Saturday, September 06, 2008

Crazy..Like a Fox?

Tortured crazy. That's what the lawyer for suspected female AQ terrorist facilitator Aafia Siddiqui is saying about her client, giving the WaPo some Friday headline material:
Pakistani Tortured, Her Attorney Says
She's not pointing fingers at anyone yet, just asking questions:
..she believes that her client was imprisoned and tortured for several years before the incident and now could be mentally incompetent.
Apparently there's not a scintilla of evidence to support that claim so she wants the US taxpayer to fund a psychiatrist to determine whether her client was incarcerated and tortured. If she gets a friendly outcome one can imagine the defense: claim insanity while putting George W. Bush on trial in the press as the true culprit, hoping to run the clock out on his presidency while garnering public support. It's probably the only way she can win.

It's well understood by lawyers that any client affiliated with top-tier terrorists can be a problem for the government due to the discovery process, which allows attorneys to see the evidence against them, often a risk to intelligence networks and operatives. That's probably why they didn't charge Siddiqui with terrorism crimes. Attorney General Mukasey expressed some thoughts on this conundrum during his confirmation hearings.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I’m not sure torture makes people mentally incompetent. If the attorney wants to make a cause and effect argument, insanity probably occurred after her mother sliced off her clitoris with a kitchen knife; it was after that point when she decided to become a suicide bomber for Allah (Piss be upon his name).

A.C. McCloud said...

Ouch, I reckon.

Well, had they charged her with terrorism crimes it would be harder to use the insanity due to torture bit. It probably would be the "torture negates the confession" bit followed by the "and oh by the way, let's see the top secret intelligence info you've got on her" bit. Which illustrates the problem not only of using the courts to fight terrorism, but of using waterboarding to do it.

Marie's Two Cents said...

Sorry I havent been around lately but I'm finally back online A.C :-)

If torture makes you crazy then what are they going to claim about John McCain?

Ouch, is right Mustang!