Scene from Channel 4's reconstruction, The Guantanamo Guidebook.
The four programmes in the Torture series demonstrate the wide reach of the US in its war on terror.
Is Torture A Good Idea?
Monday 28 February 2005 at 8pm
Clive Stafford Smith is a British
lawyer who has represented American prisoners on Death Row and, more
recently, detainees in Guantanamo Bay. In this programme, he reveals
the abuses suffered by Guantanamo
detainees and talks to experts in the field of torture, including CIA
and US Army veterans. The programme examines cases of false confessions
extracted under torture, suggesting that torture is useless as well as
being repugnant and illegal.
Channel 4's Dispatches investigated.
Torture: The Guantanamo Guidebook
Monday 28 February at 11.05pm
According to George Bush, 'torture
is never acceptable'. The interrogation techniques used in Guantanamo
Bay have been calibrated to fall short of a legal definition of ‘torture’.
However, legal experts say they do still constitute torture. The Guantanamo
Guidebook reconstructs
the regime at the US's Cuban base. For 48 hours, seven volunteers are
subjected to interrogation techniques known to be used in the camp, ranging
from harassment and abuse to sensory deprivation – with shocking
results.
Torture: The Dirty Business
Tuesday 1 March at 11.10pm
Torture is a multinational industry – but its headquarters is in the USA. In this programme Andrew Gilligan examines the CIA’s practice of abducting terrorist suspects and transferring them to states such as Egypt and Syria, where torture is routine. The programme also exposes the British government’s refusal to condemn the use of torture by the government of Uzbekistan, for the sake of the ‘evidence’ it
produces: 'selling our souls for dross', in the words of the former British
ambassador.
Torture: America’s Brutal Prisons
Wednesday 2 March at 11pm
This programme shows that abuses like
those documented in Abu Ghraib are commonplace in the USA’s overcrowded and understaffed prisons. Prisoners are shackled and hooded ‘for their own protection’; pepper spray is used as an alternative to physical force, but in sufficient quantities to cause second-degree burns; beatings are frequent and sometimes fatal. The programme suggests that the cause is not a few ‘bad apples’,
but a pervasive culture of dehumanisation and brutality.
