Why Jose Padilla's 17-Year Prison Sentence Should Shock and Disgust all Americans

The news that US citizen Jose Padilla has received a prison sentence of 17 years and four months should provoke outrage in the United States, although it is unlikely that there will be much more than a whimper of dissent.

The former gang member and convert to Islam - whose arrest in May 2002 was trumpeted by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as that of a "known terrorist," who was "exploring a plan" to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a US city - was once regarded as one of the most dangerous terrorists ever apprehended on American soil. Almost six years later, as he received his sentence, he was not actually accused of lifting a finger to harm even a single US citizen.

While this is shocking enough in and of itself, Padilla's sentence - in what at least one perceptive commentator called "the most important case of our lifetimes" - is particularly shocking because it sends a clear message to the president of the United States that he can, if he wishes (and as he did with Padilla), designate a US citizen as an "enemy combatant," hold him without charge or trial in a naval brig for 43 months, and torture him - through the use of prolonged sensory deprivation and solitary confinement - to such an extent that, as the psychiatrist Dr. Angela Hegarty explained after spending 22 hours with Padilla, "What happened at the brig was essentially the destruction of a human being's mind."

Padilla's warders had another take on his condition, describing him as "so docile and inactive that he could be mistaken for 'a piece of furniture,'" but the most detailed analysis of the effects of his torture was, again, provided by Angela Hegarty in an interview last August with Democracy Now:

Juan Gonzalez: And have you dealt with someone who had been in isolation for such a long period of time before?

Dr. Angela Hegarty: No. This was the first time I ever met anybody who had been isolated for such an extraordinarily long period of time. I mean, the sensory deprivation studies, for example, tell us that without sleep, especially, people will develop psychotic symptoms, hallucinations, panic attacks, depression, suicidality within days. And here we had a man who had been in this situation, utterly dependent on his interrogators, who didn't treat him all that nicely, for years. And apart from - the only people I ever met who had such a protracted experience were people who were in detention camps overseas, that would come close, but even then they weren't subjected to the sensory deprivation. So, yes, he was somewhat of a unique case in that regard.

As if this were not worrying enough, it was what happened after Padilla's 43-month ordeal that sealed the president's impunity to torture US citizens at will. When it seemed that his case was within reach of the US Supreme Court, the government transferred him into the US legal system, deposited him in a normal prison environment, dropped all mention of the "dirty bomb" plot, and charged him, based on his association with two alleged terrorist facilitators, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, with participating in a Florida-based plot to aid Islamic extremists in holy wars abroad. When the case came to court last summer, the judge, Marcia Cooke, airbrushed Padilla's torture from history, insisting that it could not be discussed at all, and, after a trial regarded as farcical by many observers, Padilla and his co-defendants were duly found guilty.

Today's sentencing, after an unusually protracted two-week debate, has apparently brought the whole sordid saga to an end, with Padilla's torture only mentioned briefly in passing by Judge Cooke, who noted, "I do find that the conditions [for Padilla as an enemy combatant] were so harsh that they warrant consideration." Nevertheless, he received a longer sentence than either of his co-defendants (who were sentenced to 15 years and eight months, and 12 years and eight months, respectively), even though two jurors admitted to the Miami Herald that the jury as a whole "struggled to convict Padilla because the panel initially viewed him as a bit player in the scheme to aid Islamic extremists, unlike his co-defendants."

They certainly had a point. While the conviction of Hassoun and Jayyousi was based on coded conversations in 126 phone calls intercepted by the FBI over a number of years, Padilla was included in only seven of those phone calls. Groomed by his mentor, Hassoun, he had traveled to the Middle East and, in 2000, had applied to attend a military training camp in Afghanistan, using the name Abu Abdallah al-Muhajir. His application form, which, according to a government expert, bore his fingerprints, was apparently discovered during a CIA raid on an alleged al-Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan, but although the prosecution presented an alleged al-Qaeda graduation list with his Muslim name on it during the sentencing, they had been unable to provide any evidence during the trial that he had actually attended the training camp in Afghanistan.

In the end, Padilla's conviction hinged on the jury's determination that he had "joined the terrorism conspiracy in the United States before leaving the country." This was based on a single recorded conversation, in July 1997, in which he stated that he was ready to join a jihad overseas.

17 years and four months seems to me to be an extraordinarily long sentence for little more than a thought crime, but when the issue of Padilla's three and half years of suppressed torture is raised, it's difficult not to conclude that justice has just been horribly twisted, that the president and his advisors have just got away with torturing an American citizen with impunity, and that no American citizen can be sure that what happened to Padilla will not happen to him or her. Today, it was a Muslim; tomorrow, unless the government's powers are taken away from them, it could be any number of categories of "enemy combatants" who have not yet been identified.

For more on Jose Padilla and other US "enemy combatants," see my book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison.

Comments

[RTIII]

What I want to know is, did he at least get credit for time served?

[vippy]

Anyone even thinking that McVeigh was the perpetrator in Oklahoma needs to check out
why Chandra Levy had to die and read the book by John Rappaport "THE SURPRESSED TRUTH."
I remember when a secretary from the Murray Building had a doctor's appointment and went to the parking garage and saw all those men with building plans and their surprised look on their faces. She said she called the FBI 5 times and they said they would come and take her statement and never showed up, they already knew who those men were. Call it conspiracy if you must but do some checking before speaking.

