clear: the victim of Dr. Siddiqui”s irrational behavior is — first and foremost — none other than herself,” the lawyers wrote.

They described her behavior in Ghazni, Afghanistan, as “bizarre,” saying Siddiqui was “cut off from any form of rational thought” by her knowledge that U.S. authorities had engaged in the torture of detainees overseas.

“Cornered in the Afghan National Police compound, and left to her own devices, Dr. Siddiqui tried, by any means available, to escape what she viewed as a horrific fate,” the lawyers said.

During Siddiqui”s three-week trial, FBI agents and U.S. soldiers testified that when they went to interrogate her at an Afghan police station, she snatched an unattended assault rifle and shot at them while yelling, “Death to Americans!” She was wounded by return fire but recovered and was brought to the United States to face trial.

Siddiqui is scheduled to be sentenced in mid-August but the date is expected to be moved to September or later.

Her jury conviction set off protests in Pakistan, where there is a widespread belief that the charges against her were fabricated.

Siddiqui, trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University in the early 1990s, left the United States and returned to Pakistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Testifying in her own defense at trial, Siddiqui claimed she was tortured at a “secret prison” before her detention. Charges that she attacked U.S. personnel who wanted to interrogate her were “crazy,” she said. “It”s just ridiculous.”

Her lawyers said her behavior at trial demonstrated her mental illness. They noted that she declared she was boycotting the trial, rejected her lawyers” advice and subjected the court “to frequent, nonsensical outbursts.”

After trial, she refused to meet with the probation officer or her lawyers, they said.

The lawyers urged the sentencing judge to reject the probation office”s recommendation that she be sentenced to life in prison, especially since she was never charged with any crimes of terrorism.

A message left with the federal prosecutors” office seeking comment was not immediately returned.

NATO says cannot verify Afghan civilian deaths

KABUL: NATO said Tuesday its investigation into a rocket strike that the Afghan president says killed 52 civilians found no evidence that its forces were involved.

President Hamid Karzai said Monday that a rocket attack on a residential compound in the southern province of Helmand was carried out by NATO”s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The attack by a helicopter gunship last Friday killed 52 people in Regey village, in Helmand”s volatile Sangin district, he said.

NATO has consistently denied its forces were responsible for the incident.

“We do not know where the information they say they have is coming from,” said ISAF public affairs officer Todd Breasseale.

A joint ISAF-Afghan government investigation had not revealed ISAF involvement in the deaths of civilians in Regey, he said.

He said the Afghan National Security Council appeared to have conducted a parallel investigation at the president”s behest.

The NSC investigation found “a rocket launched by NATO/ISAF troops” hit a house in Sangin on Friday “leaving 52 civilians dead, including women and children,” Karzai said.

Breasseale said the ISAF-Afghan investigation looked into an operation conducted by US Marines and the Afghan army “10 to 12 kilometres” (six to seven miles) from Regey.

“We are looking into who was responsible for (the rocket attack), that is part of our investigation,” he said.

NATO has consistently denied responsibility for the attack, releasing a statement late Monday saying: “Any speculation at this point of an alleged civilian casualty in Regey village is completely unfounded.”

The conflicting reports coincided with the leak of 92,000 Pentagon documents that showed, among much else, under-reporting of civilian casualties in the Afghan war.

The issue is sensitive in Afghanistan, where many people blame the presence of foreign forces for the violence of the nearly nine-year-old Taliban-led insurgency. Close to 150,000 US and NATO troops are deployed in Afghanistan.

The United Nations said this year that 2,412 civilians were killed in the war in 2009, making it the deadliest year for ordinary Afghans since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Afghan troops to lead security by 2014: communique

KABUL: The international conference in Afghanistan will agree on Tuesday that Afghan forces should begin taking security responsibility in some areas by the end of this year and should lead security operations in all provinces by the end of 2014, according to a copy of the final communique.

“Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) should lead and conduct military operations in all provinces by the end of2014,” said the communiqué.

Afghan conference eyes 2014 security handover: report

LONDON: International powers fighting in Afghanistan will agree next week to hand over control of security in the country to Afghan forces by 2014, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

A leaked communique circulated ahead of Tuesday”s meeting of donor nations in Kabul will set out a phased transition beginning this year, according to the Independent on Sunday.

“The international community expressed its support for the president of Afghanistan”s objective that the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) should lead and conduct military operations in all provinces by the end of 2014,” the agreed statement says, according to the paper.

It also pledges that foreign powers will continue to “provide the support necessary to increase security during this time, and the continued support in training, equipping and providing interim financing to the ANSF”.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and senior officials from over 60 countries and international organisations are scheduled to attend the Kabul conference to discuss the rebuilding of the troubled nation.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said this month he would be “very surprised” if Afghan forces had not taken over security by 2014, and Prime Minister David Cameron has said he wants Britain”s troops home by 2015.

US President Barack Obama has also said he wants to begin withdrawing some of his country”s troops next July.

According to the newspaper, the communique — sent to senior diplomats on Saturday by UN special representative for Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura — also outlines an aim to begin announcing the transition this year.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman refused to comment on the leak but said: “The UK and Afghan governments” shared goal remains a stable and secure Afghanistan which is able to maintain its own security and prevent al-Qaeda from returning.

“The Kabul conference is a further important step in a process, building on the London conference (in January), for the international community to support the Afghan government in taking the lead in its own affairs.”

NATO airstrike kills five Afghan soldiers

KABUL: Five Afghan government soldiers were accidentally killed and two others wounded in a pre-dawn NATO airstrike on Wednesday.

The attack took place after a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force aircraft mistook Afghan National Army soldiers for Taliban insurgents during an operation in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, a spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry said.

“ISAF aircraft bombed and martyred five of our soldiers,” spokesman Zaher Azimi said. “We condemn this incident and regret that this is not the first time such an incident has occurred. We hope it is the last time.”

Allied Forces Should Leave Afghan After Defeating Al-Qaeda: Musharraf

Pakistan News: Former president Pervez Musharraf said that NATO and allied forces should leave Afghanistan after defeating Taliban and Al-Qaeda. On the political front, they need an invigorated dialogue with all groups in Afghanistan, including the Taliban. In his article published in Wall Street Journal, he said, “The exit strategy from Afghanistan must not and cannot be time related. We must eliminate al Qaeda, dominate the Taliban militarily, and establish a representative, legitimate government in Afghanistan.” He said, “The dwindling number of al Qaeda elements must be totally eliminated, and the Taliban have to be dominated militarily. We must strengthen border-control measures with all possible means to isolate the militants on the Afghanistan and Pakistan sides.” He said, “On the Afghan side, the US and ISAF troops must be reinforced. All of this must be done in combination with raising additional Afghan National Army troops, with significant Pashtun representation. Exploiting tribal divisions, we should also raise local militias.

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Allied Forces Should Leave Afghan After Defeating Al-Qaeda: Musharraf was first posted on December 2, 2009 at 6:17 pm.