Filmed in Yemen, Poitras’ film follows Abu Jandal (aka Nasser al-Bahri), a former bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, who left al-Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks, and was imprisoned in Yemen when the attacks took place. He then became an extraordinarily valuable informant for the FBI, and was eventually freed. When Poitras met him, he was driving a cab in Sana’a, a charismatic figure, who, nevertheless, is either conflicted or ambiguous when it comes to his beliefs.

What is clear throughout, while Abu Jandal espouses his love of jihad but his hatred of terrorism, is his guilt that his brother-in-law, Salim Hamdan, for whom he secured paid work as a driver for Osama bin Laden, was still held in Guantánamo at the time the film was made, while he was a free man in Yemen. Hamdan was eventually freed at the end of 2008, after he became the first prisoner to be tried in a war crimes trial following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

For the “Cinepolicitics” show on Press TV, I joined presenter Russell Michaels, and  the Sunday Telegraph‘s film critic, Mike McCahill, to review “The Oath.” As Press TV noted, while McCahill “commends the fact that the film has no narration and shows rather than tells,” I “criticise the use of military courts to try the Guantánamo detainees by the US government.”

The show is available below, via YouTube, and if you have 25 minutes to spare I can wholeheartedly recommend it:

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, on tour in the UK throughout 2011, and available on DVD here — or here for the US), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

However, readers in London who are interested in this film can see it tomorrow (June 19) in University College London (UCL), in central London, as part of a weekend of Guantánamo films put together by Dochouse. Based at Riverside Studios, in Hammersmith, Dochouse has been supporting and promoting documentaries in the UK since 2002. The “Exposing Guantánamo” weekend is part of the Open City London Documentary Festival, which also features “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (which I directed with Polly Nash).

For further information about “Exposing Guantánamo,” see my article here (providing further details about the “Exposing Guantánamo” weekend), in which I described “You Don’t Like the Truth” as follows:

This powerful new film features excerpts from seven hours of video footage of Canadian agents interrogating child prisoner and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr at Guantánamo over a four-day period in 2003. It reveals how his joy at meeting representatives of his own government turned to despair when he realized that they had not come to Guantánamo to help him, and important commentary on the footage is provided by Khadr’s US and Canadian lawyers, by journalist Michelle Shephard, by former US guard Damien Corsetti, and by former prisoners, including Omar Deghayes and Moazzam Begg. The footage was released by the Canadian courts after a ruling that Khadr’s rights had been violated, which was subsequently ignored by the Canadian government.

On Press TV, I discussed “You Don’t Like the Truth” on the Cinepolitics show, with host Russell Michaels and film critic Neil Smith. I made the first half of the 24-minute show available in my previous article (and it’s also on my YouTube channel), and I’ve now added the second part below.

As I explained previously, the show is an excellent introduction to the distressing treatment of Omar Khadr by the US, and by Canada, since he was captured, at the age of 15, in July 2002. This culminated, last October, with his disgraceful show trial, in which he accepted a plea deal and confessed to being an “alien unprivileged enemy belligerent,” even though he was just a child, even though it is not actually illegal to fight US soldiers in wartime, and even though the US ignored its obligations to rehabilitate rather than punish juvenile prisoners, according to the UN Optional Protocol on the rights of children in armed conflict.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, on tour in the UK throughout 2011, and available on DVD here — or here for the US), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

Readers in London who are interested in this film can see it on June 19 in UCL (University College London), as part of a weekend of Guantánamo films put together by Dochouse, an organization based at Riverside Studios, in Hammersmith, which has been supporting and promoting documentaries in the UK since 2002. The “Exposing Guantánamo” weekend is part of the Open City London Documentary Festival, which also features “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (which I directed with Polly Nash).

For further information about “Exposing Guantánamo,” see my article here, in which I described “You Don’t Like the Truth” as follows:

This powerful new film features excerpts from seven hours of video footage of Canadian agents interrogating child prisoner and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr at Guantánamo over a four-day period in 2003. It reveals how his joy at meeting representatives of his own government turned to despair when he realized that they had not come to Guantánamo to help him, and important commentary on the footage is provided by Khadr’s US and Canadian lawyers, by journalist Michelle Shephard, by former US guard Damien Corsetti, and by former prisoners, including Omar Deghayes and Moazzam Begg. The footage was released by the Canadian courts after a ruling that Khadr’s rights had been violated, which was subsequently ignored by the Canadian government.

On Press TV, I discussed “You Don’t Like the Truth” on the Cinepolitics show, with host Russell Michaels and film critic Neil Smith. The first half of the 24-minute show is below and is an excellent introduction to the distressing treatment of Omar Khadr by the US, and by Canada, since he was captured, at the age of 15, in July 2002 — and I’ll put up the second part of the show when it becomes available.

The bleak treatment of Omar Khadr culminated, last October, with his disgraceful show trial, in which he accepted a plea deal and confessed to being an “alien unprivileged enemy belligerent,” even though he was just a child, even though it is not actually illegal to fight US soldiers in wartime, and even though the US ignored its obligations to rehabilitate rather than punish juvenile prisoners, according to the UN Optional Protocol on the rights of children in armed conflict:

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, on tour in the UK throughout 2011, and available on DVD here — or here for the US), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

“[T]his is a strong movie examining the imprisonment and subsequent torture of those falsely accused of anti-American conspiracy.”
Joe Burnham, Time Out

“Every American needs to watch this film. Or at least every mouthpiece in the corporate media. They should broadcast this instead of the WWII Holocaust documentaries, which play on rotation on the cable networks.”
Alexa O’Brien, journalist, WL Central

As featured on Democracy Now!, ABC News and Truthout. Buy the DVD here (£10 + £2 postage in the UK, and worldwide) or here if in the US ($10 post free).

On Sunday June 19, as part of the Open City London Documentary Festival, described at its launch as “London’s newest film festival,” there will be a screening of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington), at 1.40 pm on Sunday June 19 in the AV Hill Lecture Theatre in UCL. Tickets for all the screenings cost £5, and readers can book a ticket for “Outside the Law” here, or by phone on 020 7679 4907.

The festival, which runs from June 16 to June 19, features over 170 full-length feature films and shorts, showing in various lecture theatres in UCL (plus some outside collaborations). The main address of UCL (University College London) is Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, and please see here for a campus map.

The screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” is part of a weekend of events put together by Dochouse, an organization based at Riverside Studios, in Hammersmith, which was formed to support and promote documentary in the UK, and, since 2002, has been showcasing the best documentary films from around the globe, with screenings and events in cinemas across London. In November 2009, Dochouse screened “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo” with “Gitmo: The New Rules of War” at the Prince Charles Cinema in London’s West End.

Now, as part of “Open City,” and under the heading, “Exposing Guantánamo,” Dochouse is screening four films that focus on Guantánamo, as follows:

Saturday June 18, 7.20 pm: The Road to Guantánamo (Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, 2006, 100 mins.)
Screen 4, Medawar Building, UCL.
The award-winning docudrama that first brought the injustices of Guantánamo to a wide audience tells the story of three British prisoners, the “Tipton Three,” through interviews and harrowing, dramatic recreations of their experiences in US custody. This is the film that, with Moazzam Begg’s book Enemy Combatant, changed my life back in the spring of 2006 and encouraged me to believe that it was worthwhile researching and writing a book — The Guantánamo Files — that attempted to tell the stories of all the prisoners in Guantánamo.
Book a ticket here, or phone 020 7679 4907, and see map here.

Sunday June 19, 10.20 am: Gitmo: The New Rules of War (Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh, 2005, 80 mins.)
Screen 1, Festival Hub, Engineering Building, Torrington Place, UCL.
An early exploration of Guantánamo, in which the filmmakers searched for the meaning of Guantánamo after taking part in a press visit to the prison, in a narrative that spliced their own explorations with footage of George W. Bush, Osama bin Laden and Donald Rumsfeld.
Book a ticket here, or phone 020 7679 4907, and see map here.

Sunday June 19, 1.40 pm: Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo (Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, 2009, 75 mins.)
AV Hill Lecture Theatre, South Junction, Malet Place, UCL.
“Outside the Law” focuses on the stories of three British prisoners — Shaker Aamer (who is still held, and is the subject of an ongoing campaign to secure his return) and Omar Deghayes and Binyam Mohamed (both released). The film looks at how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws after 9/11, and examines how prisoners were rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan without adequate screening, and why some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with militancy or terrorism. The film provides a powerful rebuke to those who believe that Guantánamo holds “the worst of the worst” and that the Bush administration was justified in responding to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by holding men neither as prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, nor as criminal suspects with habeas corpus rights, but as “illegal enemy combatants” with no rights whatsoever.
Book a ticket here, or phone 020 7679 4907, and see map here.

Sunday June 19, 3.40 pm: You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantánamo (Luc Cote and Patricio Hernandez, 2010, 100 mins.)
Darwin Theatre, Malet Place, UCL.
This powerful new film features excerpts from seven hours of video footage of Canadian agents interrogating child prisoner and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr at Guantánamo over a four-day period in 2003. It reveals how his joy at meeting representatives of his own government turned to despair when he realized that they had not come to Guantánamo to help him, and important commentary on the footage is provided by Khadr’s US and Canadian lawyers, by journalist Michelle Shephard, by former US guard Damien Corsetti, and by former prisoners, including Omar Deghayes and Moazzam Begg. The footage was released by the Canadian courts after a ruling that Khadr’s rights had been violated, which was subsequently ignored by the Canadian government. In October 2010, Khadr accepted a plea deal in his trial by Military Commission at Guantánamo.
Book a ticket here, or phone 020 7679 4907, and see map here.

This final screening is followed, at 5.20 pm, by a panel discussion with Brent Mickum, the US lawyer for Guantánamo prisoners Shaker Aamer and Abu Zubaydah, and with Andy Worthington and Polly Nash, plus, subject to confirmation, Mat Whitecross and former Guantanamo prisoner Omar Deghayes.

This is how Dochouse describes “Exposing Guantánamo”:

How do you represent the inaccessible? Four films that use very different styles to address the continuing outrage that is Guantánamo. Guantánamo is the great open sore of western democracy — and one that, to our shame, still needs to be exposed to the fresh air of journalistic investigation and examination.

For further information about the film, for interviews, or to inquire about broadcasting, distributing or showing “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” please contact Polly Nash or Andy Worthington, and please see below for the first five minutes of the film:

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, on tour in the UK throughout 2011, and available on DVD here — or here for the US), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

Dear Andy,

This is Jeremy Varon. We’ve never met or spoken, but I have long admired all your efforts and I know you have been in touch with other Witness folk. Before our last phase of intense action (an 11-day fast in D.C., various demos, an arrest at the Capitol) we watched your film as a group. We were pretty wrecked by it, and had a wonderful conversation. It helped focus us for the days ahead on why we where there, doing what we were doing.

Anyhow, Debra Sweet [director of The World Can’t Wait, who helped organize a short US tour of the film last November] was kind enough to give me a copy to show to a class for grad students I teach on Terrorism/“War on Terror” (ever in quotes). We saw it tonight and the students were frankly stunned by it, moved nearly beyond words (though again, we had a nice discussion once folks collected themselves). One young fellow, an American (there’s students from all over) was in tears and, for his comment, muttered about how if we do nothing to speak out against this, we’re guilty too. Everybody wanted to know, “What can I do?”

So thank you. It’s very powerful, and motivates (it seems) people as much as it depresses them.

All my best,
Peace – Jeremy

Jeremy also explained how various students had written to him to talk about the film and the experience, and one had said:

When I first saw it, I initially felt jaded: “Sure, tell me something about GTMO I don’t know/haven’t read.” And I had seen of course “Taxi to the  Dark Side,” which is wonderful in its own right.  But within three minutes I was hooked, and ended up learning a lot.

Jeremy added:

I find it perhaps more “moving” than “Taxi.” For me, the most intense part was when Omar said (paraphrasing): you can take my eye, break my ribs, break my nose, but there’s no way to compensate the years of my son’s life I lost” (I have a 3 year old). Analytically speaking, the best line was yours: that what we precisely need is to go back to September 10, 2001, the day before the 9/11 attacks, when none of what came afterwards would have seemed possible. I had a thought, an organization or initiative called “The September 10th Project.” Just the name makes people curious; if you explain it, it really gets them thinking.

