A Pakistani scientist pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court to charges of attempting to kill U.S. military and FBI agents at a police compound in Afghanistan. Clad in a white head scarf at a hearing before Southern District of New York Judge Richard M. Berman, Aafia Siddiqui, who is accused of grabbing an M-4 rifle and trying to shoot members of an interview team at an Afghan National Police Compound on July, 18, 2008, shouted out to a packed courtroom, “They’re not my attorneys. I have fired them many times.”
Following the outburst, government lawyers told Judge Berman that they should be allowed to introduce materials at Ms. Siddiqui’s trial, which is scheduled to start Jan. 19, including sodium cyanide and handwritten notes written in Urdu and English referring to a “mass casualty attack” in the United States. The government maintained the materials, which were allegedly found on Siddiqui on July 17, 2008, are “inextricably intertwined” with the crimes charged.
