The systematic destruction of Jose Padilla
December 4th, 2006
The New York Times today gives a glimpse of the systematic destruction of a human being as they describe the routine treatment of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla, held for years without charges as an “enemy combatant” until the government, on the eve of a crucial court hearing challenging their ability to hold him without charges, decided to charge him after all.
The Times article describes the total isolation he was held in for three and a half years, before being charged:
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.
This treatment as he was taken to the dentist was in order to continue the treatment that was his fate in his cell, day-in and day-out for months on end:
In the brig, Mr. Padilla was denied access to counsel for 21 months. Andrew Patel, one of his lawyers, said his isolation was not only severe but compounded by material and sensory deprivations. In an affidavit filed Friday, he alleged that Mr. Padilla was held alone in a 10-cell wing of the brig; that he had little human contact other than with his interrogators; that his cell was electronically monitored and his meals were passed to him through a slot in the door; that windows were blackened, and there was no clock or calendar; and that he slept on a steel platform after a foam mattress was taken from him, along with his copy of the Koran, “as part of an interrogation plan.”
Was this treatment because Padilla was violent, a threat to the guards or to others? Evidently not:
One of Mr. Padilla’s lawyers, Orlando do Campo, said, however, that Mr. Padilla was a “completely docile” prisoner. “There was not one disciplinary problem with Jose ever, not one citation, not one act of disobedience,” said Mr. do Campo, who is a lawyer at the Miami federal public defender’s office.
In his affidavit, Mr. Patel (another attorney) 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.’ ”
Rather than any necessity to control him, Jose Padilla experienced the total isolation that is at the core of the U.S. government’s decades-under-development program of psychological torture. According to Padilla’s attorneys:
“his interrogations… included hooding, stress positions, assaults, threats of imminent execution and the administration of ‘truth serums.’”
Compare this with Alfred McCoy’s description of the CIA’s psychological torture techniques:
While these CIA drug experiments led nowhere and the testing of electric shock as a technique led only to lawsuits, research into sensory deprivation proved fruitful indeed. In fact, this research produced a new psychological rather than physical method of torture, perhaps best described as “no-touch” torture.
The Agency’s discovery was a counterintuitive breakthrough, the first real revolution in this cruel science since the seventeenth century — and thanks to recent revelations from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, we are now all too familiar with these methods, even if many Americans still have no idea of their history. Upon careful examination, those photographs of nude bodies expose the CIA’s most basic torture techniques — stress positions, sensory deprivation, and sexual humiliation.
We don’t know about sexual humiliation, but the rest of these techniques were apparently used upon Padilla.
[An excellent account of these these techniques, with extensive quotes from the CIA's now declassified KUBARK interrogation manual are provided by Daily Kos diarist Valtin in his Torture 101: CIA text on teaching "coercive interrogation"]
As the Times article indicates, Padilla is textbook case of what these techniques accomplish:
Dr. Angela Hegarty, director of forensic psychiatry at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, N.Y., who examined Mr. Padilla for a total of 22 hours in June and September, said in an affidavit filed Friday that he “lacks the capacity to assist in his own defense.”
“It is my opinion that as the result of his experiences during his detention and interrogation, Mr. Padilla does not appreciate the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him, is unable to render assistance to counsel, and has impairments in reasoning as the result of a mental illness, i.e., post-traumatic stress disorder, complicated by the neuropsychiatric effects of prolonged isolation,” Dr. Hegarty said in an affidavit for the defense….
Mr. Padilla’s lawyers say they have had a difficult time persuading him that they are on his side.
From the time Mr. Padilla was allowed access to counsel, Mr. Patel visited him repeatedly in the brig and in the Miami detention center, and Mr. Padilla has observed Mr. Patel arguing on his behalf in Miami federal court.
But, Mr. Patel said in his affidavit, his client is nonetheless mistrustful. “Mr. Padilla remains unsure if I and the other attorneys working on his case are actually his attorneys or another component of the government’s interrogation scheme,” Mr. Patel said….
He is especially reluctant to discuss what happened in the brig, fearful that he will be returned there some day, Mr. Patel said in his affidavit.
“During questioning, he often exhibits facial tics, unusual eye movements and contortions of his body,” Mr. Patel said. “The contortions are particularly poignant since he is usually manacled and bound by a belly chain when he has meetings with counsel.”
Why did this psychological torture continue for years on end? Originally one can imagine that they actually thought Padilla had some secrets to reveal. But long before the three and half years were up, they surely must have realized that he had no secrets to reveal. So why continue? One can only speculate. Were they conducting a barbarous experiment, trying to determine what it would take to destroy his personality? Was it simply brutal punishment for the humiliation experienced by those who ordered this treatment after they realized he was not the big terrorist they had fantasized they had in their power? Did the mechanisms of barbarity just grind ever onward after being set in motion by an administration determined to get the maximum press coverage out of this low-level arrest?
