Scientist goes on trial for 'shooting at FBI'

A Pakistani scientist allegedly linked to al Qaida will go on trial in New York today, accused of shooting at FBI agents in Afghanistan.

Neuroscience specialist Aafia Siddiqui, 37, who trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, is facing charges of attempted murder.

Her case is riddled with curious questions. Why did she surface in Afghanistan in 2008 carrying notes that authorities claim referred to a “mass casualty attack”? How did she end up in an alleged shootout after her capture? And will she keep up her courtroom rants?

“There’s too many lies, injustices and hypocrisies here,” Siddiqui announced last week during jury selection in federal court in Manhattan.

Siddiqui, her face veiled with a white headscarf and hands aflutter, also argued that she could not get a fair trial with Jews on the jury.

“If they have a Zionist or Israeli background ... they are all mad at me,” she said. “They should be excluded if you want to be fair.”

Siddiqui has not been charged with terrorism, but her case has drawn attention in part because authorities have accused her of fleeing the US to her native Pakistan in 2003 after marrying an al Qaida operative related to Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the admitted mastermind of the September 11 2001 terror attacks.

Her supporters maintain she was kidnapped and held in US custody before mysteriously turning up last summer in Afghanistan.

Afghan police turned Siddiqui over to US authorities there, along with a handwritten list she was carrying of New York City landmarks including the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge, prosecutors said.

They also cited seized notes “that referred to a ’mass casualty attack’,” and to “the construction of dirty bombs, chemical and biological weapons and other explosives”, but have never alleged a specific terror plot.

The US government’s version of what happened next adds to Siddiqui’s mystique. Prosecutors say that while waiting to be interrogated in a police compound full of soldiers and US agents, she somehow picked up a rifle, announced her “desire to kill Americans” and fired.

She missed, but was wounded by return fire.

Siddiqui was brought to the US to face charges. Since then, she has denied ever firing the gun. She also insists she will not work with her defence lawyers.

Last week, US District Judge Richard Berman had Siddiqui removed from the court for the afternoon after she blurted out to prospective jurors: “I had nothing to do with 9/11.”

She suggested Israel was behind the attacks, but insisted she was not anti-Semitic.

The judge later said he would give her a reprieve. He has given her permission to leave the court each afternoon for 15 minutes of prayer.

“She has an open and standing invitation to be here and to behave as everybody else is expected to behave,” he said.