The Herald Sun – 2008-02-25 22:52:30

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23277671-5005961,00.html

AUSTRALIA (February 26, 2008) — Oscar winner Eva Orner has described the US Government as a “bunch of war criminals”. The Australian filmmaker won an Academy Award for best feature documentary as co-producer of Taxi to the Dark Side, a film about the US Government’s use of torture in its war against terror.

The documentary features interviews with US soldiers who participated in the torture of suspects in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
Orner said she did not blame low-ranking soldiers for such behaviour.

“Obviously, everyone’s responsible for their own actions, but you put people in bad situations who are ill-equipped, not trained, under enormous pressure and getting orders from above to do bad things,” she told ABC Radio from Los Angeles today.

“I don’t really believe it is terribly much their fault, it comes from much higher sources. The current administration are a bunch of war criminals and they need to be stopped. People need to know what’s going on.”

Orner said she was surprised such a dark film – directed by Alex Gibney – had won the Oscar.

“This is one of the toughest films I think either of us has made,” she said. “It wasn’t a lot of fun.”