A day in the life of an enemy combatant [Archive]

View Full Version : A day in the life of an enemy combatant

Jason McCullough

12-04-2006, 01:35 PM

Written by Bruce Sterling, practically (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/us/04detain.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=02ab7b458c838c22&hp=&ex=1165208400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin).

“Today is May 21,” a naval official declared to a camera videotaping the event. “Right now we’re ready to do a root canal treatment on Jose Padilla, our enemy combatant.”

Several guards in camouflage and riot gear approached cell No. 103. They unlocked a rectangular panel at the bottom of the door and Mr. Padilla’s bare feet slid through, eerily disembodied. As one guard held down a foot with his black boot, the others shackled Mr. Padilla’s legs. Next, his hands emerged through another hole to be manacled.

Wordlessly, the guards, pushing into the cell, chained Mr. Padilla’s cuffed hands to a metal belt. Briefly, his expressionless eyes met the camera before he lowered his head submissively in expectation of what came next: noise-blocking headphones over his ears and blacked-out goggles over his eyes. Then the guards, whose faces were hidden behind plastic visors, marched their masked, clanking prisoner down the hall to his root canal.

Who do they think he is, Chuck Norris? What the hell is this shit?

antlers

12-04-2006, 02:05 PM

And a US citizen too.

Dubya has asserted that he has the right to do this to any and every American he feels is a threat, at his sole discretion.

shift6

12-04-2006, 03:35 PM

I'm not in agreement with any of this, but the methods for securing certain prisoners in regular prisons are similar. They manacle the feet and cuff the hands. The eyes and ears are weird, though. Prevents positive identification later on in case the poor fucker ever gets justice, I suppose.

Lum

12-04-2006, 04:03 PM

Sensory deprivation over prolonged periods is an effective means of torture. Well, effective if your goal is to drive the victim insane.

Flowers

12-05-2006, 09:23 AM

1. You do not know how much of a problem prisoner he has been up to this point. It may be that any other method of cell extraction, including the wall of shields has resulted in injuries to Mr. Padilla or guards. Emotionally disturbed individuals are regularly restrained for their own good while being transported through correctional facilities.

2. The Ozark Mountain Man, "Dusted Out Master," may currently be confined in the same facility as Jose Padilla. "Dusted Out Master" is the only documented and in custody grandmaster of redneck karate, capable of executing the, "Kung Ju Ji Jiu Flip Trick," mentioned in legends as being capable of, "Taking every one of y'all, out of here." Usable while in handcuffs, shackles and whilst being tasered, this technique is a nearly invincible method of escape. Every time it has been deployed, up to fifteen officers wake up hours later without their suspect in custody. It may be that the "dirty-bomb" was entirely a farce, and this clever ruse by Al Qaeda is merely an attempt to get a man close enough to the Dusted Out Master to copy his technique. Dusted Out Master was been able to use this technique to escape from Federal Custody on suspicion of Disorderly Conduct and Felony Nonpayment of Child Support no less than eight-hundred times. It is a well unknown fact that Old Dusty, as he is called by me, is currently only held in custody by his own leave, due in part to the superior food at this facility compared to both Menard Penetentiary and his own home, and also in part to Dusty's longstanding desire to take up greater involvement in his estranged son's prison race gang. After learning this technique, Padilla would use it to escape to the hills and train his fellow insurgents, and then Al Qaeda could "drink as much as they want and not have nobody be fuckin with them or nothin." Hence the blindfold.

Woolen Horde

12-05-2006, 09:25 AM

Andrew Mayer

12-05-2006, 09:38 AM

I seriously want to know if they kept that shit on while they were doing the dental work and if they told him first.

Impossible? Yeah, sure...

Flowers

12-05-2006, 12:44 PM

Actually, all reports are that he's been the most docile prisoner ever. Prison guards have said moving him around is like moving furniture. So fuck this shit.

Well, that only leaves #2.

malphigian

12-05-2006, 12:47 PM

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/12/03/us/04detain.xlarge1.jpg

Just... wow.

