Politics: It Says Here You're A Terrorist (2)

Back on April 4, I wrote about Aafia Siddiqui, a Boston housewife and mother of three who holds a doctorate in neurological science and degrees from Braindeis University and M.I.T. Apparently, the FBI decided that Siddiqui is some sort of 'fixer' and that she, along with a couple of guys in Miramar, FL and her estranged husband were all wanted for questioning.

Not surprisingly, Siddiqui, uninterested in disappearing into a Padilla-hole, took off. She isn't an American citizen, see, and she knows even American citizens have no rights when Arabs, Muslims or terrorism is concerned. Nowhere did I intimate then, nor do I state here, that Siddiqui wasn't perhaps involved in some nefarious activity. But the case against her based on the AP story I read in early April and this item about her capture recently in her native Pakistan is almost non-existent. The government sources who confirmed that Siddiqui has been in Pakistani custody (being tortured, I don't doubt) explicity don't claim that she is a member of al Queda. In the AP stories both early this month and now, Siddiqui's primary transgression appears to be a zealous belief in her religion:

During Siddiqui's years in Boston, neighbors and acquaintances remember her as a dedicated student who also spent much of her time preaching the Muslim faith. Politics did not seem to interest her, they said.

Siddiqui is listed on an Internet site maintained by an umbrella group of Muslim student organizations as one author of a guide on how to run a successful association, including how to distribute religious information.

In 1999, Siddiqui formed the nonprofit Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching Inc., which had offices in a mosque in Roxbury, Mass. She was the institute's president and her husband its treasurer, records show.

So why haven't we rounded up Ashcroft, Santorum and every other super-religious nutjob who's ever tried to convert you at a cousin's beach party? Because they're Christian silly, and they don't mean you any harm.

The lazy reporting method on these FBI warnings is kind of comic-book derivative. Apparently, everyone who is wanted by the FBI is hanging out together, in some super-criminal hideout on the outskirts of town. In fact, there is no connection between Siddiqui and Adnan El Shukrijumah, the man from Miramar, FL who the FBI also wants to talk to. There is no link between these people made in the story, but the impression, in the post-Laci Peterson haze of American news-consumption, is that we got the terrorists on the run.

Siddiqui is being held by Pakistani authorities. Earlier reports that she was captured as far back as early April may be true, and the information is only being left to leak now. In any case, you can be assured that American authorities won't be standing up for this mother of three young children as Pakistani police seek to please their newest masters by punishing Siddiqui. Who's running this war on terror anyhow?