6/15/2002

In June 2002, Puerto Rican former gang member Jose Padilla “found himself incarcerated in a naval brig in South Carolina on the direct authority of the secretary of defense [Donald Rumsfeld]. Padilla was one of three prisoners accused of terrorism held in the jail who were subjected to a carefully designed regime of isolation and sensory deprivation. Padilla, according to his attorneys, would ultimately spend 1,307 days in a nine-by-seven-foot cell, often chained to the ground by his wrists and torso and kept awake at night by guards using bright lights and loud noises. In repeated legal arguments, [Bush] administration lawyers maintained that Rumsfeld was entitled to hold anyone deemed an ‘enemy combatant’ in his rapidly expanding prison system.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld, Page 136