The Road to Guantanamo
Via Craig Murray:
The film traces the true story of three Muslim friends from Birmingham who were picked up as aliens in Afghanistan by US forces and ended up in Guantanamo for three years, where they suffered brutal and humiliating treatment.
Extensive interrogation established that they had no connection with al-Qaida, and despite their plight being ignored by British authorities, eventually they were returned home. The UK media covered live the return of these "Suspected terrorists" and the massive police convoy that brought them in to Central London for questioning. Their release after the UK police also found they had no connection with terrorism was, naturally, hardly mentioned.
Last week the three travelled to the Berlin Festival with the Winterbottom party, and were arrested yesterday under the Prevention of Terrorism Act as they returned with the Winterbottom Party. They were held by Special Branch and questioned for several hours about where they had been and who they had met. They were also questioned on Michael Winterbottom's politics.
Even more worrying, the three actors who portrayed them in the film were also arrested and questioned. The actors have no particular political or religious affiliation and were also arrested apparently purely on the basis that they were Asian. None of the white members of the group were arrested.
Following legal intervention by Gareth Peirce, the group were eventually released. Special Branch claimed they had not been arrested, merely detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
On Saturday the party will be returning to Berlin again to accept the film's awards. We wait to see what will happen when they come home this time.
"The Road to Guantanamo" will premiere on Channel 4 on 9 March.
Craig Murray
I tried to find something in
I tried to find something in the mainstream media about the arrests but could find nothing. Why are they not talking about it?
Well, the BBC report on the
Well, the BBC report on the film festival said that only two of the former detainees went to Berlin. Not conclusive, but I'd like to see an independent report, or know where craigmurray.co.uk got it from.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4715482.stm
On the plus side, it confirms that they were in Berlin, of course, and thus in a position to get nicked on re-entry to the UK.
damn, i love TV here and
damn, i love TV here and this'll be one more reason why. :)
This is a bit confusing.
This is a bit confusing.
Mention of "Prevention of Terrorism" implies questioning under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 i.e. Control Order ("house arrest" or nearly so).
Are any of these former Guantanamo Bay detainees (as opposed to former Belmarsh detainees), the subjects of Control Orders ?
Remember that a Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 does not five a power of arrest, only of stop and search.
Special Branch questioning at the airport is something else.
So what really happened ?
(Craig Murray's website requires comment unfriendly registration hence the comment here)
The difficulty is, that none
The difficulty is, that none of the people detained was a lawyer. Your question should be aimed at the police.
None of them is subject to a control order. They were told that they were being detained and questioned under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Actually, it is not at all confusing. The Asian members of the "Road to Guantanamo" party, including the three leading actors, were held against their will for six hours at Stansted Airport on return from the Berlin Film Festival and subjected to questioning by Special Branch.
What is your purpose in seeking to obfuscate this?
Craig Murray
Craig - I posted on your
Craig - I posted on your site about this as well. It's not that I don't believe the story (it's entirely in character for the authorities to pull something like this - they hate people they 'know are guilty' but can't get at)
It's just that details are missing. We know the airport now, what about flight numbers, airline, time of arrival, time of detention, time of release, who was detained (were all three former detainees in Berlin or just two?). If Tony Blair has taught us anything, it's that believing single-source intelligence just because it's saying something you like makes you look like a dishonest prat.
A statement from Gareth Peirce about her involvement would be extremely interesting as she could shed light on the actual legislation (mis)used in this case, as would the text of Michael Winterbottom's acceptance speech for his Silver Bear (and good for him, too, for winning it).
Forget the mainstream media argument - use them as corroboration or checking out the latest lies, but don't rely on them, particularly to expose stories. Contacting Private Eye might be an option here, though.
"What is your purpose in
"What is your purpose in seeking to obfuscate this?"
Asking critical questions about these issues is what I do.
I seek clarity not obfuscation.
If they were held and questioned under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, but not were not actually subject to Control Orders, them their detention was illegal, as well as against their will, surely an important detail ?
If they were stopped and searched under the Terrorism Act 2000 section 44, they should have been given a bit of paper telling them so.
There's a report in
There's a report in Tuesday's Guardian.
This is a slick well put
This is a slick well put together piece of terrorist propaganda in
which 3 boys who have had all the priveledges and liberties of western
society travel, weeks after 911, 12000 miles across the world and "get
lost" in a van with 50 other foreign fighters, who also "got lost"
after accidentally picking up AK47s and rpgs, and again accidenatally
head for the frontline in an imminent war. they are somehow mistaken
for fighters, although they can't figure out why,something about the
convoy being full to the brim with gun totting lunatics and are
subsequently captured by Americans who are unrelentingly portrayed as
barbarians.
The trick of this docu-farce is to make out that the terrorists are
human beings too-- without showing one image of the child murderers
they truly are..
The truly funny thing about this movie is the way the terrorists are
portrayed as all being saintly indivduals who would never hurt a fly
(complete to swooning music).
The story is comical and riven with errors and smacks of a hastily put
together "I-got-lost" tale given quickly after capture.
note: listen to the stats at the end and notice how not one mention is
given of the 17% of terrorists that are recaptured on the battlefield
after release...
defo worth a watch but doooooooooont get sucked in....
No one is saying that the
No one is saying that the terrorist are goody guys. what is appalling is that people are held without trial. place yourself in their shoes. you should either be labbelled as a terrorist and punished as such or be freed. but to be kept without trial must be torture. what if someone arrested me or you for even talking in this message board?
I've just finished watching
I've just finished watching this and I'm very impressed. What happened doesn't really shock me, which is perhaps worrying. These guys don't seem like terrorists, but even if they were, they weren't given a fair trial so how can we tell unless you assume that everyone who's ever been accused of anything is guilty.
As for the whole situation of getting lost, spontaneously deciding to go to Afghanistan etc... After being in Ecuador last year, I randomly decided to go to Colombia after meeting some people who were heading that way, and at one point I ended up in the middle of nowhere. Shit happens. It's unfortunate that nothing seems to have any impact on the continued of the camp (ironically located in a country whose human rights record the US is strongly critical of).