By Pamela Hess Associated Press WASHINGTON -- A U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials that an American detainee was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a U.S. military brig, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

MIAMI _ Jose Padilla, a man inextricably linked to the U.S. government's war on terror, was sentenced on Tuesday to 17 years and four months in prison on charges of participating in a South Florida-based plot to aid Islamic extremists in holy wars abroad. Padilla, a 37-year-old U.S.

To: NATIONAL EDITORS Contact: AIUSA Media Office, +1-202-544-0200 x302 WASHINGTON, Jan.

Congressional Democrats Friday demanded a full Justice Department investigation into whether the CIA obstructed justice by destroying videotapes that documented the harsh 2002 interrogations of two alleged terrorists. A day after CIA Director Gen.

WASHINGTON _ President Bush's nomination Monday of former federal judge Michael Mukasey as attorney general won praise from unlikely quarters and possibly averted a contentious Senate confirmation battle.