Citizen Padilla (Part III: The Radioactive Patsy)

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Citizen Padilla (Part III: The Radioactive Patsy)
By Lewis Koch

January 24th, 2008 - 12:44pm ET


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(With Brad Jacobson)

In his adolescence, Jose Padilla -- just sentenced to seventeen years for conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim individuals outside the United States -- was filled with an uncontrollable narcissistic rage. No father was present in the house, just his mother and two brothers and two sisters.

He had a classic Chicago gang-banger record: trespassing, drug possession (marijuana), armed robbery, battery. At 14 or 15 (there are conflicting reports), he was found guilty of participating in a savage robbery-murder by other gang members. When police asked him why he continued to kick the victim (who had lain unconscious on the street) with such ferocity that he died, Padilla reportedly said, “I just felt like it.”

Padilla, a juvenile, was given the maximum sentence allowable and released from juvenile jail when he was 21. A series of meaningless fast-food jobs in Chicago and Ft. Lauderdale followed. As did trouble. He punched a policeman in a dispute over a doughnut. In 1990, Padilla found himself in adult Florida prison, serving 303 days for a more serious charge -- firing a handgun at a motorist who cut him off on a highway. It was in prison that Jose Padilla found direction, an outlet for that rage: radical Islam.

U.S. prisons have become the hothouses for growing hardened criminals and more than one Islamic extremist. Not unlike their counterparts in the Middle East, these young men live in poverty and filth. And like their “brothers” in the Middle East, they are often desperate, hopeless and filled with rage that could be channeled outward in acts condoned and even celebrated by radical Islam. Radical recruiters in the Middle East and in England have been successful introducing alienated, desperate youth new pathways to Heaven and a means to live in the hearts of all Islam, their bodies and words depicted in photos and videotapes, their sacrifice praised as heroic. There has been smaller but similar success in sections of Great Britain.

Given the time and effort and large pool from which to choose, it’s surprising, however, how unsuccessful prison imams in the United States appear to have been in recruiting such vulnerable targets. Blacks in the United States comprise 13 percent of the national population and 49 percent of those in prison. While there may be some temporary gain in popularity while serving time, dedication to Islam among blacks in prison appears to wane with release. There are exceptions, of course, but even those exceptions differ significantly from the results produced by radical imams in the Middle East. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/citizen-padilla-part-iii-radioactive-patsy

[MinM]

1. The Mind(Control) of Padilla

The menticide of Jose Padilla

Democracy Now! has a fascinating interview with a psychiatrist who interviewed suspected terrorist Jose Padilla for over 22 hours in an attempt to determine whether he was fit to stand trial after more than 3 years of solitary confinement.

In 1951, psychiatrist Joost Meerloo coined the term "menticide" to describe the kind of systematic psychological violence that the Chinese inflicted upon American POWs during the Korean War. The basic techniques haven't changed much since then. Over the years, these tactics have been embraced by a variety of cults and coercive "treatment" programs in the United States and abroad.

Today, the US government insists that mind-killing is an essential part of their endless war on terrorism. For details, see Jane Mayer's excellent New Yorker piece, The Black Sites..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-welsh/jose-padilla-nee-winston_b_60941.html
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/08/quick-note-on-padilla.html

[dominicoyandor]

2. They could have done anything to Padilla

And we would never have known.