Jeremy also forwarded the following email from another student:

The film kept me awake last night. Reading about happenings at Guantánamo and seeing the victims talk about their ordeals are completely different sensory experiences. I’ll never forget how the man with the bad eye casually, sometimes laughingly, spoke about his systematic de-humanization. Whereas M**** [a fellow student, from India] was affected by how the victims look like him, I was struck by how the perpetrators look like me. I think I told you that my dad and two half-brothers were in the Army, albeit decades ago. So the complicity I feel is perhaps not just as an American but as a white, blond American with connections to the military and the government. Who would do these unspeakable things? People with backgrounds similar to mine. How can I possibly reconcile myself to this? How am I different if I know about it and do nothing? But how can we challenge the institutionalization of de-humanization by a seemingly all-powerful government and apathetic, consenting-by-silence population? … How do you keep fighting a battle with such little hope of any positive change?

Thanks for showing the video. It shocked me out of my intellectual laziness … We all need to be aware of what our country is doing in our name.

If you would like to organize your own screening of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” in the US (or anywhere else), please go ahead. The DVD can be ordered here from Spectacle, the production company, and a press kit, featuring a poster you can adapt, is here. If you do go ahead, please advise me and Polly and we’ll help publicize it.

Moreover, if you — or anyone you know — might be interested in getting me over to the States to promote the film (or, again, anywhere else), then please let me know. As mentioned above, I made a ten-day visit last November, supported by the Future of Freedom Foundation and The World Can’t Wait, and would love to make a return visit — in June, July, or anytime from September onwards. We’ve submitted the film to various film festivals, and are also in discussions with a US distributor, but I’m happy to have any opportunity to spread the word about the ongoing injustice of Guantánamo, and the unaddressed crimes of the Bush administration, and as I’ve discovered over the last few months, touring the film around the UK with former prisoner Omar Deghayes, it has a powerful impact, bringing home to audiences the human cost of the brutal and ill-conceived “War on Terror.”

About the film

“[T]his is a strong movie examining the imprisonment and subsequent torture of those falsely accused of anti-American conspiracy.”
Joe Burnham, Time Out

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” is a new documentary film, directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, telling the story of Guantánamo (and including sections on extraordinary rendition and secret prisons) with a particular focus on how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws, how prisoners were rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan without adequate screening (and often for bounty payments), and why some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with militancy or terrorism (as missionaries or humanitarian aid workers, for example).

The film is based around interviews with former prisoners (Moazzam Begg and, in his first major interview, Omar Deghayes, who was released in December 2007), lawyers for the prisoners (Clive Stafford Smith in the UK and Tom Wilner in the US), and journalist and author Andy Worthington, and also includes appearances from Guantánamo’s former Muslim chaplain James Yee, Shakeel Begg, a London-based Imam, and the British human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.

Focusing on the stories of Shaker Aamer, Binyam Mohamed and Omar Deghayes, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” provides a powerful rebuke to those who believe that Guantánamo holds “the worst of the worst” and that the Bush administration was justified in responding to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by holding men neither as prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, nor as criminal suspects with habeas corpus rights, but as “illegal enemy combatants” with no rights whatsoever.

Take action for Shaker Aamer

Throughout the ongoing UK tour, Omar, Andy and Polly (and other speakers) are focusing on the plight of Shaker Aamer, the only one of the film’s main subjects who is still held in Guantánamo, despite being cleared for release in 2007.

Born in Saudi Arabia, Shaker Aamer was a legal British resident at the time of his capture, and was seized after he had traveled to Afghanistan with Moazzam Begg (and their families) to establish a girls’ school and some well-digging projects. He has a British wife and four British children (although he has never seen his youngest child).

As the foremost advocate of the prisoners’ rights in Guantánamo, Shaker’s influence upset the US authorities to such an extent that those pressing for his return fear that the US government wants to return him to Saudi Arabia, the country of his birth, where he will not be at liberty to tell his story, and recent revelations indicate that, despite claims that it has been doing all in its power to secure his release, the British government may also share this view. A new campaign to secure his release will follow the General Election in the UK on May 6, but in the meantime, a template of a letter that can be sent to the new foreign secretary (whoever that may be) can be found here.

The letter also calls for the British government to offer a home to Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian, cleared for release in 2007, who lived in the UK and is terrified of returning to Algeria, and also to other cleared prisoners who cannot be returned to their home countries because they face the risk of torture.

Recent feedback

““Outside the Law” is essential viewing for anyone interested in Guantánamo and other prisons. The film explores what happens when a nation with a reputation for morality and justice acts out of impulse and fear. To my mind, Andy Worthington is a quintessential force for all things related to the journalism of GTMO and its inhabitants. As a military lawyer for Fayiz al-Kandari, I am constantly reminded that GTMO is ongoing and that people still have an opportunity to make history today by becoming involved. “Outside the Law” is a fantastic entry point into the arena that is GTMO.”
Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, attorney for Guantánamo prisoner Fayiz al-Kandari

“I thought the film was absolutely brilliant and the most powerful, moving and hard-hitting piece I have seen at the cinema. I admire and congratulate you for your vital work, pioneering the truth and demanding that people sit up and take notice of the outrageous human rights injustices perpetrated against detainees at Guantánamo and other prisons.”
Harriet Wong, Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture

“[T]hought-provoking, harrowing, emotional to watch, touching and politically powerful.”
Harpymarx, blogger

“Last Saturday I went to see Polly Nash and Andy Worthington’s harrowing documentary, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” at London’s BFI. The film knits together narratives so heart-wrenching I half wish I had not heard them. Yet the camaraderie between the detainees and occasional humorous anecdotes … provide a glimpse into the wit, courage and normalcy of the men we are encouraged to perceive as monsters.”
Sarah Gillespie, singer/songwriter

“The film was great — not because I was in it, but because it told the legal and human story of Guantánamo more clearly than anything I have seen.”
Tom Wilner, US attorney who represented the Guantánamo prisoners before the US Supreme Court

“The film was fantastic! It has the unique ability of humanizing those who were detained at Guantánamo like no other I have seen.”
Sari Gelzer, Truthout

“Engaging and moving, and personal. The first [film] to really take you through the lives of the men from their own eyes.”
Debra Sweet, The World Can’t Wait

“I am part of a community of folks from the US who attempted to visit the Guantánamo prison in December 2005, and ended up fasting for a number of days outside the gates. We went then, and we continue our work now, because we heard the cries for justice from within the prison walls. As we gathered tonight as a community, we watched “Outside the Law,” and by the end, we all sat silent, many with tears in our eyes and on our faces. I have so much I’d like to say, but for now I wanted to write a quick note to say how grateful we are that you are out, and that you are speaking out with such profound humanity. I am only sorry what we can do is so little, and that so many remain in the prison.”
Matt Daloisio, Witness Against Torture

As featured on Democracy Now!, ABC News and Truthout. See here for videos of the Q&A session (with Moazzam Begg, Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash) that followed the launch of the film in London on October 21, 2009, and see here for a short trailer.

