COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, February 23, 2007

ppab said...Padilla and Transitional Justice


From an earlier thread came a comment which I immediately deleted because I thought the topic deserved a post and thread of its own:
ppab said...
Thu Feb 22, 05:38:00 PM EST


Read the article and you'll see this at the end:
During cross-examination, prosecutor John Shipley pointed to a test administered by Hegarty in which Padilla scored "zero" on the portions indicating post-traumatic stress disorder. Those segments involved questions about flashbacks, nightmares, depression and other symptoms.

"Nothing in this test supports your diagnosis at all, isn't that correct?" Shipley asked.

"No," Hegarty replied, noting that the test answers were only one component of her decision.
That Hegarty is Angela Hegarty, of Human rights fame and NGO intrigue, presumably:

She's into stuff like, you know, Transitional Justice.

Its an interesting read as this stuff seems one part activism one part litigation.

Also, consider the strategies:
#Trials and Prosecution: The first and usually the most preferred choice. It is a criminal justice or judicial approach, either undertaken domestically, internationally or what has become known in recent years as the hybrid. From its historical trace to the ‘Nuremberg Trials’ recent examples have included the Sierra Leone’s Special Court, the International Tribunal for Rwanda and Yugoslavia and in the last few years the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), assuming a universal jurisdiction;

#Truth Commission: A non-judicial or quasi judicial approach, it has become very common and popular in recent transitional societies. It investigates the past to determine the full extent and nature of past abuses through truth-telling process; forge reconciliation; develop reparations packages; memorialize and remember victims; and make proposals for the reform of abusive state institutions in order to prevent future violations. They include both national (Argentina in 1983, Chile 1990, South Africa in 1995, Ghana in 2002) and international (El Salvador in 1992, Guatamala in 1997, East Timor in 2001, Sierra Leone in 2002.);

# Lustration and/or Vetting: This include purging the public services and especially the security sector, a process of excluding corrupt, abusive and incompetent officials from working in the public sector. This strategy has been common in Eastern Europe, such as former Czechoslovakia. Vetting is a process of examination and evaluation to eliminate corrupt and abusive officials through due process. This process furthers accountability, democratization and credibility of institutions; and

# Institutional Reform: Reform of abusive public institutions such as the police, military and security intelligence establishments, the Judiciary, prisons, amendments of obnoxious and abusive laws as well as constitutions.


I don't know anything about Ms. Hegarty beyond what ppab has noted for us and of course, one can hardly fault the tranzie Lawyers for trying anything to keep their client out of court. That is after all, what they are paid to do. It is disheartening though, to hear them spread their propaganda and outright lies throughout the world compliments of our "friends" at the BBC World Service and the Guardian UK. For the left, it is essential that Jose Padilla not stand trial. As long as he can be painted as a broken hollow shell, Padilla is a powerful tool for the left as this article from the Guardian UK illustrates. In Padilla, the propagandists have a real life victim of the "systematic and routine torture" employed by the evil Bush Administration. A public trial where Padilla is shown as not so broken, hollow and docile is not in their best interest.

8 comments:

  1. MIAMI -- Accused Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla suffers from intense stress and anxiety stemming from his isolated years in military custody and cannot adequately help his lawyers prepare for trial, two defense mental experts testified Thursday.

    "He doesn't want to because it hurts so much, and because it hurts so much he shuts down," Hegarty said.

    DURHAM -- Duke Rape Accuser Crystal Gail Mangum suffers from intense stress and anxiety stemming from her brutal rape at the hands of three Lacrosse team members and cannot adequately help the player's lawyers prepare their defense by providing a consistent account of what they did wrong, exactly.

    "She doesn't want to because it hurts so much, and because it hurts so much she shuts down," Mike Nifong said.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Teresita is back!

    ReplyDelete
  3. If the Bush folk were not such weak sisters ...
    The Bush administration initially claimed that Padilla was on an al- Qaida mission to detonate a radioactive "dirty" bomb in a major U.S. city when he was arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

    He was designated an "enemy combatant" and was imprisoned by the military without criminal charges. But the "dirty bomb" allegations are not part of the Miami case.


    The fact that the Federals would not even attempt to make the Enemy Combatant case against Pedilla at the SCotUS, they charged him criminally in Miami. With all the rights that he then entitled to, as a criminal. Same as in Iraq.

    No one is captured, all are arrested. The War on Terror as a war on crime operational mindset has encompassed the Bush Administration and it's affiliated Agencies and Departments.

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  4. On an entirely different note, Nifong is back!

    Eerie, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What was the point of taking him alive?

    ReplyDelete
  6. They arrested him getting off a plane at O'Hare, if I recall correctly. Did not want to put a bullet in his head, there, I guess.

    Weak sisters, the Federals
    Will not prosecute for terrorism, because Pedilla was not a terrorist.
    Instead he is, by Federal indictment, just a common criminal
    is charged with being part of a North American terror support cell that provided money, recruits and supplies
    Nothing more dangerous than that mick, Kennedy, and the IRA thugs. Raising money to fight against the religious oppression, abroad.

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  7. Traditional justice? The punishment for treason in Olde England was drawing and quartering, whereas the the traitor was publicly stretched by four horses, disemboweled, hung (a little) then had legs, arms then head detached with extreme prejudice. The head was displayed at the tower until birds and elements had their fill.

    Is this the traditional justice that barrister Hergarty had in mind?

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete