Portrait of a Jihadist: New Documentary 'The Oath' Reveals 'Human Side' of al-Qaeda

The Oath opens in New York on Friday, May 7th.

Documentary filmmaker, Laura Poitras, who has won a Peabody and been nominated for an Oscar and an Emmy, is making a trilogy of documentaries about America post-9/11. Her first film in the trilogy, My Country, My Country, told the story of the war in Iraq from the perspective of an Iraqi doctor. In her latest, The Oath, she profiles Abu Jandal, a Yemeni taxi driver who was Osama bin Laden's bodyguard. Jandal recruited Al-Qaeda members and ultimately named names in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, while his brother-in-law, Salim Hamdan, a former driver for bin Laden whom Jandal recruited, was held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and was the first person to face the military tribunals, despite having questionable links to Al-Qaeda.

AlterNet contributor Emily Wilson recently caught up with Laura Poitras in San Francisco.

Emily Wilson: You were going after a different story, and you ended up with this one. How did that happen?

Laura Poitras: I went to Yemen looking to tell a story about a returnee -- somebody released from Guantanamo and returning home. I went there with a lawyer who was representing a dozen clients. Then, on the second day there, I was introduced to Abu Jandal and everything changed. His story was pretty mind-boggling. Here's this guy who was bin Landen's bodyguard and guest house emir who's driving a taxi in Yemen. He recruited Salim Hamdan. Everything changed in that instant. I didn't go to Yemen to say I was going to find a story on al Qaeda. That's the story I encountered by accident, but it was really compelling and a way to still talk about Guantanamo. But Abu Jandal is really the main character.

EW: What most struck you about his story?

LP: Well, that he was driving a taxicab. As a storyteller, you just think, 'This is too wild.' This guy is free and driving a taxicab [while] we have all these people being imprisoned at Guantanamo. I put the pieces together that he was interrogated right after 9/11, a really important interrogation. This happened six days after 9/11 and there he was in a prison in Yemen and having his Miranda rights read to him every morning. It's extraordinary that this interrogation was conducted so soon after 9/11, and according to the book. If he'd been captured in Afghanistan I think he would have been sent to one of the black sites.

EW: How did you get so much access to him?

LP: I showed him the film I made in Iraq, about the war, called My Country, My Country, and I think that was key to his decision. And as we show in the film, he's not shy, and he's doing other interviews. It's not like he's not interested in talking to the press. But I needed more access, so that took time and patience. I think on one hand, he was feeling guilt about Hamdan, and I think also he's carrying guilt about his relationship to al-Qaeda and bin Laden. I think he keeps trying to set the record straight and then set it straight again.

EW: What do you mean trying to set the record straight?

LP: My interpretation is that in a sense he's somebody who feels guilty about something, and I think it all goes back to the interrogation. It's kind of like if you did something that betrayed somebody in your past. I think that helps us understand some of his motivations. I think there's some face saving going on and wanting to differentiate himself. I think he had differences of opinion to the tactics and strategies of bin Laden. But he's not repentant. There's the stories of people who say, "I was an extremist and now I've changed all my ways." He's not that. That's what makes him really interesting. He's somebody who had differences of opinion, who broke with them, but who still is quite vocal in his anger to the policies of the West.