Psyche, Science, and Society

Padilla interrogation tape “lost”

March 10th, 2007

Valtin, over at Daily Kos discusses the news that the government has “lost” (presumably meaning they don’t want the court to see it) the tape of Jose Padilla’s last interrogation. Padilla, of course, is the US citizen who was systematically driven crazy by the full panoply of psychological torture techniques, including years of total isolation and radical sensory deprivation.

As has only today been reported by AP’s Curt Anderson (over at Yahoo News), the judge in the Padilla case is incredulous, while the defense attorneys are calling “foul”:

“Padilla attorney Anthony Natale said in court papers that the March 2, 2004, interrogation at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., could contain information the government conveyed to Padilla that “directly impacts upon his relationship with his attorneys”….

Authorities made 88 video recordings of Padilla being interrogated during the 3 1/2 years he was held at the brig as an “enemy combatant,” officials said. Eighty-seven tapes have been given to the defense, leaving only the last session unaccounted for….

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke was incredulous that anything connected to such a high-profile defendant could be lost.

“Do you understand how it might be difficult for me to understand that a tape related to this particular individual just got mislaid?” Cooke told prosecutors at a hearing last month.”

Entry Filed under: Constitutional Law, Law, Psychology, Rights and Liberties, Torture