A fastidiously assembled and well researched feature, Taxi to the Dark Side really takes us to the darker side of the US military and unfolds a horror that was our system of handling the suspected terrorists. The story is told to us using the springboard of Dilawar, a taxi driver in Afghanistan who albeit innocent, was captured by the coalition forces for allegedly being a terrorist and died under their custody. Investigation into his death opened a Pandora’s box that blew the lids off the torture and inhuman treatments of prisoners at these camps.
The documentary can be considered as a masterpiece of investigative journalism as it unfolds the story piece by piece of how an innocent man was captured, then tortured and ultimately killed by our very own great nation. It follows the human as well as paper trail that led to the events and also presents horrifying footage and pictures of what went on inside the dark walls of Bagram prison and other such prisons like the Guantanamo. It begs the question to be asked as to what all can be agree to under the banner of ‘cost of war’ or is it OK to destroy other human lives or in fact humanity in the name of war which has long lost its purpose. With these questions having no justifiable answers, it seems that whatever happened behind those walls was mere a ‘puppet entertainment’ for these officials because as the facts remain, hardly any ‘sensitive information’ was acquired even after using such high and brutal levels of torture.
Torture, and immensely large amounts of it was what Dilawar, the taxi driver caught on Dec. 1, 2002 under suspicion of abetting terrorist attack, was subjected to. He was deprived of sleep, shackled in stress positions and beaten repeatedly on pressure points to such an extent that his legs had been ‘pulpified’. Had Dilawar survived, his legs would have had to be amputated. To add mockery to the grave circumstances, Dilawar’s death certificate mentioned that he had died of natural causes. Who, how and what dies of natural causes in a prison is hardly a question of debate for the enlightened masses.
What is more horrifying is that the senior officials who devised and engaged in these inhuman and illicit tortures got away with just a rap on the knuckles whereas the lower level officers were court-martialed.
Ironically, the government and high government officials like the Vice President and the President himself, in the beginning thought that such techniques were required. In the end, using scare tactics, they even managed to turn the tables such that they designed laws which went in their favor. But astonishingly, none of the techniques that were employed in Bagram and Guantanamo were officially approved. This, rather than putting the ball in someone’s court, kept it hanging, hence the real culprit could never be found. Or was it that they never wanted the real culprit to be found.
Such and much deeper questions arise about the whole affair of prisoner abuse during the war. Dilawars tale was just a pointer which led to discovery of all the malice in the system. Nonetheless, he lost his life for no reason. He died an innocent man but what happened to the perpetrators of his murder?
Virtually nothing.