You Say Abuse, I Say Dormitory Living
I don’t want to belittle the bleak, hopeless experiences of “unlawful combatants”—well, yes I do:
During his 3 1/2 -year detention as an “enemy combatant,” accused al-Qaeda operative Jose Padilla was at various times deprived of a clock, windows and a Koran, and forced to sleep on a metal bed frame without a mattress, according to testimony Tuesday from an official at the Navy brig where he was held in Charleston, S.C.
The account of Sanford E. Seymour, the brig’s technical director, was narrow in scope and offered only a glimpse of Padilla’s incarceration, which Padilla and his attorneys have said included torture that renders him psychologically unfit to stand trial.
Limited by a court ruling to what he had discussed with a psychologist evaluating Padilla’s competence for trial, Seymour’s testimony was sketchy but ran contrary to some of Padilla’s most serious allegations.
…
While Padilla has asserted that he was injected with LSD or a truth serum, Seymour indicated it may have been a flu shot, and while Padilla said he was subject to noxious odors that made his eyes and nose run, Seymour said a nearby paper mill sometimes makes the brig stink.
Like I said, welcome to dorm living.