Attorneys: Bush officials knew of S.C. torture

[struggle4progress]

Source: Associated Press

Friday, Jan. 30, 2009
Judge challenges assertion in case of enemy combatant
By Meg Kinnard

... U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert S. Carr asked pointed questions of attorneys for Jose Padilla on how they could prove not only that their client was tortured but that top Bush administration officials knew it. The judge will rule later on the Justice Department's request to dismiss the case.

"They knew what was going on at the brig and they permitted it to continue," said Tahlia Townsend, an attorney from New Haven, Conn., representing Padilla. "Defendants Rumsfeld and <Deputy Paul> Wolfowitz were routinely consulted on these kinds of questions" ...

Carr also questioned Padilla's attorneys over what rights their client has, as both a U.S. citizen and a declared enemy combatant. Hope Metcalf, of Yale Law School's Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, argued that while there may be no U.S. Supreme Court case on that specific issue, enemy combatants at a minimum should have the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

Padilla has alleged he was shackled in painful "stress positions," a technique used at Guantanamo Bay that a bipartisan U.S. Senate panel ruled last year was the direct result of Bush administration detention policies, not individual guards or interrogators.

Read more: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/764293.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Do unto others." - Jesus Christ to Republicon Homelanders and all

Republicon Torture Freaks gots a Major Mess of anti-Christian karma to atone for...

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Holy shit....that is some pic.

[Lugnut]

2. K&R n/t

[kpete]

3. Bush officials authorized torture of US citizen, lawyers say

Source: Raw Story

Bush officials authorized torture of US citizen, lawyers say
John Byrne
Published: Friday January 30, 2009

Attorneys for US citizen Jose Padilla -- who was convicted of material support for terrorist activities in 2007 -- say that high-level Bush Administration officials knew their client was being tortured during the time he was held an enemy combatant in a South Carolina brig, because of the command structure and that then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld employed in approving harsh interrogation tactics.

Rumsfeld approved the harsh interrogation techniques early in Bush's presidency. In Iraq, a cheat sheet titled "Interrogation Rules of Engagement," revealed that some of them required the Iraq commanding general's approval.

Among those requiring approval are tactics Padilla's mother and lawyer say he was the victim of: "Sleep adjustment," "Sleep management, "Sensory deprivation," "isolation lasting longer than thirty days" and "stress" positions." It wouldn't be a shock if military guards went beyond the traditional treatment of a US prisoner, given Rumsfeld's approved techniques and that Padilla was is legal limbo as an enemy combatant and eligible to be held for years without charge.

Padilla and his mother filed suit against the US government last year alleging a litany of harsh interrogation practices they said were tantamount to torture. His lawyer also says he was held in isolation for years while held at the South Carolina brig.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_officials_authorized_torture_of_US_0130.html

[pleah]

4. K&R So, when are they going to prosecute Rumsfeld and the others?

?

[jpak]

5. K&R&prosecute

n/t

[derby378]

6. Prosecute, already

What the hell are we waiting for? Obama won. We're getting a new AG. Time to quit talkin' and start chalkin'.

[sellitman]

7. Water Board Rumsfeld if it isn't torture.

Lets see how he likes it.

[democrank]

8. We can`t let up.

Something has to be done about this.

[annabanana]

9. This is the story that they DO NOT WANT the white hot light of

media focus on.

If the government can snatch him, disappear him and torture him.. They can do it to you. The fact that he is an American citizen, and was "apprehended" on American soil was no impediment to his profoundly unconstitutional treatment.

[SpiralHawk]

14. "Move along. There's nothing to see here." - Republicon corporate media Brown Nosers

eom

[Marie26]

10. This article is so badly written

that I can hardly make sense of it.

[NM Independent]

11. Let's see...

DUH!!!

[gratuitous]

13. We're getting to it at last

The rights enumerated in the Constitution are available to everyone or no one. If it's a United States agency administering a facility, all the rules apply or none of them do. Either all of us, from the First Citizen right down to the lowliest terrorist murdering scum (and there may not be as great a distance between the two as you might think) deserve the rights and protections of the Constitution, or none of us. That includes the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. And while the Bush administration would like to cram a few more angels to dance on the head of that pin by arguing about what is or is not "torture," there's no doubt or discussion that we have treated these detainees cruelly, against our own Constitution.

George W. Bush, his administration and his armies, failed to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution time and again. What is a fit punishment for such craven oath-breaking?

[davsand]

15. Civilized nations do not torture--PERIOD.

They arrested an American citizen in America, held him in American facilities and tried him on American soil. At what point in the process was he stripped of any protection from torture and abuse?

If you ever stood publicly in criticism of the last regime, you need to stop and consider that you could well have ended up in this guy's place. Anyone of ANY political stripe that values the ability to associate as you please or exercise free speech needs to stop and look hard at what they did to this guy right here in the US. This is not some "dirty dude in a turban" captured in battle on the other side of the planet.

When we execute serial murderers and baby killers in this country we debate how to "humanely" do it. How does THAT square with the case of a guy that was convicted of associating with terrorists and attempting to plan a crime?

Beats hell out of me, but this sure isn't the country that my 7th grade Social Studies teacher told me about.



Laura