Huffington Post profiles Alex Gibney and Casino Jack and the United States of Money
“Alex Gibney does not believe in making small, personal documentaries. He pursues outsized figures and major political topics that shape our times. His prolific output includes serving as writer, director and producer on the Oscar-winning exploration of interrogation techniques in Iraq, Taxi to the Dark Side, as well as the indictment of corporate greed and malfeasance in the Oscar-nominated, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and a portrait of one of literary history’s great iconoclasts, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Gibney’s resume includes a Grammy, Emmy, Peabody and the DuPont Columbia Award. His other notable producer credits include No End in Sight, which laid out false assumptions given for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, The Trials of Henry Kissinger and Martin Scorsese’s music series The Blues. His latest film details the larger-than-life, currently jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the financial impediments to true democracy in this country…“ Read More >
The Abuse of Omar Khadr
The ACLU blog presents a reminder today of the mournful legacy left us by the Bush administration’s interrogation policies in Afghanistan and Iraq. Omar Khadr was a mere 15 years old when he was arrested in Afghanistan for the murder of a U.S. soldier. After being tortured at Bagram Air Base, then imprisoned in Guantanamo for eight years in violation of law and any notion of justice, he is finally being tried by a U.S. military commission. As the ACLU points out, Khadr’s suffering at Bagram came at the hands of the same interrogators who caused the death of Dilawar, a young Afghan taxi driver whose death we investigated in Taxi to the Dark Side. Unfortunately, there seems to be no recognition on the part of the government that this failure of justice—compounded by years of illegal captivity—should in any way affect the proceedings. The ACLU at least is clear in their feelings: “Given the revelations of the past two days, it is more apparent than ever that the Obama administration must reverse course and repatriate Omar Khadr to Canada, instead of pursuing the misguided prosecution of a tortured child in a discredited and second-class system of justice.”