It is critical that we find out how these years of barbaric actions continued, who was responsible, for in this decision lies the potential future of us all. These types of abuses have a 50-year history of being utilized by the United States government. They periodically get exposed and condemned, but they continue to be developed and promulgated. The recently passed Military Commissions Act (a.k.a. the Indefinite Detention and Torture Legalization Act of 2006) allows any one of us to share his fate upon the say-so of a single individual, the President. The only way they will stop is when those responsible are held accountable, both to public opinion and to the law. Otherwise, the fate of Jose Padilla may well become the fate of any of us.
Entry Filed under: Guantanamo, Psychology, Rights and Liberties, Social Issues, Terrorism, Torture
6 Comments Add your own
1. Bilgeman | December 4th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Dr. Soldz:
“Why did this psychological torture continue for years on end?”
What “psychological torture” are you babbling about?
Padilla’s treatment as YOU describe it, is a result of what his attorneys are alleging it is.
Or hadn’t you notived the attributions?
” Andrew Patel, one of his lawyers, said his isolation was not only severe ”
and:
“One of Mr. Padilla’s lawyers, Orlando do Campo, said, however, that Mr. Padilla was a “completely docile” prisoner.”
and especially THIS:
“Dr. Angela Hegarty, director of forensic psychiatry at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, N.Y., who examined Mr. Padilla for a total of 22 hours in June and September, said in an affidavit filed Friday that he “lacks the capacity to assist in his own defense.”
WOW…she works FAST! She can diagnose this guy as agovernment manufactured vegetable after only 22 hours of interview time!
I wonder how many readers of the NYT, after redaing that article, are beginning to suspect that their therapists are milking them for whatever mundane baskets of depression, neurosis and anxieties they bring to THEIR sessions?
Of course, NYT readers are, by definition, a pretty ripe crop of suckers to begin with,(This often happens to people who think they’re so much smarter than everyone else), so maybe the difference in diagnosis times will never even register upon their consciousnesses.
Look, ace, the government found that Padilla has a right to a defense, and I don’t begrudge his shysters their good-faith and due-diligence efforts to have their client beat the rap.
And I don’t even begrudge the NYT’s role in reporting the BS that Padilla’s mouthpieces are spouting. That’s what a free press is SUPPOSED to do, if it so desires.
I do however, take issue with folks like you who buy the whole line of hogwash and regurgitate it to the public as though you were Moses just down from the mountain.
You SHOULD know better.
And because of this:
““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.””
Now I know this may be a hard concept for you to grasp, but DO give it the old college try, alright?
Look, if I’m going to turn this clown into a “sentient futon”, and shoot him up with Sooper Seekret CIA dope to make his mind into an overcooked noodle…
…wait for it
…wait for it
…then why in the world am I going to worry about his diseased freakin’ gums?
Now, go and smoke 30 or 40 bong-hits and see if you can dream up some answer to that, m’kay?
Regards;
2. Keith Asbell | December 5th, 2006 at 3:28 am
“Did the mechanisms of barbarity just grind ever onward after being set in motion by an administration determined to get the maximum press coverage out of this low-level arrest?”
What is barbaric to me is evidently different from what is barbaric to you. To me, it is barbaric to detonate a dirty bomb(or any other kind of bomb for that matter) for the purpose of maiming and killing innocent civilians. It is barbaric in my eyes for suicide bombers to enter produce markets where civilians are simply trying buy food and blow themselves up along with countless numbers of civilians. It is barbaric in my opinion to fly a jet liner into a high rise building and murder thousands of civilians who are simply working their jobs to try to better the lives of themselves and their families. I also believe it to be barbaric not to mention treasonous for citizens of our country to support these Muslim fundamentalist CRIMINALS. How many criminal attacks do these people have to perpetrate against our country and our citizens to make the liberal left understand their mindset? What could your thought process possibly be? I can hear it now. “These are but a few radical individuals who committ these crimes” and other nonsense cliches along that thought process. I have news for you. It is not a few radical individuals. It is a war declared on America and Americans by Muslims around the world. They manipulate the news media time and time again even after their lies and deceptions surface. They continue to maim and kill everyday, yet our news media chooses to overlook that fact and instead helps them attempt to justify their behavior with ridiculous excuses and false stories of tragedy.
My heart does NOT bleed for Jose Padilla. My heart does not bleed for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. My heart does not bleed for prisoners at secret CIA prisons around the world. My heart DOES bleed for all of those who have bled and died at the hands of these mentally deranged, terroristic morons who prey on innocent people all over the world. As should yours…
3. Ragnar B. Johannessen | December 5th, 2006 at 10:41 am
1. Bilgeman, 2. Keith Asbell,
What utterly evil comments that you have posted! Don’t you realize that you have thrown the important and very fundamental principle of “presumption of innocence” overboard? Both of you proceed as if the person in question has been through a bona fide and normal court case where the question of guilt has been responsibly investigated, discussed and considered. This is the way civilized society goes about it when it wants to find out about guilt or innocence. This has not been done yet, and consequently society simply does not know. This means that neither you nor I know right now whether Jose Padilla is guilty or innocent. WE DO NOT KNOW!
1. Bilgeman: Your comment to Dr. Soldz is personal (ad hominem) and nasty. You are being very aggressive.
2. Keith Asbell: Your comment is totally lacking in compassion BOTH vis-à-vis the victims of terrorist crimes AND the presumably innocent Mr. Padilla. You do not know the first thing about compassion and you just want to play compassionate in order to use it as a launching pad for aggression against Mr. Padilla and “the terrorists”.
Both of you are suffering from the “us v. them” syndrome. You are tribalistic in your approach to this matter. Calm down and come to your senses!
Please read this article: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2006/11/21/p12338
Grow up!
4. Bilgeman | December 5th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
Ragnar B. Johannessen:
” Bilgeman: Your comment to Dr. Soldz is personal (ad hominem) and nasty. You are being very aggressive.”
Thank you for your subjective and unbiased opinion on the matter.
That aside, do you think he would answer the question about the evil government’s providing Padilla the dental care necessary for his advanced pyorhhea?
It is certainly relevant to the “psychological torture” that Soldz asserts that this fellow is suffering.
“Both of you proceed as if the person in question has been through a bona fide and normal court case where the question of guilt has been responsibly investigated, discussed and considered.”
Ahhh, but Mr.Padilla indeed WAS “responsibly investigated discussed,(whatever THAT means), and considerd.”
In fact, chum, he was tried and convicted by a jury of his peers, and incarcerated for a crime of violence…aggravated assault.
And this before he ever converted to Islam.
“Both of you are suffering from the “us v. them” syndrome.”
You’re quite right, except that I am not “suffering” from it at all.
This is the way our enemies perceive us. In case you hadn’t noticed.
They did not “pick and choose” WHAT KIND of Americans were at the WTC…they murdered the lot of ‘em….any of us.
At this point, i stand in greater jeopardy from Islamofascist terrorists than I do from the US intelligence and law-enforcement apparat.
“Grow up!”
And NOW who is being “nasty and aggressive”?
Regards;
5. Ragnar B. Johannessen | December 6th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Bilgeman:
“That aside, do you think he would answer the question about the evil government’s providing Padilla the dental care necessary for his advanced pyorhhea?”
We know that the Gov’t SAID that this was the purpose of this bizarre and disturbing episode. The U.S. government certainly is evil and I have stopped trusting it long ago and so should you. -The purpose may have been different from what you think. We don’t know what it was. Learn to live with uncertainy, with not knowing.
“It is certainly relevant to the “psychological torture” that Soldz asserts that this fellow is suffering.”
“This fellow” certainly is being psychologically tortured –this isolation and sensory deprivation are DEVASTATING to the human mind. Don’t let your ignorance of this scientific fact stop you from realizing the full horror of Mr. Padilla’s situation.
“Ahhh, but Mr.Padilla indeed WAS “responsibly investigated discussed,(whatever THAT means), and considerd.” In fact, chum, he was tried and convicted by a jury of his peers, and incarcerated for a crime of violence…aggravated assault.”
No, he has NOT been through a bona fide court case. A kangaroo court has dealt with his “case” and neither do you, I or the rest of society for that matter know anything whatsoever at all about his alleged crimes. Again, learn to live with uncertainy, with not knowing.
“Both of you are suffering from the “us v. them” syndrome.” You’re quite right, except that I am not “suffering” from it at all.”
If you are not “suffering” from it, it is because you still lack a clear understanding of the difference between the concepts of ‘objectively’ and ‘subjectively’. The beginning of knowledge for you will be when you actually start suffering from this syndrome, i.e. from your awakening conscience about the dire straits that your soul finds itself in. From then on you will grow, in an inner sense, and the pain will recede.
“This is the way our enemies perceive us. In case you hadn’t noticed.”
You worst enemy is you, yourself. Ultimately there is no other enemy than this. When you start to look upon you neighbors with compassionate and loving eyes, you will understand that what I am saying is true.
