In view of the huge trove of news coverage following the release of the long overdue and highly anticipated CIA Interrogation report (the BBC has a nice summary of the 20 key findings) by the US Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, I thought it is good to (re)view this UK’s Channel 4 “Guantanamo Handbook” documentary.
It is a reenactment of the tortures at one of the most well known US military prisons in Cuba called the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also referred to as Guantánamo, G-bay or GTMO – whereby 7 British volunteered to be detainees and subjected to selected CIA-style tortures for 48 hours.
Most notably, one volunteer who started off saying he supported the torture program as a means to gather intelligence and save lives – as per White House speaks – was the first to withdraw on medical grounds after just 10 hours, saying even though he had “strong views” earlier, he has “become more sympathetic of what’s going on there than before” and felt lucky he was “pulled” (out of the program).
Action speaks louder than words? Period.