The US Psychological Torture System Is Finally On Trial.

From The Guardian, U.K.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2019580,00.html

A public condemnation of a ruthless barbaric U.S. empire.
Surely, to be avoided at all cost by the
for profit u.s. corporate media.

a gazillion theories on how Anna Nicole must have been murdered. :puke: :thumbsdown:

I kid you not, try this: Just for shits and grins spy in on some of Anna Nicole's *friends* spewing rumors of a murder and cover up. These geniuses are proof positive that "white trash" is a frame of mind, not an income category. :crazy:

Buckle yourself in to keep the boob tube turned off ... well except for airing my favorite episodes of Gunsmoke, Bonanza, A-team and MASH on TvLand. :-)

Naomi Klein
Friday February 23, 2007
The Guardian

Something remarkable is going on in a Miami courtroom. The cruel methods US interrogators have used since September 11 to "break" prisoners are finally being put on trial. This was not supposed to happen. The Bush administration's plan was to put José Padilla on trial for allegedly being part of a network linked to international terrorists. But Padilla's lawyers are arguing that he is not fit to stand trial because he has been driven insane by the government.

Arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare airport, Padilla, a Brooklyn-born former gang member, was classified as an "enemy combatant" and taken to a navy prison in Charleston, South Carolina. He was kept in a cell 9ft by 7ft, with no natural light, no clock and no calendar. Whenever Padilla left the cell, he was shackled and suited in heavy goggles and headphones. Padilla was kept under these conditions for 1,307 days. He was forbidden contact with anyone but his interrogators, who punctured the extreme sensory deprivation with sensory overload, blasting him with harsh lights and pounding sounds. Padilla also says he was injected with a "truth serum", a substance his lawyers believe was LSD or PCP.

According to his lawyers and two mental health specialists who examined him, Padilla has been so shattered that he lacks the ability to assist in his own defence. He is convinced that his lawyers are "part of a continuing interrogation program" and sees his captors as protectors. In order to prove that "the extended torture visited upon Mr Padilla has left him damaged", his lawyers want to tell the court what happened during those years in the navy brig. The prosecution strenuously objects, maintaining that "Padilla is competent" and that his treatment is irrelevant.

The US district judge Marcia Cooke disagrees. "It's not like Mr Padilla was living in a box. He was at a place. Things happened to him at that place." The judge has ordered several prison employees to testify on Padilla's mental state at the hearings, which began yesterday. They will be asked how a man who is alleged to have engaged in elaborate anti-government plots now acts, in the words of brig staff, "like a piece of furniture".

What's it going to take, an earthquake? The Second Coming? If I were Dubya, or even the lowliest Bushbot, I'd view that Second Coming with dread!

Well worth watching if you're like me and willing to waste perfectly good money on premium cable. They had a torture recovery expert on (I didn't get his name) who convincingly made the case that psychological torture, which includes sleep deprivation, loud noises, humiliation -- all the stuff they did, is much harder for people to recover from that physical torture.

He also said that torture is a true slippery slope, that people take to it and that once you allow a little bit of torture that opens the floodgates and and whatever feeble limits have been set are quickly surpassed. He said that once you give people a justification, tell them they're "doing good" and that the people they're torturing are "truly bad," they'll do nearly anything.

Under any of these abuses the prisoner's adrenal system IS destroyed.
Not to mention the rest of his hormone system.

Im not an expert on torture, but Im sure that the final effect is the same. You might as well surgically destroy the adrenal gland - it would be the same effect (btw you die if its damaged too much).

As someone recovering from adrenal fatigue I can image what his hell feels like everyday. Imaging not sleeping for 4 days straight. Thats what he feels like ALL the time.

This is an excellent interview, complete with history involving LSD experiments, sensory deprivation, etc.


Friday, February 17th, 2006
Professor McCoy Exposes the History of CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror

We now take a look at what lies behind the shocking images of torture at Abu Ghraib prison by turning to the history of the CIA and torture techniques. Professor Alfred McCoy talks about his book “A Question of Torture”, a startling expose of the CIA development of psychological torture from the Cold War to Abu Ghraib. CIA mercenaries attempted to assassinate McCoy more than 30 years ago.

Full Transcript:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/17/1522228&mode=thread&tid=25

The words slowly grow in intensity,

crying out, 'Don't Forget Me'.

Excellent catch! :applause: :hi: