Video Is a Window Into a Terror Suspect’s Isolation”>
One spring day during his three and a half years as an enemy combatant, Jose Padilla experienced a break from the monotony of his solitary confinement in a bare cell in the brig at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, S.C. That day, Mr. Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert whom the Bush administration had accused of plotting a dirty bomb attack and had detained without charges, got to go to the dentist.
“Today is May 21,” a naval official declared to a camera videotaping the event. “Right now we’re ready to do a root canal treatment on Jose Padilla, our enemy combatant.”
Several guards in camouflage and riot gear approached cell No. 103. They unlocked a rectangular panel at the bottom of the door and Mr. Padilla’s bare feet slid through, eerily disembodied. As one guard held down a foot with his black boot, the others shackled Mr. Padilla’s legs. Next, his hands emerged through another hole to be manacled.
Wordlessly, the guards, pushing into the cell, chained Mr. Padilla’s cuffed hands to a metal belt. Briefly, his expressionless eyes met the camera before he lowered his head submissively in expectation of what came next: noise-blocking headphones over his ears and blacked-out goggles over his eyes. Then the guards, whose faces were hidden behind plastic visors, marched their masked, clanking prisoner down the hall to his root canal.
Now lawyers for Mr. Padilla, 36, suggest that he is unfit to stand trial. They argue that he has been so damaged by his interrogations and prolonged isolation that he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder and is unable to assist in his own defense. His interrogations, they say, included hooding, stress positions, assaults, threats of imminent execution and the administration of “truth serums.”
In his affidavit, Mr. Patel said, “I was told by members of the brig staff that Mr. Padilla’s temperament was so docile and inactive that his behavior was like that of ‘a piece of furniture.’ ”
We defend those who are presumed innocent, those who have no voice, no rights, no existence, those who are being tortured, because some assholes don’t understand the elementary principles of our nation. Hundreds of those kidnap victims have already been released. The charges against Padilla have been dismissed because Bush’s people could produce no evidence to back up their claims. None. He is being held illegally by Bush’s people, as the courts have ordered him released. I challenge all of you apologists to cite one, just ONE SINGLE CHARGE under which he is being held.
Is he being tortured because he has been tortured? Is he guilty because he has been tortured, and only guilty people get tortured? Apparently, YES!
Just remember Jose Padilla was arrested on US soil suspected of planning to commit a crime and has been held for years without even being charged while John Walker Lindh was found in Afghanistan actively fighting against the USA and got a trial.
Why is one an “enemy combatant” while the other one isn’t???
And oh yes. Those torturing Padilla against the law, those hiding in the dark, are protecting no one except themselves. Protecting themselves from a life sentence for conspiracy to kidnap, multiple aggravated assault and battery, probably rape, deviant sexual assault, illegal restraint, violations of the Geneva Accords, which are the law of the U.S.
I’m typing at my little keyboard, safe from harm because of the efforts of true heroes. The filth who did this to Padilla have protected no one but themselves. He was ordered released for lack of evidence. They don’t want him to talk. I assume they’ll keep him in sensory dep until his mind is completely gone, and then, then they’ll be safe — from the justice of the laws of the United States, and the laws of the world. The terrorists are those hiding in those dark little torture factories, shaking, doing anything they can to keep these victims broken and hidden. They know damned well that the press blamed one 18 year old teenaged girl private for all the torture in Iraq; they also know that Rumsfeld, Cheney and Gonzales will blame the men who actually held the electrodes. They know, oh yes, they will get the blame.
Free Kevin Mitnick!!!! 🙂
I can’t believe people are taking this at face value. First throw out everything his lawyer says because that is like taking Bush at face value, both are clearly biased. With that in mind read the story again. It was a long winded story about someone getting shackled before getting taken to get a root canal (and they probably had extra security because it is the dentist, lots of sharp and pointy objects). This just looked like standard procedure.
And no, Tokyo Rose is not a counter example, she was a avowed traitor, and she was tried. Period.
Comment by Lee
I know Lee is trying to advocate for a more reasonable voice, but it’s interesting that the “traitor” he cites was actually framed by the FBI, and later granted a full presidential pardon. So much for people learning from history.
