Thursday, February 22, 2007

Doctors Claim Padilla Unfit for Trial

This seems pretty dubious, but let's play along.
Former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla is mentally unfit to stand trial on terrorism charges and physically unable to tell his lawyers what happened to him in a U.S. military prison, doctors who examined him for the defense said in court on Thursday.

The doctors testified that Padilla, held by presidential order for 3-1/2 years in a military brig without being charged, is also unable to tell his lawyers anything about the time he spent in Afghanistan and Egypt, where the government alleges he conspired with Islamist terrorists to maim and murder people.

If asked to review taped conversations that will be used as evidence, he breaks into a sweat, hunches over and rocks back and forth, the doctors said.

"He hits a stone wall and his logic shuts down," said Dr. Angela Hegarty, a neuropsychiatrist who examined Padilla in his Miami jail cell. "His overwhelming anxiety interferes with his reasoning."
Cute of the Reuters "reporter" to use quotes are the term enemy combatant. OK, so what to do with Padilla?
Padilla himself denies he has painful memories, depression or any problems at all and believes he will be sent back to the brig to die there regardless of what happens in court, the defense doctors testified.
Sounds like a plan to me.

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