SlyFrog

12-05-2006, 12:56 PM

Based on the background, I'd say they're keeping him at my old high school

Matt Perkins

12-05-2006, 12:56 PM

Sensory deprivation over prolonged periods is an effective means of torture. Well, effective if your goal is to drive the victim insane.
Yeah, sensory deprivation is the end all be all in torture, but if you want information, you have to be careful or you'll push too far and break your victim.

Or so I heard.....

Menzo

12-05-2006, 01:06 PM

What the fuck? Are you guys going to complain about everything? Complain about him being held indefinitely with no charges, fine, but the method of prisoner transfer? This sounds like smart thinking to me - why take the chance that some guy is going to go apeshit on you and kill you with a sharpened plastic spork?

The headphones and goggles? Whatever.

Andrew Mayer

12-05-2006, 01:08 PM

Lum

12-05-2006, 01:25 PM

Also, the headphones and goggles totally are unnecessary in ensuring the safety of transferring what by all accounts has been a model prisoner since his incarceration. As long as you have shackles and restraints on the guy, he's not going anywhere. They serve no purpose in keeping a prisoner safe.

However they are a key part of a well known method of torture.

John Many Jars

12-05-2006, 01:41 PM

I wish *I'd* had some sensory deprivation for about 10 minutes this morning --- my coffee detonated a dirty bomb you wouldn't believe!

Glenn

12-05-2006, 01:44 PM

Thank you. That really puts everything back into perspective.

John Many Jars

12-05-2006, 02:08 PM

In case you thought it was irrelevant:

http://www.wbir.com/printfullstory.aspx?storyid=40210

Flowers

12-06-2006, 08:09 AM

Old people stink up planes.

Jason McCullough

01-05-2007, 04:08 PM

Some more details about us torturing the shit (http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/01/more_on_the_tor.html) out of him.

According to court papers filed by Padilla's lawyers, for the first two years of his confinement, Padilla was held in total isolation. He heard no voice except his interrogator's. His 9-by-7 foot cell had nothing in it: no window even to the corridor, no clock or watch to orient him in time. Padilla's meals were delivered through a slot in the door. He was either in bright light for days on end or in total darkness. He had no mattress or pillow on his steel pallet; loud noises interrupted his attempts to sleep. Sometimes it was very cold, sometimes hot. He had nothing to read or to look at. Even a mirror was taken away. When he was transported, he was blindfolded and his ears were covered with headphones to screen out all sound. In short, Padilla experienced total sensory deprivation.

During lengthy interrogations, his lawyers allege, Padilla was forced to sit or stand for long periods in stress positions. They say he was hooded and threatened with death. The isolation was so extreme that, according to court papers, even military personnel at the prison expressed great concern about Padilla's mental status.

Gary Whitta

01-05-2007, 04:45 PM

And a US citizen too.
Richard Reid was a British citizen, as were the participants in the foiled "liquid bomb" airline plot in London. I'm not sure what your passport has to do with it; if you're a terrorist you're a terrorist.

drewl

01-05-2007, 04:47 PM

That's the Dubya's new Health/Dental plan! Yippie!
Sign me up! free root canal!
All I have to do is pretend I know something
medals of freedom all around!

Mordrak

01-05-2007, 05:06 PM

This sounds like smart thinking to me - why take the chance that some guy is going to go apeshit on you and kill you with a sharpened plastic spork?

Obviously they haven't read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, else they would realize the danger.

Richard Reid was a British citizen, as were the participants in the foiled "liquid bomb" airline plot in London. I'm not sure what your passport has to do with it; if you're a terrorist you're a terrorist.

It's called due process.

Hetzer

01-06-2007, 05:07 AM

Vincent_GC

01-06-2007, 08:29 AM

At least the chinese government doesn't try to hide what they do. Everybody knows, or at least has some vauge idea. I think that's why they are so "Nice"

The guy bieng moved from place to place in shackles plus blindfolded and deaf doesn't phase me. We did the same thing for tempory military prisoners in transfer where I used to work. Granted, we only went to those extremes when the prisoner showed that he was dangerous to himself/others.

