February 21, 2006

Guantánamo actors harassed.

The Road to Guantanamo Straight from the WTF Dept, Vikram Dodd reports in the Guardian that the actors who portray the Tipton Three, that is, when they were still four, in The Road to Guantánamo were "questioned under anti-terror laws, alongside two of the former terrorism suspects they play on screen" when they returned to Britain from the Berlinale. To back up, in the film, Silver Bear-winning directors Michael Winterbottom and Matt Whitecross cut back and forth between the actual Tipton Three telling their stories to the camera and reenactments of these events.

According to a statement by Rizwan Ahmed, one of the actors in these reenactments, a policewoman asked him at Luton airport, "Did you become an actor mainly to do films like this, to publicize the struggles of Muslims?" Dodd adds, "Mr Ahmed alleged that he had a telephone wrestled from his hand as he tried to contact a lawyer and was later abused. He claimed that one police officer had called him a 'fucker'." Evidently, his views on the war in Iraq were also required before he was released.



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Posted by dwhudson at February 21, 2006 2:05 AM

Comments

Fascinating!! The film has touched a raw nerve.

Posted by: Michael Guillen at February 21, 2006 10:21 AM

Looks like US lost by an own goal in the Tipton Three Grudge Match. Final result: OBL Wanderers 1, US Forces 0.
Talk about shoot yourself in the foot. The negative publicity is reverberating all over the web. US citizens (who bear about as much responsibility for their government's actions as the man in the moon) must be suffering an identity crisis. The US is now the "bad guy", so grow a moustache, wear a black hat, and suck it up. You might want to assume Canadian nationality when you travel to Europe. American century: Decade more like and that's being generous.
By the way, for those that think Tipton is near Manchester, check a UK map.

Posted by: Andrew Milner at May 2, 2006 4:08 AM