The Battle for Guantanamo

The hot debate in Washington and beyond over the treatment of terror suspect detainees is not the one the White House expected — not Republicans versus Democrats over who's tougher. Instead, it's been a debate over effectiveness and morality, with key GOP leaders debating each other.

Globally, US forces now hold 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law. The symbolic center of that system sits at Guantanamo Bay. And there, commanders, guards, and detainees have been involved in a long-running negotiation of their own, with crackdowns, softenings, prisoner attacks, hunger strike and suicide.

While Washington debates, we'll go deep inside the facts of life at Guantanamo.

Quotes from the Show:

"Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions prohibits degrading and humiliating treatment." Tim Golden

"The detainee population has coalesced to a degree that people do not realize." Tim Golden

"The detainees rile the prison guards, upset them, and try to unnerve them." Tim Golden

"The fact that so many people in the US are upset [about the treatment of detainees] is used as leverage by the detainees." Tim Golden

Guests:

Chuck Babington, Washington Post Congressional correspondent

Tim Golden, contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for the New York Times. His article "The Battle for Guantanamo" appeared in this weekend's New York Times Sunday Magazine.