‘Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo’ screening across the UK

May 19 2010 Published by Greg under Guantanamo

‘Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo’ will be showing at Oxford University this Friday, 21st May at 7.30pm, and will screen at a number of UK venues throughout the next month. At Oxford, and also the following events listed below, there will be a Q&A session. Visit the Spectacle website and the Spectacle Guantánamo Blog to read more about the project.

Friday May 21, 7.30 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Christ Church College, Blue Boar Lecture Theatre, the University of Oxford, St. Aldates, Oxford, OX1 1DP.
With Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash.
This screening is organized by the Oxford University Amnesty International group. For further information, please contact Amnesty Oxford.

Thursday May 27, 7 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
The Broca, 4 Coulgate Street, Brockley, London, SE4 2RW.
With Andy Worthington.

Friday May 28, 6.30 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Chichester Lecture Theatre, The University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RF.
With Omar Deghayes and Andy Worthington.
This screening is organized by the University of Sussex Amnesty International group.

Saturday May 29, 2 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Under the Bridge music studio, 7 Trafalgar Arches, Brighton, BN1 4FQ.
With Omar Deghayes and Andy Worthington.
This screening is organized by Under the Bridge. For further information, please contact Jackie Chase on 07799 564620

Wednesday June 2, 6 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX.
With Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash.
This screening is organized by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Please contact Barbara Zollner for further information.

Click Guantánamo for more blogs
Or visit our Guantánamo project pages for more information and videos.

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Launch Screening – Outside The Law: Stories From Guantánamo

Oct 07 2009 Published by clockword under Guantanamo

Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo
(Spectacle Productions, 2009; 74 mins., directed by Polly Nash, with Andy Worthington)

The Film is being launched at the Cochrane Theatre in London on Wednesday 21st October in association with Cageprisoners and the Guantanamo Justice Centre. Ticket are free but should be booked in advance via www.cochranetheatre.co.uk or 020 7269 1606

Doors open 6pm, film starts 7pm, Q&A 8.30pm

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” is a new documentary film telling the story of Guantánamo (and including sections on extraordinary rendition and secret prisons) with a particular focus on how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws, how prisoners were rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan without adequate screening (and often for bounty payments), and why some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with militancy or terrorism (as missionaries or humanitarian aid workers, for example).

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 (who was released in December 2007) — “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.

The film contains interviews with former prisoners (Moazzam Begg and, in his first major interview, Omar Deghayes) lawyers for the prisoners (Clive Stafford Smith in the UK and Tom Wilner in the US), and journalist and author Andy Worthington, and also includes appearances from Guantánamo’s former Muslim chaplain James Yee, a London-based Imam, and the British human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.

For more information visit Spectacle Projects

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.

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). His website is: www.andyworthington.co.uk

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Ministers determined to “avoid” scrutiny over torture, say MPs

Aug 05 2009 Published by adosini under Guantanamo

Channel Four last night reported that the joint committee on human rights, investigating claims of UK intelligence forces complicity in torture, have called for a major inquiry into the role of British security forces abroad. The group of MP’s described the government’s level of accountability on this matter as ‘woefully deficient’.

The committee has been investigating a series of allegations against British security forces, including those of Binyam Mohamed, that they used information gathered under torture as part of MI5 investigations into terrorism.

According to Channel Four the committee’s report finds:

‘the accusations of complicity in torture would amount to illegality if proved; but says the government has failed to engage with the charges, instead “hiding behind a wall of secrecy”.

“As to what may have happened in the past, general assertions of non-complicity are no longer an adequate response to the many detailed allegations,”

Spectacle has been reporting on allegations of torture through it Guantanamo project and has video testimony from Omar Deghayes describing his maltreatment at the hands of the British.

It’s good to see MP’s within parliament are beginning to put pressure on the government to take responsibility for it’s actions. Torture is illegal and those who are complicit in a crime should be sent to jail whether they are ministers or not.

To see Channel Fours report on this issue please click here

To see edits of Spectacles film The Guantanamo Files which deal with torture please click here

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Criminal investigations into torture finally begins

Jul 23 2009 Published by adosini under Guantanamo

According to The Guardian (July 10), the metropolitan police have launched an investigation into allegations by Binyam Mohamed that MI5 officers were complicit in his torture.

