Labour Briefing: What made you (and Polly Nash) make the film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo”?

Andy Worthington: The film arose as a follow-up to my book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, published by Pluto Press. Polly, who has worked in film and TV production for 20 years, is an old friend, and when the book was published I thought that its central themes would translate well to film: specifically, about how prisoners were not “the worst of the worst,” seized by US forces “on the battlefield,” but were, instead, mostly innocent men or low-level Taliban recruits, sold to the US military by their Afghan and Pakistani allies, and how some of the men were in Afghanistan or Pakistan as missionaries or as humanitarian aid workers.

Polly agreed, and so we put together a structure for the film, telling these stories by focusing on the cases of three particular British prisoners — Shaker Aamer (who is still held) and Binyam Mohamed and Omar Deghayes (both released) — and I then approached contacts I had established for the interviews that tell the story: in particular, lawyers Tom Wilner, Clive Stafford Smith and Gareth Pierce, and former prisoners Omar Deghayes and Moazzam Begg, with myself providing some of the commentary and interpretation.

Labour Briefing: What reaction have you received so far from the mainstream media and from the anti-war movement?

Andy Worthington: Sadly, there has been silence for the most part from the mainstream media, although in March the BBC in Kent and in Scotland took an interest in the ongoing UK tour of the film undertaken by myself and Omar Deghayes, and we have had successful screenings everywhere we’ve been, including at Amnesty International’s HQ in London, at the National Film Theatre, and as part of the London International Documentary Festival in April. There has been stronger support from the anti-war movement, and several screenings have been organized by various Stop the War groups.

Unfortunately, the mainstream seems to think that Guantánamo is an old story, even though Obama has reached a state of paralysis in his attempts to close the prison, and 181 men are still held, with no sign of when — or how — this aberrant experiment will actually be brought to an end. It would be nice to think that a distributor will pick up on the film, and realize that there is an audience for the film, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Labour Briefing: What reaction have you had from other countries?

Andy Worthington: I took the film on a short US tour in November, but I have to say that, after an initial flurry of optimism in the wake of Obama’s election, something close to despair has set in amongst progressives and liberals — or people are still fooling themselves that Obama has waved a magic wand and thoroughly repudiated the crimes of the Bush years, which, of course, he has not. Polly and I are discussions with an American distributor, and I hope something comes of that, because the film really needs to be seen widely in the US.

In February, Polly and I were invited to take part in a film festival in Oslo (the Human Rights, Human Wrongs Festival), which was very successful. We’re also waiting to hear from various film festivals around the world, and volunteers are currently translating it into various other languages, so I’m hopeful that it will eventually be seen by international audiences.

Labour Briefing: To what extent do you think you were only able to scrape the surface in making “Outside the Law”? Do you think it is possible to lift the lid on the system of secret prisons and the use of rendition states to do the West’s dirty work in torturing people in secret?

Andy Worthington: There are obviously other stories to be told — particularly about the whole program of “extraordinary rendition” and secret prisons, and about the complicity of other countries in the “War on Terror,” including the UK, which was deeply involved, as recent court cases have shown. Part of the problem is that countries are fighting tooth and nail to prevent these stories coming out, as they provide evidence of complicity in war crimes, but another problem is the Obama administration, which is maintaining that it wants to “look forward and not back.” I think that the truth will eventually be revealed, but it will take many more years, and in the meantime I think we all need to also focus on making sure that our governments are cleaning up their acts.

Labour Briefing: What impact has the experience had on the men released from Guantánamo, such as psychological and political effects?

Andy Worthington: I think it depends. The former prisoners that I have come to know have mostly shown extraordinary resilience, though their faith and through the bonds they established in Guantánamo to help them survive their ordeal, but I know that not everyone has been so strong, or so fortunate. Former prisoners in the West have access to psychological counseling, but this is not available elsewhere, even though many other former prisoners need it. In addition, of course, very few former prisoners can find work after being held at Guantánamo, unless they can find a way to be become involved in human rights. I recommend people to look at the work of the Guantánamo Justice Centre, founded by former prisoners, which is attempting to raise money for the welfare of former prisoners, and also to establish court cases against those who authorized or facilitated their detention, rendition and torture.

Labour Briefing: To what extent has the political culture within Britain changed so that questions of legality and illegality and human rights issues are seen as marginal?

