Deborah Dupre’
“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” the new documentary film, directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington (and inspired by Andy’s book, The Guantánamo Files), highlights how the film provides an opportunity for redemption of Christians with blood on their hands by supporting giving a “gift from Christ’ while torturing people, as the film documents was done, and being unspportive of detaines’ fair trials and holding perpetrators accountable. (See trailer in 2nd video below).
Widespread viewing and learning from this film could mean that those God-fearing people misguided by wolves in sheeps clothing could escape the fear-based propaganda and other psyological operations (psyops) deliberately and covertly applied in order to gain their support of the so-called war on terror;” to torture; and dismiss the rule of law of fair trials in the United States justice system.
Psychological operations are mind control weapons of war defined as “the planned use of communications to influence human attitudes and behavior … to create in target groups behavior, emotions, and attitudes that support the attainment of national objectives. The form of communication can be as simple as spreading information covertly by word of mouth or through any means of multimedia.” http://www.psywarrior.com/psyhist.html
ABC reported:
Focusing on the stories of three particular prisoners — Shaker Aamer (who is still held), Binyam Mohamed (who was 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. (emphasis added)
Polly Nash and Andy Worthington’s documentary, ‘Outside the Law, Tales from Guantánamo’ focuses on how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws, prisoners were rounded up often for bounty payments, and why some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with militancy or terrorism. (Reprieve)
Today, according to laws enacted during the Bush Admintsration and not overturned since then, anyone anywhere can be detained the same as innocent Middle Easterners have been at Guantanamo Bay. An increasing number of Innocent American are being held as such through the Department of Justice’s new system in which American citizens have no rights and are being held indefinitely, Richard Fine being only one of thousands incarcerated for no crime.
This new system is a particularly effective way to sustain high-level corruption ruling the United States. It enables the incarceration of whistleblowers who attempt to expose corruption. This is one reason for the importance of bringing Gunatanamo Bay detainees to the United States for trial instead of allowing kangaroo courts, “military tribunals,” overseas. What is fair for these individuals is fair for all citizens, including innocent American citizens. (See: Dept of ‘Justice’ traitors protect liars and sinners – no one else safe says PsySR’s Soldz)
Worhtington stated during an ABC interview:
“Every day they [Guantanamo Bay detainees] wake up wondering when, if ever, they will be released. And this is still the same outcome of what the Bush administration set up, that it decided not to hold people as enemy prisoners of war or as criminals, but as this novel category of human being who really have no rights and can be held indefinitely — which is an extraordinary mental anguish.”
Last Saturday, Gilad Atzmon went to London’s BFI to see what he called the “harrowing documentary” ‘Outside the Law, Tales from Guantánamo,’ and reported the experience on Sarah Gillepsie’s website. Atzmon’s response to the atrocity that American leaders have led includes, “The film knits together narratives so heart-wrenching I half wish I had not heard them.” (See: Azmon, Suppressing Evideince – David Milliband and UK Complicity in Torture.)
“Yet the camaraderie between the detainees and occasional humorous anecdotes, such as Binyam Mohammed’s false confession that he tried to induce nuclear fission on April 1st, provide a glimpse into the wit, courage and normalcy of the men we are encouraged to perceive as monsters.”
Atazmon describes the American legal system in “ethical bankruptcy,” stating, “With lawyers like Clive Stafford-Smith working tirelessly to defend people who have not been accused of a crime and have no evidence against them to refute, the courtroom has become the domain in which we watch the dream of European multiculturalism imploding.
“Here we see UK Muslims struggle to exert Enlightenment-based Common Law against a so-called civilized, liberal government who would apparently prefer the Magna Carta had never been written.”
One judge has given hope to all of the victims of torture and all working to ensure accountability of torture perpetrators, in this case name Rumsfield.
A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm.
U.S. District Judge Wayne R. Andersen’s ruling did not say the two contractors had proven any of their claims. But it did say they had alleged enough specific mistreatment to warrant hearing evidence of exactly what happened.
Judge Andersen refused to toss out the civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two American whistlblowers who were tortured after asking fo rhelp from the U.S. Embassy according to AP legal affairs writer Mike Robinson.
Anderson said his decision about two whistleblowers “represents a recognition that federal officials may not strip citizens of well settled constitutional protections against mistreatment simply because they are located in a tumultuous foreign setting.”
The suit filed in 2006 alleges that while working for the company they saw fellow employees making payments to “certain Iraqi sheikhs” and dealing in armaments in a way they believed would not be approved by the U.S. military.
According to the suit, Vance contacted an FBI official in Chicago with his suspicions and the two men eventually shared their concerns with three U.S. Embassy officials in Baghdad. The suit said their actions provoked suspicion at the company and on April 14, 2006, fellow employees confiscated the identity cards that allowed them to enter the safe area known as the Green Zone.
The two men said they locked themselves in a room, called the Embassy for help and were extricated by “United States forces” who took them to the Embassy where they were taken into custody.They were taken to two military camps in the Baghdad vicinity in the weeks that followed, the suit said. It said Ertel was released after a month and Vance after two months.
While in custody, they were subjected to sleep deprivation, long hours of interrogation, blasting music, threats, hunger and a practice known as “walling” in which subjects are blindfolded and walked into walls, according to the suit.
The suit describes such practices as forms of torture and alleges Rumsfeld personally took part in determining that torture was acceptable military treatment in Iraq.
Polly Nash is a lecturer at the London College Of Communications, part of the University of the Arts, London, and has worked in film and TV for 20 years and been a part of Spectacle since 1996. Andy Worthington is a journalist and blogger, and the author of three books, including The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (Pluto Press). www.andyworthington.co.uk
Learn more: Watch the “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo.” trailer at www.spectacle.co.uk/outside-the-law-stories-from-guantanamo. For worldwide inquiries about broadcasting, distributing or showing “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” contact Andy Worthington or Polly Nash. Download Outside the Law at the Prince Charles cinema.
Deborah Dupré holds a B.S, M.S. and post-graduate diploma from U.S. and Australian universities, She has been a human and civil rights advocate for over 25 years in the U.S., Vanuatu and Australia. Feel free to support her work at www.DeborahDupre.com and by subscribing to Dupré’s reports. She respectfully requests posting the link to this site (rather than entire article) unless republishing permission is granted. (Email info@DeborahDupre.com.) Dupré’s recent book, Operation H1N1: Vaccine Liberty or Death, is available at DeborahDupre.com.
