Torture For The Fun Of It
Attorneys Question Competency of Jose Padilla
Attorneys for Jose Padilla have asked a federal judge to put off a hearing set for Friday to determine whether their client is competent to stand trial. Padilla's lawyers say he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, complicated by the neuropsychiatric effects of prolonged isolation. The Bush administration jailed him without charge after initially accusing him of plotting a dirty bomb attack. The Bush administration held Padilla in extreme isolation without almost any human contact for about 1300 days in a Navy brig in South Carolina. He was denied seeing an attorney for 21 months. His lawyers say interrogators used hooding, stress positions, assaults, threats of imminent execution and the administration of "truth serums." When Padilla left his cell, guards covered his ears with sound-canceling headphones. His eyes were covered blacked-out goggles. One staff member at the brig told attorneys that Padilla's temperament became so docile and inactive that his behavior was like that of "a piece of furniture." The U.S. Bureau of Prisons ruled last week that Padilla is fit to stand trial.
Source: Democracy Now, February 13, 2007
What is completely missing from this story is that, at some point, it became patently obvious that the torture of Padilla was not to obtain information, not for any plausible pretext whatsoever, but solely for the purpose of sadistic pleasure.
When Nazi Germany tortured people, it was considered a crime against humanity; when the U.S. does the same thing, it's...business as usual.
TLC
Attorneys for Jose Padilla have asked a federal judge to put off a hearing set for Friday to determine whether their client is competent to stand trial. Padilla's lawyers say he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, complicated by the neuropsychiatric effects of prolonged isolation. The Bush administration jailed him without charge after initially accusing him of plotting a dirty bomb attack. The Bush administration held Padilla in extreme isolation without almost any human contact for about 1300 days in a Navy brig in South Carolina. He was denied seeing an attorney for 21 months. His lawyers say interrogators used hooding, stress positions, assaults, threats of imminent execution and the administration of "truth serums." When Padilla left his cell, guards covered his ears with sound-canceling headphones. His eyes were covered blacked-out goggles. One staff member at the brig told attorneys that Padilla's temperament became so docile and inactive that his behavior was like that of "a piece of furniture." The U.S. Bureau of Prisons ruled last week that Padilla is fit to stand trial.
Source: Democracy Now, February 13, 2007
What is completely missing from this story is that, at some point, it became patently obvious that the torture of Padilla was not to obtain information, not for any plausible pretext whatsoever, but solely for the purpose of sadistic pleasure.
When Nazi Germany tortured people, it was considered a crime against humanity; when the U.S. does the same thing, it's...business as usual.
TLC
posted by TLC's Place at 1:08 PM
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