(‘’)

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and currently on tour in the UK), and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

On a fine evening, I walked up to the venue from Reprieve’s offices near Blackfriars with Tara, who I hadn’t met before, and Omar, which gave us some time to compare notes on the current state of play at Guantánamo and to discuss my “Guantánamo Habeas Week” project, in which I’m attempting to raise awareness of the under-reported court cases in which 34 out of 47 prisoners have won their habeas petitions (demonstrating the incompetence of the Bush administration’s detention policies), but 13 others have been consigned to ongoing detention, despite, for the most part, being nothing more than insignificant foot soldiers in an inter-Muslim civil war that became a “War on Terror” when the US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001.

At the venue — a great new space founded by eight very sound organizations (Apples and Snakes, Article 19, Booktrust, English PEN, Index on Censorship, The Arvon Foundation, The Literary Consultancy and The Reading Agency), which received Arts Council funding and opened in June 2009 — we were warmly welcomed by Shreela Ghosh, the Centre’s Director, and General Manager Rachel Buchanan. After a coffee in the airy café, Omar, Moazzam and I had the opportunity to catch up on our latest news and plans while the film was showing, and although a technical hitch during the screening meant that our Q&A session was rather short, the film was very well received, as is apparent from a review, cross-posted below, which was written by Laura Jenkinson for the film festival’s website.

A review of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”
By Laura Jenkinson, LIDF

The Free Word Centre in Farringdon, just behind the Betsey Trotwood pub, is still under a year old but is establishing itself quickly as a centre for literature, literacy and free expression. Tonight’s film, the first at this venue, fits with the centre’s motto and provides a voice for ex-“detainees” of the most famous apparent non-prison on the planet.

Director-producers Polly Nash and Andy Worthington have put together a very eloquent story from 9/11 to present day; the film is simple, relying on the talking heads of legal and political experts, and Omar Deghayes and Moazzem Begg, who were “detained” at Guantánamo for several years, and still photographs representing the absent parties responsible for the atrocities of “enhanced interrogation techniques” practiced by a White House flouting the Geneva Conventions.

The film relies on not distancing its viewer with documentary techniques of voiceover and re-enactment — in fact it has been criticized by channel programmers for not fitting the style of television today, although Nash and Worthington both regard this as the film’s unfiltered strength.

It was a suitably modern film for this spacious and airy venue, which, despite a few early technical hitches, pleased its audience, who also found it suitably humbling to meet Begg and Deghayes at the panel discussion afterwards. It is hard to imagine these well-spoken, eloquent, charismatic and confident men suffering the abuses discussed and pictured. They looked so comfortable in themselves whilst answering the audience’s questions on the continuing fate of those left at the prison, and spoke factually rather than with emotion about the apparent new extra-judicial killings ordered by the new US government that are more “convenient” than extraordinary renditions. A remarkable evening.

About the film

[T]his is a strong movie examining the imprisonment and subsequent torture of those falsely accused of anti-American conspiracy. It avoids common conventions such as dramatic narration, music or use of archive footage, delivering frank and understated accounts from the victims and forming an intriguing and emotive cross-section of life at Guantánamo Bay.
Joe Burnham, Time Out

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” is a new documentary film, directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, telling the story of Guantánamo (and including sections on extraordinary rendition and secret prisons) with a particular focus on how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws, how prisoners were rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan without adequate screening (and often for bounty payments), and why some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with militancy or terrorism (as missionaries or humanitarian aid workers, for example).

The film is based around interviews with former prisoners (Moazzam Begg and, in his first major interview, Omar Deghayes, who was released in December 2007), lawyers for the prisoners (Clive Stafford Smith in the UK and Tom Wilner in the US), and journalist and author Andy Worthington, and also includes appearances from Guantánamo’s former Muslim chaplain James Yee, Shakeel Begg, a London-based Imam, and the British human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.

Focusing on the stories of Shaker Aamer, Binyam Mohamed and Omar Deghayes, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” provides a powerful rebuke to those who believe that Guantánamo holds “the worst of the worst” and that the Bush administration was justified in responding to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by holding men neither as prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, nor as criminal suspects with habeas corpus rights, but as “illegal enemy combatants” with no rights whatsoever.

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” on tour in the UK

The screening at the London International Documentary Festival was part of an ongoing UK tour of the film, in which Omar Deghayes and Andy Worthington are travelling around the country attending post-screening Q&A sessions. On some dates, Omar, who is now the legal director of the Guantánamo Justice Centre, and Andy will be joined by Polly Nash, and, occasionally, other guests including former prisoner Moazzam Begg, the director of Cageprisoners.

Throughout the tour, Omar, Andy and the other speakers will be focusing on the plight of Shaker Aamer, the only one of the film’s main subjects who is still held in Guantánamo, despite being cleared for release in 2007, and despite the British government asking for him to be returned to the UK in August 2007.

Born in Saudi Arabia, Shaker Aamer moved to the UK in 1994, and was a legal British resident at the time of his capture, after he had traveled to Afghanistan with Moazzam Begg (and their families) to establish a girls’ school and some well-digging projects. He has a British wife and four British children (although he has never seen his youngest child).

As the foremost advocate of the prisoners’ rights in Guantánamo, Shaker’s influence upset the US authorities to such an extent that those pressing for his return fear that the US government wants to return him to Saudi Arabia, the country of his birth, where he will not be at liberty to tell his story, and recent revelations indicate that, despite claims that it has been doing all in its power to secure his release, the British government may also share this view.

In December 2009, it emerged in a court case in the UK that British agents witnessed his abuse while he was held in US custody in Afghanistan, and in January 2010, for Harper’s Magazine, law professor Scott Horton reported that he was tortured in Guantánamo on the same night, in June 2006, that three other men appear to have been killed by representatives of an unknown US agency, and that a cover-up then took place, which successfully passed the deaths off as suicides.

At the screenings, the speakers will discuss what steps we can all take to put pressure on the British government to demand the return of Shaker Aamer to the UK, to be reunited with his family. To date, we have been asking audiences to send a letter to foreign secretary David Miliband calling for Shaker’s return. This letter will be updated on May 7, following the General Election, but in the meantime please feel free to adapt it as you see fit, to put pressure on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from the very first day of the new government.

For further information, interviews, or to inquire about broadcasting, distributing or showing “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” please contact Polly Nash or Andy Worthington. For inquiries about screenings, please also feel free to contact Maryam Hassan.

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” is a Spectacle Production (74 minutes, 2009), and copies of the DVD are now available. As featured on Democracy Now!, ABC News and Truthout. See here for videos of the Q&A session (with Moazzam Begg, Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash) that followed the launch of the film in London on October 21, 2009, and see here for a short trailer of the film.

(‘’)

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and currently on tour in the UK), and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

[T]his is a strong movie examining the imprisonment and subsequent torture of those falsely accused of anti-American conspiracy. It avoids common conventions such as dramatic narration, music or use of archive footage, delivering frank and understated accounts from the victims and forming an intriguing and emotive cross-section of life at Guantánamo Bay.
Joe Burnham, Time Out

I was particularly pleased that the Time Out review picked up on the impact of our deliberate old-school approach, which involved having no narrator (it makes a film much more intimate, although often viewers aren’t aware of why it’s more intimate) and also no music and no archive footage. The lack of the latter was initially through necessity, but, again, it allows viewers to focus solely on the interviewees and the stories they tell, and when it came to music, Polly and I were happy not to bother with the gothic ambience that usually accompanies films about terrorism and torture.

About the film

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” is a new documentary film, directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, telling the story of Guantánamo (and including sections on extraordinary rendition and secret prisons) with a particular focus on how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws, how prisoners were rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan without adequate screening (and often for bounty payments), and why some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with militancy or terrorism (as missionaries or humanitarian aid workers, for example).

The film is based around interviews with former prisoners (Moazzam Begg and, in his first major interview, Omar Deghayes, who was released in December 2007), lawyers for the prisoners (Clive Stafford Smith in the UK and Tom Wilner in the US), and journalist and author Andy Worthington, and also includes appearances from Guantánamo’s former Muslim chaplain James Yee, Shakeel Begg, a London-based Imam, and the British human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.

Focusing on the stories of Shaker Aamer, Binyam Mohamed and Omar Deghayes, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” provides a powerful rebuke to those who believe that Guantánamo holds “the worst of the worst” and that the Bush administration was justified in responding to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by holding men neither as prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, nor as criminal suspects with habeas corpus rights, but as “illegal enemy combatants” with no rights whatsoever.

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” on tour in the UK

The screening at the London International Documentary Festival is part of an ongoing UK tour of the film, in which Omar Deghayes and Andy Worthington are travelling around the country attending post-screening Q&A sessions. On some dates, Omar, who is now the legal director of the Guantánamo Justice Centre, and Andy will be joined by Polly Nash, and, occasionally, other guests including former prisoner Moazzam Begg, the director of Cageprisoners. For the LIDF screening, Omar, Andy, Moazzam and Polly will all be attending the post-screening Q&A session, and will be joined by Tara Murray of Reprieve.

Throughout the tour, Omar, Andy and the other speakers will be focusing on the plight of Shaker Aamer, the only one of the film’s main subjects who is still held in Guantánamo, despite being cleared for release in 2007, and despite the British government asking for him to be returned to the UK in August 2007.

Born in Saudi Arabia, Shaker Aamer moved to the UK in 1994, and was a legal British resident at the time of his capture, after he had traveled to Afghanistan with Moazzam Begg (and their families) to establish a girls’ school and some well-digging projects. He has a British wife and four British children (although he has never seen his youngest child).

As the foremost advocate of the prisoners’ rights in Guantánamo, Shaker’s influence upset the US authorities to such an extent that those pressing for his return fear that the US government wants to return him to Saudi Arabia, the country of his birth, where he will not be at liberty to tell his story, and recent revelations indicate that, despite claims that it has been doing all in its power to secure his release, the British government may also share this view.

In December 2009, it emerged in a court case in the UK that British agents witnessed his abuse while he was held in US custody in Afghanistan, and in January 2010, for Harper’s Magazine, law professor Scott Horton reported that he was tortured in Guantánamo on the same night, in June 2006, that three other men appear to have been killed by representatives of an unknown US agency, and that a cover-up then took place, which successfully passed the deaths off as suicides.

At the screenings, the speakers will discuss what steps we can all take to put pressure on the British government to demand the return of Shaker Aamer to the UK, to be reunited with his family. To get involved now, please visit this Amnesty International action page, to find details of how you can write to David Miliband and Gordon Brown, asking them to demand Shaker’s return. You can also cut and paste a letter to David Miliband here. Please also visit this page for a video of Shaker’s daughter Johina handing in a letter to Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street on January 11, 2010.

Recent feedback

““Outside the Law” is essential viewing for anyone interested in Guantánamo and other prisons. The film explores what happens when a nation with a reputation for morality and justice acts out of impulse and fear. To my mind, Andy Worthington is a quintessential force for all things related to the journalism of GTMO and its inhabitants. As a military lawyer for Fayiz al-Kandari, I am constantly reminded that GTMO is ongoing and that people still have an opportunity to make history today by becoming involved. “Outside the Law” is a fantastic entry point into the arena that is GTMO.”
Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, attorney for Guantánamo prisoner Fayiz al-Kandari

“I thought the film was absolutely brilliant and the most powerful, moving and hard-hitting piece I have seen at the cinema. I admire and congratulate you for your vital work, pioneering the truth and demanding that people sit up and take notice of the outrageous human rights injustices perpetrated against detainees at Guantánamo and other prisons.”
Harriet Wong, Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture

“[T]hought-provoking, harrowing, emotional to watch, touching and politically powerful.”
Harpymarx, blogger

“Last Saturday I went to see Polly Nash and Andy Worthington’s harrowing documentary, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” at London’s BFI. The film knits together narratives so heart-wrenching I half wish I had not heard them. Yet the camaraderie between the detainees and occasional humorous anecdotes … provide a glimpse into the wit, courage and normalcy of the men we are encouraged to perceive as monsters.”
Sarah Gillespie, singer/songwriter

“The film was great — not because I was in it, but because it told the legal and human story of Guantánamo more clearly than anything I have seen.”
Tom Wilner, US attorney who represented the Guantánamo prisoners before the US Supreme Court

“The film was fantastic! It has the unique ability of humanizing those who were detained at Guantánamo like no other I have seen.”
Sari Gelzer, Truthout

“Engaging and moving, and personal. The first [film] to really take you through the lives of the men from their own eyes.”
Debra Sweet, The World Can’t Wait

“I am part of a community of folks from the US who attempted to visit the Guantánamo prison in December 2005, and ended up fasting for a number of days outside the gates. We went then, and we continue our work now, because we heard the cries for justice from within the prison walls. As we gathered tonight as a community, we watched “Outside the Law,” and by the end, we all sat silent, many with tears in our eyes and on our faces. I have so much I’d like to say, but for now I wanted to write a quick note to say how grateful we are that you are out, and that you are speaking out with such profound humanity. I am only sorry what we can do is so little, and that so many remain in the prison.”
Matt Daloisio, Witness Against Torture

For further information, interviews, or to inquire about broadcasting, distributing or showing “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” please contact Polly Nash or Andy Worthington. For inquiries about screenings, please also feel free to contact Maryam Hassan.

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” is a Spectacle Production (74 minutes, 2009), and copies of the DVD are now available. As featured on Democracy Now!, ABC News and Truthout. See here for videos of the Q&A session (with Moazzam Begg, Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash) that followed the launch of the film in London on October 21, 2009.

(‘’)

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

Organized by Oslo Dokumentarkino and the Human Rights House Network of human rights organizations, the festival, which is in its second year, took place in Parkteatret, a wonderful old theatre with an intimate atmosphere that made for a perfect venue. The festival began on Wednesday and ran through to Sunday, with packed houses throughout for a powerful programme put together by a group of committed, knowledgeable and very friendly activists, lawyers and human rights advocates.

Polly and I arrived in Oslo late on Friday afternoon, marvelling at the deep blanket of snow covering the entire country, and then made our way by tram to the venue (via our hotel), where we received a warm welcome from Sarah Prosser, one of the organizers, and managed to catch the last film of the day, “The Problem: Testimony of the Saharawi People,” a new documentary by Spanish directors Jordi Ferrer and Pablo Vidal. Combining undercover filming with archive material, the film revealed, unflinchingly, how, in the Western Sahara, abandoned by the Spanish in 1975 and then illegally occupied by Morocco, the Saharawi people are subjected to a brutal and little-known occupation, and how condemnation of the regime is stifled largely by Spain and France. Guided around the country by a veteran campaigner for the Saharawi people’s rights, who has been repeatedly imprisoned and tortured in the many “black prisons” maintained by the Moroccan government, the directors also interviewed two women activists who have been subjected to brutal torture.

Last summer, I received a crash-course in the history of the Moroccan government’s oppression of the Saharawi people at WOMAD, during and after an appearance by Mariem Hassan, an extraordinarily powerful singer and spokeswoman for the Saharawi people. Originally based in the El-Ayoun Refugee Camp in Algeria, one of four camps where around 165,000 displaced Saharawi have been living since 1976, Hassan now lives in exile. Although the directors of “The Problem” also visited the El-Ayoun camp, it is their footage from inside Western Sahara, and their encounters with peaceful opponents of the occupation, who wonder, pointedly, whether western governments only pay attention to violent resistance movements, that made the deepest impression on me. Further information about “The Problem” can be found here, on the official website.

On Saturday, Polly and I arrived at Parkteatret too late to see “Getting Justice: Kenya’s Deadly Game of Wait and See,” but we did manage to see most of “The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court,” a fascinating account of the development of the ICC, and its struggles to become established as the first ever international court to tackle war crimes and crimes against humanity. This was a gripping exploration of the long struggle to establish a global body capable of judging cases of genocide when national bodies fail to do so, whose origins can be traced back to the Nuremberg Trials and the founding of the United Nations, even though, of course, the project is being resisted by the US, China and Russia, all of whom have refused to recognize the ICC. Further information can be found on the film’s official website here.

In a panel discussion following the screening, chaired by Niels Jacob Harbitz of Human Rights House, Maina Kiai, Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and the founding chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (who made “Getting Justice” with the Nairobi-based British director Lucy Hannan), discussed the ICC, accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the current situation in Kenya with Nora Sveaass, Professor of Psychology at the University of Oslo and Norway’s representative on the UN Committee Against Torture, and Gunnar Ekeløve Slydal, Deputy Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, who participated in the establishment of the ICC. An interview with Maina Kiai is available here.

At 2.15, following a brief introduction by Polly and myself, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” was screened to a full house. The film was very well received, and was followed by the screening of a short film by the celebrated Norwegian journalist and filmmaker Erling Borgen, exposing Norway’s complicity in the crimes of the “War on Terror” through Aker Kværner, a company hired by the US military at Guantánamo to provide much of the prison’s infrastructure and technical support. Plans to prosecute Aker Kværner were stifled in the Norwegian courts, but in a panel discussion following the screenings, chaired by Borgen (who was also the festival’s first patron), Ståle Eskeland, Professor of Law at the University of Oslo, condemned the politicization of the legal process in this case, lamenting how it demonstrated that in Norway (as in so many other countries), terrorism was being used as an excuse to pretend that the rule of law no longer applies.

