NYC trial of reputed al-Qaida associate begins

The strange case of Aafia Siddiqui is riddled with curious questions.

Why did she surface in Afghanistan in 2008 carrying notes that authorities claim referred to a "mass casualty attack"? How did she end up in an alleged shootout after her capture? And will she keep up her courtroom rants?

Jurors should get some answers Tuesday when Siddiqui's attempted murder and assault trial starts in federal court in Manhattan. The defendant - a reputed al-Qaida associate and neuroscience specialist trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University - has already offered her own odd objections and commentary.

"There's too many lies, injustices and hypocrisies here," she announced last week during jury selection.

The frail-looking 37-year-old Siddiqui also argued that she can't get a fair trial with Jews on the jury.

"If they have a Zionist or Israeli background . . . they are all mad at me," she said. "They should be excluded if you want to be fair."

Siddiqui hasn't been charged with terrorism. But her case has drawn attention in part because authorities have accused her of fleeing the United States to her native Pakistan in 2003 after marrying an al-Qaida operative related to Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the admitted mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Her supporters maintain she was kidnapped and held in U.S. custody before mysteriously turning up last summer in Afghanistan.

Afghan police turned Siddiqui over to U.S. authorities there, along with a handwritten list she was carrying of New York City landmarks including the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge, prosecutors said.

They also cited seized notes "that referred to a 'mass casualty attack' " and to "the construction of dirty bombs, chemical and biological weapons and other explosives," but have never alleged a specific terror plot.

The government's version of what happened next adds to Siddiqui's mystique: Prosecutors say that while waiting to be interrogated in a police compound full of soldiers and U.S. agents, she somehow picked up a rifle, announced her "desire to kill Americans" and fired.

She missed, but was wounded by return fire.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman had Siddiqui removed from the courtroom for the afternoon after she blurted out to prospective jurors, "I had nothing to do with 9/11."