Padilla: Dismiss charges because I was tortured

[Scurrilous]

The suspect in a terror case said charges against him should be dropped because, he said, he was tortured in U.S. custody while being detained as an `enemy combatant.'

<snip>

"Jose Padilla, the former enemy combatant now accused of joining a suspected South Florida terror cell, says a federal judge should throw out an indictment against him because he was "tortured by the United States government without cause or justification.''

Padilla -- a U.S. citizen who called Fort Lauderdale home during the 1990s -- claims he was so mistreated in military detention by interrogators that prosecutors should be barred from trying him on terrorism charges in Miami federal court.

On Monday, the U.S. attorney's office was given until Nov. 13 by the presiding judge to respond to Padilla's allegations.

Padilla claims he was isolated in a tiny cell around the clock, deprived of sleep on a steel bunk with no mattress, shackled and manacled for hours on end, and threatened with being cut with a knife and having alcohol poured on the wounds. He also claims he was given drugs against his will -- believed to be LSD or PCP -- "to act as a sort of truth serum during his interrogations.''

Padilla's allegations in court papers mark the first time he has given his account of his detention in a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina from June 2002 until December 2005. Padilla, 36, had been in the Middle East allegedly training with the al Qaeda terrorist group before his arrest by the FBI in the United States on May 8, 2002."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15889665.htm

[Dhalgren]

1. He should be released.

He is an American citizen. He may have been guilty of some crimes, but the government has lost the right to hold him because of its treatment of him. It isn't the law's fault, it is the fault of the government agents who violated his rights and abused their authority. Release him, he has gone through enough...

[saigon68]

2. Amen these Government Thugs have to be stopped

[gratuitous]

3. They can't afford to release him now

Or ever. As long as these allegations of torture are out there, the Bush administration can't release Padilla. The damage his allegations have done to the administration and the worse damage they would do should the charges be voluntarily dismissed would totally cripple the administration and its unitary executive (a fancy phrase meaning "dictator") theory of governance. This is more of that "asymmetrical warfare" (a fancy phrase meaning "we committed a crime and now the victim seeks the proper redress due him") in which the victim of torture becomes more credible and a more sympathetic figure than the government that tortured him.

This is America under George W. Bush.

[Supersedeas]

11. sounds like a sound definition of 'incompetence' to me

[gratuitous]

14. It's the inevitable consequence of torture

You torture someone because they might have information that you think can't be obtained any other way (the most charitable circumstance; I think the Bush administration tortures because it wants to show that it can do anything it wants to). But unless this is that one-in-a-gazillion Hollywood scenario where torture actually elicits usable information that stops an imminent attack, the person who was tortured can never be released -- if the torturer was a government organization. If you're a shadowy terrorist network simply looking to further a criminal enterprise, then it might be useful to release a tortured captive to spread the word that you mean business.

But if you're an allegedly legitimate government looking to use information extracted by torture in a court proceeding under standardized rules of procedure and international treaty law, you can never bring a tortured suspect to court, because it casts a pall of reasonable doubt over every step of the proceeding. So torture becomes not just a reprehensible practice rightfully condemned by civilized people everywhere, it's useless in administering anything resembling justice.

The Bush administration was forced to bring Padilla to court, but they can't possibly go through with a trial. Padilla will have to be administratively executed to prevent embarrassment and loss of political face for the Bush administration. Whether he'll hang himself in his cell or be shot while attempting to escape will be up to the discretion of his keepers.

[daleo]

16. Perhaps he will have a convenient heart attack. n/t

[aquart]

4. So. We tortured an American citizen?

And I see that we were mild compared to Abu Ghraib. But that was, of course, before it was legal.

[gully]

9. Correction "questioned" an "enemy combatant."

:sarcasm:

[The Stranger]

5. Anyone who was involved with his illegal military incarceration should be at risk for

being both civilly and criminally liable.

[rmgarrette64]

17. Note the next sentence in the article

This part of the article was not posted above:


Padilla provides no evidence to support the allegations contained in a federal court motion filed this month, though his legal team has gathered details of his military detention. He was transferred to the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami in January.


I believe any guards or soldiers involved in Padilla's incarceration deserve at least as much benefit of the doubt as we would like to give Padilla. While it is certainly possible that he was, in fact, tortured as he claims, I do not believe that is a forgone conclusion. It is possible that he is simply lying. We should absolutely not throw out charges, or begin charging his guards, absent any proof of his claims.

Sorry if this doesn't fit in to the usual narrative, but we should not immediately jump to the worst conclusion. Just a reminder.

R. Garrett

[Porcupine]

18. The US government is no longer a credible witness.

Given the repeated statements of the US government denying torture of individuals and/or groups of individuals and the repeated exposure of documents that have proven the US government to lie.

The US government cannot be held to be a credible witness when denying allegations of torture no more than a convicted child abuser can be held to be credible when denying allegations of abuse.

Did the US government hold this person illegally? Yes. Is the US government known to torture? Yes. Are the allegations of Mr. Padilla consistent with the known and confirmed instances of torture by the US government? Yes.

He was tortured; release him.

[Richard Steele]

20. Your CONCERNS are duly noted. nm

[The Stranger]

22. Bullshit, anyone who illegally incarcerates another should be arrested and prosecuted.

If they beg ignorance, let them try to tell that to the jury. Anyone in law enforcement knows the rights of the accused.

[liberalmuse]

6. "Due Process" for god's sake.

This is the most heinous example of injustice I've seen in a long time. Charge the guy, or let him free. WTF has he done, anyway? This is unbelievable! That we should allow this is a crime.

[mopinko]

7. ditto all the previous comments in this thread

fucking 4 years, ferchrissakes.
and who says the mca will only hurt foreign nationals?

[elehhhhna]

8. He'll be an excellent witness at the Hague. K&R

[Canuckistanian]

10. Along with Maher Arar

Gross violation of law, both domestic and international.

[Miss Chybil]

12. If he wasn't a terrorist before, I'm sure he'll make a good one now. nt

[kestrel91316]

13. .......... and that's the REAL crime here.........

[goforit]

15. Wow!!!.... This will haunt the boys at the WH.

[Disturbed]

21. The essence of this case is that Padilla was not charged

with any crime for a period of three years. The initial reasons for arresting him are now not the charges that the US Govt. is alledging. Of course, he cannot prove that he was tortured &/or abused so that has to be investigated. I suspect that nothing will come of that. The charges that have been brought forth seem real flimsy.

[lovuian]

19. We tortured a prisoner to get what out of him and did we

ever get it

Probably Not
then
One has to ask the question WHY
is the ones advocating it

To have no compassion is sad