The Project
Shortly after September 11, 2001, Peter Jan Honigsberg, a law professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, began teaching a class about the war on terror, international security, civil liberties and human rights. The questions raised by this class led him to travel to Guantanamo and also delve deeper into the issues. He published several articles and a University of California Press book entitled A Nation Unhinged: The Human Consequences of the War on Terror. In light of his experiences, his writings, his interactions with former detainees and their attorneys, and the public’s desire for information, Professor Honigsberg was compelled to establish the Witness to Guantanamo (W2G) project.
The project is currently conducting in-depth, filmed interviews with former detainees and other witnesses, such as prison guards, chaplains, medical personnel, prosecutors, habeas attorneys, high level government and military officials, FBI agents, interrogators, interpreters and family members of detainees. Witness to Guantanamo is the only project that is systematically filming and preserving these narratives in order to document the human rights abuses and rule of law violations that took place at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. By creating an archive of these videos, W2G will collaborate and partner with other projects around the United States and the world to educate the public and mobilize pressure to hold U.S. government officials and private actors accountable. W2G’s filmed narratives provide voice to former detainees and other witnesses so they can share their personal and poignant stories.
The project’s methodology reflects the Shoah (“catastrophe”) model. After some groups denied the reality of the Holocaust, director Steven Spielberg began filming video accounts of the experiences of survivors. Over 52,000 Holocaust survivors have told their personal stories and the collection is now archived at the University of Southern California (USC) Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.
All the interviews will be translated into English and transcribed to reach the broadest audience possible. It is our intent that the video archive grow into an invaluable resource for present and future generations of activists, scholars, historians, journalists, students, documentarians, lawyers, former detainees and the general public. Eventually, individuals will be welcome to apply to use the interviews to support qualitative and quantitative social science research; select footage for documentary and other media-related projects; create educational units on Guantanamo for elementary through graduate school students; and inform and educate the public. The diverse potential uses of the archive will be limited only by the imagination.
Detainees Interviewed:
Abdul Ghabbar Abdul Rahman
Abdullah Kamel Abudallah Kamel
Abubakir Qasem
Adel Noori
Adel Zamel Abd al Mahsen al Zamel Kuwaiti
Ahmed Adil
Ahmed Tourson
Akhtar Qasem Basil
Arkin Mahmud
Ayub Muhammed
Bahtiyar Mahmut
Bisher al Rawi
Brahim Yadel
Feroz Ali Abbasi
Fouad Mahmoud al Rabiah
Haj Boudella
Imad Kanouni
Jalil Jalaldin
Jamil El-Banna
Kasimbenov Kamaliddin
Khaled Ben Mustafa
Khalil Mamut
Lakhdar Boumediene
Mamdouh Habib
Moazzam Begg
Mourad Benchellali
Murat Kurnaz
Mustafa Ait Idir
Ruhal Ahmed
Saad Madi Saad al Azmi
Saber Lahmar
Salahidin Abdulahat
Shafiq Rasul
Tarek Dergoul
Zakirjan Asam
Other Witnesses Interviewed:
Albert Shimkus
Alberto Mora
Alfred Souza
Bev Hicks
Brandon Neely
Candace Gorman
Carol Rosenberg
Christopher Arendt
Clive Stafford Smith
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson
Col. Morris Davis
Daniel Lakemacher
David Brant
Dennis Edney
Erwin Chemerinsky
Estela Lebron
Felice Bezri
Frank Lindh
Gitanjali Gutierrez
James Yee
Jennifer Bryson
Jim Clemente
Jonathan Hafetz
Joseph Margulies
Kent Svendsen
Khalid Al-Odah
Kristine Huskey
Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld
Lt. Col. David Frakt
Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham
Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley
Maha Habib
Marion (Spike) Bowman
Mark Denbeaux
Matt Diaz
Michael Gelles
Michael Ratner
Robert Buehn
Rushan Abbas
Sean Baker
Stephen Kenny
Stephen Xenakis
Terry Hicks
Terry Holdbrooks
Tom Wilner
Vijay Padmanabhan
