Taxi to the darkside
21 July 2007
|
Stage & screen |
1372 views, 347 clicks
This documentary highlights, documents and investigates the US' policy of inhumane and tortures handling of US-held prisoners in Bagram (Afghanistan), Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
It's extremely good and, in fact, quite sickening. Not just the physical aspects, that is, what was done to the prisoners, but more so the fact that the highest brass were very well aware of the practices used to break down these prisoners, having no respect whatsoever for human rights or the Geneva convention.
The film shows that the reported occurrences of torture by American military personnel were not incidents, nor were they just implicitly tolerated. They were very much part of an orchestrated policy resulting from findings of a CIA-funded study by Canadian psychologist Donald Olding Hebb. In short, Hebb showed that a mere two days of sensory deprivation is enough to break down most human subjects.
What exactly is sensory deprivation, you say? Remember the footage of Iraqi and Afghani prisoners being moved from one prison to another, wearing a hood over their heads and muffles on their hands? That's sensory deprivation, the inability to see and feel and, possibly, hear.
The obvious fact that these prisoners were deprived of their senses, supposedly because they were dangerous criminals, is one part of the proof that, indeed, the American interrogation methodology involved inhuman, degrading, aspects which, through vague or suggestive handling from the line of command, were designed to result in plain torture.
Shocking as it is, the problem with documentaries or films like these, particularly ones that address the wrongs of the US government, is that they preach to the choir.
The viewing we attended, maybe 30 people or so were there to watch the film. However, I'm quite sure that none of these individuals were completely ignorant of the facts. They were there exactly because they were aware the US government doesn't take civil liberties to seriously.
Still, it's a must see.
It's extremely good and, in fact, quite sickening. Not just the physical aspects, that is, what was done to the prisoners, but more so the fact that the highest brass were very well aware of the practices used to break down these prisoners, having no respect whatsoever for human rights or the Geneva convention.
The film shows that the reported occurrences of torture by American military personnel were not incidents, nor were they just implicitly tolerated. They were very much part of an orchestrated policy resulting from findings of a CIA-funded study by Canadian psychologist Donald Olding Hebb. In short, Hebb showed that a mere two days of sensory deprivation is enough to break down most human subjects.
What exactly is sensory deprivation, you say? Remember the footage of Iraqi and Afghani prisoners being moved from one prison to another, wearing a hood over their heads and muffles on their hands? That's sensory deprivation, the inability to see and feel and, possibly, hear.
The obvious fact that these prisoners were deprived of their senses, supposedly because they were dangerous criminals, is one part of the proof that, indeed, the American interrogation methodology involved inhuman, degrading, aspects which, through vague or suggestive handling from the line of command, were designed to result in plain torture.
Shocking as it is, the problem with documentaries or films like these, particularly ones that address the wrongs of the US government, is that they preach to the choir.
The viewing we attended, maybe 30 people or so were there to watch the film. However, I'm quite sure that none of these individuals were completely ignorant of the facts. They were there exactly because they were aware the US government doesn't take civil liberties to seriously.
Still, it's a must see.
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After obtaining an M. Sc in maths, Babak Fakhamzadeh started with an office job at a major blue chip company but soon realised he'd do better on his own. Babak is a traveling web guru with a penchant for doing good and a love for visual and experimental art. Together with Ismail Farouk, he won the prestigious Highway Africa new media award in 2007 for