Celebrating 25 Years of Scoop
Director of Guantanamo Documentary Visits U.S.
"Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo" (74
minutes) is a new documentary film, directed by Polly Nash
and Andy Worthington, and inspired by Worthington's
well-reviewed book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the
774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison (Pluto
Press).
Andy Worthington will appear at a November 10
screening of the film, with Q and A
following.
DATE/TIME: Tuesday, November 10, 7:00
PM
LOCATION: North Berkeley Senior Center
1901
Hearst Ave (at Martin Luther King Jr Way)
HOST: World
Can't Wait, SF Bay Area chapter
The film tells the
Guantánamo/torture story 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, often for bounty payments, and why
some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan
for reasons unconnected with militancy or
terrorism.
The film is based on interviews with former
prisoners and their lawyers (Clive Stafford Smith in the UK
and Tom Wilner in the US), and journalist and author Andy
Worthington, and also includes appearances by Guantánamo's
former Muslim chaplain James Yee, Shakeel Begg (a
London-based imam), and British human rights lawyer Gareth
Peirce.
Focusing on the stories of three particular
prisoners - Shaker Aamer (who is still held), Binyam Mohamed
(released in February 2009) 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.
British journalist Andy
Worthington (http://www.andyworthington.co.uk) is the author of
three books and an advisor to War Criminals Watch. He is
available to the press for interviews; Mr. Worthington can
comment not only on the film but on current breaking news in
the story of America’s torture
program
ENDS
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