In 2001, four Pakistani Britons travel to Pakistan for a wedding and in a surge of idealism, decide to see the situation of war-torn Afganistan which is being bombed by the American forces in retaliation to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Once there they are captured by Northern Alliance fighters. They are then handed them over the American forces who transport them to the prison camps at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba.

Laura Poitras' film tells how two men whose lives were caught up with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ended up taking very different paths after the invasion of Iraq.

Richard Bilton uncovers a struggle at the heart of US diplomacy between the ideals of freedom and spreading democracy, and the ruthless demands of American security and narrow self-interest.