Andy Worthington: I think the UK is less fooled than the US when it comes to swallowing the fear-filled rhetoric of the “War on Terror,” but it is sadly true that Islamophobia has taken hold, and that it has not only infected popular discourse, but has also infected the government and the intelligence services. I don’t doubt that there are threats out there, but the approach is to tell Muslims to shut up and not to discuss, let alone be angered by Britain’s foreign policy. In addition, Britain has its own version of Guantánamo, in the cases of the men — all Muslims — who are detained under control orders, or on deportation bail, on the basis of secret evidence that they are unable to challenge adequately. If this were happening to any other group, there would be a public outcry, but because it’s happening to Muslims, it is somehow regarded as acceptable. That, in a nutshell, tells you how far we have drifted from respect for the law, and for the fundamental principle that no one should be deprived of their liberty except in a court of law, and by a jury of their peers.

Labour Briefing: What do you think the new government should be doing in dealing with the whole issue of illegal imprisonment and torture?

Andy Worthington: The new government needs to look very closely — and urgently — at existing anti-terror legislation: the use of secret evidence, control orders and deportation bail, in particular, but also the idiotic attempt to outlaw the “glorification of terrorism,” which runs the very real risk of criminalizing thought crimes.

For me, this is all tied in with the increase in racism and xenophobia over the last 15 years, so I hope that the new government will also uphold Britain’s obligations to refugees, and will recognize that there is something truly appalling about the way in which failed asylum seekers are held, and will also recognize that we need a grown-up debate about how to stop criminalising asylum seekers and pretending that we don’t need to address the problem of the many, many thousands of failed asylum seekers who are living in poverty below the radar, hiding out from a society whose only response to them, though illegal under the terms of the UN Convention Against Torture, is, “Send them all back!”

Politics being as it is, however, I doubt that the new government will do any of this willingly.

Labour Briefing: Shaker Aamer is still detained in Guantánamo. What can activists do to highlight and campaign against this injustice?

Andy Worthington: Push the new government for his return. Shaker is the last British resident in Guantánamo, who was cleared for release in 2007, but is still held. I advise activists to send letters to the Prime Minister and the foreign secretary [a letter is here] asking them to demand Shaker’s return, and also to ask for the UK to accept Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian who lived here for three years. Ahmed was also cleared for release in 2007, but is terrified of returning to Algeria.

I also believe that the UK government should accept other cleared prisoners, like Ahmed, who cannot be returned to their home countries, but who, unlike Ahmed, have no connection with this country. This is the least that Britain should be doing, after being so intimately involved with the crimes of the “War on Terror,” and it is unacceptable that the UK has been standing by, while Albania, Belgium, Bermuda, Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Palau, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland have all helped out by taking cleared prisoners who have no previous connection with them, in order to close Guantánamo and to bring to an end these men’s undue suffering.

Note: Please also see here for a letter that readers can send to MPs asking them to take action for Shaker Aamer, and to oppose the use of control orders and secret evidence.

“Outside the Law”: reviews and feedback

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

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

“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

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.

“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.

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), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

Now that we have a new government — involving an unprecedented coalition between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats — the ongoing UK tour of the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (directed by filmmaker Polly Nash and myself), continues with renewed purpose. Throughout the election period, the screenings that took place were dogged with a sense of indecision that has now been swept away — and I’m relieved that former prisoner Omar Deghayes and myself, who are taking part in Q&A sessions following the majority of the screenings, will now be able to focus once more on asking the audiences to take action for Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo (whose story features in the film).

Audiences — and readers of this article — can do this by writing to the new foreign secretary, William Hague (and also to David Cameron and Nick Clegg) to ask the government to do all in its power to secure his return from Guantánamo, to be reunited with his British wife and children as swiftly as possible.

I’ll shortly be drafting a letter to William Hague, which I’ll post here, and this — and a letter to MPs (which I made available on Friday, and which also includes questions about the use of secret evidence in UK courts, about control orders, and about British complicity in torture) — will be handed out at screenings, to encourage audiences to get involved, and, crucially, to demonstrate that there is action that can be taken. Omar is a living example of the success of political campaigning, as the high-profile campaign mounted in Brighton to secure his release undoubtedly played a part in securing his freedom.

Shaker Aamer was cleared for release from Guantánamo over three years ago, but remains held despite the Labour government’s claims that it persistently pushed for his release. His lawyers, however, have long wondered if this is strictly true, given that Shaker knows so much about the workings of Guantánamo (having been the foremost advocate of the prisoners’ rights within the prison) that, when he is finally released, his revelations may well be deeply embarrassing for both the British and the American governments.

With a change in leadership in the UK, now is a vital time for those who support Shaker’s return to renew pressure on the government, and to point out, if necessary, that his revelations — not only about Guantánamo, but also about conditions in the US prisons in Afghanistan, where prisoners were held before Guantánamo, and the involvement of British agents in interrogations in Afghanistan — concern the Labour government at the time, and do not reflect directly on the Conservative Party.

