TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
Afghan taxi driver Dilawar was wrongly arrested and sent to Bagram Prison. Five days after his arrest, Dilawar died in his isolation cell. His death came within a week of another death of a Bagram detainee. An investigation revealed that Dilawar was a victim of homicide - killed as a result of brutal beatings by US soldiers. The film follows the trail of the murder - and the policies that led to it - from Afghanistan, to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, documenting how the former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, together with the White House legal team, were able to convince Congress to approve the use of torture against prisoners of war.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
The worst, most evil thing a human being can do is to torture another human being. For any reason. That's a moral absolute. Even arguments that information obtained might save many lives is undermined by the fear that we know (and torturers know) that a torture victim would readily lie, confess, betray ... to stop the pain. Yet, there is a gnawing doubt in our minds that perhaps there is merit in that argument ... such are the moral dilemmas and ethical obstacles faced by even the most scrupulous security forces. But in this devastatingly clear doco, the torturers are young military who don't know what they're doing. And the Administration's implied approval is highlighted by the absence of clear guidelines regarding interrogation.

Worst of all, the doco reveals that of all the detainees, only 7% were captured by US forces. The rest were handed over by warlords and other locals in return for bounties. How unsafe is that.

In short, Taxi to the Dark Side shows in a clearly documented and rationally presented manner, the appallingly naïve and morally derelict approach that the US followed in its tragically flawed attempt to round up and interrogate terrorists. The methods resulted in shoal fishing outcomes, catching all manner of fish. The military gutted them all. The Administration silently encouraged that. It's no compensation to say that Islamic terrorists have brought this misery on their own people (as does an FBI spokesman).

The whole point of difference between them and the Judeo-Christian value system (which is the cornerstone of American values) lies in ruins as a result. This is a deservedly acclaimed film; it's confronting and deeply saddening, but essential. And perhaps we can take a small measure of relief from the fact that at least the system has not shut out the light of scrutiny shone by films such as this.

Published November 13, 2008