Thursday, October 12, 2006

Bad trip

TPM Muckraker draws our attention to the report that Joe Padilla's lawyer claims that his client received surreptitious dosings of LSD or some other hallucinogen.
But through experiences like this, the government concluded the drug was worthless as an interrogation tool, a means to "flip" Communist agents, or anything else their Cold War minds had feverishly dreamed possible. Is it possible that they're experimenting with mind drugs again? That sounds completely outlandish.
Not to me. I know that quite a few prisoners have made just that claim over the past few decades.

The Muckraker ignores one obvious use of this tool: Disorientation and discrediting. Padilla's captors may fear that a jury will take him at his word on one point or other. A person subjected to hallucinogenics may well recall outlandish events; the line between the real and the imagined becomes blurred. The testimony of such an individual will persuade few.

For precedent, consider the case of James Thornwell, a black American soldier serving in France, driven nearly insane by horrendous Army drug experiments the early 1960s. (And if you feel that you've received such treatment -- I'm sorry, and I don't mean to be cruel, but please find another ear to bend.)

6 comments:

gary said...

I was the subject of drug experiments in the early seventies, but they were self-administered.

Rebelfrog said...

one of my recent professors (civil rights litigation) confirmed what heretofor had been, at least for me, something i had problems believing was widespread; namely, the use of soldiers, prisoners, and other "captive audience" types as guinea pigs for government agencies' experiments into the effects of different drugs.

he was appointed counsel for several federal prisoners in atlanta (apparently before the supermax facility was built) for their habeas corpus appeals. as a result of that representation, he found out that all of them had been administered LSD on numerous occasions, without their consent.

he filed suit under s1983 on behalf of all of the prisoners. long story short, the suit was eventually dismissed on summary judgment based on the passing of the statute of limitations before the suit was filed.

interesting case, definitely...

Anonymous said...

Zontar the Good... I knew I recognized you from somewhere!

Anonymous said...

Like torture (oh yeah, they use that too...) the notion of using hallucinogens to discredit future testimony is unlikely to be fruitful. At least in the case of those hallucinogens commonly used illicitly.

Sure, one may remember outlandish experiences. But generally insight is retained. I remember seeing alien spaceships. It doesn't discredit me because they were on a movie screen and I know that they were fictitious.

This isn't to imply that such techniques aren't being used; this administration has a long track record of incompetence.

Anonymous said...

I have had the impression that Zacarias Moussaoui has been mind controlled (perhaps with assistance of hallucinagens or other drugs) on account of his strange behavior.

Anonymous said...

ewastud ,maybe it was just the taser belt he was wearing under his shirt ?

mick