Al Gore, Enemy Combatant?
Now that Gore’s advocating direct action against our “Homeland” energy infrastructure, do you think Bush will declare him an enemy combatant?
Seriously, now that I’ve got your attention, I want you to read this chilling interview with the psychiatrist who examined Jose Padilla so you can know exactly what the Bush regime believes it can do to any citizen so designated. I know you don’t really want to know this but, believe me, this is one of those things you must force yourself to look at. If you’re a U.S. citizen, you have an especial obligation to know what’s being done in your name and with your tax dollars.
The interview is by the fabulous Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. The interviewee is Dr. Angela Hegarty of Columbia University. Like all mental health professionals affiliated with Columbia, she tends to be a bit wordy but stay with her because she’s the only one who Padilla told what was done to him. And, as an expert not only in psychiatry but also specifically in the psychological consequences of torture, she knows how to interpret what she heard. I read a lot of the literature on the mental health consequences of torture when I was researching Aftershock, and I can attest that what she says about what they did and how it affected him is consistent with what we know about both the motives of torturers and the reactions of their victims.
I’m serious. I want you to read this interview. Here’s the link again. I’m going to be monitoring clicks. Read it and then come back here to share your reactions.
August 18th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
The worst part is not just how clearly changed and traumatized he is, but to me at least the Stockholm syndrome and the lack of legal protections. Growing up my parents always told me that the worst thing about communist governments was that people would just vanish in the middle of the night without a trial, a hearing, or anything, without a lawyer or seeing their families… Now we are becoming the stuff of nightmares.
August 21st, 2007 at 10:56 am
Mostly it confirmed what I had already guessed. And reminded me of some arguments I had with some former coworkers who insisted we (u.s. citizens) were “safe” from things like this, from our own government. Any mention of Jose Padilla was met with “he deserved it” type arguments, and any discussion of gitmo generally ended with the bigots I worked with convinced that being non-white was suspicious enough that anything went when it came to the “war on terror”. (again, they were safe, so they didn’t give a shit, is what it really came down to)
The part that wasn’t really discussed, but which Jose seemed to touch on, is that because he was already declared an enemy combatant, even if he is proved innocent by a court of law, the u.s. gov’t claims they can still lock him up for the rest of his life. Innocent or guilty, they have claimed his life and deny him every single right, moral and legal, that humans are supposedly given in this and any country.
So are they going to stick to that claim? If so, I think Jose shows a certain amount of logic, in preferring a “regular” prison, because in this terrible situation he might just be better off to be found guilty and be given a sentence than to be innocent and be disappeared. (Not that I think they’d honor a sentence either, but…)
August 21st, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I read some of the comments below the article, and one really stuck with me, concerning the madness of all the people who voted for him. I have little faith that mainstream America will EVER care about this stuff, let alone do anything about it….
I also have no doubt that this sort of thing has been going on forever in this country.
Scary indeed.
August 22nd, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Scary. The government’s heavy-handedness, power, callousness, and contempt for justice; the public’s apathy. I wonder if the administration’s obsession with terrorism, besides being a ploy for fascist-like power grabs, is also somewhat of a projection.