As I explained in a recent article, the Conservative Party has a poor record when it comes to supporting human rights while countering terrorism in the UK, and also has a poor record on calling for the closure of Guantánamo (I Googled in vain for a clear message). However, William Hague has made encouraging noises over the years. Back in 2006, he told a meeting in the House of Commons organized by Human Rights Watch, “Reports of prisoner abuse by British and American troops — however isolated — and accounts, accurate or not, of the mistreatment of detainees at Guantánamo and extraordinary rendition flights leading to the torture of suspects, have led to a critical erosion in our moral authority. In standing up for the rule of law, we must be careful not to employ methods that undermine it.”

Moreover, Hague has, on at least one occasion, addressed the return of Shaker Aamer from Guantánamo. In March 2009, he submitted a written request in the House of Commons in February 2009, “To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether US officials have acceded to the request to return Mr Shaker Aamer to the UK; and if he will make a statement.”

In addition, he has maintained his opposition to British complicity in torture — and calls for accountability for those involved — telling the House of Commons in February, after the Court of Appeal ordered David Miliband to release information regarding the torture of British resident Binyam Mohamed, that “we [the Conservative Party] have consistently argued for full investigation of all credible allegations of UK complicity in torture, and for the Government to find a way in this particular case to balance the needs of national security with the need for justice and accountability in our democratic society.”

Hague may well find his principled stance evaporating now he is in office, but his record in opposition means that campaigners for Shaker Aamer’s return — and for accountability for British complicity in torture — at least have some leverage. Listed below are five new screenings of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” at which these topics and others will be discussed. I’ve also added this information to the dedicated page for the UK tour, to be updated as further screenings are added, and please also note that all screenings are free. Please feel free to publicize them, and I hope to see some of you at one or other event.

Friday May 21, 7.30 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Christ Church College, Blue Boar Lecture Theatre, the University of Oxford, St. Aldates, Oxford, OX1 1DP.
With Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash.
This screening is organized by the Oxford University Amnesty International group, and a Facebook page is here. For further information, please contact Amnesty Oxford.

Thursday May 27, 7 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
The Broca, 4 Coulgate Street, Brockley, London, SE4 2RW.
With Andy Worthington.
This screening is organized by The Broca as a prelude to the annual Brockley Max arts festival. On Tuesday June 1, at 7 pm, Andy will also present a screening of “Operation Solstice,” a documentary about The Battle of the Beanfield, on the 25th anniversary of this often-overlooked confrontation between travellers/political activists and the State (under Margaret Thatcher). For further information, please contact Andy, or, for the Broca, by email here.

Friday May 28, 6.30 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Arts A1 Lecture Theatre, The University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RF.
With Omar Deghayes and Andy Worthington.
This screening is organized by the University of Sussex Amnesty International group. For a map of the campus, showing the Arts A1 Lecture Theatre (No. 22 on map), see here. For other maps, see here, and for further information, please contact Michael Fisher.

Saturday May 29, 2 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Under the Bridge music studio, 7 Trafalgar Arches, Brighton, BN1 4FQ.
With Omar Deghayes and Andy Worthington.
This screening is organized by Under the Bridge (see the website here, and also see here for “Radio Free Brighton,” housed in the studios). For a map, see here (the studios are underneath the main railway station), and for further information, please contact Jackie Chase on 07799 564620.

Wednesday June 2, 6 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX.
With Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash.
This screening is organized by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Please contact Barbara Zollner for further information. Also see MeetUp pages here and here.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

This week it was as though the impetus to push against the injustices of the “War on Terror” had stalled. On Tuesday morning, six former prisoners — including Omar, and Binyam Mohamed, who is also featured in the film — defeated the government in the Court of Appeal, when three senior judges overturned a ruling made last November by another judge, who approved the use of secret evidence in a civil claim for damages. This was an unprecedented event in British history, and when the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling, those with a keen sense of history and the law rejoiced. “How audacious! The government tries to overturn principles of law dating back to [the] 13th century,” Afua Hirsch wrote in the Guardian.

In the fog of election week, however, the impact was dulled, as no one knew who would be in power to deal with the fallout from this ruling — whether it will be accepted, or appealed; and whether the new government will turn its back on secrecy and injustice, or, indeed, whether more darkness — the same, or worse — is to come.