Tokyo Rose was actually multiple voices, The one person convicted was actually only minorly involved.
Following is from WikkiPedia: “Iva Toguri D’Aquino was , a U.S. citizen visiting relatives in Japan at the start of the war. Unable to leave Japan after the start of hostilities, she took work at the Japanese radio show The Zero Hour. After the war, she was investigated and released when the FBI and the U.S. Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps found no evidence against her, but influential gossip columnist Walter Winchell lobbied against her. She was brought to the U.S., where she was charged and subsequently convicted of treason.
In 1949, testimony led to D’Aquino being convicted of one of eight counts of treason by the U.S. government.[ She was given a sentence of 10 years and a $10,000 fine. After six years, she was released and moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Chicago Tribune reporter Ron Yates identified her. Yates later went on to discover that Kenkichi Oki and George Mitsushio, who delivered the most damaging testimony, lied under oath.They stated they had been threatened by the FBI and U.S. occupation police and told what to say and what not to say just hours before the trial. On January 19, 1977, she was pardoned by U.S. President Gerald Ford, who also restored her citizenship.”
The problem with passionate Witch Hunts and Inquisitions is that they don’t really make you safer. They actually put you at risk of being the hunted one day.
You mention trials for the journalist, but what about the insurgents/freedomfighters/militiamen who have been captured?
O well, this ahole wouldn’t think twice about killing any American. All in the name of his backwards ass religion. I wouldn’t care if he ever saw the light of day again.
Comment by gquaglia — 12/4/2006 @ 11:18 am
Isn’t it great being a dipshit. Then advertising to the world just how much of a dipshit you are. There is no evidence to even suggest that Padilla wanted to kill anyone. Yet, the mere suggestion by this administration that Padilla is somehow is a terrorist is enough to send the dipshits like you screaming in hysterical delight that the sky is falling.
It also sends a message to all other would be jerk off terrorist, no civil rights, no slick, free attorney to get you off on a technicality, no hope of freedom. He deserves everything he gets.
Comment by gquaglia — 12/4/2006 @ 11:18 am
And when the “aholes” that tortured Padilla end up going before a military tribunal on charges of torture, then where will you be. Still screaming “he had it coming”, “the man with the gun rules”, “obey law and order”? Will they then be screaming for one of those “slick” lawyers.
gq, many times I have accused you of trolling. This, however, is past trolling. I just can not envision any one suggesting the victim of torture deserved it. Yet you have somehow transcended all bounds of the rule of law and human decency and blamed a tortured person for his own plight. Damn am I glad you are not an American.
#10, #3
The question is not whether the person responsible should be punished. The question has always been whether they got the right guy. Where is the evidence that supports the claim that Padilla did what he said he did? The core issue is that this US citizen was denied his Constitutional rights requiring his accusers to establish the veracity of their claim in a court of law. How many times have the police been caught making up evidence? How many times have the police mistakenly gotten the wrong guy? Look at the case of the Duke lacrosse kids. Even after DNA evidence established that they did not rape that girl, the government still wanted to put them away.
I didn’t read all the comments.
Basically I’m sick and fucking tired of a country that STARTS A FUCKING WAR, then justifies torture, loss of freedoms etc by citing THAT VERY SAME WAR.
YOU STARTED (OR BUSH ADMIN DID)THE FUCKING WAR. DO YOU NOT SEE THE HYPOCRISY IN USING THAT VERY SAME WAR TO JUSTIFY THE GOVT ACTION.
Personnally I think the US has lost it’s way, corporate greed has taken over your country and is affecting your policies. The current situation is going to take decades to repair. You can not kill someones family, call it “collateral damage” and not expect them to respond now or in the future.
Individually I’ve found Americans to be pleasant, but your(current) govt is a hateful greedy beast eerily similar to the puritans that helped settle America. Which is not a good thing.
All I can say is Good Luck, you’ll need it
Muhammad Ali once beat up his opponent for calling him Cassius Clay. Why do you all keep saying Jose Padilla? His name is Abdullah al-Muhajir.