Isolation; sleep and sensory depravation; hoodings; stress positions; exposure to noxious fumes; exposure to temperature extremes; threats of imminent execution; assaults; the forced administration of mind-altering substances; denial of religious practices; manipulation of diet; and other forms of mistreatment.That is the watered-down version of what Jose Padilla's lawyers claim was done to him while he was jailed in Charleston, South Carolina.
Padilla is citizen of the United States. He was arrested in Chicago four years ago, charged as an "enemy combatant," and made to "disappear" by the government of George W. Bush. Yet, as of today, no charges have been filed against Mr. Padilla.
The tortures that Padilla has experienced are acts that have long been categorized as war crimes under both the U.S. War Crimes Act and the Geneva Conventions. Yet the outgoing Republican congress, at the urging of the President, had the wording of the War Crimes Act rewritten in the 2006 Military Commissions Act so that the President could arrest anyone anywhere on such charges, apparently without an iota of evidence.
It is un-American in every sense of the word. The Bush administration tramples on the Constitution as no administration before them (not even Nixon's), and by doing so hand the terrorists that attacked us on 9/11 the victory they were looking for: an unraveling America.
The President, the Vice-President, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, his predecessor John Ashcroft, and Karl Rove should all be charged with war crimes and shipped to the Hague in the Netherlands to stand trial.