The investigation has been launched by the Attorney General after Binyam, a former Guantanamo detainee, persistently argued he was interrogated by MI5 and the FBI while being tortured in Pakistan.

Later on in his detainment, whilst being held captive in Morocco, Binyam became aware of British agents feeding his torturers questions and information. This supports the claim of many other former captives, including Omar Deghayes who is featured on the Spectacle website, that British agents were not only aware of torture by foreign agents but used it to garner information from suspects.

The question we have to ask is why it has taken the police so long to launch this investigation and when will criminal investigation be extended to every case of torture?

Furthermore, given the governments reluctance to release key documents related to Binyams case how indepth is any investigation going to be?

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Overwhelming support for Omar Deghayes account of torture

Jul 13 2009 Published by sinbin under Guantanamo

In the last few days an overwhelming amount of evidence has come to light about the complicity of British intelligence officers, and the British government, in the torture of terror suspects.

Reporting in The Guardian, Ian Cobain has gathered a dossier of case studies and reports that support the account given to Spectacle by Omar Deghayes, a former Guantanamo detainee.

Omar Deghayes told Spectacle that he was visited numerous times by British intelligence officers while being tortured in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In a striking parallel to a case mentioned by Ian Cobain, Omar was first visited by an officer called ‘Andrew’.

From The Guardian:

‘Jamil Rahman, a British citizen from south Wales, was detained in his wife’s family’s village in northern Bangladesh in December 2005 and says he was tortured by Bangladeshi intelligence agents before being questioned by two MI5 officers who called themselves Liam and Andrew.’

The first thing Omar said to ‘Andrew’ was he was a British citizen, he then asked why the British were colluding with his maltreatment. Later on when Omar was moved to Bagram in Afghanistan, he says his torturers were given false information by British intelligence officers to further intimidate him. Furthermore the British interrogated him themselves in an area of the prison where they could have clearly seen prisoners being maltreated.

This claim has now been supported by Pakistani intelligence officials who told New York based Human Rights Watch that not only were British Intelligence agents aware of torture but they were ‘grateful’ for it.

Surely it is time to stop referring to ‘claims’ of torture and admit that British officers directly used torture to gather ‘information’ from ‘terror’ suspects. Regardless whether or not they physically carried out the torture themselves this is still a crime against humanity.

To watch an edit of Omar’s torture testimony please visit Spectacle’s Guantanamo Project Page

To watch other footage from Spectacle’s Guantanamo project please visit our Archive

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US attempt to destroy photograph of torture

Jul 06 2009 Published by adosini under Guantanamo

The Guardian has today ( July 6) reported that US government is due to destroy a photograph taken of former Guantanamo inmate Binyam Mohamed after he was severely beaten. Binyam Mohamed has launched an emergency legal appeal to prevent this occurring, as it is a concrete piece of evidence proving his claims that he was tortured under US custody.

Binyam is also currently fighting a legal battle in the UK with David Miliband to release documents relating intelligence officers involvement in his torture.

To find out about Spectacle’s Guantanamo project visit our Project Page here you can watch edits of our Guantanamo film.

Alternatively visit our Archive Page.

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British intelligence told not to ‘intervene’ to prevent torture

Jun 29 2009 Published by sinbin under Guantanamo

The Guardian has reported that a policy was issued after the September 11 attacks asking MI5 to ignore torture. Though MI5 officers were not allowed to ‘condone’ or be seen to ‘engage’ in torture they were told not to intervene if they were aware of suspects being tortured.

The Guardian claims officers were told they were not under any obligation to prevent detainees from being mistreated by other security forces.

“Given that they are not within our custody or control, the law does not require you to intervene to prevent this,” the policy said.

This supports the claims of former Guantanamo detainees Omar Deghayes and Binyam Mohamed that British intelligence officers were aware of their interrogation and torture.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/18/tony-blair-secret-torture-policy

To view a clip of Omar Deghayes interview please visit our Guantanamo Project Page.

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Spectacle is an independent TV production company, based in the UK. We take pride in our highly investigative and journalistic approach to uncover and publish news worthy articles and shorts, in the sole interest of the general public. With much of our investigations community-led, we also open our doors to the public offering an array of services from our intensive journalistic training programs to the insightful lectures run by our experts. Take the opportunity to browse our site and learn more about our current projects. Should you have any enquiries, do not hesitate to contact us.
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