Jose Padilla

An Inside Look at How U.S. Interrogators Destroyed the Mind of Jose Padilla.

"What happened at the brig was essentially the destruction of a human being's mind," said Dr. Hegarty. "[Padilla's] personality was deconstructed and reformed." She said the effects of the extreme isolation on Padilla are consistent with brain damage. "I don't know if he's guilty or not of the charges that they brought against him," said Dr. Hegarty. "But, already - before he was ever found guilty - he's paid a tremendous price for his trip to the Middle East."

----(Hmmm, Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in solitary confinement without any brain damage.)

A Miami, Florida jury found US prisoner Jose Padilla guilty Thursday on three terrorism-related counts. Padilla, a 36-year-old American citizen from Chicago, faces a possible life sentence. The verdict is a travesty of justice and a testament to the growth of police state measures and the advanced state of decay of democratic rights in the United States.

Perverse Justice Yadayadayada more of the same.

Brief bio of Padilla, now known as Abdullah al Muhajir (common name chosen by warriors for Islam) : Poor, fatherless child of a 16 y/o mother. A thug at 14 Padilla was involved in an armed robbery, his accomplice fatally stabbed the victim and Padilla kicked the victim in the head "because he felt like it," according to records. At 20, Padilla shot at motorists in a fit of road rage. He was charged with battery against a jail guard. He repented, pled guilty, found Jesus, found Mohammed. After getting out of jail he found work, found a girlfriend, had a son, married. In 1998 he went to Egypt to get closer to Islam and teach English, although he spoke poor English himself. He became engaged to a 19-year-old in Egypt, divorced American wife, married the Egyptian one. Leaves child and again pregnant wife to teach English in Yemen, travels through the Middle East, to Pakistan and then to Switzerland. Obviously, teachers like Padilla make very good money so as to support a family and travel extensively - until his 2002 arrest in Chicago, carrying $10,000 in cash.

- Padilla's wife, Shamia'a, at the couple's home near Tanta, Egypt. (Photo Barry Iverson NYT)

Just because Mrs. Padilla is sealed tighter than King Tut doesn't mean she and Jose were fanatics, there might be chic Nordstrom wear beneath all that wrapping.

Some state there is little direct evidence linking Padilla to a "dirty bomb" plot, it's circumstantial. That the government relied on mentioning Al Qaeda and OBL a lot during the trial; that Padilla's trial and treatment are a chilling sign of this administration's slow erosion of civil rights.

But are these people out of their friggin' mind – making this thug the poster boy for a travesty of justice? Wanna know what's a mockery of justice? It's a woman who can drown her 5 babies and get 2 years in a psych unit. It's the old scums who murdered Black teenagers and are finally arrested 40 years later. It's Arnold Swartzenazi executing Tookie Williams because Williams wasn't sufficiently contrite, according to Arnold. It's the thousands of pedophiles released back into society over and over again. It's the Rodney King jury finding the cops not guilty and the jury finding OJ not guilty. It's all the pardons from every president who has sat in the oval office.

Padilla finally has what he searched for as he trotted around the Middle East post 9/11; has what he was searching for when he kicked a dying man in the head because he felt like it; has what he's looked for since a little boy – attention.

Used by both right and left pundits to make their political talking points, Padilla will now disappear down the memory hole.