The Tipton Three

Three posts in one night trumps two weeks of blog silence. Anyway, because Wordplay was playing in the Lincoln Square indie theater, the previews were for other upcoming indie movies. One of them, Who Killed the Electric Car?, looks like it will be a really interesting indictment of big oil and car companies that are crushing the possibility of electrically-powered cars that would be better for the environment.

But the preview that really stood out for me was for The Road to Guantanamo, a "docu-drama" about the Tipton Three. Have you ever heard about the Tipton Three? I hadn't either. Shortly after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, three British Muslims traveling in Afghanistan were captured along with thousands of others and transported to the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. They were held there for 26 months and released without being charged with any crime in 2004; during that time, they allege, they were interrogated and tortured by U.S. soldiers.

Meanwhile, if you Google "Tipton Three," the stories that come up are from two sources: the BBC and the Observer, a British newspaper. If that doesn't scream "story that was never reported by the mainstream U.S. media," I don't know what does. I don't know how accurate this film is going to be, but near as anyone -- including the United States government -- can tell, the Tipton Three were never members of the Taliban or any other terrorist organization. This is a film I plan to see.