Not one of Alex Gibney's best documentaries. He really gets into the weeds on this one. While some of that may be necessary, given the subject matter, we're left at the end -- in essence -- with nothing much having changed. And NO ONE was ever held accountable. The bad guys -- besides Abu Zubaydah -- are several Americans, including former CIA Director George Tenet (he really is a piece of you-know-what and should be in prison himself), along with James Mitchell (a psychologist) and Jose Rodriguez (the former director of CIA's Counterterrorism Center). These men are pieces of you-know-what. They should ALL be in jail for their inhumanity, their violation of human rights, their implementation of torture techniques.
Sure, Alberto Gonzales (former Attorney General in Bush's cabinet) and John Yoo (another horrible attorney in Bush's White House) are to blame as well. Along with VP Dick Cheney, of course. But for James Mitchell and Jose Rodriguez to "carry the water" and implement the torture techniques against prisoners, when there was never any evidence that torture actually works to get prisoners to "talk"... they should be held accountable. And James Mitchell made $81 Million dollars from our Government for doing this! He laughed all the way to the bank. And at the end, he justifies it all with, "I believed I was working to save millions of American lives from the next, worse terrorist attack." Really, James?? You're a liar.
All the behind the scenes fighting between the FBI and CIA... don't know that we needed all this in this doc. There's always infighting among major agencies.
Anyway, this film could have been streamlined. And all the quick cuts of redacted cables? They're so fast you can't read a lot of them while listening to the voice over, and ultimately, what's the point? Why do we even need to see these? Is there really nothing else that can be shown onscreen? This was all a bit too much.
Sure, Alberto Gonzales (former Attorney General in Bush's cabinet) and John Yoo (another horrible attorney in Bush's White House) are to blame as well. Along with VP Dick Cheney, of course. But for James Mitchell and Jose Rodriguez to "carry the water" and implement the torture techniques against prisoners, when there was never any evidence that torture actually works to get prisoners to "talk"... they should be held accountable. And James Mitchell made $81 Million dollars from our Government for doing this! He laughed all the way to the bank. And at the end, he justifies it all with, "I believed I was working to save millions of American lives from the next, worse terrorist attack." Really, James?? You're a liar.
All the behind the scenes fighting between the FBI and CIA... don't know that we needed all this in this doc. There's always infighting among major agencies.
Anyway, this film could have been streamlined. And all the quick cuts of redacted cables? They're so fast you can't read a lot of them while listening to the voice over, and ultimately, what's the point? Why do we even need to see these? Is there really nothing else that can be shown onscreen? This was all a bit too much.