Rashomon

Human perception is a very individual thing. Several individuals present during a situation see completely different situations unfolding before their very eyes. Each takes out of their exposure to an event their individual perceptions of cause and effect. The conundrum facing psychologists of how to interpret vastly different perceptions to a mutually-witnessed event has long been a vexing one.

Not to be confused, however, with two singular entities making deliberate attempts to present events and their unfolding in the light of their singular needs; to make a case for or supporting their individual purposes. So that two entities can provide starkly different time-lines, events descriptions and ultimately, reasons. Each determined to persuade the questioner that events unfolded as they described them, not as the other has done.

In which case it would take the judgement of Solomon to arrive at the truth of the matter. Or a clever investigator to unveil the presence of irrefutable evidence that would point to the truth residing with one retailer of the event, or the other. Take the case of a Pakistani woman, Aafia Siddiqui whose academic education as a neuroscientist took place in a prestigious U.S. university and whom the U.S. military now accuses of being an al-Qaeda operative.

This young and highly educated Pakistani woman was, in effect, abducted by the U.S. military
while in the hands of Afghan police. The Americans claiming that she had al-Qaeda contacts, and was herself a jihadist, attempting upon her arrest by them to kill one of them, shouting she wanted to kill all Americans. In the process of which she was herself shot countless times in her torso.

How utterly despicable, how untrustworthy. A woman whom the United States permitted to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to obtain an elite education. She was privileged to live a middle-class lifestyle in Massachusetts. Yet this ingrate turned against Americans and attempted to murder members of their military. What can you expect from a Muslim?

Oh, and by the way, there's the other story, one that appears to have few similarities to that detailed by the U.S. military personnel. The other story is of a highly intelligent woman whose cerebral ability allowed her to enter a prestigious American university and obtain an elite degree in an elite science. Returning back to Pakistan to apply her education.

And as the Afghan police would have it, they had her in custody after having become suspicious of her presence, close to the provincial governor's compound in the city of Ghazni. They found her to be in possession of maps of the city, as well as of the whereabouts of the governor's house, leading to her arrest.

Whereas the Americans claim that bomb-making documents were found in her possession, along with a publication, Anarchist's Arsenal, as well as descriptions of U.S. landmarks, and sealed substances in bottles. A highly suspicious situation in anyone's estimation, let alone in such an incendiary arena.

U.S. troops, according to the Afghan police, insisted the woman be given over to them. When the police resisted, according to a senior Ghazni police officer, they were disarmed by the U.S. soldiers, and Ms. Siddiqui taken into their custody. Where she complained to the Americans of mistreatment by the police. This was said to have taken place in mid-July, 2008.

The Afghan police observed that the U.S. troops "thinking that she had explosives and would attack them as a suicide bomber, shot her and took her". That was their version of the events as they unfolded, quite at odds with the explanation given by the U.S. military. And then there's more to the story, with her relatives claiming she had been subject to dreadful abuse by the U.S. military.

With her three children, she had mysteriously disappeared from her parents' house located in Karachi, back in 2003. And had been held at Bagram, Afghanistan, according to Pakistani human rights groups. Where, according to members of her family she was raped and tortured. "Her rape and torture is a crime beyond anything she was ever accused of", her sister said.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan is prodding the Pakistani government to plead her case for release from U.S. custody. "Dr. Aafia's case is a reminder of the grave injustice done to God knows how many Pakistanis in U.S. detention facilities in Bagram in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, who have been listed as missing."

It would be more than a little interesting to find some truth in this morass of conflicting claims and testimony. But if Aafia Siddiqui was indeed held in Bagram and torture and rape inflicted on her, little wonder she wanted revenge. It's a tangled tale of intrigue; a lot of loose ends needing to be tied, to present a coherent whole.

But whose?