{"id":11918,"date":"2024-03-28T07:40:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T07:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/28\/life-on-both-sides-of-the-wall-at-guantanamo-bay\/"},"modified":"2024-03-28T07:40:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T07:40:18","slug":"life-on-both-sides-of-the-wall-at-guantanamo-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/28\/life-on-both-sides-of-the-wall-at-guantanamo-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Life on Both Sides of the Wall at Guant\u00e1namo Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/28\/multimedia\/28a2_insider_2-bhpj\/28a2_insider_2-bhpj-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Life on Both Sides of the Wall at Guant\u00e1namo Bay\" title=\"Life on Both Sides of the Wall at Guant\u00e1namo Bay\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\"><a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/series\/times-insider\" title=\"\">Times Insider<\/a> explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was a sunny day in May 2015 when Sarah Koenig and Dana Chivvis stepped off a U.S. military-chartered plane and onto the naval base at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Cuba.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They were there to learn the unofficial story of Guant\u00e1namo, where, after Sept. 11, the U.S. government had opened a prison to hold people it suspected of being members of the Taliban or Al Qaeda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So began a story that would span nearly 10 years and hundreds of hours of interviews.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That story is told in the new season of \u201cSerial,\u201d a podcast from Serial Productions and The New York Times. Over nine episodes (the first two drop on Thursday), Ms. Koenig and Ms. Chivvis, the season\u2019s co-hosts, present a mosaic of life at Guant\u00e1namo using the experiences of those who have survived and served there, as Ms. Koenig put it in the season\u2019s trailer. That includes former prisoners, guards, interrogators and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere\u2019s been a tremendous amount of amazing and important reporting on the place in the realm of geopolitics and policymaking,\u201d Ms. Chivvis said. \u201cBut what we were trying to do was recreate the world of Guant\u00e1namo through the personal stories of people who have existed and lived and worked and been imprisoned there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Between Ms. Koenig and Ms. Chivvis\u2019s first visit to Guant\u00e1namo in 2015 and Thursday\u2019s season premiere, there were a few false starts, and interviews with more than 100 people. When Ms. Koenig and Ms. Chivvis first visited, they found that many sources were hesitant to speak on the record. Some personnel didn\u2019t want to risk their careers. Former detainees they reached out to were nervous about unpacking their experiences, or just wanted to move on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPeople would tell us really interesting and crazy things off the record,\u201d Ms. Chivvis said. \u201cBut as soon as we turned our microphones on and stuck them in their faces, they totally clammed up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their editor, Julie Snyder, had the idea of putting together a pilot for a TV show about a fictionalized version of Guant\u00e1namo. She thought people might be more candid if they were contributing on background, not as named sources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThat was when crazy, debauched stories started coming up,\u201d Ms. Koenig said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By 2020, they had completed a script for a pilot that attracted interest from a production company. But by then, Ms. Koenig thought enough people might have returned to civilian life and agree to share those stories on the record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI figured it was worth a shot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Her hunch proved correct: With a few more years\u2019 distance from their deployment or detainment, former guards and prisoners were willing to speak candidly. So Ms. Chivvis and Ms. Koenig re-interviewed people on the record. The pair also returned to Guant\u00e1namo in 2022. This time, they were able to observe and report on court proceedings. They also conducted more interviews.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the course of their reporting, Ms. Chivvis and Ms. Koenig compiled hundreds of hours of interviews spanning nearly a decade, which they needed to shape into a story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have this incredible, vast array of stories and people who will talk to us at the end of the day,\u201d Ms. Koenig said. \u201cSo then it was just deciding which ones to focus on and why.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the past year, the team combed through the recordings and decided to devote the season to individual people\u2019s stories, presenting listeners with a rich range of perspectives and personalities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhat\u2019s cool about the podcast is that you hear both sides,\u201d Ms. Chivvis said. \u201cYou hear from detainees about what it\u2019s like to survive day to day as a prisoner and then you hear from a bunch of American service members who worked there about what life was like on the other side of the wall.\u201d (The town, she said, was surprisingly lively and had a robust party scene, with guards blowing off steam after their shifts at area bars. In the season\u2019s trailer, someone even called it \u201cla la land.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The series also examines the question of why, 15 years after President Obama <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/22\/us\/politics\/22gitmo.html\" title=\"\">signed an executive order to close the prison,<\/a> it remains open with 30 detainees. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/12\/us\/politics\/biden-guantanamo-prison.html\" title=\"\">President Biden renewed the initiative<\/a> to close the prison in 2021, but progress has been slow going.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI think most people don\u2019t think about Guant\u00e1namo,\u201d Ms. Chivvis said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that you relegate to a page in the history book in your mind.\u201d But because Guant\u00e1namo is still open, she added, \u201cit\u2019s not actually history yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The hope, Ms. Koenig said, is that people will come away from the podcast with renewed interest in Guant\u00e1namo, a place they might not have thought about in years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe want to bring them into a very complicated topic in this way that\u2019s intimate and compelling\u201d she said. \u201cI think \u2014 I hope \u2014 that people will understand Guant\u00e1namo in a way they haven\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. It was a sunny day in May 2015 when Sarah Koenig and Dana Chivvis stepped off a U.S. military-chartered plane and onto the naval base at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Cuba. They were there to learn the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/28\/multimedia\/28a2_insider_2-bhpj\/28a2_insider_2-bhpj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17195,17194,76,16816,1244],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11920,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11918\/revisions\/11920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}