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Former Gitmo Detainees Lambaste Bin Laden Film: ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Excuses Torture

Jan. 10, 2013 7:00pm

LONDON (TheBlaze/AP) — Two former Guantanamo detainees on Thursday condemned “Zero Dark Thirty,” a film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden whose brutal interrogation scenes have sparked a discussion over the use of extreme methods in the U.S. campaign against terror.

Speaking at an event in London on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. prison camp in eastern Cuba, the pair said the film was an attempt to rehabilitate those guilty of human rights abuses. They argued that the abuse was unwarranted and that it deserves retribution and accountability.

“These people are getting away not only with committing the torture … they’re justifying it,” said one of the ex-detainees, Libyan-born Omar Deghayes, who was left partially blind after what he said was an American guard’s attempt to gouge out his eyes.

The other ex-detainee, Iraqi-born Bisher al-Rawi, said Hollywood films he used to watch portrayed torturers as the bad guys.

Casting heroes as torturers “will justify a very, very different mindset,” he said. “I think that’s very dangerous.”

More than 900 people have been imprisoned at Guantanamo, most of them held for years without charge. Deghayes and al-Rawi were released in 2007, part of a group of British residents who were returned to the U.K. following a lobbying campaign by family members and British human rights organizations.

Neither Deghayes nor al-Rawi had seen the movie – the Academy Award-nominated film has not yet opened in Britain – but the graphic scenes have been widely discussed.

The movie’s suggestion that techniques such as simulated drowning, sleep deprivation, and sexual humiliation were critical to helping the CIA find and kill bin Laden is particularly controversial because there has never been a public accounting for the brutalization of detainees in U.S. custody. CIA interrogation videos were destroyed, a wide-ranging investigation into the agency’s practices ended last year without charges and a report into the CIA approved by the Senate’s intelligence committee last month remains classified.

Former Gitmo Detainees: Zero Dark Thirty Excuses U.S. Torture

Navy SEALs are seen fighting through a dust storm in the new thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty.” (Columbia Pictures/AP Photo)

Some have dismissed the controversy over the film by noting that it’s a work of fiction, but Karen Greenberg, the director of Fordham Law School’s Center on National Security, said the movie aggressively markets itself as being based on the real-life hunt for bin Laden, who was shot dead by U.S. commandoes in a raid on his Pakistani compound on May 2, 2011.

The movie “is impassioned in its belief that torture was an important tool in the war on terror and that it led to the death of Osama bin Laden,” she said. “It’s a polemic dressed up as fiction.”

Back in London, Deghayes noted that the film would go on general release in the United States on the anniversary of the camp’s opening.

“The timing is so sad,” he said.

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Comments (35)

  • jessieH
    Posted on January 11, 2013 at 10:05am

    Does anyone care what the Gitmo terrorists think or say? I don’t give a rat’s azz!

    Report this comment

    jessieH  
  • spirited
    Posted on January 11, 2013 at 12:53am

    If they were displeased with that

    >The Bible should cause headaches.

    Report this comment

    spirited  
  • SirBeavis
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 9:01pm

    I’m just wondering why anyone outside of the muslim world even give a $#!+ what a a guy captured on the battlefield engaging in armed warfare thinks about ANY movie.

    Report this comment

    SirBeavis  
  • ginger100
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 8:40pm

    i wonder if this movie will start a riot leading to another bengazi in witch the producer will need to be arrested for creating a hateful movie?

    Report this comment

    ginger100  
    • Keatonc33
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 8:43pm

      Non-issue.. this film maker isn’t on probation and thus hasn’t violated her probation

      Report this comment

      Keatonc33  
    • 13th Imam
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 9:44pm

      Yes Buster, It was the movie, that nobody saw, Obama is a murderer. 4 Times over. A Murderer.

      Report this comment

      13th Imam  
    • 00100111
      Posted on January 11, 2013 at 9:37am

      Keep telling yourself that, Keatie. Maybe your masters will reward you, you coward.

      Report this comment

      00100111  
    • 00100111
      Posted on January 11, 2013 at 9:38am

      I guess if they’re upset by it, maybe they shouldn’t have been terrorists?

      Report this comment

      00100111  
  • jamestoms
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:47pm

    I was wondering when this would start. Our GI’s caught hell for their prank film and Hollywood gets an Emmy. Ain’t Washington great. What filthy useless tripe is sqirming around. Looks like Vensuelan country.

    Report this comment

    jamestoms  
  • Eastinfection
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:21pm

    Two guys that have never seen the movie have already given it a thumbs down?

    tune in next week when “Not At the Movies with Deghayes and al-Rawi” review “Killing Lincoln” without even seeing it!

    Report this comment

    Eastinfection  
  • gyro
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:19pm

    harsh
    off topic
    but some how fits the topic
    just dont brand everyone for a few that are nuts

    Report this comment

    gyro  
  • TIMEBOMB
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:17pm

    I have drones at my disposal and I’ve used them extensively in the middle east and I’ll use them in new America as well. I’ll do whatever the hell I want and no one will stop me,my media which is 99.9999 % of the media reports what I tell them to report so I can’t lose. I’ll keep my pawns in the middle east as long as I want,do you hear anyone in my media demanding I pull my pawns out?

