[From torture perpetrated 6-7 years ago]
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-margulies30-2009apr30,0,3309097.story
April 30, 2009 The Los Angeles Times
Opinion
Abu Zubaydah's suffering
<snip>
Far from a leader, he was "a personnel clerk."
So two legs of the stool are fixed: They tormented a clerk. But there
is a third leg that should not be left out. No one can pass unscathed
through an ordeal like this. Abu Zubaydah paid with his mind.
Partly as a result of injuries he suffered while he was fighting the
communists in Afghanistan, partly as a result of how those injuries
were exacerbated by the CIA and partly as a result of his extended
isolation, Abu Zubaydah's mental grasp is slipping away.
Today, he suffers blinding headaches and has permanent brain damage. He
has an excruciating sensitivity to sounds, hearing what others do not.
The slightest noise drives him nearly insane. In the last two years
alone, he has experienced about 200 seizures.
But physical pain is a passing thing. The enduring torment is the
taunting reminder that darkness encroaches. Already, he cannot picture
his mother's face or recall his father's name. Gradually, his past,
like his future, eludes him.
McCain was right: It's about who we are. And we are not people who do
this to another human being.
Joseph Margulies, assistant director of the Roderick MacArthur Justice
Center at Northwestern University School of Law, is co-counsel for Abu
Zubaydah.