Now, the whole bieng held without bieng charged for anything is bullshit. If I remember correctly, bush just said he is an "Enemy combatant" and that's enough to lock away in a military prison for years without charges/trial/anything. Last I read they finally filed charges about 6-8 months ago.

AndrewM

01-06-2007, 09:59 AM

Those descriptions of the conditions he was held in are right out of The Gulag Archipelago.

Ben

01-06-2007, 02:49 PM

At least the chinese government doesn't try to hide what they do.

???????

Hetzer

01-06-2007, 03:39 PM

???????

Ever heard from the chinese government that they are democratic?

Lizard_King

01-12-2007, 10:54 AM

Hey perhaps china as a world leading nation isnt so bad after all, the difference between the us and china get smaller every day...

Torture? No problem!
Death sentence? No Problem!
Prison time without court calling? No Problem!

The last thing standing seems to be free elections, and even that is sometimes in question...

At least the chinese are nice behaving people! ;)
It's a fine line between merely overstating your case and posting utterly moronic rabble rousing. I don't believe you know how long ago you left that line behind.

"HETZER/HITLER WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? ;)"

Blindfolding prisoners during movements is par for the course within Iraq, and I suppose earmuffs would as well if the captives spoke english. I can't imagine there are similar tactical considerations for someone in Guantanamo, but I can see how SOP with prisoners applies regardless of location.

Long story short, I can see a lot worth being outraged about with Padilla's case, but this is not it....you can argue against the effectivity of the methods used to convey him, but there is little doubt they exist for operational reasons and not as methods of torture. The pantywadding taking place over this suggests that much of what is attributed to methods of torture is probably just hysteria. That's not to say he wasn't tortured, but that people with little knowledge in any relevant field can be easily led to believe damned near anything is torture with a colorful description or two.

Tim Partlett

01-12-2007, 12:09 PM

An interesting story (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6189517.stm) in light of the above few posts. Five Uighurs have been sent from Guantanamo to Albania in a form of "extraordinary repatriation" after they were found not to be "enemy combatants", but couldn't be sent home because of fears over their safety. Their home? The Uighurs are (non-ethnic) Chinese Muslims from the north western Xinjiang province. China has been using Bush's "war on terror" as an excuse to crack down on upity Uighurs (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4435135.stm) who demand crazy concepts like equality and freedom of religion, and whose separatist notions are considered a threat to the Chinese state.

One amusing aspect of the story is US State Department's deputy director Sandy Hodgkinson accusing other nations of hypocrisy for on the one hand criticising Guantanamo, and on the other not offering to take those inmates no longer considered "enemy combatants" as refugees. Well, Sandy, if you aren't prepared to take on any of the people you mistakenly locked up for years, why should you expect anyone else to?

Hetzer

01-13-2007, 10:59 AM

It's a fine line between merely overstating your case and posting utterly moronic rabble rousing. I don't believe you know how long ago you left that line behind.

"HETZER/HITLER WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? ;)"

Blindfolding prisoners during movements is par for the course within Iraq, and I suppose earmuffs would as well if the captives spoke english. I can't imagine there are similar tactical considerations for someone in Guantanamo, but I can see how SOP with prisoners applies regardless of location.

Long story short, I can see a lot worth being outraged about with Padilla's case, but this is not it....you can argue against the effectivity of the methods used to convey him, but there is little doubt they exist for operational reasons and not as methods of torture. The pantywadding taking place over this suggests that much of what is attributed to methods of torture is probably just hysteria. That's not to say he wasn't tortured, but that people with little knowledge in any relevant field can be easily led to believe damned near anything is torture with a colorful description or two.

Lol... first i said differences get smaller not they are the same... and second what statement from me was plain wrong?