Dr. Maha Hilal Profile picture
Dec 28, 2021 12 tweets 8 min read Read on X
1/10 The recently released @HBO documentary “The Forever Prisoner” ignores the ongoing brutal harms against Abu Zubaydah, the focus of the documentary, and all victims of the “War on Terror.”
2/10 The shortcomings of filmmaker Alex Gibney’s documentary remind us that justice delayed is justice denied and acknowledging harm should be a goal worth pursuing in and of itself.
3/10 Ultimately, Gibney’s film falls short of this goal.
4/10 "Nothing in 'The Forever Prisoner' feels urgent enough to pose a real challenge to the viewer's existing moral compass"
5/10 "Zubaydah himself is absent from the film...and little new information is provided about the case."
6/10 "After his capture, Zubaydah was flown to a series of CIA 'black sites' around the world and subjected to a systemic program of brutal torture"
7/10 "The film contributes to the bizarre construction of the FBI as the moral force in the war on terror, but this is far from the only pitfall"
9/10 "After everything we have seen about Abu Zubaydah's torture, however, equal justice under the law hardly seems to be an appropriate starting point for analysis"
10/10 "The shortcomings of the documentary 'The Forever Prisoner' stand as a reminder that justice delayed is justice denied."

Find my full review at: truthout.org/articles/guant…

#Guantanamo #AbuZubaydah #CIA #NationalSecurity #Torture #Muslims #WarOnTerror #UnitedStates
If interested, check out the trailer of The Forever Prisoner.

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More from @Dr_Maha_Hilal

Jan 12, 2022
#CloseGuantanamo
#Gitmo20

If you tuned into the Senate Judiciary hearing on closing #Guantanamo, led by Senator Dick Durbin in #December, you might have noticed that the word #Muslim was only mentioned once.

Thread & my op-ed in @MiddleEastEye below.

middleeasteye.net/opinion/us-gua…
The failure to explicitly confront the role of #Islamophobia in the existence of Guantanamo Bay & the use of torture demonstrates a willful neglect of the fact that neither would have been possible without the dehumanizing logics of Muslims in the War on Terror.
Rather than exhibiting any concern for the Muslims lives that were destroyed by detention at the notorious prison that is Guantanamo, the mainstream discourse prioritizes closing Guantanamo in order to restore the US’ reputation as a country that adheres to the rule of law.
Read 11 tweets
Jan 11, 2022
Today is the 20th anniversary of the opening of #GuantanamoBay prison, one of the oldest, most infamous relics of the #WarOnTerror, & an emblem of institutionalized Islamophobia. The following are key 2021 events related to Guantanamo.

1/2021: @Amnesty report + UN press release
3/2021: Lufti bin Ali's death
4/2021: Camp 7 closed + Abu Zubaydah's UN case
Read 13 tweets
Jan 6, 2022
On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 #CapitolInsurrection, I’m reminded: This IS who we are. We are a nation of #WhiteSupremacy. As a counter to the US “this isn’t who we are” narratives related to #RacialInjustice, #StateViolence & prejudice, I’ve pieced together the following post.
The following are excerpts from my Jan. 2021 op-ed in @Truthout: “If @POTUS Wants to Confront White Supremacy, He Must Also End the #WarOnTerror.’”
"Solving the problem of #WhiteSupremacy is seen as a simple matter of removing those who embody it."
Read 11 tweets
Dec 10, 2021
Today on #HumanRightsDay, I'm thinking of former #Guantanamo prisoner Nizar Sassi who said, "if you want a definition of this place, you don't have the right to have rights." (Find the rest of my thoughts in the thread below.)
I'm also thinking about how, despite commemorating a day meant to celebrate universal human rights, that many in the global majority are denied these rights, with some outright expelled from the global community on the basis of being undeserving.
I'm thinking about the Palestinian people, the Sudanese people, and everywhere else across the globe where people are rising up against state violence and repression. I'm thinking of those who take their rights whether or note the state decides to bestow rights upon them.
Read 10 tweets
Dec 10, 2021
Today on #HumanRightsDay, I'm thinking of former #Guantanamo prisoner Nizar Sassi who said, "if you want a definition of this place, you don't have the right to have rights." (Find the rest of my thoughts in the thread below.)
I'm also thinking about how, despite commemorating a day meant to celebrate universal human rights, that many in the global majority are denied these rights, with some outright expelled from the global community on the basis of being undeserving.
I'm thinking about the Palestinian people, the Sudanese people, and everywhere else across the globe where people are rising up against state violence and repression. I'm thinking of those who take their rights whether or note the state decides to bestow rights upon them.
Read 9 tweets
Nov 18, 2021
I recently learned from @fatemaaaahmad that @Middlebury is developing a CVE game. This is disappointing, but not surprising. A decade ago, I got a scholarship to study #Arabic at Middlebury's summer institute and my experience there was pretty disturbing
National security was an undertone of the program. My class included a student from the #ARMY, the #CIA, and a #Zionist. Instead of studying #Arabic in peace, I felt like I constantly had to do better because I knew that Arabic was going to used to hurt members of my community
At one point during the summer, the CIA came to do a presentation on careers with them since Arabic language skills would be a valuable asset. I didn't attend the presentation because I couldn't handle it, but my friend who passed by the room said it was overflowing with students
Read 5 tweets

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