EVER WONDER WHY?
Why a Jew can grow his beard in order to practice his faith
But when Muslim does the same, he is an extremist and terrorist!
Why a nun can be covered from head to toe in order to devote herself
to God.
But when Muslimah does the same she oppressed.
When a western women stays at home to look after her house and kids
she is respected because of sacrificing herself and doing good for the
household?
But when a Muslim woman does so by her will, they say, "she needs to
be liberated"!
Any girl can go to university wearing what she wills and have her
rights and freedom?
But when Muslimah wears a Hijab they prevent her from entering her
university!
When a child dedicates himself to a subject he has potential.
But when he dedicates himself to Islam he is hopeless!
When a Christian or a Jew kills someone religion is not mentioned, but
when Muslim is charged with a crime, it is Islam that goes to trial!
When someone sacrfices himself to keep others alive, he is noble and
all respect him.
But when a Palestinian does that to save his son from being killed,
his brother's arm being broken, his mother being raped, his home being
destroyed, and his mosque being violated -- He gets the title of a
terrorist! Why? Because he is a Muslim!
When there is a trouble we accept any solution? If the solution lies
in Islam, we refuse to take a look at it.
When someone drives a perfect car in a bad way no one blames the car.
But when any Muslim makes a mistake or treats people in a bad manner -
people say "Islam is the reason"! Without looking to the tradition of Islam, people believe what the newspapers say.
Despite all this, You ever wondered why people become Muslims when
they research about Islam and start knowing what Islam really is? Why is
Islam the most fast growing Religion.
Despite many people name it bad and are jealous from it?
Monday, August 20, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
US terror interrogation went too far, experts say
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070813/ts_csm/apadillaone_1
US terror interrogation went too far, experts say
By Warren Richey
Mon Aug 13, 4:00 AM ET
Jose Padilla had no history of mental illness when President Bush ordered him detained in 2002 as a suspected Al Qaeda operative. But he does now.
The Muslim convert was subjected to prison conditions and interrogation techniques that took him past the breaking point, mental health experts say.
Two psychiatrists and a psychologist who conducted detailed personal examinations of Mr. Padilla on behalf of his defense lawyers say his extended detention and interrogation at the US Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., left him with severe mental disabilities. All three say he may never recover.
Padilla's psychological condition is important because his situation marks the first time an enemy combatant in the war on terror is in a position to present a verifiable claim of abuse at the hands of US interrogators. Padilla's mental health itself is a form of evidence, mental-health experts say, and it strongly suggests that – at least in Padilla's case – the government's harsh interrogation and confinement tactics went too far.
Padilla is currently on trial in Miami on terror conspiracy charges. Prosecutors say he was a willing Al Qaeda recruit who attended a training camp in Afghanistan. He denies the allegations. Closing arguments in the three-month trial are slated to begin Monday.
Beyond the outcome of his Miami trial, larger issues loom. Chief among them, legal scholars say, is whether Mr. Bush acted within his constitutional authority when he ordered Padilla, a United States citizen, held without charge as an enemy combatant at the brig for three years and seven months.
Padilla's treatment in the brig raises another issue, these scholars say: whether the Constitution ever permits the government to force a man to confess to involvement in terrorist plots and, in doing so, risk destruction of a portion of his mind.
Defense Department officials reject charges that Padilla was mistreated. "The government in the strongest terms denies Padilla's allegations of torture – allegations made without support and without citing a shred of record evidence," writes Navy Commander J.D. Gordon, a spokesman for the secretary of Defense, in an e-mail. "Any credible allegations of illegal conduct by US military personnel are taken seriously and looked into in painstaking detail."
He adds, "There has never been a substantiated case of detainee abuse at Charleston Navy brig."
The Padilla mental-health issue arises as the Bush administration faces increasing pressure to balance the requirements of the criminal justice system against the demands of its intelligence-collection system. Information about Padilla's detention and interrogation at the brig is classified. But his mental health status can't be kept secret.
Rare window into detentionHis psychological reports are on file in his Miami court case. The three reports total 34 pages and offer a rare window into the psychological effects of Padilla's experience in the brig. The mental-health experts were retained by Padilla's lawyers for testimony during pretrial motions. The reports reflect their professional judgments offered to a reasonable degree of medical certainty.
In Padilla's case, these experts say, the pattern of signs and symptoms clearly suggest their origin is the brig . Unlike many allegations of harm from interrogation methods, Padilla's mental condition – and the probable cause of his mental disabilities – can be critically assessed and verified by an independent panel of mental-health professionals, provided Padilla cooperates, these and other psychology experts say.
The judge in Padilla's criminal case has already ruled that Padilla is suffering from a mental disability, but she refused to allow defense lawyers to explore the issue of whether the disability was caused by Padilla's treatment in the brig.
US intelligence officials had good reason to want to learn what Padilla knew. He was detained on suspicion that he was plotting with Al Qaeda to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb" in the US. He was arrested eight months after the 9/11 attacks as he stepped off a plane in Chicago from the Middle East. Officials were worried about the possibility of a second wave of terror attacks and the presence of sleeper cells in the US.
Padilla's interrogation was designed to overcome his will to keep silent, and then to wring from him every detail of what officials thought he might know of Al Qaeda's plans and operations.
Bush and other administration officials have repeatedly said that America does not use torture. They stress that all terror suspects are treated humanely.
"There have been 12 major reviews conducted of detention operations over the past several years, none of which found there was any policy that ever condoned abuse," says Commander Gordon, the Pentagon spokesman. "The reviews have resulted in numerous recommendations which have been implemented and have improved our detention operations."
The mental-health experts say their focus is on Padilla, not on policies.
"He is not the same man who was taken into custody in 2002," says Angela Hegarty, a forensic psychiatrist in New York who spent 22 hours examining Padilla. "Whatever happened to him in there has radically changed him."
Stuart Grassian, a Boston psychiatrist, says Padilla's experience in the brig has left members of his family stunned and frightened. "People who have known him and loved him before his military detention don't feel they can even bear to see him because he is so clearly mentally ill."
