NEW YORK — An MIT-educated Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate has been brought to New York to face charges she tried to kill U.S. agents and military officers during an interrogation in Afghanistan, federal prosecutors said.
Aafia Siddiqui, who was shot and wounded last month during the confrontation, didn’t enter a plea Tuesday when she was arraigned in federal court in Manhattan on charges of attempted murder and assault, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said in a statement.
Siddiqui, 36, was stopped by police on July 17 outside a government building in central Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, according to a criminal complaint. Police searched her handbag and discovered documents containing recipes for explosives and chemical weapons and describing “various landmarks in the United States, including New York City,” according to the complaint.
Police also found maps of Ghazni on her, including the provincial governor’s compounds and the mosques he prayed in, said governor spokesman Sayed Ismail Jahangir.
Siddiqui also was carrying “chemical substances in gel and liquid form that were sealed in bottles and glass jars,” the complaint said. It did not elaborate. Jahangir said she was carrying “liquid poison.”
The next day, as a team of FBI agents and U.S. military officers prepared to question her, Siddiqui grabbed a rifle, pointed it at an Army captain and yelled that she wanted blood, prosecutors said. An interpreter pushed the rifle aside as she fired two shots, which missed, they said. One of two shots fired by a soldier in response hit her in the torso.
Even after being hit, Siddiqui struggled and shouted in English “that she wanted to kill Americans” before the officers subdued her, the complaint said.
Though they never alleged she was a full-fledged member of al-Qaida, authorities said they believed Siddiqui could be a “fixer,” someone with knowledge of the United States who supported other operatives trying to slip into the country and plot attacks.
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