Gitmo defense lawyers: defending a man driven insane

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/23/gitmo-defense-lawyers-defending-a-man-driven-insane/

Gitmo defense lawyers: defending a man driven insane.

Today in the Washington Post, Joseph Margulies and George Brent Mickum — defense attorneys for Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah — describe the prisoner’s mental insanity after being held by the United States for years:

Regardless of whether he was “insane” to begin with, he has gone through quite an ordeal since his arrest in Pakistan in March 2002. Shuttled through CIA “black sites” around the world, he was subjected to a sustained course of interrogation designed to instill what a CIA training manual euphemistically calls “debility, dependence and dread.” Zubaydah’s world became freezing rooms alternating with sweltering cells. Screaming noise replaced by endless silence. Blinding light followed by dark, underground chambers. Hours confined in contorted positions. And, as we recently learned, Zubaydah was subjected to waterboarding. We do not know what remains of his mind, and we will probably never know what he experienced.

They added that “if we cannot learn the facts and share them with others, the truth is only what the administration reports it to be.”

[CoffeeCat]

1. This just makes me so sick...

It feels like our government just likes torturing people. The enjoy systematically
watching the humanity drain out of a person. They love watching it.

There would be no strategic reason to treat someone like this, if you wanted information
from them. This person isn't even sane now. He is unable to give accurate information.
His brain is now pudding.

It makes me so fucking sick. Just so completely enraged at the pathetic, low-life scum
abusers who are in our government.

This guy sounds like he has completely emotionally collapsed.

Why???? Why are they doing this? You don't torture someone for a few years, because you're trying
to get information out! They're doing this because they enjoy it.

Why????? Why are they doing this???

[babylonsister]

2. And now they want to give him a cursory trial and then kill him.

We're all just supposed to accept that, too. "Dead men tell no tales."

[sakabatou]

3. Impeach them now

[Solly Mack]

4. the U.S. used "evidence" gained through the torture of Zubaydah against Padilla

"The tapes were made in 2002 and were destroyed in 2005. One of the taped subjects was Abu Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda leader who President Bush identified as having been singled out for special harsh interrogation tactics.

The information from Mr. Zubaydah played a foundational role in authorizing further aggressive actions by the US government in the war on terror. For example, Zubaydah was the primary source for the material witness warrant issued (and signed by AG Mukasey when he was still a judge) for the arrest of Jose Padilla when he stepped off a plane in Chicago in May 2002."

[babylonsister]

5. Solly, have you read this?

Seton Hall Law Students Uncover Proof that Guantánamo Interrogations Routinely Videotaped
Seton Hall Press Release ^ | 2/14/08


General Reports More than 24,000 Interrogations Conducted Since 2002; Assertions that All Interrogations Were Videotaped Affect Impending 9/11 Trials

Newark, NJ—Seton Hall Law’s Center for Policy and Research has discovered new evidence of a longstanding government practice of recording interrogations at Guantánamo Bay. In light of the national debate about the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) destruction of video recordings, the report proves that the two CIA tapes that were destroyed were only a tiny fraction of perhaps 24,000 recorded interrogations.

A May 2005 report by Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley confirms that each interrogation at Guantánamo was videotaped. Lieutenant General Randall Schmidt issued a report the following month stating that more than 24,000 interrogations of detainees took place at Guantánamo over a three-year period. In the meantime, the Bush administration has announced it will pursue the death penalty for six detainees who will stand trial for crimes related to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Professor Mark Denbeaux, Director of the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall Law, commented, “Our students proved that Guantánamo interrogations were videotaped, which impacts the impending trials of the six detainees. We all want to see the perpetrators of 9/11 punished. But if the tapes of those interrogations still exist, it is imperative that we understand, before these trials start, whether the information was obtained through standard interrogation procedures or through torture.”

more...

http://law.shu.edu/administration/public_relations/press_releases/2008/guantanamo_interrogations_videotaped.htm

[Solly Mack]

8. Yes. Wasn't surprised...I doubt anyone was really. Of people keeping up...

and I wish that information was widely known.

[Richard Steele]

6. Grrrecommended.

[PDJane]

7. Every time I think I've hit the limits of my own outrage,

This administration proves me wrong.

The only reason for torture is to "prove" this administrations' war on terror is justified. It isn't. If operation gladio and the US operations in South America are any indication, the whole terrorist deal is a house of cards, and the US is heading for a war crimes tribunal.

[babylonsister]

9. I know what you mean; think of the years of overload we've endured. nt

[Hissyspit]

10. k&r n/t

[lonestarnot]

11. We have become the nation of thugs and freaks.

[democrank]

12. The budding fascist in the White House

knows blowing up frogs is never enough.

[TexasObserver]

13. These incidents of men being purposely driven crazy while captive are repugnant to our history

Hideous. Unconstitutional. Fascist. Inhuman.