Tricky issue: US citizenshipThe administration has faced criticism for using harsh interrogation tactics on foreign enemy combatants at Guantánamo Bay and other locations overseas. But Padilla's situation is unique.
Padilla is a US citizen who was arrested and detained on US soil. Because of this status, his case was closely followed at the highest levels of the US government. The president himself signed the order authorizing Padilla's detention.
In 2002, the Justice Department produced a "torture" memo stating that victims would have to experience pain equivalent to organ failure to prove torture.
"The development of a mental disorder such as post-traumatic stress disorder, which can last months or even years, or even chronic depression, which can last a considerable period of time if untreated, might satisfy the prolonged harm requirement" to prove torture, the memo says.
Drs. Hegarty and Grassian say Padilla's psychological condition exceeds even the high standard for mental damage set by the 2002 torture memo. "This whole issue of torture turns on the question of what are the types of effects that one would expect from putting a person in this situation in the brig," says Grassian. "If you would expect a person to become so deranged as to become psychotically terrified, to me that constitutes torture."
The issue is not new. Lawyers representing Padilla in his criminal case in Miami filed motions last year charging that their client had been tortured while in military custody. They said the abuse rendered Padilla mentally incompetent to assist in his own defense at trial.
But in a February hearing, US District Judge Marcia Cooke sidestepped the torture accusations. She ruled that even though mental-health experts had identified mental disabilities, Padilla was competent enough to face prosecution.
"The mere fact that the defendant is suffering from a mental disease or defect does not render the defendant incompetent to stand trial," Judge Cooke declared.
Mental-health experts say that a legal determination of competence to stand trial doesn't undercut the severity of Padilla's existing mental disabilities.
Throughout his three-month trial in Miami, Padilla has sat quietly at the defense table. He looks more the part of a legal assistant in his charcoal gray suit with neatly cropped hair and eyeglasses than the radical jihadist he is alleged to have become. He turns and smiles to his mother when she attends the trial. But unlike his two codefendants he rarely interacts with his lawyers.
'I saw this individual happy ... joking'A Bureau of Prisons psychologist who examined Padilla prior to the court competency hearing, found that Padilla was suffering from mental disabilities. But Dr. Rodolfo Buigas disagreed with the other mental-health experts on the severity of Padilla's conditions, painting a somewhat rosy picture of the onetime military detainee. "I saw this individual happy. I saw this individual joking in the context of the evaluation. I saw the full, broad range of emotions," Dr. Buigas testified.
The psychologist also testified that Padilla declined to answer most of his questions, including his date of birth, and refused to participate in any psychological testing during the six hours the two men spent together.
Others with more significant interaction with Padilla say his brig experience has left him in a state of mental disorganization.
Some psychological tests place him on par with individuals who have suffered brain damage, according to the reports prepared by Hegarty, Grassian, and Patricia Zapf, a New York psychologist and psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Padilla's treatment in the brig is classified as a state secret.
Ironically, no one knows this better than Padilla himself. When Hegarty, the psychiatrist, asked him about his interrogation in the brig, Padilla responded: "I can't talk about what happened to me because it is classified."
Although Padilla has been meeting with his Miami lawyers for more than a year and a half, he refuses to discuss his treatment in the brig in any detail.
The torture allegations made last year in the Miami court case were raised as a result of repeated sessions asking Padilla "yes or no" whether he'd endured the kinds of harsh interrogation tactics reported in the press. He reluctantly answered yes to some, and no to others. But his lawyers could pry no details or narrative from him.
They asked Hegarty for help.
He changed the subject and twitchedShe spent days attempting to establish a rapport, days trying to get him to open up. "The first two hours were utterly useless each day. I got no data at all," Hegarty says. Eventually he would relax and talk about relatively minor subjects. When Hegarty tried to steer him toward the brig or the evidence in his criminal case "he would just stop, change the subject, and twitch," she said.
During her week-long effort, Hegarty would arrive each morning to discover Padilla once again unwilling to talk. She says the experience was like the movie "Groundhog Day," in which the same events repeat over and over. "The 22 hours I spent with him, it was like it never happened," Hegarty says. "It was chilling."
Grassian relates in his report that Padilla's mother found it emotionally difficult to visit her son in Miami because it involved observing his diminished mental condition. Padilla tried to reassure her that he was fine, that the government was treating him very well. At one point, Grassian says, Padilla suggested that his mother write directly to Bush to help her speed through red tape to arrange her next visit. The president was sure to help her out, Padilla assured his mother.
"It was utterly irrational," Grassian writes in his report. "After all, it was President Bush who had ordered him detained as an enemy combatant."
Padilla's mother became increasingly anxious. Finally she confronted her son: "Did they torture you?" she asked.
"He turned towards her, his face grimacing, his eyes blinking, and in panic and rage he demanded: 'Don't you ever, ever, ask that question again,' " the Grassian report says.
What makes Padilla's case especially challenging from a psychological perspective is that he denies having any symptoms of psychological distress. Experts say it is an attempt by Padilla to avoid being viewed in any way as mentally disturbed.
"He was told not to talk about what happened in the brig and that if he ever spoke about what happened, people would think he was crazy," Hegarty says. "This admonition has power over him," she says. "He becomes visibly terrified as he is saying it."
Critical focus on the brigHegarty, Grassian, and Zapf all agree that Padilla exhibits symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and that he has become psychotically disorganized. They say that Padilla's ordeal in the brig was so psychologically unsettling that it has left him terrorized. Any reminder of the ordeal through questions by his lawyers or others, triggers a recurrence of the disorganizing terror Padilla experienced in the brig, they say.
"As soon as you try to approach a subject related to the brig he starts grimacing and you can just see he becomes mentally disorganized. Anyone who watched this with a reasonably unbiased eye would find it so creepy," Grassian says. "You can see the terror come out of him."
Padilla has been on trial in Miami since May on charges that he became a willing Al Qaeda recruit. The government never presented any part of the alleged "dirty-bomb" plot in the case, and some analysts say the government's cobbled-together case against Padilla is weak.
