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February 18, 2006
The Road to Guantanamo
Received this from Craig Murray this morning:
Acclaimed film director Michael Winterbottom ("A Cock and Bull Story", "24 Hour Party People", "Welcome to Sarajevo") was showing his new film, "The Road to Guantanamo", at the Berlin Film Festival, where it has won a number of top awards.
The film traces the true story of three Muslim friends from Birmingham who were picked up as aliens in Afghanistan by US forces and ended up in Guantanamo for three years, where they suffered brutal and humiliating treatment.
Extensive interrogation established that they had no connection with al-Qaida, and despite their plight being ignored by British authorities, eventually they were returned home. The UK media covered live the return of these "Suspected terrorists" and the massive police convoy that brought them in to Ventral London for questioning. Their release after the UK police also found they had no connection with terrorism was, naturally, hardly mentioned.
Last week the three travelled to the Berlin Festival with the Winterbottom party, and were arrested yesterday under the Prevention of Terrorism Act as they returned with the Winterbottom Party. They were held by Special Branch and questioned for several hours about where they had been and who they had met. They were also questioned on Michael Winterbottom's politics.
Even more worrying, the three actors who portrayed them in the film were also arrested and questioned. The actors have no particular political or religious affiliation and were also arrested apparently purely on the basis that they were Asian. None of the white members of the group were arrested.
Following legal intervention by Gareth Peirce, the group were eventually released. Special Branch claimed they had not been arrested, merely detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
On Saturday the party will be returning to Berlin again to accept the film's awards. We wait to see what will happen when they come home this time.
"The Road to Guantanamo" will premiere on Channel 4 on 9 March.
Craig Murray
Posted by Clive on February 18, 2006 11:45 AM in the category Terror
Comments
You know, money just couldn't buy this type of free publicity. So thanks a million Bedfordshite Police. New thought crime: WMD denial. Not possible? Ask David Irwin, you might get the chance during exercise period if you visit Austria and happen to casually mention: "The Jews cause all the trouble in the world". That's done it. My firewall will light up like a Christmas tree. Seriously, anyone know how to get a DVD (any format) of "Road to Guantanamo" for showing to interested groups in Japan? The Tokyo distributor is talking next year. Talk about “last season”. But those jokers can't distinguish between a moral issue and entertainment.
Posted by: Andrew Milner at April 21, 2006 3:39 AM
Quick follow up on my previous post. Saw RTG at the Press Club in Tokyo last night. The chick in the distributor’s office was telling porkies, but what else is new. Was struck by the level of incompetence and xenophobia displayed by US inquisitors and torturers. No wonder they got the Brits (MI6?) in to help with the dialect and cultural differences. When you keep pressing someone for information they don't have, you really are wasting everyone's time. And when that inquisitor didn't know whether the date on the tape was Day/Month or Month/Day, this was truly the theatre of the absurd. "You were attending a bin Laden rally in Afghanistan." "No way, chief. I was in Tipton all year working at Curry's and visiting the police station weekly 'cos I was on probation." Seriously, does it really take nearly three years to check out this alibi? Looks like the lunatics have taken over the asylum. For a nation brought up on two-dimensional movies, Americans must be having difficulty in adjusting to their role of “bad guys”.
Posted by: Andrew Milner at April 27, 2006 2:51 AM
Well I happened to be one of the onlookers of this quite painful saga of Tipton 'lads i.e The road to Guantanamo. The subject in my view has been quite "juiced out" if I may say so, from Army translators to privates who claimed of post Vietnam like hallucinations (remember Eric Saar—behind the wires) after their stint at this human disgrace workshop set up in Cuba and as the story goes were compelled to fill in their personal diaries with painful recalls… and being penny wise later made them available for a price on Amazon. In terms of audiences who might watch these contemporary flicks on man made disaster (man in this case our good ole Dubya!!) I think both people who are inquisitively puzzled about the faith of beards and veils as west portrays Islam and also Muslims who might find themselves victimised in some shape or form with the current quite debatable “war of civilisations” would watch it. Guantanamo ironically affirms what is currently happening in the Lebanese genocide, as long as you have westerns passports , don’t worry warships and planes will come to take you home, and even Zionists would not bomb you in the process; and who cares about the human leftovers who were not fortunate to have western passports. Guantanamo shows after the grilling over deal the Tipton lads find themselves in being referred as KINGS and treated on to pizzas and sodas courtesy US Army and sent back home .while the other unfortunates (who again did had any allegiance to west, passports precisely) still held captive. It sure is an attempt for truth but a half hearted one , of the hundred of suicides committed in these torture chambers not one makes it to this documentary. Mr Producer at Film Four aren’t documentaries supposed to be facets of truth.
Posted by: Shariq Faraz at July 26, 2006 3:14 PM
