Taxi to the Dark Side
Verzio FF submission In his native village, the Afghan taxi driver Dilawar enjoyed a reputation as a kind and honourable man. This made it all the more surprising when he was arrested one day and imprisoned without trial. After spending five days in a cell, Dilawar died. Just a week beforehand anoth...
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| Institution: | Open Society Archives at Central European University |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Edkins, Don
2007
United States |
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:6b0620df-24b8-4ba3-b801-9858499d7036 |
| Summary: | Verzio FF submission
In his native village, the Afghan taxi driver Dilawar enjoyed a reputation as a kind and honourable man. This made it all the more surprising when he was arrested one day and imprisoned without trial. After spending five days in a cell, Dilawar died. Just a week beforehand another detainee died in the same jail. Post–mortems revealed that the death of both men had occurred as a result of injuries caused by American soldiers. During the "War on Terror" more than one hundred prisoners have died in American custody. Taxi to the Dark Side shows that Dilawar's brutal death was closely connected with decisions made by some of the most senior figures in the Bush administration. This film by award–winning director Alex Gibney documents how former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the White House legal team were able to convince the American Congress to approve the use of torture against prisoners of war. Thanks to a detailed reconstruction of Dilawar's case, Taxi to the Dark Side offers a comprehensive analysis of the introduction of torture as an interrogation technique in US facilities, and the role played in this process by key figures in the American government. Taxi to the Dark Side won the Oscar for best documentary feature. |
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| Published: | 2007 |