Review of The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair (2007) by Walter M — 25 Jan 2008

[font=Century Gothic]"The Prisoner Or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair" is an eye-opening documentary about Iraqi journalist Yunis Khatayer Abbas who in the wee hours of September 23, 2003 was detained along with his three brothers by American troops on charges they were plotting to kill Tony Blair. On the videotape, he is clearly seen saying that he is a journalist(his work on the invasion and aftermath is also shown), so this should have been cleared up in no time at all, right?[/font].

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[font=Century Gothic]Nope.[/font].

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[font=Century Gothic]He was worked over and then imprisoned along with two of his brothers(a third is freed) at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison where heinous living conditions and inedible food were the rule of thumb, the infamous photographs being only the tip of the iceberg. After a few months of this, humane replacement soldiers made a bad situation somewhat bearable.(Along with some illustrated stills, the documentary is mostly Yunis telling his story to the camera. The only other person interviewed is a soldier from that replacement unit.) Under Saddam Hussein, Yunis was tortured in 1998. But as Miss Manners can tell you, it does not make a good impression when the new boss is not much better than the old boss. [/font].