Posted on 05/27/2004 10:30:34 AM PDT by knighthawk
WASHINGTON: An award-winning former MIT student born in Pakistan has become the first publicly identified international female suspect in the war on terrorism.
Aafia Siddiqui, now 32, received a biology degree from MIT in 1994. University records show she lived in an on-campus dorm in 1995 and listed her home address as Karachi.
A mother of three children, Aafia was estranged from her husband Mohammed Amjad Khan, a Harvard-trained anesthesiologist.
Aafia set off alarm bells in the US when she was named by terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as a coordinator or helper for al-Qaeda in the US.
Around the same time, authorities were also investigating suspicious banking transactions that linked her to some Saudi suspects who lived in the same apartment block she stayed in Boston.
But she disappeared before she could be apprehended, and FBI authorities now believe she is somewhere in Pakistan.
The FBI has since released two pictures of Aafia, one showing her with a hijab (head scarf) and one without. A notification on the FBI website says "Although the FBI has no information indicating this individual is connected to specific terrorist activities, the FBI would like to locate and question this individual."
Over the past few months there have been some sketchy reports from Pakistan about her disappearance, and in one instance, even a reported arrest. But the FBI has denied she is in its custody, and on Wednesday the Bureau put out a "Be on the Lookout (BOLO)" alert for her, along with six other suspects.
From all accounts though, Aafia was a model student and social activist during her years in the US. According to reports in the Boston media, she received a Carroll L Wilson Award for her research proposal, "Islamisation in Pakistan and its Effects on Women" during her a sophomore year at MIT in 1992.
As a junior, she received a $1,200 City Days fellowship to help clean up Cambridge elementary school playgrounds. She also founded a non-profit organisation, the Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching Inc, with her husband in 1999.
"I've got to tell you, if you're looking for an al-Qaeda person, I think you'd pick her, out of 100 people, 99th or something," Gerald Ross, her former Boston landlord, told the Associated Press wire service.
Ping
yeah, her Boston landlord knows everything about her. I feel much safer now.
I read that she once was somewhat my neighbor. Damn. Just damn my lack of a crystal ball.....
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