In a wide-ranging discussion, followed by a lively Q&A session, I also explained the problems facing President Obama as he tries to close Guantánamo (involving cowardice and compromise on the part of the administration, but also a right-wing propaganda machine that is out of control), described how complicity in the “War on Terror” involved the whole of Europe, and encouraged those attending the festival to put pressure on the Norwegian government to accept cleared prisoners from Guantánamo. To date, the Norwegian government has refused to join Belgium, France, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia and Switzerland in accepting cleared prisoners, in order to help close Guantánamo — and to demonstrate a commitment to universal humanitarian principles — and I put forward the case that, as with other countries in Europe (including the UK), pressure should be exerted to accept prisoners as a kind of moral trade-off for complicity in the “War on Terror.” In Norway, this occurred not only through the actions of Aker Kværner, but also through the Norwegian government’s decision to turn a blind eye to US rendition flights through Norwegian territory. Although this may well have taken place as part of a NATO-wide agreement in October 2001 to provide unquestioning support to the Bush administration, it remains unacceptable that any country can be allowed to behave as through the rule of law was suspended in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

After this stimulating debate and Q&A session, Polly and I watched the last two films of the day. The first was “My Neighbour, My Killer,” which captured the sometimes disconcerting results of the Gacaca courts in Rwanda. These traditional local courts, established to deal with the 1994 genocide, function partly as a truth and reconciliation commission, and partly as a system for accountability, with what appears to be a fragile success, although it was disturbing that so little remorse was demonstrated by some of the accused. Further information can be found on the film’s official website here.

Following up on these themes, “Enemies of the People,” directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, is an extraordinary new documentary addressing Cambodia’s “Killing Fields,” the genocide that took place under Pol Pot (“Brother No. 1”) and Nuon Chea (“Brother No. 2”). At the heart of the film is Sambath, whose family members were killed in the genocide, who embarked on a one-man mission to create a truth and reconciliation process in Cambodia. After spending ten years visiting Nuon Chea, and tracking down other former Khmer Rouge leaders further down the chain of command, Sambath succeeded in persuading Nuon Chea to speak about his responsibility for the genocide, and drew out the most extraordinary confessions from those who fulfilled the regime’s merciless aims. For further information about the film, see the official website here.

Afterwards, the organizers took the guests — myself, Polly, Maina Kiai, Lucy Hannan and Rob Lemkin — out to dinner, and afterwards we returned to the Parkteatret, magically transformed into a sweaty concert venue, for a “Balkan Beat Party” featuring an excellent Balkan band with a seven-piece horn section. It was a refreshing antidote to the often troubling messages of the day’s screenings, but although the party music was ringing in my head as Polly, Rob and I took a taxi back to the hotel at 2 am, it was difficult to escape the extraordinary intimacy of Thet Sambath’s encounters — not with Nuon Chea, whose warped idealism remained largely intact, but with the other Khmer Rouge murderers featured in “Enemies of the People”; ordinary men, haunted by their deeds, who demonstrated, it seemed to me, that contrition and forgiveness are amongst the most difficult tasks that we face as human beings.

My congratulations again to the organizers, and I only wish that I had another film lined up for next February. Instead, please see here for upcoming tour dates for “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” and, if you can read Norwegian, check out this newspaper article, based on a telephone interview with me, which appeared in Saturday’s edition of the Norwegian newspaper, Klassekampen.

(‘’)

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in January 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and launched in October 2009), and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

“Home In Exile” is available below (in two parts), and I urge you to watch it:

After the first two films were screened, David Somerset of the BFI’s Education Department, who organized the event, asked Mohamed to talk about his work, and also gave me an opportunity to talk about the experience of Libyan refugees (and refugees from other dictatorial regimes) who are regarded by the British government as “terror suspects,” but who, instead of being put on trial, are held on the basis of secret evidence that is not disclosed to them, and kept under virtual house arrest through the use of draconian control orders. These are topics that I have written about regularly, most recently in two articles, Death in Libya, betrayal in the West (for the Guardian), and Law Lords Condemn UK’s Use of Secret Evidence And Control Orders, and I’m delighted that, after coming across my work, Mohamed got in touch with me, and arranged with David for me to come along and talk.

The bitter irony — made all the more pointed after watching Mohamed’s films, which expose the brutality of the regimes in Libya and Egypt — is that these men, once friends to the West because of their opposition to Colonel Gaddafi, are now pawns in a deadly game that was initiated when Gaddafi, once the pariah and international terrorist, changed sides and became a friend to the West after the 9/11 attacks, and, overnight, they became terror suspects instead.

I hope to write more about Libya, and the West’s relationship to Colonel Gaddafi, in the near future, but in the meantime, for another sordid story (which involves the US, and its abominable use of “extraordinary rendition” and torture), see my recent world exclusive, New Revelations About The Torture Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed, and see here for my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, published in March 2009.

Morris’ film focuses, specifically, on the Military Police soldiers working at the prison’s “hard site” — Tiers 1A and 1B of Saddam Hussein’s old torture prison — where the supposed “high-value” prisoners were held, although in this, as in every other facet of the “War on Terror,” the “intelligence” that had led to their capture was not necessarily reliable.

The soldiers — none of whom received specific training as prison guards in wartime — were instructed not merely to guard the prisoners but also to subordinate their roles to the requirements of Military Intelligence and visiting representatives of the CIA by “softening up” the prisoners for interrogation. The ironic upshot, of course, was a regime of abuse that did more than almost anything else to blacken the name of the US occupiers in Iraq.

As well as featuring in-depth interviews with many of the soldiers who were later charged and imprisoned for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, which humanizes them (although not always in a flattering manner), the film also focuses on the “evidence” that led to their convictions: the notorious photos taken by three of the soldiers, which have been the most horrifically iconic images of the “War on Terror” since they were first broadcast by CBS in April 2004.

Morris’ great achievement is to examine the stories behind the photos by talking to those involved, and what he discovered not only propels the viewer into the claustrophobic horrors of Abu Ghraib, but also allows the participants in that horror to explain how the photos came about, and what they actually portray.

Conceived, in some cases, as providing “evidence” of what the soldiers were required or encouraged to do, the photos certainly chronicle the abuse of prisoners — the notorious human pyramid of naked prisoners, for example, which was followed by a sickening session in which the prisoners were forced to masturbate — although other photos, which seem to capture other forms of creative abuse, actually record the guards’ attempts to restrain some of the many violent prisoners with severe mental health problems who were placed in their care.

The film also reveals that some of the most notorious photos — the hooded man, for example, standing on a box in a pose reminiscent of the Crucifixion, with wires trailing from his fingers — was put in that position partly for the benefit of the cameras, and partly as a failed attempt to “soften him up” for interrogation, as required. The soldiers reveal that the wires were not electrified, and also explain that the prisoner in question — a man named Abdou Hussain Saad Faleh (although he is not named in the film, and there has been confusion about his identity) — was soon discovered to be one of the many prisoners seized by mistake. They state that he subsequently became part of a team of prisoners, trusted by the guards, who were regularly allowed out of their cells to help with the cleaning of the cell blocks.