In this uncertain world, Omar and I travelled to Birmingham for two screenings of the film — at Aston University and at Birmingham Library Theatre, in a screening organized by Birmingham Film Society — which had been booked before the election date was announced. We stayed with Moazzam Begg, who joined us for Q&A sessions following both screenings, had attentive crowds and great organizers, the sun shone and we discussed plans for future activities. Omar and I ate fish masala at a chip shop near Aston University, we ate lamb kebab and chips and drank freshly squeezed orange juice in a friendly Pakistani restaurant further out of town, and drank coffee and watched the world pass in the city centre. On Wednesday evening, we walked along the canals, and I was impressed at how, as in so many places in the UK, public spaces have been developed in the last decade or so. But the election hovered, largely unspoken, over everything. The popular support for proportional representation. The unaddressed fallout from the banking crisis. The savage cuts reportedly to come, which no one wants to discuss.

I could go on, attempting to capture this unease, and the strange feeling of discussing pressing issues of accountability for the British government’s complicity in rendition and torture — and calls for the return of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo (also featured in the film) — without knowing who these calls should be directed at. Instead, however, I’m going to cross-post a short article, entitled, “England,” which I think perfectly captures these issues, and which was posted by a blogger named Jamblichus, who returned to the UK from South Korea just days before the Election, and came to see the film shortly after his arrival. He describes his interests as “[t]o point out and record the abuse of power by corporations, politicos, police and anyone else who has it coming,” and “[t]o give big-ups to academics, poets, musicians, activists and any other souls who have something interesting and unusual to say.”

“England”
By Jamblichus, May 6, 2010

Flying into England the air feels muggy. It reminds me on landing of arriving in Africa a decade ago; the night heavy, the air thick, the dark full of unknown but not unnerving sounds — a strange familiarity.

The English look heavy too: thickset, more tattoos than I remember there being, shoulders hunched and faces, posture, gestures all somewhat inward looking and deliberate, if not unpleasantly so.

It’s good to be home and I’m reminded that we drive like maniacs here. Not in the Korean way — erratic, mannerless, dismissive of red lights but respecting of speed limits — but in a distinctly British way: courteous, horn-free but brutally fast.

A few days after arriving I go to see the film “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” by campaigning journalist Andy Worthington and sit through a Q&A afterwards with former detainees Moazzam Begg and Omar Deghayes.

I won’t rehash their stories here — although I urge a visit to Begg’s site Cageprisoners — but it was their current concerns as much as the travesty that is Guantánamo and their horrific experiences there that shocked me.

Just yesterday the Court of Appeal overturned a ruling that, for the first time in British history, allowed the government to use secret evidence in a civil claim for damages.

The decision was a resounding victory for the six former Guantánamo prisoners — Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil El-Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed and Martin Mubanga — who have brought a case against the British government.

But the government is likely to appeal the ruling. The precedent a win by the state on this issue would represent is astonishing. The right to use evidence in court against you in a civil suit that neither you nor your lawyer can see. It could be anything, entirely made up to smear political opponents.

Disgusting and deeply disturbing. Andy Worthington lists on his blog here the MPs who have signed up to early day motions opposing the use of secret evidence in UK courts and calling for the release of the last British resident in Guantánamo respectively. Of the 149 MPs who have signed the motions, just three are Conservative.

It seems utter madness that they look likely to get a majority.

A few days later, feeling guilty at not having registered to vote in enough time, I set the alarm for 4:00 am and drove into Birmingham Hall Green to canvass for the Liberal Democrats whose candidate could just clinch the seat if enough former Labour voters go that way …

Trudging the streets of Moseley and Kings Norton for three hours to the dawn chorus and the intermittent roar of buses I was struck by the beauty of the city. Old trees line many of the streets, decrepit redbrick buildings with crumpled but still magisterial presence and everywhere difference, unique variations in architecture that Seoul so lacks.

Most locals would no doubt think I’m nuts but it really struck me what a gorgeous place it was. Even if it did give me savage blisters. Note to inexperienced political leafleters: bring the following four essentials:

• MP3 player.

• Satchel.

• Thermos flask with coffee.

• Plasters.

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.

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.

“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.

(‘’)

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.

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.

The screening, of the film described by Time Out as “a strong movie examining the imprisonment and subsequent torture of those falsely accused of anti-American conspiracy,” starts at 8 pm, tickets can be bought here, and the Q&A session, which provides one of the last opportunities to discuss the Labour government’s role in the “War on Terror” before the General Election, features myself, former prisoners Moazzam Begg and Omar Deghayes (both featured in the film), co-director Polly Nash and Tara Murray of Reprieve.

Sadly, it seems unlikely that the government will do anything about the plight of Shaker Aamer before the election, as Guantánamo — and Britain’s counter-terrorism policies in general — have slipped off the radar completely since the election was announced. As the Morning Star explained on Friday, “since the election was set, our telephone calls on stories such as the plight of Ahmed Belbacha [see below] or Shaker Aamer have met with a blank refusal of the main parties to comment, even to the extent of not returning the calls.”

On Saturday, I attended a protest opposite 10 Downing Street, at which members of the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign delivered letters demanding Shaker’s immediate return to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Ivan Lewis.

Speakers at the protest included Jean Lambert MEP, Martin Linton MP, Victoria Brittain, Yvonne Ridley, Joy Hurcombe of Brighton Against Guantánamo and myself, but although we attracted a decent amount of attention, our discussions focused largely on how to push the new government to establish a strong relationship with the US from the very beginning by demanding Shaker’s immediate return — or, if Labour returns to power, how to push them to finally do the right thing, and to do what they have failed to do since Shaker was cleared for release back in 2007, which, of course, involves getting him back to his British wife and British children as soon as possible.

As ever, I chose on Saturday not only to publicize the unacceptable plight of Shaker Aamer and his family, but also to stress that whoever is in 10 Downing Street on May 7 needs to press the US not only for Shaker’s return, but also to offer new homes in the UK to other cleared prisoners who cannot be repatriated because they face the risk of torture; in particular, Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian (represented by Reprieve and also cleared for release in 2007), who is terrified of returning to Algeria, and who lived in the UK for nearly three years until he was kidnapped in Pakistan and sent to Guantánamo, but also other cleared prisoners, who have no connection to the UK, but who will not be freed until third countries offer to help out, as has happened with Albania, Belgium, Bermuda, France, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Palau, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland.

Whoever is in 10 Downing Street on May 7 needs to understand that trying to take the moral high ground, as David Miliband has done by hectoring other countries to take cleared prisoners, while claiming that the UK has already played its part in helping to close Guantánamo, is both dishonest and disgraceful. Britain has only taken in its own citizens and residents, and should follow the example of the countries mentioned above, if only to show some willingness to atone for the government’s enthusiastic embrace of the Bush administration’s “War on Terror,” which has recently been exposed in the British courts.

Note: See here for further information about “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” click here to buy a copy of the film on DVD, and see here for information about the ongoing UK tour of the film. For a letter to David Miliband, demanding the return of Shaker Aamer and requesting the offer of new homes for Ahmed Belbacha and other cleared Guantánamo prisoners, see here. I’ll update this letter as soon as the results of the General Election are announced. For reports and photos from Saturday’s protest, see these articles on Press TV, Indymedia and Demotix. I also believe that it will soon be reported by Paul Cahalan of the Wandsworth Guardian (in Shaker’s home borough), who has done some great work in publicizing Shaker’s plight.

(‘’)

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.

Jeff and I began by discussing the extraordinary case of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (featured in the article mentioned above), a Mauritanian in Guantánamo who was once regarded as the “highest-value detainee at the facility,” because of his purported connection to the 9/11 attackers. Slahi’s habeas petition has just been granted by District Court Judge James Robertson, and, as I explained, he was tortured for many months in Jordan, where he was rendered by the CIA, and was also subjected to a particularly fearful torture program in Guantánamo, as a result of which he “broke” and told his interrogators whatever they wanted to hear.

Jeff and I also spoke about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (directed by filmmaker Polly Nash and myself). In particular, we discussed the success of the current UK tour of the film, and especially how the testimony of released prisoner Omar Deghayes is proving to be particularly powerful. I explained to Jeff how the film is available worldwide on DVD, and put out a call for anyone in the US to get in touch if they can help with promoting it, as a follow-up to my brief US tour last November (see my reports here and here).

We also spoke about Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, who was cleared for release in 2007, and whose story is also featured in “Outside the law: Stories from Guantánamo,” and I ran through Shaker’s story — and the inexcusable refusal to release him — that I have reported at length in articles here, here, here, here and here (and see here and here for two posts relating to campaigns to secure his release).

Jeff also mentioned the frustrations that progressives currently have with the lack of outrage in the US regarding Obama’s failure to close Guantánamo and to thoroughly repudiate the policies of the Bush administration. This gave me the opportunity to talk about how dangerously self-defeating the administration’s cowardice is — as well as being fundamentally wrong — and also to talk about how significant it is that White House Counsel Greg Craig left the administration at the start of this year, even though he had pushed to close the prison and, last April, was close to bringing two cleared prisoners from Guantánamo to live in the US. As I pointed out, having just spent several weeks traveling around the UK with a former prisoner, this single gesture would have demonstrated to Americans, in the clearest manner possible, that profound mistakes were made in the “War on Terror,” and that not everyone who was held in Guantánamo — or who is still held — is or was a terrorist.

