I saw the film The Road To Guantanamo earlier this week. It is a horrifying tale of false imprisonment of three British Nationals in the months after September 11th. Here is a quick synopsis:
Known as the “Tipton Three,” Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul traveled to Pakistan for a wedding in September 2001, and then decided to continue on to Afghanistan to help with humanitarian aid efforts. Arriving just as U.S. forces had begun to attack, Asif, Ruhel and Shafiq (along with a fourth friend, Monir Ali, who went missing and is presumed dead) were soon swept up in the chaos of a war-torn country and picked up by the Northern Alliance as alleged Taliban fighters. Sent to Guantanamo, they were interrogated, tortured and held without charge for two years. Interweaving interviews with Asif, Ruhel and Shafiq with meticulous reenactments of their experiences, the film illustrates that in the War on Terror, there are bound to be innocent victims (Guantanamo currently holds 460 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, yet only 10 have been charged).
The film starts with 4 men going from England to Pakistan in October of 2001 as one of them is getting married. From there they are encouraged by the mosque they are sleeping at to go to Afghanistan to do charily work and help the poor Afghan Muslims who are being bombed and are in desperate need of everything. After a few weeks of utter chaos there they are trying to return to Pakistan when they are captured by the Northern Alliance and turned over to the Americans. Once in their hands they are branded ‘terrorists’ and sent to Guantanamo.
They are tortured endlessly for years before they are returned to Britain. I cannot tell you how utterly gut wrenching these scenes are and they are not filmed in an exploitative way. In any other hands but these director’s I think we would have seen even more violence and deprivation. The filmmakers have showed restraint where the men and women of Guantanamo have shown precious little. Still I cannot tell you how devastating these scenes are. Once you see this film Guantanamo can never be again a place you can tolerate on any level without speaking out to condemn it. The US is doing the most despicable things there on a daily basis and after 4 years they have only charged 10 people with any crime. The kharma of what we are doing is so horrible I can only wonder what will be headed our way next and by our own hand.
I encourage all of you to see the film when it comes to your city or town and to show it to anyone who will watch when it comes out on DVD.
The website for the film has alot more info and you can find it Here and the previous link above also has a wonderful Q&A with the directors.
