Members of The World Can't Wait and Amnesty International set up a hooded figure in a jump suit and chains, and handed out flyers at the AMC theater in Emeryville trying to dissuade moviegoers from seeing the film "Because it's full of lies. It really is. It's full of lies,"one demonstrator said. Protestors spoke out about scenes in the film that suggest waterboarding of CIA prisoners was instrumental in providing the information that led to Osama Bin Laden. They say the movie will inflluence the public to accept torture.
In the U.S., Sen. John McCain of Arizona called the portrayal misleading. "You believe, when watching this movie, that waterboarding and torture leads to information that leads to the elimination of Osama Bin Laden. That's not the case," he said. McCain and the Chair of the Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein of California, have written two letters to the CIA director asking for information about what was learned from the waterboarding of prisoners and whether the filmmakers had any inappropriate access to sensitive information.
Documents released through a Freedom of Information request show there was cooperation between the CIA and the filmmakers. In December, acting CIA Director Michael Morell called the film a dramatization and said the strong impression that enhanced interrogation techniques were key is a false impression.
In the Bay Area, the movie drew a small but vocal band of protestors to the AMC theater in Emeryville. Most of the moviegoers that spoke with ABC7 News understood the movie is not a documentary. "And to make movies successful, you have to, a lot of times, take artistic license," said Oakland resident Antonio Grillo.
Others said they were fine with the idea of waterboarding if it led to the killing of Bin Laden. "I have a nephew in Afghanistan. I'm not going to talk out against this. I'm not going to talk against any of it because they did what they had to do to catch that (expletive)," one woman said.