It is unclear what Padilla thinks about the possibility of an acquittal in Miami. But Hegarty says that if Padilla's lawyers win the case it could mark the worst possible outcome for him. That's because the president might try to move Padilla back to his old cell in the brig.
"There is no question in my mind that his first and most important priority is to not go back to the brig," Hegarty says. "This is what leaves me chilled, if one were to offer him a long prison term or return to the brig, he would take prison, in a heartbeat."
She adds, "He told me more than once that if he went back to the brig he knew what he had to do." Her notes reflect Padilla's hints of suicide.
Worst outcome: a return to the brigAlthough it is still unknown exactly what happened to Padilla during his three years and seven months in the Charleston brig, Hegarty says this much is certain – for Padilla returning to the brig would be a fate worse than death.
Legally, Padilla isn't at a dead end. Last year, three justices of the Supreme Court issued a highly unusual warning. If the government attempts to take Padilla back to the brig, they said, Padilla could, if necessary, appeal directly to the highest court in the land.
Some longtime court-watchers suggest Padilla already has the support of at least five of the nine justices, and maybe more.
When Padilla's case originally reached the high court in 2004, it was dismissed on technical grounds by a 5-to-4 vote. The vote allowed the continued harsh treatment of Padilla.
Justice John Paul Stevens, a US Navy intelligence officer during World War II, filed a dissent. He quoted a 1949 opinion by then Justice Felix Frankfurter.
It said: "There is torture of mind as well as body; the will is as much affected by fear as by force. And there comes a point where this court should not be ignorant as judges of what we know as men."
When did Padilla's mental problems begin?If Jose Padilla's mental disabilities are evidence that US coercive interrogation tactics are too harsh, a key issue is when the disabilities began.
It's possible they began before he was detained by the US military.
In a pretrial hearing in Mr. Padilla's terror conspiracy case in Miami, a prosecutor said that perhaps they stemmed from his time in Pakistan or his alleged time in Afghanistan. Padilla was in the region during US operations in Afghanistan in 2001 and early 2002, a time of massive US bombing raids and other military action. But the prosecutor offered no evidence.
Conversely, several pieces of evidence suggest that the problems began at the Navy brig in South Carolina.
In May 2002, a month before he entered the brig, Padilla was taken into custody, held in New York City, and given access to a court-appointed lawyer, Donna Newman. Two years later, when the Bush administration first allowed Padilla to see his lawyers again, Ms. Newman and another attorney visited.
"There is no question he had changed," Newman says. "Prior to his being held in South Carolina there was no reason to suspect that he had any kind of [mental] problem."
She adds, "After his being held in the brig ... his focus seemed less direct, his eye contact was similarly diminished, and he was more taciturn."
"Mr. Padilla had no evidence of any mental illness prior to his arrest and incarceration in 2002," writes Stuart Grassian, a Boston psychiatrist, in his report for Padilla's defense team. He examined medical documents and interviewed Padilla's family, including his mother, siblings, and ex-wife.
Patricia Zapf, a New York psychologist, also retained by the defense, quotes Padilla's mother in her report as saying that her son had "never suffered from any mental illness or received treatment for any psychological or psychiatric problems." His mother said she had visited him eight or nine times but that it was becoming too hard emotionally to "see Jose that way." She added that he did not have facial ticks prior to being incarcerated.
"Mr. Padilla shows extreme anxiety," Ms. Zapf said at a pretrial hearing. "He said he will go back there. He will die there. He is fearful of his time in the brig. Everything that he talks about is with respect to the time at the brig, no other time point."
AFP/FDMV-HO/File Photo: The defense rested its case on Tuesday in the US trial of former Chicago gang...
US terror interrogation went too far, experts say
By Warren Richey
Mon Aug 13, 4:00 AM ET
Jose Padilla had no history of mental illness when President Bush ordered him detained in 2002 as a suspected Al Qaeda operative. But he does now.
The Muslim convert was subjected to prison conditions and interrogation techniques that took him past the breaking point, mental health experts say.
Two psychiatrists and a psychologist who conducted detailed personal examinations of Mr. Padilla on behalf of his defense lawyers say his extended detention and interrogation at the US Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., left him with severe mental disabilities. All three say he may never recover.
Padilla's psychological condition is important because his situation marks the first time an enemy combatant in the war on terror is in a position to present a verifiable claim of abuse at the hands of US interrogators. Padilla's mental health itself is a form of evidence, mental-health experts say, and it strongly suggests that – at least in Padilla's case – the government's harsh interrogation and confinement tactics went too far.
Padilla is currently on trial in Miami on terror conspiracy charges. Prosecutors say he was a willing Al Qaeda recruit who attended a training camp in Afghanistan. He denies the allegations. Closing arguments in the three-month trial are slated to begin Monday.
Beyond the outcome of his Miami trial, larger issues loom. Chief among them, legal scholars say, is whether Mr. Bush acted within his constitutional authority when he ordered Padilla, a United States citizen, held without charge as an enemy combatant at the brig for three years and seven months.
Padilla's treatment in the brig raises another issue, these scholars say: whether the Constitution ever permits the government to force a man to confess to involvement in terrorist plots and, in doing so, risk destruction of a portion of his mind.
Defense Department officials reject charges that Padilla was mistreated. "The government in the strongest terms denies Padilla's allegations of torture – allegations made without support and without citing a shred of record evidence," writes Navy Commander J.D. Gordon, a spokesman for the secretary of Defense, in an e-mail. "Any credible allegations of illegal conduct by US military personnel are taken seriously and looked into in painstaking detail."
He adds, "There has never been a substantiated case of detainee abuse at Charleston Navy brig."
The Padilla mental-health issue arises as the Bush administration faces increasing pressure to balance the requirements of the criminal justice system against the demands of its intelligence-collection system. Information about Padilla's detention and interrogation at the brig is classified. But his mental health status can't be kept secret.
Rare window into detentionHis psychological reports are on file in his Miami court case. The three reports total 34 pages and offer a rare window into the psychological effects of Padilla's experience in the brig. The mental-health experts were retained by Padilla's lawyers for testimony during pretrial motions. The reports reflect their professional judgments offered to a reasonable degree of medical certainty.
In Padilla's case, these experts say, the pattern of signs and symptoms clearly suggest their origin is the brig . Unlike many allegations of harm from interrogation methods, Padilla's mental condition – and the probable cause of his mental disabilities – can be critically assessed and verified by an independent panel of mental-health professionals, provided Padilla cooperates, these and other psychology experts say.
The judge in Padilla's criminal case has already ruled that Padilla is suffering from a mental disability, but she refused to allow defense lawyers to explore the issue of whether the disability was caused by Padilla's treatment in the brig.
US intelligence officials had good reason to want to learn what Padilla knew. He was detained on suspicion that he was plotting with Al Qaeda to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb" in the US. He was arrested eight months after the 9/11 attacks as he stepped off a plane in Chicago from the Middle East. Officials were worried about the possibility of a second wave of terror attacks and the presence of sleeper cells in the US.
Padilla's interrogation was designed to overcome his will to keep silent, and then to wring from him every detail of what officials thought he might know of Al Qaeda's plans and operations.
Bush and other administration officials have repeatedly said that America does not use torture. They stress that all terror suspects are treated humanely.
"There have been 12 major reviews conducted of detention operations over the past several years, none of which found there was any policy that ever condoned abuse," says Commander Gordon, the Pentagon spokesman. "The reviews have resulted in numerous recommendations which have been implemented and have improved our detention operations."
The mental-health experts say their focus is on Padilla, not on policies.
"He is not the same man who was taken into custody in 2002," says Angela Hegarty, a forensic psychiatrist in New York who spent 22 hours examining Padilla. "Whatever happened to him in there has radically changed him."
Stuart Grassian, a Boston psychiatrist, says Padilla's experience in the brig has left members of his family stunned and frightened. "People who have known him and loved him before his military detention don't feel they can even bear to see him because he is so clearly mentally ill."
Tricky issue: US citizenshipThe administration has faced criticism for using harsh interrogation tactics on foreign enemy combatants at Guantánamo Bay and other locations overseas. But Padilla's situation is unique.
Padilla is a US citizen who was arrested and detained on US soil. Because of this status, his case was closely followed at the highest levels of the US government. The president himself signed the order authorizing Padilla's detention.
In 2002, the Justice Department produced a "torture" memo stating that victims would have to experience pain equivalent to organ failure to prove torture.
"The development of a mental disorder such as post-traumatic stress disorder, which can last months or even years, or even chronic depression, which can last a considerable period of time if untreated, might satisfy the prolonged harm requirement" to prove torture, the memo says.
Drs. Hegarty and Grassian say Padilla's psychological condition exceeds even the high standard for mental damage set by the 2002 torture memo. "This whole issue of torture turns on the question of what are the types of effects that one would expect from putting a person in this situation in the brig," says Grassian. "If you would expect a person to become so deranged as to become psychotically terrified, to me that constitutes torture."
The issue is not new. Lawyers representing Padilla in his criminal case in Miami filed motions last year charging that their client had been tortured while in military custody. They said the abuse rendered Padilla mentally incompetent to assist in his own defense at trial.
But in a February hearing, US District Judge Marcia Cooke sidestepped the torture accusations. She ruled that even though mental-health experts had identified mental disabilities, Padilla was competent enough to face prosecution.
"The mere fact that the defendant is suffering from a mental disease or defect does not render the defendant incompetent to stand trial," Judge Cooke declared.
Mental-health experts say that a legal determination of competence to stand trial doesn't undercut the severity of Padilla's existing mental disabilities.
Throughout his three-month trial in Miami, Padilla has sat quietly at the defense table. He looks more the part of a legal assistant in his charcoal gray suit with neatly cropped hair and eyeglasses than the radical jihadist he is alleged to have become. He turns and smiles to his mother when she attends the trial. But unlike his two codefendants he rarely interacts with his lawyers.
'I saw this individual happy ... joking'A Bureau of Prisons psychologist who examined Padilla prior to the court competency hearing, found that Padilla was suffering from mental disabilities. But Dr. Rodolfo Buigas disagreed with the other mental-health experts on the severity of Padilla's conditions, painting a somewhat rosy picture of the onetime military detainee. "I saw this individual happy. I saw this individual joking in the context of the evaluation. I saw the full, broad range of emotions," Dr. Buigas testified.
The psychologist also testified that Padilla declined to answer most of his questions, including his date of birth, and refused to participate in any psychological testing during the six hours the two men spent together.
Others with more significant interaction with Padilla say his brig experience has left him in a state of mental disorganization.
Some psychological tests place him on par with individuals who have suffered brain damage, according to the reports prepared by Hegarty, Grassian, and Patricia Zapf, a New York psychologist and psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Padilla's treatment in the brig is classified as a state secret.
Ironically, no one knows this better than Padilla himself. When Hegarty, the psychiatrist, asked him about his interrogation in the brig, Padilla responded: "I can't talk about what happened to me because it is classified."
Although Padilla has been meeting with his Miami lawyers for more than a year and a half, he refuses to discuss his treatment in the brig in any detail.
The torture allegations made last year in the Miami court case were raised as a result of repeated sessions asking Padilla "yes or no" whether he'd endured the kinds of harsh interrogation tactics reported in the press. He reluctantly answered yes to some, and no to others. But his lawyers could pry no details or narrative from him.
They asked Hegarty for help.
He changed the subject and twitchedShe spent days attempting to establish a rapport, days trying to get him to open up. "The first two hours were utterly useless each day. I got no data at all," Hegarty says. Eventually he would relax and talk about relatively minor subjects. When Hegarty tried to steer him toward the brig or the evidence in his criminal case "he would just stop, change the subject, and twitch," she said.
During her week-long effort, Hegarty would arrive each morning to discover Padilla once again unwilling to talk. She says the experience was like the movie "Groundhog Day," in which the same events repeat over and over. "The 22 hours I spent with him, it was like it never happened," Hegarty says. "It was chilling."
