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In a November 11, 2021 panel that was streamed live on YouTube by the Council on American-Islamic Relations Texas (CAIR-TX), titled "Injustice: Dr. Aafia [Siddiqui] and the 20-Year Legacy of America's Wars," Aafia Siddiqui's attorney Marwa Elbially said that the U.S. government lies on a large scale. She gave the example of the "fabricated" rescue of U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch, who was taken hostage by Iraqi forces in 2003. She also said that the fact that Aafia Siddiqui has not become a "household name" for every American and that she has not been portrayed in "stupid TV shows" or "poorly-made movies" is proof that the government never really believed that she was an Al-Qaeda operative.
Prominent Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, the Executive Director of Mpower Change, said that Aafia Siddiqui is a "political prisoner" like H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence for the 2000 murder of two law enforcement officers, and like Leonard Peltier, who is serving a life sentence for involvement in the murder of two FBI agents. Notably, in September 2005, Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh also claimed that Jessica Lynch's rescue had been staged (see MEMRI TV Clip No. 881.) For more about Linda Sarsour, see MEMRI TV Clips No. 6935, 6808, and 6111.
Marwa Elbially: "We know the government lies, and it lies on a large scale and shamelessly, right? Especially the case — I don't know how many people remember it — of Jessica Lynch, where they fabricated it, even with the videos showing her alleged rescue, when she was being treated by Iraqi doctors, and I believe they had called the government and let them know where she was.
"So I think we as the Muslim-American community really need to question when we’re given an official story. With Dr. Aafia's case, I think that the glaring red light is [that] you keep calling her 'Lady Al-Qaeda,' and referred to her for all these years as such, and then you never charged her. Why didn't you charge her? You just focused on the events of July 18.
"The other thing is, I found it very significant that if they really believed this story about her, why isn't her name on every American's tongue? Because if they had caught somebody whom they believed was in Al-Qaeda, a 'lady', I mean, how many females have they managed to associate with that organization... She would have been publicized, we would have had her in episodes of 'Homeland Security' or whatever those stupid TV shows are, and in a bunch of like, poorly made movies."
[...]
Linda Sarsour: "We need to continue to talk... Free Imam Jamil [H. Rap Brown]. Free Aafia, Free Leonard Peltier. To me, she embodies a political prisoner, and I see her in the same realm that I see Imam Jamil and Leonard Peltier, and many other former Black Panther Party leaders and others who have been subjected to torture, and subjected to solitary confinement, and subjected to things that no human being should be subjected to in our incarceration system."
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