11 Comments so far

1. namvet67 February 23rd, 2007 4:48 pm

   Padilla is America. Cleverly brainwashed and asleep. With the media as chairman of the military-industrial-complex these things easily happen. We all become ‘pieces of furniture’ in the United States of Everything..
   Hoa Binh

2. eric February 23rd, 2007 5:28 pm

   Our NAOMI is BACK!!!!!!!!!!

   I love your articles and it is good to see you back (after having a child, U read somewhere) I alwys read your articles: they are so brillant

   Thanks from us all!

3. Bill from Saginaw February 23rd, 2007 6:21 pm

   The irony abounds.

   Jose Padilla was John Ashcroft’s original poster boy test case to show how ordinary American citizen civilians (who convert to Islam and consort with foreign jihadis so as to be labeled an enemy combatant by our great Commander in Chief) could be incarcerated indefinitely on US soil, in US military custody, and have no recourse to invoke the Bill of Rights in any federal court, just like them foreign rag heads.

   But wait! Courtesy of a twisted course of litigational events and shifts in the political winds spanning several years, Mr. Padilla eventually gets re-designated back away from potential trial before a military tribunal, and into a more ordinary federal criminal prosecution, to be conducted in ordinary federal court (albeit on conspiracy charges notably far less dramatic than the dirty-nuke-in-downtown-Chicago bomb plot that was trumpeted to the media by the Justice Department at the time of Padilla’s arrest).

   Like the “American Taliban” John Walker Lind, there is evidence of torture.

   Like “the missing 9/11 highjacker” Zacharias Moussasaui, there are obvious mental competency issues.

   But if Naomi Klein is reading the tea leaves right in Miami, this time there’s going to be a real evidentiary hearing (rather than a surreal courtroom spectacle), with real witnesses testifying about the real world conditions of the defendant Padilla’s confinement, all in order to determine if those conditions have driven him crazy - too crazy to stand trial at all.

   How truly bizarre.

   Lurking in the background is the ultimate question of remedy, should the Court conclude Mr. Padilla currently does lack the mental competency necessary to meet the required Constitutional standard to assist in his own defense.

   In such circumstances, do we order the accused into a mental institution until his sanity is restored, and then bring him back to stand trial?

   If the accused’s sanity cannot be restored, does that mean the government can indeed incarcerate detainees forever this way, and never give them a day in court - the precise, ominous unconstitutional evil that the Gitmo gulag was calculated to create - because the government’s own torture policies have driven the accused mad?

   Madmen order the interrogation of madmen, and call it gathering useful intelligence.

   To me, the whole thing reeks of Kafka, with a dollop of Catch-22 on the side.

   Enough to drive anybody as crazy as an outhouse rat.

4. GARBOTOO February 23rd, 2007 7:41 pm

   The entire population of this county has been reduced to pieces of helpless furniture…while these forms of beastiality continue unabaited. We’ve all been infantilized by the republican scum in the ….BLACK HOUSE and congress.

5. Ozymandias February 23rd, 2007 8:56 pm

   Wonderful to read an article by Naomi again, one of my favourite writers for sure. And as for what the US is doing to people, well, as a self proclaimed “beacon of light to the world,” they shape up much better as disgusting, amoral bullies who, if the hell they believe in actually exists, are certain to go to it.

6. Poet February 24th, 2007 1:54 pm

   Ozmandias and Eric are right–Naomi Klein Rocks!!

   She is smart, funny (listen to her story about her visually challenged grandma’s driving if you don’t believe me!)and most importantly she does her homework and speaks with clarity.

   My secret fantasy is that Muslim militants capture Cheney, Bush, Gonsalez, Feith, Perle, Rummy, and especially General Miller and give them a taste of their own medicine. Then the torturewrs release tapes of the whole affair on Youtube so that all the world can see what a bunch of macho patriots for profit behave like.

   Okay it’s a little over the top but if the lady judge lives long enough to get the truth out from the torturers (give ‘em immunity it’s the civillian leadership we need to lock up anyway) that might be a more realistic consolation.

7. bellthecat February 24th, 2007 5:01 pm

   Those nimble legal minds that concocted this neocon mickey finn–they know how to drive you insane,

   they sensorilly deprive you
   then over stimulate you
   until you are putty in their hands,

   you become incapacitated & cannot understand or defend yourself against their charges,

   so you stay locked up until you’re well enough to stand trial…

   It should be illegal for A government official to proclaim a person’s guilt before the case is tried in court if it isn’t already.

8. Poet February 24th, 2007 5:56 pm

   Hey Belithecat–I think it already is…as in someone is innocent until proven guilty.

9. blessthebeasts February 24th, 2007 8:40 pm

   It is horrifying that they are getting away
   with this. How do these bastards sleep at
   night? Poet, your fantasy would make the ultimate reality TV show–one I would gladly
   watch.

10. mary lou February 26th, 2007 3:17 pm

    how long has this been going on? since 2002? elections have come and gone since then. am i the only one who thought germans should not have allowed THEIR government to commit such atrocities 65 years ago? now WE are allowing OUR government to do it IN OUR NAME!

11. eric March 2nd, 2007 5:28 pm

    “She is smart, funny and most importantly she does her homework and speaks with clarity…”

    You’ve expressed this so much better than I could…

    Naomi, your articles are REAL WORK and they must take you away from valuable family time and I fully understand your choice of a sabatical.

    But, oh, we have been missing you so bad…

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