Grassian relates in his report that Padilla's mother found it emotionally difficult to visit her son in Miami because it involved observing his diminished mental condition. Padilla tried to reassure her that he was fine, that the government was treating him very well. At one point, Grassian says, Padilla suggested that his mother write directly to Bush to help her speed through red tape to arrange her next visit. The president was sure to help her out, Padilla assured his mother.
"It was utterly irrational," Grassian writes in his report. "After all, it was President Bush who had ordered him detained as an enemy combatant."
Padilla's mother became increasingly anxious. Finally she confronted her son: "Did they torture you?" she asked.
"He turned towards her, his face grimacing, his eyes blinking, and in panic and rage he demanded: 'Don't you ever, ever, ask that question again,' " the Grassian report says.
What makes Padilla's case especially challenging from a psychological perspective is that he denies having any symptoms of psychological distress. Experts say it is an attempt by Padilla to avoid being viewed in any way as mentally disturbed.
"He was told not to talk about what happened in the brig and that if he ever spoke about what happened, people would think he was crazy," Hegarty says. "This admonition has power over him," she says. "He becomes visibly terrified as he is saying it."
Critical focus on the brigHegarty, Grassian, and Zapf all agree that Padilla exhibits symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and that he has become psychotically disorganized. They say that Padilla's ordeal in the brig was so psychologically unsettling that it has left him terrorized. Any reminder of the ordeal through questions by his lawyers or others, triggers a recurrence of the disorganizing terror Padilla experienced in the brig, they say.
"As soon as you try to approach a subject related to the brig he starts grimacing and you can just see he becomes mentally disorganized. Anyone who watched this with a reasonably unbiased eye would find it so creepy," Grassian says. "You can see the terror come out of him."
Padilla has been on trial in Miami since May on charges that he became a willing Al Qaeda recruit. The government never presented any part of the alleged "dirty-bomb" plot in the case, and some analysts say the government's cobbled-together case against Padilla is weak.
It is unclear what Padilla thinks about the possibility of an acquittal in Miami. But Hegarty says that if Padilla's lawyers win the case it could mark the worst possible outcome for him. That's because the president might try to move Padilla back to his old cell in the brig.
"There is no question in my mind that his first and most important priority is to not go back to the brig," Hegarty says. "This is what leaves me chilled, if one were to offer him a long prison term or return to the brig, he would take prison, in a heartbeat."
She adds, "He told me more than once that if he went back to the brig he knew what he had to do." Her notes reflect Padilla's hints of suicide.
Worst outcome: a return to the brigAlthough it is still unknown exactly what happened to Padilla during his three years and seven months in the Charleston brig, Hegarty says this much is certain – for Padilla returning to the brig would be a fate worse than death.
Legally, Padilla isn't at a dead end. Last year, three justices of the Supreme Court issued a highly unusual warning. If the government attempts to take Padilla back to the brig, they said, Padilla could, if necessary, appeal directly to the highest court in the land.
Some longtime court-watchers suggest Padilla already has the support of at least five of the nine justices, and maybe more.
When Padilla's case originally reached the high court in 2004, it was dismissed on technical grounds by a 5-to-4 vote. The vote allowed the continued harsh treatment of Padilla.
Justice John Paul Stevens, a US Navy intelligence officer during World War II, filed a dissent. He quoted a 1949 opinion by then Justice Felix Frankfurter.
It said: "There is torture of mind as well as body; the will is as much affected by fear as by force. And there comes a point where this court should not be ignorant as judges of what we know as men."
When did Padilla's mental problems begin?If Jose Padilla's mental disabilities are evidence that US coercive interrogation tactics are too harsh, a key issue is when the disabilities began.
It's possible they began before he was detained by the US military.
In a pretrial hearing in Mr. Padilla's terror conspiracy case in Miami, a prosecutor said that perhaps they stemmed from his time in Pakistan or his alleged time in Afghanistan. Padilla was in the region during US operations in Afghanistan in 2001 and early 2002, a time of massive US bombing raids and other military action. But the prosecutor offered no evidence.
Conversely, several pieces of evidence suggest that the problems began at the Navy brig in South Carolina.
In May 2002, a month before he entered the brig, Padilla was taken into custody, held in New York City, and given access to a court-appointed lawyer, Donna Newman. Two years later, when the Bush administration first allowed Padilla to see his lawyers again, Ms. Newman and another attorney visited.
"There is no question he had changed," Newman says. "Prior to his being held in South Carolina there was no reason to suspect that he had any kind of [mental] problem."
She adds, "After his being held in the brig ... his focus seemed less direct, his eye contact was similarly diminished, and he was more taciturn."
"Mr. Padilla had no evidence of any mental illness prior to his arrest and incarceration in 2002," writes Stuart Grassian, a Boston psychiatrist, in his report for Padilla's defense team. He examined medical documents and interviewed Padilla's family, including his mother, siblings, and ex-wife.
Patricia Zapf, a New York psychologist, also retained by the defense, quotes Padilla's mother in her report as saying that her son had "never suffered from any mental illness or received treatment for any psychological or psychiatric problems." His mother said she had visited him eight or nine times but that it was becoming too hard emotionally to "see Jose that way." She added that he did not have facial ticks prior to being incarcerated.
"Mr. Padilla shows extreme anxiety," Ms. Zapf said at a pretrial hearing. "He said he will go back there. He will die there. He is fearful of his time in the brig. Everything that he talks about is with respect to the time at the brig, no other time point."
AFP/FDMV-HO/File Photo: The defense rested its case on Tuesday in the US trial of former Chicago gang...
Saturday, August 11, 2007
The World of the Jinn
Throughout history man has always had a deep attraction for the supernatural and the unseen. The existence of a world parallel to our own has always fascinated people. This world is commonly referred to as the spirit world, and almost every set of people have some concept of one. With some people, these spirits are no more then the souls of dead people- or ghosts.