    Report this comment

    TIMEBOMB  
    • DEFCON4
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:22pm

      Easy there, Mr. President, and please keep your ‘pawns’ on….

      Report this comment

      DEFCON4  
    • gyro
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:22pm

      What kind of drone did you get for xmas ?
      Is it true you can move bidens hands with a joystick?

      Report this comment

      gyro  
    • civilwarcometh
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:25pm

      It’s bad enough i have to see and hear this BS everyday on T.V./radio And now you! I’m sick of obama and his BS would you please STOP!??? I find NO HUMOR in the destruction of my country.

      Report this comment

      civilwarcometh  
    • justangry
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:39pm

      I don’t think he thinks it is funny either, hence the satire.

      Report this comment

      justangry  
    • TIMEBOMB
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:46pm

      GYRO I got a HUGE drone for xmas and my generals have been drilling me on it’s proper use and I’m having a fabulous time. Yes my puppet Joe is very easily manipulated with my joystick,Joe really likes my joystick.

      Report this comment

      TIMEBOMB  
    • gyro
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 8:11pm

      TIMEBOMB = dont let him sit on your joystick

      Report this comment

      gyro  
    • TIMEBOMB
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 8:34pm

      GYRO Your magnificent rulers time is precious and I have demands made on me by not only Joe but Chris Christie as well. Chris is just out of the question,I mean come on 400lbs! can’t be done,it’d be like a gnat on an elephants @ss. Joe is too old and I prefer young muscular men.

      Report this comment

      TIMEBOMB  
    • ginger100
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 8:48pm

      mr prezzy, will you arrest the producers and directors of this hateful movie that portray the wonderful jihadist in an awful uncivilized manner if it starts another riot with heavy weapons in the middle east?

      Report this comment

      ginger100  
    • TIMEBOMB
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 9:02pm

      I’ll use heavy weapons and whatever weapons I need to bring my subjects to heel,they will comply.
      Praise be to me BHO.

      Report this comment

      TIMEBOMB  
  • MilSpec
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:14pm

    Why is this a story? Does anyone actually give a $hit what 2 former gitmo inmates have to say?

    Report this comment

    MilSpec  
    • Walkabout
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:37pm

      Good Link

      “Australian terrorist David Hicks, a convert to Islam who recently pleaded guilty to charges at an American tribunal and is serving a reduced nine-month sentence in an Australian prison, claims he was tortured by overly bright night-lights in his cell. He also has complained, via his father, that the rich meals at Guantanamo have made him fat.”

      http://www.humanevents.com/2007/05/31/comparative-torture-101/

      Report this comment

      Walkabout  
    • MDECKER
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:38pm

      The story is, we have an Administration that provides a platform for terrorists, to espouse it’s propaganda. Can we get a take on the issue from the poor movie maker which caused all the protests around the world on 911?

      Report this comment

      MDECKER  
  • DougHuffman
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:14pm

    Better the detainees were DIRT – Dead Instantly Right There – than that they survive to ask gnarly questions. I give the American soldiers the benefit of the doubt and suspect the enemy of lying.

    Good people are armed with wits and Guns and the Truth.

    Report this comment

    DougHuffman  
  • Armyof One
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:14pm

    Wait wait wait… these murderous islamic cowards have NOT seen the film, so have zero frame of reference, yet are deemed newsworthy of a quote from?

    Seriously? Who thinks of asking people that cut off heads of innocent people, what their thoughts about torture are?

    Blaze, I usually gloss over the human interest stories on here, as they are normally fun or silly despite having no news information whatsoever. But this article is less than dog crap, and a complete waste of my time and your bandwidth.

    Report this comment

    Armyof One  
    • UNINFORMED
      Posted on January 10, 2013 at 8:50pm

      They will get one of his minions to make-up a story and say he didn’t mean it.

      Report this comment

      UNINFORMED  
  • gyro
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:12pm

    first of all Deghayes and al-Rawi were set free
    second they have the right to their opinion
    third they are likely right that is a hipocracy that good guys can do bad things and no one complains
    lastly its a crapy movie to make obama look good
    unrelated coment
    Looking forward to a Iranian version coming to a movie theater soon

    Report this comment

    gyro  
  • denkat56
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:10pm

    I wonder why we care what these two detainees think or say. This is war, they started it. Anybody remember the victims all three thousand of them. Again I ask why?

    Report this comment

    denkat56  
  • Exrepublisheep
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:10pm

    Why the *ell would anyone ask FORMER GITMO DETAINEES their opinion about anything? Hello probable terrorists, what do you prefer, Prego, or Ragu?

    Report this comment

    Exrepublisheep  
  • civilwarcometh
    Posted on January 10, 2013 at 7:09pm

    When i see the picture’s of osama’s head blown apart like i’ve seen Kennedy’s a million time’s then i’ll believe it. Who the he!! are these people to point finger’s and talk about torture? Oh obamas peep’s vshould have known. And on a brighter note.http://weaselzippers.us/2013/01/10/poll-58-of-americans-believe-abortion-is-morally-wrong-83-favor-laws-to-restrict-abortion/

    Report this comment

    civilwarcometh  

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