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Title: LSD Mystery: Denials Aside, Terror Suspects Get Drugged
Source:
TMP Muckraker
URL Source: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com
Published: Oct 20, 2006
Author: By Justin Rood
Post Date: 2006-10-20 15:03:21 by Zipporah
Keywords: None
Views: 86
Comments: 6
By Justin Rood - October 20, 2006, 10:44 AM Was terror detainee Jose Padilla drugged by his U.S. government captors? His lawyers say yes. Government officials have said they do no such thing, but reports on other detainees tell a different tale. "Of course not," snapped Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in response to a reporter who asked him if the military ever used truth serums on high-value terror detainees, at an April 2002 news conference. The CIA has also denied employing drugs in interrogations. "[T]he agency is closemouthed about such matters, other than denying that it uses truth serum," the Wall Street Journal reported in March 2003. But evidence belies that. In March 2002 -- the same month Rumsfeld issued his denial -- author Gerald Posner says that U.S. interrogators used sodium pentothal, the most common form of "truth serum," against Abu Zubaydah, an alleged al Qaeda kingpin. Posner published his account in September 2003. And in May 2005, the British Sunday Telegraph reported that Pakistani intelligence had used truth serum on alleged al Qaeda No. 3 Abu Faraj al-Libbi. Pakistani officials insisted to the paper that Americans were not present at his questioning. I'll leave it up to the reader to decide whether the United States would allow Pakistani intelligence officials to interrogate a top al Qaeda official without their involvement. Padilla's lawyers say U.S. interrogators gave their client drugs similar to LSD or PCP to act as "truth serums." The government has yet to comment on the allegation, or provide Padilla's medical records, which could support or refute the charge. A federal judge ordered them to release the documents this spring. But it's been established that despite their claims, the U.S. government -- directly or indirectly -- uses drugs as "truth serums" to obtain information from foreign detainees in the war on terror. However, I have yet to find a report of drugs being used, either as truth serums or as torture devices, against detainees at Guantanamo, or suspects held on U.S. soil (with the exception of Padilla). And in no accounts are drugs given by U.S. interrogators described as similar to hallucinogens like PCP or LSD. It appears drugs have been used, on a limited basis, on detainees held overseas. It makes a certain sense. The "Bybee Memo," which I mentioned earlier, pertained to the treatment of detainees held by the U.S. overseas, like Zubaydah, who did not enjoy U.S. Constitutional protections. Did officials believe the Bybee Memo also applied to Padilla -- who was detained extra-Constitutionally, but on U.S. soil?
LSD Mystery: Denials Aside, Terror Suspects Get Drugged
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#5. To: Zipporah (#0)
Maybe Gitmo won't be so bad after all. A little weed and some Doors CDs and we could party the WOT away.
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestPadilla's lawyers say U.S. interrogators gave their client drugs similar to LSD or PCP
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