Amazon’s ‘The Report’ Condemns Not Only Bush but Obama for Turning a Blind Eye to Torture – The Daily Beast

The Report, Scott Z. Burns film about the CIA Torture Report, makes slow-going research and paper pushing compelling, and it does it while maintaining an astonishingly high level of adherence to the literal truth of what happened to the men imprisoned by the American government at black sites like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, using dialogue usually taken verbatim from the record. Starring Adam Driver as (real person) Daniel Jones, who worked for California Senator Dianne Feinstein to compile an investigation into the CIAs so-called enhanced interrogation techniques post-9/11, The Report offers a vital condemnation not only of the Bush administrations trigger-happy cronies, but of the Obama administrations ultimately cynical post-partisan fantasies.

Heres a bit of living history: Both administrations supported and enabled the CIA in equipping and promoting war criminals, including CIA intelligence officers like Jose Rodriguez and Gina Haspel. The latter is now the director of the agency and was nominated by the Trump administration and confirmed by the majority Republican senate. The film notes that, to date, not one of the CIAs torturerstheir names still have not been releasedhas been held accountable.

The practice of enhanced interrogationan updated brand of torturewas developed by two barely credentialed psychologists, Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, who had no experience in interrogation or criminal justice. Mainly, they were overconfident, blood-sucking mediocre white guys looking for vengeance; the CIA, which had already known for decades that torture doesnt even work (besides being immoral and itself criminal) welcomed the psychologists unscientific methods as long as the governments legal team could spin a defense for them. In the film, actor Pun Bandhu plays John Yoo, the UC Berkeley law professor who, as the Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General under George Bush, authored the legal memos that provided that defense and became known as the Torture Memos. Fictional Yoo provides the exact justification the real Yoo came up with in the memos: As long as there is no organ failure or death, anything goes, from gouging eyes to pouring acid on a prisoners body.

As Adam Drivers Daniel Jones indignantly yells in explanation to Feinstein (played by a rigid yet convincing Annette Bening), the CIAs torture of prisonerssome of whom the FBI, not the CIA, had already gathered enough intel on to prosecuteensured that no one actually responsible for 9/11 could ever be brought to trial. And on top of that, torture didnt even work, contrary to the narrative of the Oscar-nominated Bin Laden assassination film Zero Dark Thirty. Despite Jones and his teams painstaking research into emails, memos, and even an internal CIA report that confirms the agencys own incompetence and corruption, no one seems to care much within the Obama administration, including the president himselftheres a re-election to be secured and drone strikes to carry out under the CIAs supervision.

Burns, who also penned Steven Soderberghs The Laundromat, originally planned to write and direct a dark comedy film that focused on Jessen and Mitchell. The Laundromat, which Soderbergh admits drew from the narrative style of Adam McKays The Big Short, didnt work precisely because of its overwrought machinations and confused tone (but not, its important to point out, because of its comedy). Im glad Burns opted to take on this story from Jones perspective rather than again borrowing from McKays playbook of unwittingly legitimizing tyrants and liars. It makes for a film that, rather than gawking at the gall of blood-thirsty cynics, soberly examines their horrible methods, revealing powerful alliances that span not only the halls of power but reach across the aisle as well. The Reportunlike McKays dramedies and the practice of tortureis effective, emphasizing humanity as it exposes evil.

The Report offers a vital condemnation not only of the Bush Administrations trigger-happy cronies, but of the Obama administrations ultimately cynical post-partisan fantasies.

Jones is a regular guy who, not unlike Jessen and Mitchell, wants to beat the bad guys. At the start of the film, he meets with Obamas chief of staff Denis McDonough, who encourages to him get experience in the FBI or on the Hill before trying to get a job with the executive branch. Jones, a bit of a boy scout, eventually finds himself under the direction of Feinstein, whom we later learn has been charged with creating the report only because Obama refuses to task his own branch with the investigation, not wanting to ruin his chances at post-partisan governmental bliss. Over the course of the investigation, Jones develops much of the integrity that evades Obama and his people. Jonesalong with a team that the film compresses to six and then three people, but was actually around 20refuses to turn away from the CIAs abuses. He fights to have the truth revealed without compromise, which takes the form of gratuitous redactions by the CIA which are sanctioned by Obama via McDonough.

The film ends up emphasizing the limits of Jones boy scout behavior, even though it is in service a righteous cause. Jones meets with a New York Times National Security reporter and considers pulling an Edward Snowden by leaking the full 6,000-page report to the press. Feinstein has already told Jones that she believes Snowden is a traitorwhistleblowers dont figure into her ideas of justice. Jones is not so sure, and during their meeting, the Times reporter reveals the extent of Obamas complicity in suppressing the investigation. This information isnt enough to sway Joneshe ultimately believes he has to take the legal, governmental recourse and doesnt leak the document. A 582-page summary is released by Congress instead (a recent New York Times story revealed how close even the summary was to being suppressed). None of the real names of those directly accountable are in it, and no onemuch like with Obamas big bank bailoutgoes to jail.

Ultimately, liberal ideologya belief in incremental reform and justice through institutions rather than peopleconvinces Jones that he shouldnt blow the whistle. But, to this day, Jones is enraged at the continued lack of accountability in the wake of the report. The summary was released to the public but what resulted was mostly strategically crafted speeches by statesmen like the late Republican senator John McCain and handwringing by concerned citizens; Obama, for his part, admitted, in an absurd turn of phrase, that we tortured some folks. CIA agents both complicit and directly involved in torturing detainees were not simply given a pass but promoted within the agency.

The liberalism of Obamas government and Feinsteins office did not rock the boat by design. If you watch closely, youll see that The Report is not a triumphant film, which is exactly why it has fallen under the radar. The movie not only testifies to the importance of exposing ugly truths, but suggests that self-sacrifice and rebellion may be required for justice to ever be served. Obama, who recently cautioned millennials against leftist revolution, is still preaching his credo of rule-following moderation. If he had gotten his way before, most media outlets would still be reporting that our government had delivered us to safety by way of torture. We would do well to learn from the former presidents example by rejecting it.

See the article here:
Amazon's 'The Report' Condemns Not Only Bush but Obama for Turning a Blind Eye to Torture - The Daily Beast