The Forever Prisoner

The facts of this have been presented elsewhere so it's not breaking news, but is still a compelling two hour view. One fact however, which might have been overly simplified, was fascinating. The "expert" psychologist who failed to understand that torture is about manipulation, not an easy path to truth, was himself so easily manipulated. When repeatedly told the hypothetical "what if there's another 9/11 and you didn't do all you could?" he went on the warpath, willing to do anything heinous. It says alot about him, not doing any due diligence or honest evaluation of his work which failed compared to normal relationship-building techniques. The initial methods of interrogation were bad enough, and what any normal person would consider torture...the "enhanced" interrogation was of course torture. Or what the psychologist called "temporary discomfort." Like Rumsfeld comparing his not sitting at his desk to prisoners being made to stand. They needed to minimize and dismiss torture because of their guilt. They knew it was indefensible for any reason, even national security, and was just a form of revenge.

Great editing. Great narration. It still doesn't mention that there was no full explanation why third tower went down, so the first few minutes is more of a US government propaganda perspective why US was attacked and why US was not able to prevent it. But the documentary is well made overall. Feels like how a Michael amoore Doco is made.

A very good and important film. Do not listen to to right or the left in reviews on this. See for your self and decide. This film has nothing to do with Marxism or leftist politics. It also has nothing to do with conservative conspiracies. Rather it dissects what has happened over the last twenty years in our reaction to 9/11. This film also doesn't believe all terrorists are innocent. If you believe that than you are just stupid. People watch films through their own filter. Leave the politics at the door.

The forever Prisoner is a shocking and terrifying documentary about Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee subjected to the CIA's program in Guantanamo Bay, later identified as torture by those outside the agency. I recently Watched Camp-X, which is also about Guantanamo Bay, and I wanted to know more about what actually happens there. But I was unprepared for this documentary. It is almost unbelievable what we as a country did to these people. The scariest thing is that it is still going on and that there is nothing stopping the CIA from doing it again. This really is a must-watch documentary.

The filmmaker did an incredible job scoring interviews with people involved in the torture of a detainee in the frenetic post 9/11 world. A substantial majority of Americans had believed we were above this activity, and also that it didn't work, since people will tell you anything they think you want to hear when you inflict enough pain.

A perpetually smiley Ali Soufan gushes about questioning prisoner Abu Zubaydah , yet makes sure he emphasis that "he would nut interview him naked, he would nut go in"... I don't know why he was so determined that we know this, when the man had been hung by his arms, waterboarded, sleep deprived with screaming music , froze, and had multiple other horrid things done to him that sounded like torture . It reminded me of when John Wayne Gacy had killed like 35 dudes yet when interviewed he kept adamantly exclaiming that "he wasn't gay".

They had a psychologist named Mitchell with no experience interrogating writing up basically torture techniques for interrogation. I am amazed they got him to talk about it on camera . They should have taken a tip from physicians and not to let psychologists do to much damage by limiting them to talk therapy only , they are not allowed to prescribe drugs , they shouldn't be allowed to prescribe so called "interrogations ".

This was well made but the content made me less proud of my country than I was before. Well made, but it made me too depressed to give it more than an ambivalent score.