With others, spirits are either the forces of good or the forces of evil - both battling against one another to gain influence over humanity. However, both of these explanations are more in tune with folk tales and fantasy. The true explanation of such a world comes from Islam. Like every other way, Islam also claims to explain this realm of the unseen. It is from this realm that Islam explains to us about the world of the Jinn. The Islamic explanation of the Jinn provides us with so many answers to modem day mysteries. Without the knowledge of this world, the Muslims would become like the non-Muslims and be running around looking for any old answer to come their way. So, who or what are the Jinn?
Existence
The Jinn are beings created with free will, living on earth in a world parallel to mankind. The Arabic word Jinn is from the verb 'Janna' which means to hide or conceal. Thus, they are physically invisible from man as their deion suggests. This invisibility is one of the reasons why some people have denied their existence. However, (as will be seen) the affect which the world of the Jinn has upon our world, is enough to refute this modern denial of one of Allah's creation. The origins of the Jinn can be traced from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Allah says:
"Indeed We created man from dried clay of black smooth mud. And We created the Jinn before that from the smokeless flame of fire" (Surah Al-Hijr 15:26-27)
Thus the Jinn were created before man. As for their physical origin, then the Prophet (saws) has confirmed the above verse when he said: "The Angels were created from light and the Jinn from smokeless fire" [1]. It is this deion of the Jinn which tells us so much about them. Because they were created from fire, their nature has generally been fiery and thus their relationship with man has been built upon this. Like humans, they too are required to worship Allah and follow Islam. Their purpose in life is exactly the same as ours, as Allah says:
"I did not create the Jinn and mankind except to worship Me" (Surah Ad-Dhariyat 51:56)
Jinns can thus be Muslims or non-Muslims. However, due to their fiery nature the majority of them are non-Muslims. All these non-Muslim Jinns form a part of the army of the most famous Jinn, Iblis- the Shaytan[2]. Consequently, these disbelieving Jinns are also called Shaytans (devils). As for the Jinns who become Muslims, then the first of them did so in the time of the Prophet (saws) when a group of them were amazed by the recitation of the Qur'an. Allah orders the Prophet to tell the people of this event:
"Say (O' Muhammed): It has been revealed to me that a group of Jinn listened and said; 'Indeed we have heard a marvellous Qur'an. It guides unto righteousness so we have believed in it, and we will never make partners with our lord'" (Surah Al-Jinn 72:1-2)
In many aspects of their world, the Jinn are very similar to us. They eat and drink, they marry, have children and they die. The life span however, is far greater then ours. Like us, they will also be subject to a Final Reckoning by Allah the Most High. They will be present with mankind on the Day of Judgement and will either go to Paradise or Hell.
Abilities
More @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islaam4all/
With others, spirits are either the forces of good or the forces of evil - both battling against one another to gain influence over humanity. However, both of these explanations are more in tune with folk tales and fantasy. The true explanation of such a world comes from Islam. Like every other way, Islam also claims to explain this realm of the unseen. It is from this realm that Islam explains to us about the world of the Jinn. The Islamic explanation of the Jinn provides us with so many answers to modem day mysteries. Without the knowledge of this world, the Muslims would become like the non-Muslims and be running around looking for any old answer to come their way. So, who or what are the Jinn?
Existence
The Jinn are beings created with free will, living on earth in a world parallel to mankind. The Arabic word Jinn is from the verb 'Janna' which means to hide or conceal. Thus, they are physically invisible from man as their deion suggests. This invisibility is one of the reasons why some people have denied their existence. However, (as will be seen) the affect which the world of the Jinn has upon our world, is enough to refute this modern denial of one of Allah's creation. The origins of the Jinn can be traced from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Allah says:
"Indeed We created man from dried clay of black smooth mud. And We created the Jinn before that from the smokeless flame of fire" (Surah Al-Hijr 15:26-27)
Thus the Jinn were created before man. As for their physical origin, then the Prophet (saws) has confirmed the above verse when he said: "The Angels were created from light and the Jinn from smokeless fire" [1]. It is this deion of the Jinn which tells us so much about them. Because they were created from fire, their nature has generally been fiery and thus their relationship with man has been built upon this. Like humans, they too are required to worship Allah and follow Islam. Their purpose in life is exactly the same as ours, as Allah says:
"I did not create the Jinn and mankind except to worship Me" (Surah Ad-Dhariyat 51:56)
Jinns can thus be Muslims or non-Muslims. However, due to their fiery nature the majority of them are non-Muslims. All these non-Muslim Jinns form a part of the army of the most famous Jinn, Iblis- the Shaytan[2]. Consequently, these disbelieving Jinns are also called Shaytans (devils). As for the Jinns who become Muslims, then the first of them did so in the time of the Prophet (saws) when a group of them were amazed by the recitation of the Qur'an. Allah orders the Prophet to tell the people of this event:
"Say (O' Muhammed): It has been revealed to me that a group of Jinn listened and said; 'Indeed we have heard a marvellous Qur'an. It guides unto righteousness so we have believed in it, and we will never make partners with our lord'" (Surah Al-Jinn 72:1-2)
In many aspects of their world, the Jinn are very similar to us. They eat and drink, they marry, have children and they die. The life span however, is far greater then ours. Like us, they will also be subject to a Final Reckoning by Allah the Most High. They will be present with mankind on the Day of Judgement and will either go to Paradise or Hell.
Abilities
More @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islaam4all/
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Embroiling China in War on Terror
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1184649662401&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout
Embroiling China in War on Terror
By Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent
ISLAMABAD — The recent attacks on Chinese nationals in Pakistan, especially after the bloody Red Mosque commando operation, are aimed at driving a wedge between the two allies and embroiling China into a conflict with anti-US forces, intelligence officials and security analysts believe.
"We have received cogent reports that some foreign powers are behind the killings and attacks on Chinese engineers and citizens in Pakistan," a senior
intelligence official told IslamOnline.net on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
About a dozen Chinese nationals, mostly engineers, have been killed in various attacks during the last two years in southeastern Balochistan and North Western
Frontier province, where security forces are facing a strong resistance from Baloch militants and local Taliban respectively.
The spate of attacks began when three Chinese engineers working at Gawadar deep-sea port project in Balochistan were gunned down by unidentified militants two years back.
Last year, two other engineers helping to build a dam in South Waziristan were abducted by a top Taliban military Commander, Abdullah Mahsud, who was killed in an operation near the Afghan borders on July 23, 2007.
One of the Chinese was killed during the rescue attempt while the other was rescued unharmed.
The latest incident happened in Charsaddah district of NWFP in July, where three Chinese engineers working in a local factory were killed by militants soon after the Red Mosque operation.
Red Mosque students had abducted nine Chinese women in June on claims of running a prostitution den in Islamabad under the guise of a massage center.
An eventual full-fledged commando operation against the Mosque killed hundreds, including women and children.
Some media reports suggested the operation was launched on the demand of angry ally China, which promptly denied such reports.
:: Double Agents
Intelligence agencies believe double agents are being used to drag China into the battle.
"China has neither been an active partner in the war on terror nor had it any confrontation with Taliban," noted the intelligence official.
"Therefore, the question arises, why Taliban are attacking them?"
Intelligence agencies have always been "doubtful" about the role of Mahsud.
"He was operating as a double agent. Various double-agents like Mahsud have managed to trickle into the ranks of Taliban," said the intelligence official.
Mahsud was captured by American troops in December 2001, after the Taliban had suffered a set back in Mazar-e-Sharif.
He was sent to notorious Guantanamo for interrogation and was released in March 2004.
Mahsud later returned to a senior leadership role within the local Taliban operating in Pakistan’s northern tribal belt.
"We have had reports that Mahsud was working for the US," said the intelligence official.
He claimed that Mahsud was released from Guantanamo on a condition of working for the US intelligence.
"We also had reports that he had established links to the Indian intelligence agency RAW."
The official argued that Mahsud's double-agent reality was soon discovered, promoting another top commander of local Taliban, Baitullah Mahsud, to ditch him.
He was subsequently forced to run and hide before being eventually killed by government troops in July.
:: Multiple Goal
Experts say some parties are trying to drive a wedge between Islamabad and its close regional ally, China.
"China has been Pakistan’s closest friend in last 60 years. It has supported us in any hour of need," Lt General rtd Hameed Gul told IOL.
"All the political and religious parties consider China as a great friend of Pakistan."
Gul, who served as head of Pakistan’s powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) from 1988 to 1989, sees American and Indian hands behind attacks on Chinese.
"Being an intelligence person, I know that CIA doesn’t come on forefront. It usually uses the intelligence agencies of other countries. In our case, it is using RAW," he charged.
"The US wants to achieve various long term and short term targets by engaging China into the so-called war on terror," insists the expert.
"First, it wants to pre-maturely engage China into a conflict to contain its growing military and economic growth, which has been haunting America for last two decades," Gul said.
"Second, if China jumps into the fray then it will be much more pressure on Pakistan to launch a full-fledged military operation in the tribal areas.
"Third, the US wants to separate China from its traditional ally i.e. the Muslim world."
Gul thinks that Pakistan’s nuclear program is a long-term target of the US.
"If China gets involved into the so-called war on terror, it will be easier for the US to prepare a strong case against our nuclear program, and take an action in
line with Iraq," he said, referring to the Israeli bombing of Iraq’s nuclear installation in 1982.
The former ISI chief said India too has always been cranky on Sino-Pakistani relations.
"It was China which helped Pakistan in its wars against India," he recalled.
"The RAW has set up various centers in Afghanistan with the tacit
support of Hamid Karzai-led Northern Alliance government, which is very much involved in Balochistan and NWFP."
Gul insisted that the mega project of Gawadar deep sea port Balochistan, in which China has invested around 500 million dollars, is another reason for which
India and the US want to drive a wedge between the decade-old allies.
"After completion of Gawadar port, China and Pakistan will have direct access to Gulf and oil-rich Central Asian states, which bothers the US and India," Gul
said.
He does not buy the theory that the recent killing of Chinese was a reaction to the Red Mosque operation.
"This is untrue because the Chinese have been being targeted for the last two years, while the Red Mosque tragedy has just occurred."
Gul said the attacks on Chinese nationals coincided with the beginning of work on Gawadar project.
:: American Scheme
Hamid Mir, a journalist who shot to fame after interviewing Osama bin Laden in 2001, says the US has always been keen to drive a wedge between Muslim fighters and China.
He revealed that the head of the banned Harkatul Mujahidn, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman Khalil, was approached in 1998 by US authorities to "wage Jihad"
against China, which is accused of persecuting Uighur Muslims in its oil-rich Xinjiang province.
"He was approached through a retired judge of Pakistan, who tried to coax him into waging Jihad in Xinjiang province and emotionally blackmailed him by
telling him about Chinese brutalities against Muslims there," Mir told IOL.
"He (judge) offered him (Khalil) that if he wages Jihad in Xinjiang, he will be showered with rain of dollars by the US and other western countries."
However, according to Mir, the Harkatul Mujahidin chief, rebuffed the offer.
The group was blacklisted by the US State Department as a terrorist organization in 2003.
Mir also believes that American agents have penetrated Taliban.
"US troops have continuously been conceding heavy losses in Afghanistan. Now it wants to shift the brunt towards China by dragging into its war in
Afghanistan," he said.
"But I am sure, the Chinese leadership is wise enough to understand this."
A senior Foreign Office official said the Chinese government has been taken into confidence about the intelligence reports.
"We have communicated to the Chinese government that some foreign powers which are not happy with the growing economic relations between the two countries, especially after Gawadar port project, are trying to create misunderstandings," he told IOL wishing not to be named.
...
Embroiling China in War on Terror
By Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent
ISLAMABAD — The recent attacks on Chinese nationals in Pakistan, especially after the bloody Red Mosque commando operation, are aimed at driving a wedge between the two allies and embroiling China into a conflict with anti-US forces, intelligence officials and security analysts believe.
