Reuters: Doctors call Padilla unfit for terrorism trial

[Eugene]

Doctors call Padilla unfit for terrorism trial

By Jane Sutton

21 minutes ago

MIAMI (Reuters) - Former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla is mentally unfit to stand
trial on terrorism charges and physically unable to tell his lawyers what happened
to him in a U.S. military prison, doctors who examined him for the defense said in
court on Thursday.

The doctors testified that Padilla, held by presidential order for 3-1/2 years in a
military brig without being charged, is also unable to tell his lawyers anything
about the time he spent in Afghanistan and Egypt, where the government alleges
he conspired with Islamist terrorists to maim and murder people.

-snip-

Hegarty and a clinical forensic psychologist who examined Padilla for the defense,
Dr. Patricia Zaph, said he was mentally impaired, suffered from post-traumatic
stress disorder and convinced he should help the government rather than his own
lawyers.

A Bureau of Prisons doctor who examined him at the court's request, however, found
him fit for trial.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070223/pl_nm/usa_padilla_dc_1

[babylonsister]

1. This sure makes me wonder what happened to him in prison. nt

[kestrel91316]

11. I don't wonder. I have a pretty good idea.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Not That I'm Defending Padilla's Treatment, But...

They couldn't actually point to any test that indicated that he had PTSD - in fact, the one test cited showed he did not have it.

[Pastiche423]

6. Which test showed he did not have PTSD?

He may be too far gone.

Never in my life did I ever dream our govmint would torture someone to the point of insanity. :mad:

How naive of me.

[The Stranger]

12. Yeah, thanks for defending Padilla's "treatment."

Do you really believe that someone tortured and left in solitary for years can stand trial?

[Miss Chybil]

3. Funny how none of these people can stand trial.

Padilla may have been tortured to insanity and the guys at Guantanamo aren't allowed to have a fair trial. I would like to know the evidence against these guys. I hate living in a banana republic.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

4. John Doe Padilla of OK?

Nahhhh. Not That John Doe.

~and the beat goes onnn, on an on anon.

[madrchsod]

5. torturing people until they are insane?

so much for a standard of justice...oh wait a minute it`s the usa where we have no standards of justice when it comes to non-white terrorists...

[Drum]

7. a.k.a. torture

x(

[Up2Late]

8. This is disgraceful.

But at least we know Brainwashing IS real.

Look at the spinning Disk... War on terror...war on terror...

[Judi Lynn]

9. NY Times article: Defense Calls Padilla Incompetent for Trial

Defense Calls Padilla Incompetent for Trial

By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: February 23, 2007

MIAMI, Feb. 22 — In a highly unusual competency hearing in federal court here Thursday, defense lawyers began to lay out their argument that Jose Padilla, the Brooklyn-born former enemy combatant, was rendered incompetent to stand trial on terrorism conspiracy charges by what they characterize as crippling mistreatment by the government.

Two mental health experts, a forensic psychiatrist and a forensic psychologist hired by the defense, testified that Mr. Padilla, 36, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his isolation and scores of interrogation sessions during three years and eight months in a military brig in South Carolina.

“He’s unfit to stand trial,” said Patricia A. Zapf, the psychologist, describing Mr. Padilla as so “immobilized by his anxiety” and so distrustful that he is incapable of assisting his own lawyers — whom he at times suspects of being agents of the government — in preparing his defense.

Dr. Zapf said Mr. Padilla, a United States citizen who was initially accused of plotting a dirty bomb attack against the United States and held without charges by the military, believed that he would end up “back in the brig and that he would die there.”

Dr. Zapf continued: “He’d say, ‘What does it matter? It doesn’t matter. My fate has been decided. It’s better to let things be.’ ”
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/us/23padilla.html

Thanks for posting the original article.

[Toots]

10. Stand trial for what?

The article says he has spent three and a half years in prison and has not been charged. Are they finally charging him with some sort of crime? They picked him up for supposedly plotting to set off a dirty bomb..That was long ago dropped but he still sits there..

[MasonJar]

13. What is with the prison doctors?

[Auntie Bush]

14. What is it with the bush* administration?

They sure seem to know how to drive people crazy. Is that what Rummy meant when he said they were "softening them up before interrogation?"

[tsuki]

15. What about the guys that held him for three years? Tortured him?

I keep seeing this picture of him going to the dentist, bound with ear muffs and eye patches. Sensory deprivation.

How could the jailers spend day after day torturing one human for three and a half years? Did they joke about the torture? Were they made to feel good about the torture? How has it affected their humanity, their sanity? Was this an experiment to see how to turn everyday, average Americans into sociopaths?

And what happens to the jailers now? Unidentified or treated, will they move into a community's police force, government administration, schools?

The jailers need to be identified so that a community can protect itself from them.