Torture and human rights abuse in general — including children’s and women’s rights which are also too often forgotten — is the reason why I’ve been supporting Amnesty financially and in my thoughts, and indirectly in my work, since I was a teenager… I have a book called ‘The History of Torture’ that I couldn’t actually finish because I find it unbearable! As I said … The most human of inhuman, if that makes sense in English… Le plus humain de l’inhumain! No other species on the planet does that I believe? Or surely not to this level of cruelty …

It is a very interesting, informative and moving documentary.

I’ve been feeling disturbed the whole day but obviously I knew it was going to happen … Torture being probably the subject that upsets me the most? … The most human inhuman …
I very well remember seeing these horrendous images in newspapers over the past years, which disturbed me profoundly although I never know quite what to make of what we are given in newspapers but … I knew I was likely to see again last night.

Well done and … Respect.

Thank you very much for yesterday’s evening. I found the evening very worthwhile. The glimpse into the normalcy of many of the horrific practices (and I don’t just mean torture, but also the use of secret evidence) given by the interviewees make the film very powerful.

I had seen Omar several times before but never heard him speak (or at least not that much) and found him very eloquent and interesting to listen to.

Hi Andy

I just wanted to say I thought the film was really powerful. I repeat what I said to you last night … this is something that you should be very proud of. I thought the film flowed very well and linked all the various aspects of the Guantanamo story together almost seamlessly. It was also incredibly moving.

I must admit I hadn’t realised the full extent to which the US is acting outside international laws to maintain Guantanamo and Bagram as holding centres for detainees. There were eye-opening moments about evidence obtained from detainees in Gitmo being used against people in the UK too.

Well done on the film … I hope it gets the wider release it deserves. Good to see you again.

Best wishes
Lawrence

Andy,

I have been meaning to email you all day and have just sat down to post you a link to the article I wrote this morning about the film only to discover that you have found it already.

I would have said hello last night but you were in such demand I thought I would leave it.

I loved, as I said in this morning’s post, the way the movie simply laid out the chronological timeline of what has taken place. Each of us has been outraged every step of the way, but time numbs — or perhaps our outrage during the Bush years was simply overtaken by each fresh outrage — and it was terribly important to see the way the whole illegal mess was developed; and to hear from the victims it left in its wake.

I do hope that the film reaches the widest possible audience, it certainly deserves to. And when I say that, I mean people unlike those of us who sat there last night knowing the tale of what had taken place and knowing that it continues even as I write this.

I have apolitical friends, who would share our sense of outrage were they ever to see what was done — in our names — portrayed in the way your film does so brilliantly, but they believe that George Bush was hard on “terrorists”, so their sympathy is limited.

I was very moved by both Moazzam Begg and Omar Deghayes. Their sense of humour. Their ability to rebuild their lives. I was genuinely humbled that they — even after all that had been done to them — were able to show the simple humanity which was so sadly lacking from the majority of their captors.

Thank you so much for the invitation.

Please let me know if there is any other way that I can help this film reach a wider audience.

Best wishes,

Kel.