The man without a country

Back in the 1990’s, there were blueprints of the two nuclear devices used against the Empire of Japan available on the internet. I believe they had been released under the Freedom of Information act and many were sold as curiosities. I was curious. I bought one. At about the same time I purchased from an autograph dealer, an autobiography of Rudolf Peierls, a physicist and mathematician who had worked on the Manhattan Project along with a letter from the author that included a rough sketch of the Uranium based bomb. It was, as we used to say so often, a free country. I already knew much more than was contained in these drawings from general reading and a couple of physics courses. I don't have the tools, knowledge or materials to build a nuclear device by a long shot or by any means, but nearly anyone could build what the government likes to call a "dirty bomb" with or without instructions.

Back in 2002, one Jose Padilla, an American citizen who seems to have assumed an Arabic name and who associated with the wrong sort of people was arrested while in possession of a crude drawing showing a can containing explosives inside of a larger can. If the Defense Department was telling the truth, what he had sounds like the kind of things I used to doodle as a grade school boy obsessed with rockets and other things that made big bangs. Jose has been held in solitary confinement ever since and if former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was telling the truth, will be held forever.

"Our interest is not in trying him and punishing him," Rumsfeld said to CNN. "Our interest is in finding out what he knows."

They’ve been trying ever since and will probably continue to try for as long as the Son of Stalin sits in the oval office. The Smoking Gun gives us pictures today of Padilla in chains, blindfolded with earmuffs and surrounded by armed men in face masks and riot gear as if the man were a wild bear and not a US citizen illegally deprived of his guaranteed rights by George W. Bush. According to his lawyer, Padilla for the last 4 years has been subjected to various forms of torture, including

"isolation; sleep and sensory depravation; hoodings; stress positions; exposure to noxious fumes; exposure to temperature extremes; threats of imminent execution; assaults; the forced administration of mind-altering substances; denial of religious practices; manipulation of diet; and other forms of mistreatment."

As far as I can tell, although Jose might not be a nice guy and may have associated with guys who were really bad, he actually committed no crime other than having a drawing. An accusation is all it takes. Of course whether they find out he knows anything or that he knows nothing, there's no one to judge and no way for us to judge. He's a man without a country and a man without basic human rights and a man without any protection from the law, despite all the hogwash, claptrap and bullshit we've all listened to about freedom, about standing for freedom, fighting for freedom or bombing civilians for freedom. Why? because Bush is the law. None of us are any more free than George W. Bush says we are and we don't get to defend ourselves, confront our accusers, petition for redress or even see the charges against us if George thinks there's something he would like to know.

Freedom isn't free, you see and its price seems to be slavery. Now where have we read this before? Maybe I should start shredding my autograph collection, and maybe some old physics books. . .