"We have received cogent reports that some foreign powers are behind the killings and attacks on Chinese engineers and citizens in Pakistan," a senior
intelligence official told IslamOnline.net on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
About a dozen Chinese nationals, mostly engineers, have been killed in various attacks during the last two years in southeastern Balochistan and North Western
Frontier province, where security forces are facing a strong resistance from Baloch militants and local Taliban respectively.
The spate of attacks began when three Chinese engineers working at Gawadar deep-sea port project in Balochistan were gunned down by unidentified militants two years back.
Last year, two other engineers helping to build a dam in South Waziristan were abducted by a top Taliban military Commander, Abdullah Mahsud, who was killed in an operation near the Afghan borders on July 23, 2007.
One of the Chinese was killed during the rescue attempt while the other was rescued unharmed.
The latest incident happened in Charsaddah district of NWFP in July, where three Chinese engineers working in a local factory were killed by militants soon after the Red Mosque operation.
Red Mosque students had abducted nine Chinese women in June on claims of running a prostitution den in Islamabad under the guise of a massage center.
An eventual full-fledged commando operation against the Mosque killed hundreds, including women and children.
Some media reports suggested the operation was launched on the demand of angry ally China, which promptly denied such reports.
:: Double Agents
Intelligence agencies believe double agents are being used to drag China into the battle.
"China has neither been an active partner in the war on terror nor had it any confrontation with Taliban," noted the intelligence official.
"Therefore, the question arises, why Taliban are attacking them?"
Intelligence agencies have always been "doubtful" about the role of Mahsud.
"He was operating as a double agent. Various double-agents like Mahsud have managed to trickle into the ranks of Taliban," said the intelligence official.
Mahsud was captured by American troops in December 2001, after the Taliban had suffered a set back in Mazar-e-Sharif.
He was sent to notorious Guantanamo for interrogation and was released in March 2004.
Mahsud later returned to a senior leadership role within the local Taliban operating in Pakistan’s northern tribal belt.
"We have had reports that Mahsud was working for the US," said the intelligence official.
He claimed that Mahsud was released from Guantanamo on a condition of working for the US intelligence.
"We also had reports that he had established links to the Indian intelligence agency RAW."
The official argued that Mahsud's double-agent reality was soon discovered, promoting another top commander of local Taliban, Baitullah Mahsud, to ditch him.
He was subsequently forced to run and hide before being eventually killed by government troops in July.
:: Multiple Goal
Experts say some parties are trying to drive a wedge between Islamabad and its close regional ally, China.
"China has been Pakistan’s closest friend in last 60 years. It has supported us in any hour of need," Lt General rtd Hameed Gul told IOL.
"All the political and religious parties consider China as a great friend of Pakistan."
Gul, who served as head of Pakistan’s powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) from 1988 to 1989, sees American and Indian hands behind attacks on Chinese.
"Being an intelligence person, I know that CIA doesn’t come on forefront. It usually uses the intelligence agencies of other countries. In our case, it is using RAW," he charged.
"The US wants to achieve various long term and short term targets by engaging China into the so-called war on terror," insists the expert.
"First, it wants to pre-maturely engage China into a conflict to contain its growing military and economic growth, which has been haunting America for last two decades," Gul said.
"Second, if China jumps into the fray then it will be much more pressure on Pakistan to launch a full-fledged military operation in the tribal areas.
"Third, the US wants to separate China from its traditional ally i.e. the Muslim world."
Gul thinks that Pakistan’s nuclear program is a long-term target of the US.
"If China gets involved into the so-called war on terror, it will be easier for the US to prepare a strong case against our nuclear program, and take an action in
line with Iraq," he said, referring to the Israeli bombing of Iraq’s nuclear installation in 1982.
The former ISI chief said India too has always been cranky on Sino-Pakistani relations.
"It was China which helped Pakistan in its wars against India," he recalled.
"The RAW has set up various centers in Afghanistan with the tacit
support of Hamid Karzai-led Northern Alliance government, which is very much involved in Balochistan and NWFP."
Gul insisted that the mega project of Gawadar deep sea port Balochistan, in which China has invested around 500 million dollars, is another reason for which
India and the US want to drive a wedge between the decade-old allies.
"After completion of Gawadar port, China and Pakistan will have direct access to Gulf and oil-rich Central Asian states, which bothers the US and India," Gul
said.
He does not buy the theory that the recent killing of Chinese was a reaction to the Red Mosque operation.
"This is untrue because the Chinese have been being targeted for the last two years, while the Red Mosque tragedy has just occurred."
Gul said the attacks on Chinese nationals coincided with the beginning of work on Gawadar project.
:: American Scheme
Hamid Mir, a journalist who shot to fame after interviewing Osama bin Laden in 2001, says the US has always been keen to drive a wedge between Muslim fighters and China.
He revealed that the head of the banned Harkatul Mujahidn, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman Khalil, was approached in 1998 by US authorities to "wage Jihad"
against China, which is accused of persecuting Uighur Muslims in its oil-rich Xinjiang province.
"He was approached through a retired judge of Pakistan, who tried to coax him into waging Jihad in Xinjiang province and emotionally blackmailed him by
telling him about Chinese brutalities against Muslims there," Mir told IOL.
"He (judge) offered him (Khalil) that if he wages Jihad in Xinjiang, he will be showered with rain of dollars by the US and other western countries."
However, according to Mir, the Harkatul Mujahidin chief, rebuffed the offer.
The group was blacklisted by the US State Department as a terrorist organization in 2003.
Mir also believes that American agents have penetrated Taliban.
"US troops have continuously been conceding heavy losses in Afghanistan. Now it wants to shift the brunt towards China by dragging into its war in
Afghanistan," he said.
"But I am sure, the Chinese leadership is wise enough to understand this."
A senior Foreign Office official said the Chinese government has been taken into confidence about the intelligence reports.
"We have communicated to the Chinese government that some foreign powers which are not happy with the growing economic relations between the two countries, especially after Gawadar port project, are trying to create misunderstandings," he told IOL wishing not to be named.
...
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