“They did not “pick and choose” WHAT KIND of Americans were at the WTC…they murdered the lot of ‘em….any of us.”
What has this got to do with Mr. Padilla? Nothing at all! You don’t know anything about him, except what the media & the Gov’t have been telling you and they may well have been lying, as far as you are concerned. You DON*T know. Again, learn to live with uncertainy, with not knowing.
“At this point, i stand in greater jeopardy from Islamofascist terrorists than I do from the US intelligence and law-enforcement apparat.”
How would you know? -Just because this is what they keep telling you? Besides, it is not very logical of you to want to point out the danger Islamist fascism while at the same time playing down the great danger of fascism made in the US of A. Fascism is fascism, and mind you, it wasn’t the “Islamofascists” who took your civil rights away from you, trampled upon your Constitution and Bill of Rights and who created more than 800 concentration camps in various parts of the U.S.. For all you know, you may disappear into one of those camps one day yourself, never to be seen or heard of again. All this terror and looming fascist oppression is being created by your own government, not by the “Islamofascists”. Seems to me that you are looking for dangers in the wrong direction.
“Grow up!”And NOW who is being “nasty and aggressive”?
You wanted to play hardball with Dr. Soldz and here this big and tough Bilgeman is whining about my tone! What am I to say? –We ALL have to grow up! We all have work to do. It never stops. I am growing up too. I hope it never stops. I hope I will grow & grow & grow…
6. Ragnar B. Johannessen | December 6th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
“That aside, do you think he would answer the question about the evil government’s providing Padilla the dental care necessary for his advanced pyorhhea?”
We know that the Gov’t SAID that this was the purpose of this bizarre and disturbing episode. The U.S. government certainly is evil and I have stopped trusting it long ago and so should you. -The purpose may have been different from what you think. We don’t know what it was. Learn to live with uncertainy, with not knowing.
“It is certainly relevant to the “psychological torture” that Soldz asserts that this fellow is suffering.”
“This fellow” certainly is being psychologically tortured –this isolation and sensory deprivation are DEVASTATING to the human mind. Don’t let your ignorance of this scientific fact stop
you from realizing the full horror of Mr. Padilla’s situation.
“Ahhh, but Mr.Padilla indeed WAS “responsibly investigated discussed,(whatever THAT means), and considerd.” In fact, chum, he was tried and convicted by a jury of his peers, and incarcerated for a crime of violence…aggravated assault.”
No, he has NOT been through a bona fide court case. A kangaroo court has dealt with his “case” and neither do you, I or the rest of society for that matter know anything whatsoever at all about his alleged crimes. Again, learn to live with uncertainy, with not knowing.
“Both of you are suffering from the “us v. them” syndrome.” You’re quite right, except that I am not “suffering” from it at all.”
If you are not “suffering” from it, it is because you still lack a clear understanding of the difference between the concepts of ‘objectively’ and ‘subjectively’. The beginning of knowledge for you will be when you actually start suffering from this syndrome, i.e. from your awakening conscience about the dire straits that your soul finds itself in. From then on you will grow, in an inner sense, and the pain will recede.
“This is the way our enemies perceive us. In case you hadn’t noticed.”
You worst enemy is you, yourself. Ultimately there is no other enemy than this. When you start to look upon you neighbors with compassionate and loving eyes, you will understand that what I am saying is true.
“They did not “pick and choose” WHAT KIND of Americans were at the WTC…they murdered the lot of ‘em….any of us.”
What has this got to do with Mr. Padilla? Nothing at all! You don’t know anything about him, except what the media & the Gov’t have been telling you and they may well have been lying, as far as you are concerned. You DON*T know. Again, learn to live with uncertainy, with not knowing.
“At this point, i stand in greater jeopardy from Islamofascist terrorists than I do from the US intelligence and law-enforcement apparat.”
How would you know? -Just because this is what they keep telling you? Besides, it is not very logical of you to want to point out the danger Islamist fascism while at the same time playing down the great danger of fascism made in the US of A. Fascism is fascism, and mind you, it wasn’t the “Islamofascists” who took your civil rights away from you, trampled upon your Constitution and Bill of Rights and who created more than 800 concentration camps in various parts of the U.S.. For all you know, you may disappear into one of those camps one day yourself, never to be seen or heard of again. All this terror and looming fascist oppression is being created by your own government, not by the “Islamofascists”. Seems to me that you are looking for dangers in the wrong direction.
“Grow up!”And NOW who is being “nasty and aggressive”?
You wanted to play hardball with Dr. Soldz and here this big and tough Bilgeman is whining about my tone! What am I to say? –We ALL have to grow up! We all have work to do. It never stops. I am growing up too. I hope it never stops. I hope I will grow & grow & grow…
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