The Road to Samarkand

Riz Ahmed, the Oxford graduate actor and rapper who takes the role of Rasul, says the officer who questioned him 'asked me what my political views were, and what I thought about the Iraq war,' adding: 'Did you become an actor mainly to do films like this, you know, to publicise the struggles of Muslims?' Somewhat farcically, he says she followed this up with an attempt to recruit him as an informant, asking 'whether I would mind officers contacting me regularly in the future, in case I might be in a cafe and overhear someone discussing illegal activities'.
this is from


I watched 'The Road to Guantanamo' over the new year, it took me a long time to get around to it, I am afraid to say, its been out some time. It is a disturbing account of how three West Midlands muslims ended up in Guantanamo Bay. I have been a very great fan of Director Michael Winterbottom's rather different film 'A Cock and Bull Story' based on Marx's favourite novel 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'... the pre-modern post modern classic.

The tale of the Tipton Three needs watching. One of the actors was held at a British airport threatend by the authorities and asked to work for British intelligence, this says it all. For the story...



This year (2007) Winterbottom is releasing 'Murder in Samarkand' an account of Craig Murray, who resigned as British ambassor because he disagreed with the use of torture in the Uzebekistan. Murray is a bit of Alan Partridge figure but a campaigner nontheless.

Torture is no crime when under taken by allies, weapons of mass destruction, human rights abuse...they all look like excuse for expedient foreign policy.

I know some super paranoid people who believe that Robin Cook was bumped off perhaps because as Foreign Secretary he once proclaimed the need for an 'ethical foreign policy'.

Lets make Brian Haw our new prime minister, I know he is a bit religious and has met David Icke but we need some ethical leadership which is not going to come from any New Labourite least of all Gordon Brown.