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Aafia Siddiqui did not appear at her arraignment in U.S. District Court, because she declined to be strip searched as a pre-requisite, something which is apparently required of all prisoners before and after court appearances in the court in question.
The judge has asked the prosecution and defense to discuss the issue of medical and psychiatric treatment, asked the defense to discuss the issue of mental competence, and proposed that she could appear by closed-circuit video from jail at the next hearing if that would resolve the matter.
Apparently not strip searching is not an option, and negotiating on medical and psychiatric treatment for a month is.
Her lawyers did enunciate in court that they believed the problem was her mental condition due to torture in captivity prior to her arrest.
Also, there seems to be confusion between the Pakistani government, the U.S. State Department, and her relatives over the state of the children. Inaccuracies in this kind of thing when dealing with all the different press outlets from so many countries occur, but it certainly looks like there is a negotiation over custody of more than one child right now, how that is happening, given the government story, hasn't been explained by any of the governments involved, or the family.
Just in case anyone is keeping track. The issue is not so big in the U.S. Even the issue of mistreatment in prison is not so big here. There are foreign consulates and ambassadors involved, and the U.S. is currently making a bid to expand the war into one of the countries. Oh, and the supply lines for about 40,000 troops go through the same country, which is teetering on instability right now over the reinstatement of some judges who demanded some prisoners be produced, charged, or released. Ms. Siddiqui's picture, which showed her looking particularly unhealthy, is the poster for it all. She might be the Mata Hari of Al Qaeda, or the Grey Lady of Bagram. But she is definitely a symbol in several countries of the inability of the U.S. to provide justice and the rule of law or even basic human rights.
She's also the symbol for allegations of torture. Allegations of torture are supposed to be investigated promptly, under both U.S. and international law, but in this case, the investigation consists of the D.A. and the U.S. Ambassador dismissing the allegations as ridiculous. So millions of people just think they are inveterate liars.
So it probably isn't important. At least the people being charged with terrorism in Minneapolis today won't be getting shot or being held incommunicado and in deprivation. Not yet, anyway. They're just anarchists, not Muslims.