The effect of all these explanations is, frankly, disconcerting. On the one hand, the viewer is encouraged to question his or her assumptions about photos that seem to show sadistic abuse when this was not apparently the case, but on the other hand some of this abuse was all too real. Where the film fails, I think, is in its unwillingness to keep reminding the viewers that, although sadism was part of at least some of the guards’ approach to their work, their behaviour was only possible because those responsible for defining the parameters of their mission — at the highest levels of government — had shredded the Geneva Conventions, the rules prohibiting physical violence or torture in the Army Field Manual, and the UN Convention Against Torture, to which the US is a signatory.

Though often brutal, the guards were not merely, as the President described them, a “few bad apples,” and nor was the abuse the result of “Animal House on the night shift,” as former defense secretary James R. Schlesinger described it in a report on the abuse that failed to look up the chain of command for explanations. Their actions were, instead, the direct result of telling soldiers, who are trained to follow orders and to observe the Geneva Conventions, that the Conventions no longer apply, that their orders are to indulge in behaviour that was previously regarded as illegal, and that, moreover, they are to use their imaginations to find new ways of indulging in behaviour that was previously regarded as illegal. This is not to excuse their crimes, or to deflect attention from the manner in which they were corrupted in their mission (à la Lord of the Flies, or, perhaps more accurately, the Stanford Prison Experiment); it is, instead, meant to keep in mind the biggest villains of all — in the White House and the Pentagon.

After the film was shown, Richard Watson of the BBC’s Newsnight moderated the panel discussion, in which Tom Porteous, the UK Director of Human Rights Watch, Leanne Macmillan, the Director of Policy & External Affairs for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture and myself, as the author of The Guantánamo Files and a representative of the legal action charity Reprieve, answered questions from an audience that was clearly engaged with the issues raised in Morris’ film. We also dealt with additional questions from Richard Watson himself, who, in the absence of anyone willing to put the US government’s case for abandoning the Geneva Conventions and sanctioning the use of torture, occasionally played Devil’s Advocate in true BBC fashion.

The questions focused largely on torture — how it is defined, what steps the US administration took to redefine torture (as the inflicting of pain that “must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death”), and why it is both morally corrosive and counter-productive as a method of gathering reliable intelligence. The questions also included an interesting detour into the Baha Mousa scandal, in which British soldiers murdered a hotel worker in their custody, overriding prohibitions against torture and abuse in the British army, and demonstrating, it seems, that signing up as a US ally in the “War on Terror” also involved signing up to the whole sordid package of abrogation from the Geneva Conventions, and the resuscitation of torture.

While fascinating in and of themselves, however, the lines of questioning also highlighted the film’s weaknesses, as mentioned above. Beyond hints dropped by various players in the scandal, the film refuses to focus on the abuse in a wider context; in other words, to spell out clearly how the drivers of the post-9/11 policy of detention and interrogation — in particular, Vice President Dick Cheney, his legal counsel David Addington, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush — had, through a series of secret memos, deliberately excluded the prisoners from the protections of the Geneva Conventions, had approved the use of torture, had specifically imported harsh interrogation techniques — or the lack of restraints on harsh interrogation techniques — to Abu Ghraib from Guantánamo and from the US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, and had, moreover, granted seemingly limitless freedom to the CIA and other agencies to behave however they wanted.

In the film, the soldiers describe how the unaccountable CIA agents brought in “ghost prisoners,” who were never accounted for, and some of the film’s most shocking scenes concern the “ghost prisoner” Manadel al-Jamadi, who died while in CIA custody and was then packed in ice and stored in a cell on the block, while the agency and those in charge of the military operations worked out how to dispose of the corpse. As a kind of forensic exercise, one of the soldiers took photos of the corpse; actions for which she was later charged. Significantly, the charges were dropped when it became apparent to the authorities that pursuing them would bring the murder — and the CIA’s actions — out into the open. To this day, however, although the photographer was convicted for conspiracy, dereliction of duty and cruelty and maltreatment relating to the rest of her actions while on duty at Abu Ghraib, no one from the CIA has been charged in connection with the murder. In a detailed investigation for the New Yorker, Jane Mayer concluded that it was possible that, “under the Bush Administration’s secret interrogation guidelines, the killing of Jamadi might not have broken any laws.”

In conclusion, then, it may be that sidelining the bigger picture was required to create the claustrophobic atmosphere that defines Standard Operating Procedure. Behind the big-budget graphics and technical wizardry that punctuate the film — in which the backers, Sony, seem perversely delighted by Morris’ focus on the Sony cameras that were used to take the photos — the viewer is trapped in Abu Ghraib with little to focus on beyond the abuse, the photos and the soldiers who took them. It works well as a sordid and distressing chamber piece, but I’d be sorely disappointed if viewers left the cinema unaware of the puppet masters who set up the whole malign experiment in the first place, and who have never been called to account.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed, and see here for my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, published in March 2009.

As published on Nth Position.

For other articles on Abu Ghraib, see: Remember Abu Ghraib? (a review of Mark Danner’s Torture and Truth), Former US interrogator Damien Corsetti recalls the torture of prisoners in Bagram and Abu Ghraib (December 2007), In the Guardian: The 5th anniversary of the Abu Ghraib scandal (April 2009), The Torture Photos We’re Not Supposed To See (May 2009).

For other articles on Iraq, see: Book Review: Road From Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejía (January 2008), Iraq’s refugees in Syria: Mike Otterman reports (February 2008), UK government deports 60 Iraqi Kurds; no one notices (March 2008), A History of Music Torture in the “War on Terror” (December 2008), The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney (Part Two) (December 2008), Refuting Cheney’s Lies: The Stories of Six Prisoners Released from Guantánamo (January 2009), Even In Cheney’s Bleak World, The Al-Qaeda-Iraq Torture Story Is A New Low (April 2009), Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi Has Died In A Libyan Prison (May 2009), Dick Cheney And The Death Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi (May 2009), Lawrence Wilkerson Nails Cheney On Use Of Torture To Invade Iraq (May 2009), Cheney’s Lies Undermined By Iraq Interrogator Matthew Alexander (May 2009).