Videotape Offers a Window Into a Terror Suspect’s Isolation

[CTLawGuy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/us/04detain.html?hp&ex=1165208400&en=02ab7b458c838c22&ei=5094&partner=homepage

By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: December 4, 2006
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.

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In the videotape, Mr. Padilla's feet were shackled. The date of the tape has not been disclosed.
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.

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My gooodness, what these people do in our names! Bush and others responsible must be held accountable.

[Fluffdaddy]

1. Shocking that the Government in our name can be this brutal

to another American. Bush should be held accountable

[Demeter]

2. When I Read This, I No Longer Wanted to Be American

6 years of official brutality, stupidity and cupidity hadn't broken me, but this has.

I no longer believe that America is redeemable, or worth the effort to try to redeem her.

I believe that we are living Armageddon, without the pleasure of being dead.

[pberq]

3. Criminal

[pberq]

4. Government seeking to block disclosure of conditions of Padilla's confinement

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/04/1418208

Attorneys: Jose Padilla Unfit to Stand Trial After Years of Isolation
Lawyers for Jose Padilla are arguing that he is now unfit to stand trial because he has become mentally ill after years of imprisonment and interrogations. The government initially accused Padilla of plotting to set off a dirty bomb inside the United States. He was held as an enemy combatant in complete isolation. He wasn't allowed to see an attorney for 21 months. Padilla is now facing trial on less serious charges. His lawyers say 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.” The New York Times today published two new photos of Padilla in detention. One showed him being escorted by three guards dressed in riot gear with their faces hidden by plastic visors. He is wearing blacked out googles and noise-blocking headphones. His lawyers say that for three years Padilla had little human contact other than with his interrogators. His cell was electronically monitored. His meals were passed to him through a slot in the door. The windows were blackened. There was no clock or calendar. He slept on a steel platform after a foam mattress was taken from him. The New York times reports the Government is now seeking to block Padilla's lawyers from telling the jury about the conditions of his confinement at his trial.