[WorkingClass]

George Bush did what he did to Padilla because he (Bush) is a blood thirsty ass hole. Most of the so called people who support Bush are just some combination of ignorant/stupid. But a sizable minority of them are also bloodthirsty ass holes.

[Sundialsvc4]

At this point, the law does not matter: we are being presented with "the rule of the iron fist" in a slightly westernized form.

The Supreme Court would not be effective here, because all three Branches are now equally corrupt.

But "The King of Kings whom George Bush and all oil-men worship" could be begged for assistance.

No, no, not THAT King.

I said, "the King that George Bush and all oil-men worship!" The Saudi King.

Here's how it would go:

"We will sell oil to you at no price lower than $120/bbl this week until you reverse that sentence. If you do not, next week we will sell oil to you at no price lower than $140. Next week, $160. No matter what price you may have negotiated in a futures contract, this is the price that you must pay for our oil."

The President would rush over to the Saudi kingdom again, bow down again and grovel again at The King of Kings' feet. Receiving no audience with His Majesty, the President would swiftly Obey.

Cynical? Yes.

True? Yes.

[cognate]

A government that tortures is more dangerous to its own people than any number of terrorists.

Padilla's sentence is one example.

[MsLiz]

I was appalled by the jurors' comment: "that the jury as a whole 'struggled to convict Padilla because the panel initially viewed him as a bit player in the scheme to aid Islamic extremists, unlike his co-defendants.'" The jury disregarded their instructions regarding the burden of proof. How can it be a struggle if there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt? Unfortunately, I doubt that an appeal will result in a reversal.

[detwob]

Jose Padilla was sacrificed by the corporate christian right wing to 'justify' the tearing up of the Bill of Rights (except for corporations who have all the rights).

Like Leonard Peltier.

[dshwa]

I hate to say it, but most Americans don't care because they don't see him as a fellow American. Take pbara1969's comments - he converted to islam, so therefore what we do to him doesn't matter. He's a traitor, so it doesn't matter. Never mind the shakey evidence, never mind the torture, never mind the suspension of all human rights, good riddance. The administration got away with it because Padilla wasn't white, wasn't ever really much of a christian, and wasn't from a rich family. (Unlike that other guy they caught fighting our troops in Afghanistan) But now the precident is there. And in the law, precedent is everything.
Evil never comes at you in a giant wave, it creeps in with baby steps, always seeming like a resonable and small step, right up until you're killing 6 million people in camps.

[tbone99]

Jose Padilla is a good example of the states willingness to destroy someone for no reason other than "The pleasure of the president".No proof of a violent history or anything other than 1 phone call in which he discussed a "plan" to attend a madrassah.

Meanwhile Bush spends the night doing the" sword dance" with Saudi Princes subsidizing insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as Osama Bin Laden, responsible for the loss of well over 7,000 American
lives.When will he receive the "pleasure of the People" via the criminal justice system?

[Archie1955]

Did any of you pick up on the fact that he was sentenced for apparently being willing to fight overseas (not in America)? Do you know how many Americans are willing to fight overseas (not in America)? Try the whole U.S. military firstly then add the CIA and a whole host of mercenaries. They didn't get charged with anything did they but I'll bet a lot of them were involved in terrorist activities such as bombing homes, shooting people, destabilizing governments and populations etc.(not just thinking about it). Oh, pardon me I forgot that this is OK as long as your president says it is. My mistake.

[Peabodies]

This is a shocking development.

"17 years and four months seems to me to be an extraordinarily long sentence for little more than a thought crime, but when the issue of Padilla's three and half years of suppressed torture is raised, it's difficult not to conclude that justice has just been horribly twisted, that the President and his advisors have just got away with torturing an American citizen with impunity, and that no American citizen can be sure that what happened to Padilla will not happen to him or her. Today, it was a Muslim; tomorrow, unless the government's powers are taken away from them, it could be any number of categories of "enemy combatants" who have not yet been identified".

That is why you MUST call/email your Senators to vote NO on S.1959, the Violent Radicalization ... blah blah" (the "Thought Crime" bill). It has passed the House as HR 1955, and it's an abomination.

[dynadem]

This is the latest example of our judicial system failing to uphold the law in the face of Bush administration lawlessness. It is truly troubling to realize that, should the government, for whatever reason, decide to go after you, the courts really couldn't give two shits about it. They'll do what they did with Padilla, and what they're doing w/r/t Guantamano, Governor Sielegman down in Alabama, and the CIA torture tapes -- nothing.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I am shocked and disgusted.

The government utterly failed to try Padilla for that which he was originally arrested, though the "dirty bomb" soundbite resonates with most as justifying his sentance -- for something ELSE.

As to the predictable reaction of other commenters, a little thought experiment (while we're on the subject of thought crimes):
If (assuming male) you've ever looked twice at a married woman, have you committed adultery?

[Wilson33]

Sorry Mr. Lib, no one cares what happens to would be terrorists. Except libs.

[Wilson33]

Sorry Mr. Lib, no one cares what happens to would be terrorists.