Pakistani woman charged in NY with attempted attacks on US military

Описание: (6 Aug 2008) SHOTLIST
1. Exterior of courthouse; tilt up
2. Close-up on courthouse street number
3. Lawyer for Aafia Siddiqui, Elizabeth Fink walking out of the courthouse
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Elizabeth Fink, Lawyer for Aafia Siddiqui:
"Clearly she was in custody but she wasn't arrested. Just like rendition isn't confinement and water-boarding isn't torture."
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Elaine Whitefield-Sharp, Family Lawyer for Aafia Siddiqui:
"Picture this woman who is very tiny and ask yourself how she engaged in armed conflict with five ... six military men, you know. How did that happen? And how did she get shot? I think you can answer that, can't you?"
6. Wide of Fink and Whitefield-Sharp before microphones
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Elaine Whitefield-Sharp, Family Lawyer for Aafia Siddiqui:
"Why was an alleged terrorist put behind a curtain and not behind bars? She was taken to the counter-terrorism questioning room, why wasn't she secure? Why would these officers just walk in there? There are too many questions here for anyone to assume guilt, you must presume innocence."
++CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE++
++MANDATORY ON SCREEN COURTESY: Andrea Shepard++
8. Courtroom sketch showing Siddiqui, her lawyers, and Judge Ronald Ellis
9. Close-up of Siddiqui's face
10. Close-up of Siddiqui's eyes
11. Sketch of courtroom, no name given for prosecutor
STORYLINE
A Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate has been arraigned in New York on charges that she tried to kill US agents and military officers.
Aafia Siddiqui didn't enter a plea at her Tuesday arraignment in Manhattan federal court.
Prosecutors say she was stopped last month for questioning by Afghan police who found in her handbag documents including recipes for explosives and chemical weapons and descriptions of New York landmarks.
Prosecutors say she pointed a rifle at an Army captain and fired two shots, which missed.
Siddiqui's lawyer Elizabeth Fink argued that alleging a "90-pound woman" could incite the violence claimed in the complaint was "patently absurd."
"Clearly she was in custody but she wasn't arrested. Just like rendition isn't confinement and water-boarding isn't torture," Fink said.
Outside the court, Elaine Whitefield-Sharp, the family lawyer for Aafia Siddiqui was asking how it all happened.
"Picture this woman who is very tiny and ask yourself how she engaged in armed conflict with 6 military men, you know. How did that happen? And how did she get shot?" she said.
"There are too many questions here for anyone to assume guilt, you must presume innocence," she added.
At a 2004 news conference, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III identified Siddiqui as one of seven people the FBI wanted to question about their suspected ties to al-Qaida - an allegation her family has vehemently denied.
US authorities said at the time that Siddiqui had received a biology degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and had written a doctoral thesis on neurological sciences at Brandeis University, outside Boston.
They said they believed she returned to Pakistan shortly after the September 11 attacks and later vanished for several years.
Though they never alleged Siddiqui was a full-fledged member of al-Qaida, they said they believed she could be a "fixer," someone with knowledge of the United States who supported other operatives trying to slip into the country and plot attacks.
If convicted, Siddiqui faces up to 20 years in prison on each charge.
A bail hearing is set for Monday.

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