Countering the “Politics of Forgetting” by Documenting Grassroots Efforts for Accountability for Torture
Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law
It is now common knowledge that following the events of September 11, 2001, U.S. officials ordered, facilitated, and actively participated in the extraordinary rendition and torture of hundreds of individuals suspected of involvement with terrorism. Beginning in 2005, documentation from official U.S. and European government sources, the media, and various human rights groups revealed Aero Contractors, a private North Carolina-based contractor headquartered in Johnston County, was operating many of the rendition flights. These flights have come to be known as “Torture Taxis.” Through the work of plane spotters, investigators, government officials, international institutions, U.N. bodies, and journalists, it is now known that Aero Contractors was directly involved in the extraordinary renditions of Binyam Mohamed, Abou Elkassim Britel, Khaled El-Masri, Bisher Al-Rawi and Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah.
A group of North Carolina residents formed a grassroots organization, NC Stop Torture Now and since the 2005 revelations, they have worked tirelessly to obtain accountability and transparency with regard to the state’s role in extraordinary rendition and torture, now known as the CIA’s Rendition/Detention/Interrogation (RDI) program. Ghosts of Johnston County is a documentary film about this ongoing struggle. Through a combination of home video recordings, observational footage, archival materials, and interviews with local residents, Ghosts of Johnston County unveils an “on the ground” account of the struggle to achieve justice for the victims of U.S. sponsored torture. It ends with a personal and moving dialogue between local advocates and Abou El-Kassim Britel, an Italian citizen of Moroccan descent who, in 2002, was transported by Aero Contractors from Pakistan to Morocco. There, he was held in secret and tortured before being released in 2011. The extraordinary rendition of Britel has yet to be publicly acknowledged by the U.S. Government. The film also includes critical commentary by Col. Morris Davis, a native North Carolinian and the former lead U.S. prosecutor at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.
The film can be accessed at https://vimeo.com/104471756 (password gojc_web) and is available for use by human rights activists and educators. If you do view it, the filmmaker, Eric Juth, has a request: He asks:
If you have any questions about the project, or plan on showing the film for educational purposes or in public/group setting, please notify its director, Eric Juth, by contacting him at juth.eric@gmail.com, so that he may document this for his record. Additionally, please consider supporting Juth’s work by purchasing a DVD copy of the film for your university’s or institution’s library, or by making a donation to him through paypal (juth.eric@gmail.com) or on the “Tip Jar” button on Vimeo.”
For the past six years, the UNC School of Law Human Rights Policy Seminar has worked with NC Stop Torture and with Abou Elkassim Britel and his spouse, Anna. We have contributed to the documentation of North Carolina’s involvement in the torture program, and produced a number of policy reports, briefs, and petitions focused on North Carolina’s role in the RDI program. We remain inspired by the work of the dedicated citizens who comprise this grassroots group.
As victims of extraordinary rendition continue to surface, and as details emerge about the United States’ use of torture during the war on terror, the efforts to achieve justice for the survivors persists, even in places as seemingly removed from the front lines as a rural county in North Carolina.