However, when Obama capitulated to right-wing criticism (and critics within his own party) and turned the plan down, it was, lamentably, the start of a process of back-tracking that has led to the revival of the reviled Military Commissions, the official endorsement of indefinite detention without charge or trial, the failure to close Guantánamo by Greg Craig’s one-year deadline, and the floundering that now typifies the administration’s approach to the prison’s closure, which has allowed right-wing critics to make all the noise and to advance their poisonous agenda.

Despite the generally bleak outlook, it was a pleasure to talk to Jeff, as ever, and I hope you enjoy the show.

(‘’)

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.

The film festival runs from April 23 to May 10 at twelve different venues throughout London, and “Outside the Law” is screening at 8 pm on Monday April 26 at the Free Word Centre, in the former Guardian building at 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA. The box office number is 020 7324 2570 (and also see here, where tickets, priced £7.50 plus booking fee, can be ordered).

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion,  featuring former Guantánamo prisoners Moazzam Begg, Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington, Polly Nash and Tara Murray of Reprieve. It is, moreover, part of an ongoing UK tour of the film, which began in February, with Omar and Andy (and, occasionally, Polly and other guests) attending post-screening Q&A sessions to discuss Guantánamo, President Obama’s failure to close the prison, and the plight of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo (who is also featured in the film).

Full details of the tour are available here, on a dedicated page, which will be updated as new dates are added. The film has already been shown in several London venues (Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre, the National Film Theatre, the LSE, SOAS, UCL and South Bank University) and also in Oxford, Bradford, Norwich, Canterbury, Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Future screenings include Colchester on April 27, Aston on May 4, Birmingham on May 5 and Newcastle on May 11.

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.

Take action for Shaker Aamer

Throughout the tour, Omar, Andy and Polly (and 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.

Take action for Ahmed Belbacha — and others in Guantánamo

The letter to David Miliband, mentioned above, also asks the British government to accept Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian who was also cleared for release from Guantánamo in 2007, but who remains at the prison because he is terrified of returning to Algeria, where he fears persecution. Ahmed lived in the UK for nearly three years, and this country is, therefore, the most obvious country to offer him refuge.

The letter also calls on the UK to join other countries in accepting other cleared prisoners who cannot be repatriated, but who do not already have a connection with this country. Algeria, Belgium, Bermuda, France, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Palau, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia and Switzerland have all done so, and the UK — as George Bush’s closest ally in the “War on Terror” — has no excuse for not doing so, if for no other reason than as some kind of compensation for recent revelations about the extent of Britain’s complicity in 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

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.

“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.

Celebrity Dialogue: Andy, we really appreciate the time you took out of your busy schedule for Celebrity Dialogue. First of all, let’s start from your early life. Tell us about your childhood, education etc.

Andy Worthington: I grew up near Hull, in the north of England, and studied English Language and Literature at New College, Oxford University more years ago than I care to remember.

Celebrity Dialogue: How did it all begin: your journey as a journalist and historian?

Andy Worthington: My journey began when I became fascinated by the ancient sacred sites of England in 1996. I then undertook a number of long-distance walks through the countryside of southern England in the summer of 1997 and 1998, visiting these sites, which I then attempted to write up as a book.

Celebrity Dialogue: One of your previous books, Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion, what was it about?

Andy Worthington: The process of writing a book about these long-distance walks was ultimately unsuccessful, but it led to me focusing on one particular part of the story — the Stonehenge Free Festival, an anarchic annual event that I had visited in my youth — and writing, instead, a social history of Stonehenge, Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion, in which I explained how, over the course of over 100 years, archaeologists and the State had come up against an extraordinary array of other people with claims on England’s most famous prehistoric monument: Druids, student revellers, free festival goers, anarchists, hippies, new age travellers, green activists, feminists, anti-nuclear protestors, anti-road protestors and land reformers. This then led to a second book, The Battle of the Beanfield, about a critical confrontation between a convoy of travellers and green protestors and the might of Margaret Thatcher’s police in a field in Wiltshire in June 1985, and from there, having conducted research into civil liberties, human rights and the law, I was in a good position to move onto a more challenging topic: Guantánamo.

Celebrity Dialogue: How did you get interested and involved in the Guantánamo detention camp?

