Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay is a centre for the torture and degradation of "suspects" in the War on Terror. Only nine inmates have been charged and non convicted. It is without doubt, a major recruiting agent for the extremists and shows that Gandhi wasn't joking when asked about Western Civilisation he said; "I think it would be good idea".
George Bush wants to export American Values. What example is he setting when suspects are chained, hooded, subjected to sensory deprivation, have Korans flushed down the bog and are routinely insulted by their captors? These are not charges laid by the Far Left but by the Red Cross, Amnesty and the United Nations. Blimey, even Blair wants it shut down so it must be bad.
If these individuals pose a threat then charge them and let's see the wheels of justice set in motion. To just lock people up because in best Jack Bauer speak they are the "Bad Guys", is simply indefensible and sums up why large sections of the world hate America.
This story filmed by Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, Jude) centres around the so called Tipton Three who were caught by the Northern Alliance in a Taliban stronghold and handed over to the Americans.
Winterbottom skates over the reasons why these lads were holed up in a Taliban area and what on earth they were doing in Afghanistan in the first place.
This does them a disservice as we don't get to find out what they thought of America, 9/11 or their own Muslim faith prior to their capture. Were they misguided West haters? Did they act out of naivety, were they there to help in a aid manner? We never find out because the director gives us no opportunity to get to know the protagonists. We need to know these things in order to put their disgusting treatment in context.
If they were there to train as Al Queda operatives then that puts the viewers relationship with the characters in a different context. Do we empathise or judge? I felt I wanted to do one or the other.
The film was done with talking heads with the real men, interspersed with actors doing reconstructions of real situations and this worked as a mechanism despite the fact we are given no motivational context.
Whether guilty or innocent, there is no way a Labour Government should allow British Citizens to be treated in such a depraved manner. For goodness sake Patricia Hewitt and Harriet Harman, both senior Labour Cabinet Ministers ran Liberty, the Human Rights pressure group for a while in the Eighties. Crazy but true.
As a piece it was well constructed in a technical sense, and got Winterbottom's objective of educating the wider public to such vile practices, but lacked context and that's a real shame
George Bush wants to export American Values. What example is he setting when suspects are chained, hooded, subjected to sensory deprivation, have Korans flushed down the bog and are routinely insulted by their captors? These are not charges laid by the Far Left but by the Red Cross, Amnesty and the United Nations. Blimey, even Blair wants it shut down so it must be bad.
If these individuals pose a threat then charge them and let's see the wheels of justice set in motion. To just lock people up because in best Jack Bauer speak they are the "Bad Guys", is simply indefensible and sums up why large sections of the world hate America.
This story filmed by Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, Jude) centres around the so called Tipton Three who were caught by the Northern Alliance in a Taliban stronghold and handed over to the Americans.
Winterbottom skates over the reasons why these lads were holed up in a Taliban area and what on earth they were doing in Afghanistan in the first place.
This does them a disservice as we don't get to find out what they thought of America, 9/11 or their own Muslim faith prior to their capture. Were they misguided West haters? Did they act out of naivety, were they there to help in a aid manner? We never find out because the director gives us no opportunity to get to know the protagonists. We need to know these things in order to put their disgusting treatment in context.
If they were there to train as Al Queda operatives then that puts the viewers relationship with the characters in a different context. Do we empathise or judge? I felt I wanted to do one or the other.
The film was done with talking heads with the real men, interspersed with actors doing reconstructions of real situations and this worked as a mechanism despite the fact we are given no motivational context.
Whether guilty or innocent, there is no way a Labour Government should allow British Citizens to be treated in such a depraved manner. For goodness sake Patricia Hewitt and Harriet Harman, both senior Labour Cabinet Ministers ran Liberty, the Human Rights pressure group for a while in the Eighties. Crazy but true.
As a piece it was well constructed in a technical sense, and got Winterbottom's objective of educating the wider public to such vile practices, but lacked context and that's a real shame