STATEMENT FROM SGT. L. LUCAS WELLS

THE FOLLOWING IS AN OPEN STATEMENT TO THE PRESS AND PUBLIC, by Sgt. L. Lucas Wells, returned from Abu Gharib prison in Iraq:

RECENTLY I have been villainized by certain members of the press. They have used outrageous slander in describing my treatment of Iraqi detainees. To my critics I say: if you think it's all about torture, then you don't understand what I'm saying with my work.

Those unauthorized stills that appear on all the news wires do no justice to the mis en scene of my film. For instance, they have removed the sound. During the electrode scene, I had "Super Sounds of the 70s" playing on a boombox. This ironic counterpoint puts the torture in a whole different light. Plus, no one has shown the sequence where I dance around the captives, cracking jokes. It's dark comedy, for crying out loud. Don't you get it?

Nobody is more dismayed by torture than I am. It's the reason I began work on this project. I want to present the issues in a way that is both entertaining and challenging to the audience. I want to dare them to laugh at torture. I'm trying to shock them into a new awareness. If I condoned torture, would I use torture to do so?

Sometimes you have to use degradation and violence to inspire transcendence. I understand that. Mel Gibson understands that. I think audiences will too, as soon as I get a distributor.

Anyone who looks at the facts will see that I'm the victim. In these politically correct times, society's self-appointed guardians are all-too-prepared to stifle free speech and artistic expression. Remember, if an American isn't free to shoot video of torturing prisoners, then the terrorists will have won.

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