Andy Worthington: I was interested from the moment Guantánamo opened, and we saw the dehumanized prisoners, shackled, kneeling in their orange jumpsuits, and subjected to sensory deprivation. I then followed the stories of the released British prisoners, in 2004 and 2005, and their accounts of torture and abuse, and, in the summer of 2005, began trying to find out who was held at Guantánamo. As the US government had not yet been obliged to release the names and nationalities of the prisoners, this involved tracking down news reports relating to released prisoners, reading interviews with released prisoners, and drawing on largely speculative prisoner lists compiled by the Washington Post and the British human rights group Cageprisoners, but it was enough to get me started.

Celebrity Dialogue: Tell us about your book, The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison. What motivated you to write this book?

Andy Worthington: In spring 2006, following the initial research described above, I got lucky. The Pentagon lost a lawsuit brought by the Associated Press and was obliged to release the first ever prisoner list, plus 8,000 pages of documents providing the allegations against the prisoners and transcripts of the tribunals and review boards held at Guantánamo — a largely sham process designed to demonstrate that the prisoners were “enemy combatants,” who could be held without rights. However, these tribunals and review boards at least allowed the prisoners to tell their side of the story, and it was through a four-month analysis of these documents — a process that no one else undertook, to my surprise — that I was able to establish a chronology of the men’s capture, and a context for their capture, whether in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan, or in other countries, subjected to “extraordinary rendition” and held in secret prisons. This, together with other information — including how the majority of the men were seized not by Americans but by their Afghan and Pakistani allies, at a time when bounty payments were widespread — enabled me to understand, and to demonstrate, that the overwhelming majority of the men were not terrorists, but were, instead, either completely innocent men or low-level Taliban recruits, mainly from Saudi Arabia and Yemen, who had been persuaded to take the side of the Taliban against other Muslims (in the Northern Alliance) in Afghanistan’s long-running civil war. Moreover, it seems clear that many of these men had not advanced beyond basic training, and others had served only as cooks or guards.

Celebrity Dialogue: You have researched so much about the Guantánamo Bay prison, yet you haven’t been to that place. How does it feel?

Andy Worthington: To be honest, it feels fine. I regret, in some ways, missing out on the Military Commissions — the trials that took place at Guantánamo in 2007-08 — because at those trials journalists could actually see the prisoners and hear the proceedings, whereas otherwise they are given a PR tour, and are told that the authorities are running a lawful, humane facility, even though the men are held without charge or trial and no one is allowed to speak to any of them. The only people who genuinely have insightful access to the prison are the lawyers (and their translators), who actually get to meet the men.

Celebrity Dialogue: If given a chance, would you like to visit the detention center personally?

Andy Worthington: As above, only if someone flew me out there to report on a trial, and I’m hoping that no further trials will take place at Guantánamo, and that those whom the administration wants to try — just 35 of those still held — will be tried in federal courts in the US.

Celebrity Dialogue: After meeting some of the former prisoners up and close, did you find them to be the “beasts” media has portrayed them to be?

Andy Worthington: Of course not. When the men were largely seized randomly, and were, in most cases, sold to their US captors, it’s extremely difficult to find anyone who would qualify as a dangerous person in any sense. Of the men I have met — mostly the British ex-prisoners, but a few others, including former al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj — what has impressed me the most is not just that they were seized by mistake, but that they have, in most cases, survived their ordeal in the most extraordinary manner, through their faith, and through the support network of the prisoners themselves.

Celebrity Dialogue: How did your personal relationship develop with some of the former prisoners you came to know during your quest in this case?

Andy Worthington: The people I have come to know the best are a former prisoner who does not live in the UK, with whom I have been in contact for several years, and two of the British ex-prisoners: Moazzam Begg, who read a draft of my book before publication, and Omar Deghayes, who was still in Guantánamo at that time. Omar and I are currently spending a lot of time together, taking the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” on a UK tour, and it is a real pleasure to be getting to know him better, and to be able to start working together on publicizing the stories of those who are still held at Guantánamo.

Celebrity Dialogue: You are the co-director of the documentary, “Outside the Law: The Stories from Guantánamo.” Tell us how you got involved in this project.

Andy Worthington: I proposed the idea of a documentary to a good friend, Polly Nash, around the time The Guantánamo Files was published. I thought that some of the central arguments of the book would translate well to film, and Polly agreed. We secured some seed funding from the college where she teaches — the London College of Communication — and established that we could tell the story most effectively through interviews with a handful of particularly knowledgeable individuals with whom I was in contact; primarily, the lawyers Tom Wilner in Washington D.C. and Clive Stafford Smith in the UK, and former prisoners Moazzam Begg and Omar Deghayes. I also took part in the film, and there are also appearances by solicitor Gareth Peirce, former Guantánamo chaplain James Yee, and Shakeel Begg, an Imam in London.

