Navy-brig officials: No major Padilla ills

MIAMI - The exterior window in Jose Padilla's 80-square-foot cell in a Navy brig was painted over. At times, he had to sleep on a steel bunk with no mattress. He went months without a clock and was sometimes seen weeping in his cell.

But officials at the brig in Charleston, S.C., testified yesterday that the alleged al-Qaeda operative was not physically abused during his 31/2 years in military custody, nor did he display serious symptoms of mental problems, they said.

Craig Noble, the brig's main psychologist, and Sanford Seymour, the brig's technical director, testified for the first time in public yesterday at Padilla's competency hearings. The hearings are to determine whether Padilla can stand trial in April on terrorism-related charges.

Padilla, 36, a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert, was arrested in 2002 in Chicago in what U.S. authorities initially alleged was a mission to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a major U.S. city. He was held at the brig without being charged after President Bush declared him an enemy combatant.

Padilla was added to a Miami terrorism-support case in 2005. The indictment does not mention a dirty-bomb plot.

Two mental-health experts hired by Padilla's lawyers say he cannot assist in his defense because he has post-traumatic stress disorder, which they say results from isolation and alleged torture at the brig. U.S. officials deny he was tortured.

Noble said he examined Padilla when he arrived June 10, 2002, and again May 14, 2004. He said that Padilla had begun wearing glasses but that he found the second visit "unremarkable" for any signs of problems.

The second interview was conducted at Padilla's cell door, with the prisoner speaking through a small slot, Noble said.

"He was responsive, made good eye contact, in fact smiled frequently," Noble said. "There were no changes."

Seymour described some of the cell conditions, including the painted-over window, lack of a clock, and periodic removal of Padilla's mattress and Koran. He said he recalled two instances in which he watched Padilla - who was under 24-hour surveillance - crying in his cell.

Seymour also said the brig staff allowed Padilla outside for recreation, when he sometimes shot baskets. He was allowed no contact with any other inmate.

"If it was a nice day, we tried to get him out," Seymour said.

Padilla has alleged that his cell was often filled with noxious fumes and that brig staff injected him with LSD or some other hallucinogenic drug.

Seymour said the injection was a flu shot. He testified that the odors come from a paper mill less than a mile away.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke barred Padilla's lawyers from delving into the details of this testimony unless it was directly related to a competency report prepared by a Bureau of Prisons psychologist.

Cooke scheduled closing arguments on the competency issue for today. It was not clear when she would rule.