We Are All Padilla
I’ve finally really had a chance to sit down and digest some of what’s happened to Mr. Padilla, who for three years was held accused, but never charged, with terrorist activities. The plots to blow up buildings were thrown out. The case that remains is apparently teetering, weak.
This is an American citizen. He has been denied due process, apparently tortured, held incommunicado, in solitary confinement until his mind broke, and still they persisted in destroying the man.
I don’t know what to say. Honestly. I don’t care what the fuck the guy has been accused of. You don’t have to be a Christian to believe in common human decency. I feel sick to my stomach, and I think I’m going to have a shot of whiskey tonight.
As of two months ago, a handful of so-called moderate Republicans like Arlen Specter, combined with cowardly and feckless democrats like Frank Lautenberg passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which allows the President, and only the President to declare just who is an “enemy noncombatant” and have those persons indefinitely detained, with no access to a lawyer to answer the charges. Treatment just like Jose Padilla has experienced can be expected to be the norm: after all, since when does extended solitary confinement and sensory deprivation come close to the pain of organ failure or death, as we now define “torture” (Alberto Gonzalez, John Yoo). The act appears to make no distinction between American citizens and foreign combatants, in effect retroactively legalizing Padilla’s treatment (unless struck down by the courts).
We are all Padilla.
image copied from Rising Hegemon (I think)
