The Gray Lady of Al Qaeda's son...an update.

I hate to say I told you so, but...I told you this story reeked of a set up and the family was full of hooey.

Boy's account casts doubt on family accusations.

Nevertheless, Afghan officials said that he had given an account under questioning that cast doubt on the family's claims that Siddiqui was in United States military detention in Afghanistan for five years.

The boy told them that he had lost his parents in Pakistan's 2005 earthquake and that he was adopted by Siddiqui, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sultan Ahmad Baheen, said. That suggests that she was free and living in Pakistan in 2005.

The boy also told Afghan investigators that he and his mother had traveled to Afghanistan from Pakistan only a few days before they were taken into custody, General Abdul Manan Farahi, head of the counterterrorism directorate of the Interior Ministry, said in an interview.

And that the boy had been brainwashed.

Farahi said the boy appeared to have been "brainwashed" and eventually admitted that he belonged to the extremist Pakistani group Jaish-e-Muhammad. Originally formed to fight in Kashmir, the group has established training camps in the Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and its fighters have been found in Afghanistan and in the valley of Swat.

The boy also told investigators that Siddiqui had gone to Afghanistan to look for her husband, a story that she had made up, Farahi said.

"The boy was very smart as he did not want to reveal things like the woman's activities and the organization that he was with," Farahi said. "He was speaking fluent English and Urdu," the general said. "He was very brave, confident and courageous," Farahi said, adding, "He was aware of religious issues and about jihad and was well informed."