Wednesday night’s screening of Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo with journalist & co-director Andy Worthington went off very well. Turnout was not massive but around 30 people made it to the Blue Sky Cafe to see the film and Q&A afterwards, many were new faces so it seems word had spread beyond usual networks which is good. Earwicga saved the evening when the projector rejected Andy’s DVD, but her copy which she had bought some time previously worked fine (you can buy the film here). The Blue Sky Cafe location enabled people to come early, have a meal then see the film. Bangor Peace & Justice Group (who with Occasional Cinema) pulled this showing off in what turned out to be a topical week with the payments to detainees and subsequent announcement by ‘justice’ secretary Kenneth Clarke of a green paper to attempt to forever cloak the security services in unaccountable secrecy, literally cloak and dagger. These became a topic of conversation and Andy filled in a lot more detail from his expert perspective, he had talked to Moazzam Begg about the payments and there appears to be no conditions (ie to silence or abandoning other legal actions) to affect future cases. He also told us that when the detainees met with Kenneth Clarke in summer they expressed how unimportant the money was compared to getting Shaker Aamer released, Clarke apparently was taken aback by this as well as appearing to be relatively unaware of Shaker’s case or importance to the other detainees (imagine, a Tory not understanding that money does not trump solidarity). Andy also talked about subsequent revelations that the previous New Labour administration had done virtually nothing for Shaker Aamer, no visit in five years and the person detailed to the case had done little or nothing. He talks about some of this today relating to his talk with Aamer’s lawyer the legedary Gareth Peirce, a big campaign push by Amnesty International starts on Monday to push for Shaker Aamer’s release, see here and here. As William Hague says he has talked to Hillary Clinton about this and claims to be asking for his release now is the time to put pressure on the government.

Andy Worthington is a very friendly (not to say suave) campaigning journalist who together with Polly Nash has made a very compelling film. Interestingly the BBC rejected showing it while opining it would do well at film festivals, have they a policy against quality independent documentaries? The thing is, as Andy recounted, they did have a doco on Guantánamo, fronted by Michael Portillo, who ended the film with a defence of torture, so it’s not like they are against advocacy journalism (if one were to class the film as such which I would resist, I think it simply balances the lies of the powerful with what actually happened)… it’s just what they are advocating, apparently human rights are more controversial than being pro-torture, who knew? Mirroring elite opinion may be a successful strategy for the corporate Machiavellian multi-millionaire on the make *cough* Mark Thompson* cough*, but it isn’t actually journalism.

Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo is one of those instances where you think you know most of the stuff, but they lay it out in a clean direct way that brings the immediacy of the issues right back into sharp focus together with new information. It also presents a stark narrative of the Bush administration with Blair government aiding, carefully proceeding to create legal cover for torture as they began their prosecution of the War on Terror. There are no mistakes, bad apples or random & isolated atrocities here, it was systematic (and I would also say a good deal of racism was involved and imperial privilege) and careful policy to fight this ludicrous long generational replacement for the cold war in a medieval fashion. The only worst of the worst were ‘our’ sides adoption of torture as weapon of war. I do not think we know all that has been done yet, Bagram still operates in a total legal vacuum today, and that’s just what we know of. New details come up in the film, like the short lived prisoners council at Guantánamo lead by Shaker Aamer, it lasted for about a fortnight before the military shut it down. Binyam Mohamed’s holding up of a sign ‘Con-mission’ at his military commission hearing after querying what really we should call the non legal kangaroo court.

The film creates a journalistic framework of clearly conveyed information building into a horrifying and anger inducing record of our slump into barbarity but then it quietly presents the most powerful elements, the survivors, the ex detainees, Polly Nash the codirector also edited and she did a great job in unobtrusively but powerfully structuring the film. Moazzam Begg and Omar Deghayes are interviewed and they recount not just their torture and ill treatment but what was done to others, again Shaker Aamer figures prominently, because he was naturally a charismatic, well spoken prisoner and natural leader he was subject to the most severe torture. Andy said that when they came to interview Omar Deghayes he ended up speaking in great detail for around five hours, this being common in some torture survivors, at some point they come out with everything in one go, it’s a significant step and for the film a great strength. Omar is soft spoken, personable and this brings home how essential to the torturers work it has been for the media to dehumanise, vilify and demonise the detainees, to absolutely remove human empathy from any perception of the detainees. This was illustrated by the turnover of guards, they would be rotated out of Gitmo every few months, standard procedure served a function because in that time many guards went from hate filled 911 fetishising bullies into realising they were part of a concentration camp against the very principles they swore to uphold. Empathy must be exterminated at all costs for divide and rule to function. Moazzam Begg is another case in point, even now Decents rallying behind the hysterical (yes I said it) Gita Sahgal continue to harangue survivors of torture eagerly promoted by pro-torture power blocs in media and government. As the events of this week demonstrate, this is not history, this is an ongoing effort by our ruling elites and security complexes to make torture an accepted standard operating procedure, albeit at arms length from mediated narratives of our ‘noble wars’ and the all encompassing excuse of our national security imperatives. As Moazzam and Omar say, they thought once in UK/US hands their ordeal would end, it was then in fact the torture got far worse. Yes folks, that’s us, now just remind me about patriotism?

After the film the Q&A was very useful, Andy’s close coverage of Guantánamo meant he could recall dates and events to draw meaning and direction from the years of official obfuscation and denial, one questioner expressed how powerless they feel to do anything although quite what Barack Obama was doing there no one knows and I’m not sure anyone believed his lack of power. Oh no wait that was actually a regular member of the audience, Obama is President of the United States and has in his power the means to close Guantánamo and instruct the justice department to pursue torturers such as George Bush and Dick Cheney who have openly admitted war crimes in global corporate media, Hmmm. Another conclusion was simply governments do not pursue a previous administration’s crimes, they cover them up. However by the end of the evening a conclusion of- where to now, might go something like this:-

• Campaign and achieve the release of Shaker Aamer
• Build a wide opposition to the ConDems green paper effectively proposing putting security services beyond the law
• Continue pressure to close Guantánamo
• While it is unlikely actual justice will be achieved and all officials and operatives involved in torture will be tried in court there will be weak links, these should be exploited and war criminals brought to trial. My suggestion -Jack Straw.

Andy Worthington and others involved with the film are doing more showings which you can find on his website here.

Do visit the Blue Sky Cafe if you are needing sustenance while wandering the streets of Bangor, dedicated people trying to make it a real hub of community activity and a successful business (also if they make more money they could invest in a swankier sound system which I think would enrich the film showings).

Bangor Peace & Justice (here or FB here) meet every Monday at the Friends Meeting House (map) and on this Sunday 6pm also at the meeting house Rotem Mor an Israeli refusenik & activist will be speaking. And see the Facebook page for the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign.