Tough guy. Gang banger. Brave Jihadi Warrior.
The prisoner lived in isolation in a cell with only a steel slab for a bed. At times chained to the floor, he was deprived of light, sleep, a clock and heat. His interrogators injected him with "truth serum" drugs to try to loosen his tongue and threatened him with execution.
Prove it. What's your evidence? His word?
That's how Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held without charge as an "enemy combatant," was treated for three years and eight months at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., his attorneys allege. In court papers, they say Padilla — initially accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" — was treated so severely that it amounted to torture and rendered him mentally incompetent to now stand trial on terrorism charges that could bring him life in prison.
That provocative claim — disputed by the government, which says Padilla was not abused and is fit for trial — will be the focus of a mental competency hearing for Padilla, scheduled for Feb. 22 in a federal court in Miami.
The long-shot effort to have him declared unfit for trial is the latest turn in a case that has become a test of how far the U.S. government can go in limiting the civil liberties of an American in the name of national security.
Government lawyers decline to give details about how Padilla has been treated, but they flatly dispute the defense's version. "It has no merit whatsoever," prosecutors say in papers filed in the court where Padilla is scheduled for trial April 16. He is charged with conspiring to support terrorism overseas as part of a North American terror cell.
The government has said that however it handled the Brooklyn-born Padilla, 36, its actions were necessary to try to learn more about terrorism.
Civil libertarians have waged a marathon court battle challenging Padilla's detention, beginning two days after he was locked up in Charleston in June 2002. He was not allowed to talk with a lawyer until March 2004, 21 months into his confinement. The accusations against Padilla have evolved as his case has shifted to different courts. Then-attorney general John Ashcroft initially linked him to a "dirty bomb" plot. The Justice Department later tied him to an alleged plot to blow up high-rise apartments in the USA.
Ah. The Evil AshKKKroft! How soon we forget...
However, the charges pending against Padilla mention none of that. He faces three counts that include conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas, and conspiring to support terrorism by supplying money and materials.
For now, the focus is on whether Padilla is mentally fit to stand trial. At next week's hearing, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke will examine competing assessments of Padilla's mental state by the defense and prosecution. In court documents filed last Friday, prosecutors Russell Killinger and Stephanie Pell cite an analysis by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in arguing that Padilla is fit for trial. Defense attorneys say the bureau's findings are inaccurate.
Padilla's attorneys plan to call as witnesses civilian and military members of the brig staff who expressed concerns about the effects of extended isolation on Padilla's mental health.
Andrew Patel, one of Padilla's attorneys, describes his own conversations with staff members in court papers. Patel says they told him Padilla was so "docile and inactive that his behavior was like that of 'a piece of furniture.' "
Good.
Prosecutors say details about Padilla's detention should be kept out of the trial. They say in court papers that such information could "distract and inflame" jurors. It is unclear how much information Cooke will allow into next week's hearing.
Wouldn't bother me. Put me on the jury.
Padilla's attorneys argue that the government's treatment of Padilla "injured" his brain and left him incompetent to understand the proceedings against him. The attorneys have asked Cooke to dismiss the charges, calling Padilla's treatment at the brig so "outrageous, it shocks the conscience." According to court documents, two mental health experts who examined Padilla for the defense concluded that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, triggered by his time in the brig. They said he is unable to watch videos of his interrogations or read transcripts of wiretapped conversations that likely will be used against him in court.
Padilla suffers from memory gaps, is unable to place events in chronological order and has difficulty concentrating, according to Patricia Zapf, a New York psychologist, and Angela Hegarty, a New York psychiatrist. Padilla also suspects his attorneys are federal agents posing as lawyers in order to interrogate him, court papers say. Padilla told his attorneys and the mental health experts that while he was at the brig he was placed in stress positions, assaulted and told that he would be sent to "an even worse" fate at the U.S. military's prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of foreign terrorism suspects have been held indefinitely. "The torture took myriad forms, each designed to cause pain, anguish, depression and ultimately the loss of will to live," Padilla's attorneys say in court papers.
Gitmo. The interrogation hole card.
The defense attorneys also allege that Padilla was injected with LSD or PCP as a sort of "truth serum."
Gonna have to prove that.
Padilla was denied "the most personal shreds of human dignity," his attorneys argue, when he was not allowed to bathe for weeks at a time. "One would have to revisit the history of the Tower of London to find more oppressive pretrial incarceration," the attorneys say.
Yeah, I'm sure not bathing for weeks was a big change for him...
Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, won't discuss Padilla's specific claims. But he says, "The government, in the strongest terms, denies Padilla's allegations — allegations made without support and without citing a shred of record evidence. It is and always has been our policy to treat detainees humanely."
Yeah, but you're not a terrorist defense lawyer, so you're probably lying...