09.08.07
The ’spiritual brain’, mind-control, and Padilla
From Rad-Green.
Nemo: since we are looking at ‘mind’ and the spiritual, it might be appropriate to consider the case of Padilla, and the well-documented use of ‘mind-control’ techniques to ‘destroy’ the minds of torture victims.
Democracy Now August 16th, 2007
An inside look at how U.S. interrogators destroyed the mind of Jose Padilla
In a Democracy Now! national broadcast exclusive, forensic psychiatrist Dr….
Angela Hegarty speaks for the first time about her experience interviewing
Jose Padilla for 22 hours to determine the state of his mental health.
Padilla is the U.S. citizen who was classified by President Bush as an enemy
combatant and held in extreme isolation at a naval brig in South Carolina
for over three-and-a-half years. His case is now before a Florida jury.
“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.” [includes rush transcript]
» Mind control and Neoliberalism said,
September 30, 2007 at 8:13 pm
[...] Candidate’ myths there was in fact a crystallizing set of interrogation techniques. See this post on Padilla Klein’s Shock Doctrine, to my surprise, picks up this theme in the first chapter and tells us [...]