Max Arbes speaks with Peabody Award Winning and Oscar nominated director Laura Poitras. Her new film, “The Oath,” is a documentary but more precisely it is a character study of Abu Jandal, Osama Bin Laden’s former body guard, who now lives freely, driving a taxi in Yemen. Set as a contrast is the other main character of the film. A man we never see and who we only hear through his letters translated and voiced over. He is Salim Hamdan, Bin Laden’s former driver, who has now spent nearly 10 years in the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. He was the first person to be tried under the Bush administrations military tribunals and was the plaintiff in the landmark case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. It was Abu Jandal who recruited Hamdan to Al Qaeda. They would later become brothers-in law when they married sister’s at Bin Laden’s suggestion.

CWVA - Laura Poitras - The Oath