A more expanded accounting than the article carried below, also good, by AFP.

By Patricia Hurtado

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A Pakistani neuroscientist accused of trying to kill U.S. soldiers and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in Afghanistan in 2008 was ejected from her federal court trial after two outbursts.

Aafia Siddiqui, 37, who was educated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is accused of “picking up a rifle and attempting to murder U.S. citizens,” while being questioned at an Afghan police headquarters on July 18, 2008, Assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jenna Dabbs told jurors today.

Siddiqui was carrying documents on bomb-making when Afghan authorities detained her, Dabbs said. The notes allegedly included references to a “mass casualty attack” and mentioned New York landmarks including Wall Street and the Empire State building.

“I never get a chance to speak!” Siddiqui later shouted in court, interrupting a U.S. Army captain’s testimony. “If you were held in a secret prison and your children were tortured. You have to give me credit! There was no list of targets against New York. I was never planning to bomb it! You’re lying!”

‘More Than 9/11’

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ordered that Siddiqui leave the courtroom and said she could watch the proceedings on closed-circuit television in an adjacent holding cell. He rejected a request from her lawyers to declare a mistrial.

Earlier, just before the jury entered the courtroom, Siddiqui turned to onlookers and shouted, “I have information about attacks, more than 9/11!”

“I want to help the president to end this group, to finish them,” she said. “They are a domestic, U.S. group, they are not Muslim. I’m not lying, I swear!”

In opening statements to the jury, Siddiqui’s lawyer, Charles Swift, said his client didn’t fire any weapon that day. Authorities were never able to find any gunpowder residue on Siddiqui or any ballistics evidence showing the rifle had been fired or that she had used it, Swift said.

Swift said an Afghan police detective earlier had beaten his client with a cane during questioning and alleged the evidence showed only one weapon, a U.S. Army officer’s pistol, was fired. U.S. officers gave conflicting accounts of the shooting, Swift claimed.

“You’re not going to have any evidence” the rifle was fired that day in the room, Swift said. “We’re confident you’re going to find there is far less than reasonable doubt, but that there is real doubt that Aafia Siddiqui ever touched that gun, and you’re going to find her not guilty.”

Attempted Attack

U.S. Army Captain Robert Snyder Jr. testified that he and about 15 U.S. officials, including two FBI officers, went to question Siddiqui at the Afghan National Police compound in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

Snyder said Siddiqui was arrested on July 17, 2008, outside the provincial governor’s offices with a purse full of papers, a thumb drive and carrying chemical substances.

“We had reports that the individual appeared to be attempting to conduct an attack against the governor,” Snyder testified.

Afghan authorities initially wouldn’t give U.S. officials access to Siddiqui, Snyder said. After a long wait, U.S. officials finally entered an office divided by a curtain, he said.

Snyder said that just as the U.S. officials entered, Siddiqui stepped from behind the curtain, grabbed another U.S. Army officer’s rifle, hoisted it upon her shoulder and pointed it at directly at him.

‘At My Head’

“I could see the barrel of the rifle, the inner portion of the barrel of the weapon, that indicated to me that it was pointed straight at my head,” Snyder said. He said he dove for cover to his left, just when Siddiqui hesitated to look at the rifle.

Snyder said he was seated close to the curtain and that his body armor restricted him from moving quickly out of the chair.

“She looked very determined, very agitated,” Snyder testified. “It was very clear in my mind what her intentions were, almost a vision of hatred.”

Afghan authorities fled from the room, followed by the U.S. officials, Snyder said. A civilian who was working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army grabbed the rifle’s barrel as Siddiqui fired and restrained her, and she was shot by another U.S. officer, Snyder said.

‘Death to America’

Dabbs said that after Siddiqui was shot in the stomach, she struggled and stated, “I hate Americans, you will die by my blood,” and “Death to America.”

Siddiqui, who has a biology degree from MIT and a doctorate from Brandeis, attended school in the U.S. from 1991 until June 2002. She is charged with seven counts, including attempted murder.

Snyder said the notes Siddiqui carried included references to “dirty bombs,” “cells” and a “mass casualty attack” that listed U.S. locations including Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.

Siddiqui also carried a computer thumb drive with “over 500 electronic documents” containing “anti-American sentiments and references to the creation and use of various weapons,” prosecutors said.

No Terrorism Charges

Siddiqui isn’t accused of planning attacks on the landmarks or of any terrorism charges, according to the indictment.

During jury selection last week, Siddiqui interrupted the trial with outbursts and the judge ordered her escorted out of the courtroom.

If convicted of carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, Siddiqui faces as long as life in prison, said Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan.

The case is U.S. v. Aafia Siddiqui, 08-CR-00826, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in New York at pathurtado@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: January 19, 2010 16:17 EST