Outburst gets terror suspect pulled from courtroom

NEW YORK — A U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist and reputed al-Qaida supporter punctuated the first day of her attempted murder trial Tuesday by shouting that the prosecution's first witness was lying, prompting her to be pulled from the courtroom.

Aafia Siddiqui is charged with trying to kill U.S. military officers and FBI agents in an Afghanistan police station after grabbing a U.S. soldier's rifle. Her outburst came less than two hours after her trial began in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

U.S. Army Capt. Robert Snyder had just testified that handwritten documents found in Siddiqui's purse included targets for a mass casualty attack, including the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and the Brooklyn Bridge.

"I was never planning a bombing! You're lying!" Siddiqui yelled as she was rushed out of court. She said she never plotted against landmarks and had been held in a secret prison.

With Siddiqui gone, Snyder described the chaotic July 18, 2008, confrontation between her and a room filled with Afghan and U.S. military and law enforcement representatives in an Afghan police station in Ghazni.

Snyder said he was seated in a 300-square-foot room when he looked toward a yellow curtain and saw a woman kneeling on a bed and pointing a U.S.-issued rifle at him.

"I could see the inner portion of the barrel which indicated to me it was pointing straight at my head," he said. "I was absolutely certain there was nothing I could do to get out of her line of fire."

A prosecutor asked him if he thought he was going to die.

"Absolutely," Snyder said.

Snyder said he leaped out of the way when Siddiqui hesitated for a second as she attempted to rest the rifle on her shoulder. He said he realized she might not understand how to operate the rifle.

He said he jumped from his seat, heard the rifle go off more than once and rushed for the door, the last to escape the room. He said he drew his pistol, returning seconds later to see Siddiqui fighting with an interpreter for the Army who had pushed the rifle out of harm's way.

As Snyder joined the effort to subdue her, he noticed she was bleeding from the stomach — a wound he said he later learned was caused by return pistol fire by a soldier who failed to secure his rifle. She was "pleading for us to kill her rather than just detaining her," Snyder said.