A couple of days ago, Craig Murray broke the story of the arrest an interogation of the three of the stars of the award winning film ‘The Road to Guantanamo’

The Lip, an online multicultural magazine, has now added a new strand to the story with an exclusive account of what actually happened at Luton Airpost direct from Riz Ahmed, one of the actors who was arrested.

It’s best to read the account in full, but I do want to quote one section of the article, which deals with some of the questions that Riz was asked.

Under the threat of “prolonging� my detention, I cooperated in allowing her to go through my wallet. She took detailed notes on all its contents. All of my bankcard details were noted down, as were the details on other people’s business cards I had in my wallet. I was searched for objects that I might use to “hurt� the officers. However this took place about halfway through the interview after I had been with the interviewer alone for some time.

While searching through my wallet she asked me whether I intended to do more documentary films, specifically more political ones like The Road to Guantanamo. She asked “Did you become an actor mainly to do films like this, you know, to publicise the struggles of Muslims?�.

She also asked me what my political views were, what I thought about “the Iraq war and everything else that was going on�, whether the Iraq war was “right� in my view.

She then asked me whether I would mind officers contacting me regularly in the future, “in case, for example, you might be in a café, and you overhear someone discussing illegal activities�.

I don’t know about anyine else but there seems to me to be something pretty McCarthyist about that line of questioning.

Anyway - read the full article.

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