– fordi tiden kræver et MODSPIL

23. Feb 2007

Amerikansk tortur (endelig) for anklagebænken i Florida

 
Naomi Klein har et spændende indlæg i dagens Guardian, hvor hun redegør for den besynderlige sag, det i denne tid oprulles for retten i Miami: Sagen mod Jose Padilla, den amerikanske statsborger, som siden 2002 har været fængslet som "fjendtlig kombattant".

Padillas advokater gør nemlig gældende, at Padilla ikke kan retsforfølges, fordi de seneste års indespærring og nedværdigende behandling har drevet ham til vanvid, så han er ude af stand til at bidrage til sit eget forsvar.

Den behandling, han har været udsat for, kan minde om en aggraveret version af dansk isolationsfængsling, der tidligere havde samme karakter af juridisk "sort hul", hvori den sigtede kunne forsvinde i årevis:
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.
Anklagerne gør som modtræk gældende, at Padilla ér ved sine fulde fem, og at den behandling, han har været udsat for, er "irrelevant" for sagens videre forløb.

Sagens dommer kunne ikke være mere uenig:
"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".
Som Klein gør opmærksom på, er denne sag ikke blot vigtig, fordi den er en sviende anklage mod de excesser, det amerikanske retssystem af "krigen mod terror" og en dehumaniserende konstruktion som "fjendtlig kombattant" er drevet ud i - det er også en anklage rettet mod Guantanamo, hvor netop denne type tortur eller umenneskelig/nedværdigende behandling har været i højsædet:
The techniques used to break Padilla have been standard operating procedure at Guantánamo Bay since the first prisoners arrived five years ago. They wore blackout goggles and sound-blocking headphones and were placed in extended isolation, interrupted by strobe lights and heavy metal music. These same practices have been documented in dozens of cases of "extraordinary rendition" carried out by the CIA, as well as in prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(...)
These standard mind-breaking techniques have never faced scrutiny in an American court because the prisoners in the jails are foreigners and have been stripped of the right of habeas corpus - a denial that, scandalously, was just upheld by a federal appeals court in Washington DC. There is only one reason Padilla's case is different - he is a US citizen. The administration did not originally intend to bring Padilla to trial, but when his status as an enemy combatant faced a supreme court challenge, the administration abruptly changed course, charging Padilla and transferring him to civilian custody. That makes Padilla's case unique - he is the only victim of the post-9/11 legal netherworld to face an ordinary US trial.
Selvom Padilla formentlig er uskyldig i de anklager, der rettes mod ham - og selvom han formentlig ikke er/var blandt Guds bedste børn - er det i virkeligheden hjerteligt, rystende irrelevant:

Man behøver hverken sympatisere med ham eller anse ham for uskyldig for at fyldes med gru og vrede ved tanken om, at et levende menneske udsættes for en sådan behandling - især ikke, når man ved, at det er sket igen og igen som del af den såkaldte "krig mod terror", også med vor egen regerings i hvert fald passive støtte og billigelse.

Som Klein konkluderer: "What is on trial in Florida is not one man's mental state -it is the whole system of US psychological torture". Og til vor egen regerings dikkende følgagtighed overfor den torterende og krigsførende supermagt byder den os at føje et lydeligt: Not in our name.

Kommentarer: