Iraq, Abu Graib, and a Vet Turned Candidate
02 August 2007 3:11 pm by Taylor Marsh
– reporting from YearlyKos –
TM is serving as a volunteer on the advisory committee to the convention’s leadership forum.
 |
Jonathan
Powers, now running for Congress
in New York (26th district), was part of the “swat team,” as he put it, that went
in to get the man, named Yunis, featured in the film I just watched. He turned
out to be another innocent man who ended up at Abu Ghraib.
Description: Baghdad , September 2003: In a middle-class house on a quiet
street, a family is fast asleep. Without warning, the front door is crashed
and American soldiers storm the house looking for weapons and bomb-making
material. Cameraman Michael Tucker documents the event as the men in the house
are cuffed and forced to kneel in the garden. A search of the house uncovers
no incriminating evidence, however Yunis Khatayer Abbas and three of his brothers
are taken and detained. Bent on forcing Yunis to confess to crimes he did
not commit, his captors press him with bizarre questions about music tastes,
sexual preferences and Harrison Ford. His intelligence value exhausted, he
is then transferred to Abu Ghraib Prison. The charge: planning the assassination
of Tony Blair. Yunis endures by helping his fellow prisoners and keeping a
secret diary. He also forges an unlikely friendship with one of his guards,
who he calls “The Good Soldier.” Combining Tucker’s embedded footage,
Yunis’ home movies, testimony from former guard Benjamin Thompson and original
comic book art, the film traces the moving story of an ordinary man trapped
in a Kafkaesque nightmare. Unique in its presentation and unlikely in its
very existence, “The Prisoner Or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair”
details an absurd comedy of errors where one freedom-loving Iraqi journalist
learns the true meaning of liberation.
“Tell them you’re Shia. They’ll let you go,” Yunis was told, according to the film’s co-director
Michael Tucker, also known as “HBO Mike.” The man who was also responsible
for “Gunner Palace.”
“The Prisoner: or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair”
In an absurd comedy of errors, a freedom-loving Iraqi journalist is mistaken
as Tony Blair’s would-be assassin and sent to Abu Ghraib Prison where he discovers
the true meaning of liberation.
Powers was at the screening today and talked about the film and what made him
move from veteran to teach to candidate.
“I began to understand what my strengths were, to bring
back the window of the troops on the war.” – Jon Powers
As Jon traveled after 9/11, as time went by, things he could do before he could
no longer do. He lived in Germany, played on a German rugby team, and went to
German bars. All of a sudden that was no longer an option. The same was true when he traveled to
Brazil. There was just too much anti-Americanism. He decided it was “time
to lead” and…
“retake the issue of security from Republicans.”
– Jon Powers
Powers is an articulate, obviously intelligent, deep thinking man. He’d be
a terrific asset to Congress, joining other vets like Sestak and Murphy. He’s
going to need our support.
It was the first time he and I have met, but we’d both were very aware of each other through mutual acquaintances. We had a brief moment to chat. His understanding of Iraq and what needs to be done next is obvious. The surge is wrong, but Jon has broken bread with Iraqis and feels a responsibility. He wants to get out, but knows we can’t just leave to abandon the Iraqis. The balance to a solution is what he intends to bring to Congress. He’s accepted an invitation to have a dialogue about this on my radio show. I look forward to it.
One of the main reasons Jon Powers
is running is to keep a war like Iraq from ever happening again. I’m in.
The screening of this film was made possible by YearlyKos and the continued
support of filmmakers through Brave New
Films.
