PBS Newsmagazine 'NOW' Broadcasts First U.S. Primetime Television Interview With 'War On Terror' Detainee

PBS Newsmagazine 'NOW' Broadcasts First U.S. Primetime Television Interview With 'War On Terror' Detainee

British citizen Moazzam Begg alleges to have witnessed 'the degradation, humiliation, and even the murder of detainees'

NEW YORK, July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- In his first ever primetime interview on American television, former detainee Moazzam Begg talks to the PBS weekly newsmagazine NOW about his three years in captivity at American detention facilities in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Begg describes the murder, torture and degradation of detainees that he says he witnessed at the hands of U.S. interrogators. "I saw his body being dragged in front of me, battered and bruised, limp," Begg said.

The 37-year-old Briton, born in Birmingham, England, was accused by the U.S. of having "strong, long-term ties to terrorism", an allegation he never had the chance to defend himself against in a court of law. Begg gives us an insider's view of what it was like to be a so-called enemy combatant in America's foreign prisons, where, he says, there was no doubt that the Geneva Conventions did not apply. Last year the Bush administration set him free from Guantanamo, where he spent almost 20 months in solitary confinement. Begg has never been found guilty of any crime, but the Defense Department maintains they were justified in detaining him.

Begg -- a husband and father of four -- describes how he feels about the country that he says tortured him and subjected him to over 300 interrogations before releasing him without an explanation or apology. "Do I hate Americans?" Begg tells NOW Host and Senior Editor David Brancaccio, "No. Do I hate this administration? Unreservedly."

Brancaccio traveled to Begg's British hometown and spent time with his family to find out how a Muslim raised by pro-Western parents of Pakistani descent ended up in a street gang and grew interested in Jihad and hot spots like Chechnya, Bosnia, and the disputed territory of Kashmir. Begg tells Brancaccio that he never participated in terrorism.

NOW's conversation with Moazzam Begg airs Friday, July 28 on NOW (check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html).

ABOUT NOW

Called "one of the last bastions of serious journalism on TV" by the Austin American-Statesman, The Emmy-winning PBS weekly newsmagazine NOW engages viewers with documentary segments and insightful interviews that probe the most important issues facing democracy, including media policy, corporate accountability, civil liberties, the environment, money in politics, and foreign affairs. NOW is hosted by award-winning veteran journalist David Brancaccio. THE NOW web site at http://www.pbs.org/now is an award-winning interactive destination for detailed information, insight, and democracy tools for the engaged citizen.

NOW airs Friday nights at 8:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) and is a production of JumpStart Productions, LLC, in association with Thirteen/WNET New York. The show can also be accessed through On-Demand television, audio podcasting, video podcasting, and streaming video on the NOW website. Press materials are also available at http://www.pbs.org/now/presskit

Contact: Joel Schwartzberg
212-560-2858
schwartzbergj@thirteen.org

Source: JumpStart Productions, LLC

CONTACT: Joel Schwartzberg, +1-212-560-2858, schwartzbergj@thirteen.org

Web site: http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html
http://www.pbs.org/now
http://www.pbs.org/now/presskit

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