Celebrity Dialogue: Lately, you have been busy touring different locations for the screening of your documentary. Where have you been so far?

Andy Worthington: In early February, Polly and I went to Oslo to take part in the Human Rights, Human Wrongs Film Festival, and since then we have had several screenings in London — at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre, at the National Film Theatre, at LSE, SOAS, UCL and South Bank University. We have also taken it to Oxford, Bradford, Norwich, Canterbury, Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and have many more screenings lined up for the coming months, including the London International Documentary Festival. Full details can be found here.

Celebrity Dialogue: What was the response that you received from the general public during the screenings?

Andy Worthington: The response has been very positive. People are very impressed with the humanity of Omar, in particular, whom I regard as the heart of the film, and his combination of inner strength and vulnerability very powerfully brings home to people the human tragedy of Guantánamo. In addition, we have received support for the campaign to secure the release of Shaker Aamer, who is also featured in the film. The last British resident in Guantánamo, Shaker was cleared for release in 2007, but continues to be held not because of anything that he did, but because he has relentlessly stood up for the prisoners’ rights. People are also particularly engaged right now, because of recent revelations, in the UK courts, of British complicity in the torture of Shaker Aamer and the other man featured in the film, Binyam Mohamed.

Celebrity Dialogue: Are there any other places you would like the documentary to be screened?

Andy Worthington: As mentioned above, we have just been accepted as part of the London International Documentary Festival, at the end of April, and we are hoping that other film festivals will take the film. We’re also in discussions with distributors, and are especially looking at ways of getting the film out to American audiences, where its message is particularly important. We’re also interested in screenings being facilitated in as many countries as possible, and are pleased that a few people have recently volunteered to translate the film into other languages. We’re also encouraging people to put on their own screenings, by buying a DVD from the website of the production company, Spectacle.

Celebrity Dialogue: Which television channels have aired it so far?

Andy Worthington: None, although we are in discussions with a few people. Personally, I’d love it to be shown on TV in the Middle East and in Pakistan.

Celebrity Dialogue: In addition to spreading awareness about the plight of those who are suffering at the hands of governments, what else can be done?

Andy Worthington: Spreading awareness is extremely important, but public pressure is also significant. In the UK, this involves sending letters to government ministers, contacting MPs, organizing and attending protests. In addition, sending letters to the prisoners themselves lets them know that the world has not forgotten them, and also makes them less likely to be subjected to abuse in custody.

Celebrity Dialogue: Do you see hope for the Guantánamo prisoners and others like them around the world?

Andy Worthington: I always try to see hope. President Obama has lacked courage in closing Guantánamo — both in comprehending the full extent of the mistakes made by the Bush administration, and in fighting back against his opponents, who are playing an unprincipled political game with questions of national security. However, although there are questions still to be answered about how the US treats terrorist suspects in future, and whether the application of the Geneva Conventions will be unconditionally restored for prisoners seized in wartime, I think it’s fair to say that Guantánamo is, above all, regarded as a failed experiment that needs to be brought to an end. Sadly, however, there is still some way to go before this can become a reality, and I am discouraged, and even dismayed by the refusal of US lawmakers to offer new homes on the US mainland to cleared prisoners who cannot be repatriated because they face the risk of torture or other ill-treatment in their home countries, by the revival of the Military Commission trial system as an alternative to federal court trials, and, in particular, by the decision to continue holding other prisoners indefinitely without charge or trial, because they are regarded as too dangerous to release, even though the evidence against them is untrustworthy. Endorsing Bush-era indefinite detention is a terrible thing for the Obama administration to be proposing.

Celebrity Dialogue: In your opinion, how can governments be stopped from illegal detention and torture?

Andy Worthington: Again, by public pressure. We need to campaign to make sure that people — including politicians — accept that torture is illegal, fundamentally unreliable and morally corrosive, and to roll back the casual way in which it has been accepted over the last decade. And we can, in addition, support lawyers and judges who are committed to outlawing these practices and holding those responsible to account, and, as always, we can continue to educate others be spreading the word. Fundamentally, the way I see it, the senior Bush administration officials and lawyers who created and endorsed horrific policies enacted in the “War on Terror” need to be held accountable in a court of law. Otherwise, US laws and the UN Convention Against Torture mean nothing.

Celebrity Dialogue: After the Guantánamo issue is settled, do you see yourself continuing your fight against similar injustices or do you have other projects in mind?

Andy Worthington: I’ll get back to you on that when the Guantánamo issue is finally settled!

Celebrity Dialogue: Thank you so much for your time, Andy. We wish you the best of luck in your efforts and hope for your success in life.

(‘’)

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.