The Forever Prisoner

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.

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.

As "The Forever Prisoner" (2021 release; 119 min.) opens, we are briefly introduced to a prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who amazingly has never been charged with a crime and who has no right to appeal his imprisonment. We then go back in time to the horrible events of 9/11 and the dramatic fallout afterwards, as the Bush administration is desperate to show the American public it has things under control... At this point we are less than 10 min into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from esteemed and Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney (Taxi To the Dark Side, Agent of Chaos, The Armstrong Lie). Here he looks back at what happened to Abu Zubaydah, believed to be involved with or have ties to the group responsible for 9/11. He was captured in 2002, and brought in for interrogation. As it turns out the FBI and CIA had very different ideas what would make effective interrogating. The CIa prevailed, and charged ahead with its ultra controversial "enhanced interrogation" program, a/k/a its torture program. With stunning effect, Gibney lays out how the CIA misled, if not outright lied, about the program. Even worse, the program turns out to be massively ineffective if not counterproductive. I cannot easily recall a more blistering indictment and utter rebuke of the CIA, and how it has damaged not only the intelligence community in the US, but also America's standing in the world, period. Gibney has plenty of insider talking heads who narrate their story calmly and with devastating effect. Your blood will likely boil in utter disgust and disbelief as you watch the sheer ignorance and incompetence within the Bush administration in the post-9/11 era.

"The Forever Prisoner" premiered on HCO earlier this week and is now available on HBO On Demand and HBO Max (where I caught it last night). If you have any interest in what unfolded after 9/11 or simply want to get to the bottom of what the CIA's "enhanced interrogations" were all about and how they came to be, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I have always had a skewed view of the CIA and FBI. After all they Coined the term conspiracy theory to throw people of the scent of what was actually going on. This is even more eye opening of the horrors that the powers that be will goto to get what they want. It is a total abuse of power. A total lack of restraint . Its sadly nothing new though. MK ultra is another perfect example of the CIA going to far. What gives them the right to be able to do this to people is beyond me. I am under no illusion techniques like this are being used still as the US government will go to any ends necessary to get what they want. Even worse they seem proud of it! Terrifying and barbaric.

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.