http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/204570.htmlQ: When did you first learn about Abu Ghraib prison?
A: I learned about what happened at the time everybody else did, when the images first came out in the media, on "60 Minutes" and in the New Yorker article (by Seymour Hersh).
Q: What was your reaction when you saw the photographs of naked prisoners and laughing American soldiers?
A: I was horrified and shocked and disgusted. It didn't occur to me at the time that this was part of U.S. policy. I really thought, "Who were these people who could have done such horrendous things? How could Americans treat somebody else so inhumanely? What would motivate this type of action?"
Q: Why did you decide to make a film about it?
A: Those same questions continued to haunt me. I wanted to understand the psychology of the people who were behind it. ...I was able to interview a number of people who were at Abu Ghraib when a lot of these abuses had taken place in fall 2003, and people who were directly involved in the abuse. And when I asked them why they did what they did, they all said the same thing, which is, "I did it because I was told to do it by people higher up the chain of command, and this was standard operating procedure at the time." I think the film maintains that kind of psychological lens but also expands into more of an investigative film.