A word from Jonathan Dyer, EP of On Point | February 15, 2022

“Goosebumps.” That one word sentence was Slacked to me by WBUR’s Chief Content Officer, Victor Hernandez, as he listened to the episode of On Point marking the 20th anniversary of the creation of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Coincidentally, host Meghna Chakrabarti had asked our guests to describe the fact that Guantanamo is still with us today in one word. “Regret” said Michael Lehnert, the retired Marine Corps major general who supervised the construction of the detention camp at Guantanamo in January 2002. He would go on to run it for three months. “Disbelief” said Moazzam Begg who spent two years as a Guantanamo Bay detainee from 2003 to 2005. In contrast, Carol Rosenberg, a New York Times reporter deeply immersed in the Guantanamo story said she was “Unsurprised.”

But those one-word answers, as revealing as they are, were not the reason for Victor’s message. He had been listening as Lehnert described his experience in the early days of Guantanamo and as Begg shared what it felt like to be taken into custody in Pakistan, transported to Cuba, and detained at Guantanamo. And those goosebumps came as Meghna brought the two men together to speak one-on-one: a former captor and a former captive. Moazzam Begg told On Point listeners that the previous night he had gone to see another former Guantanamo detainee, Shaker Aamer, who spent 13 years at Guantanamo without charge. The first thing Aamer told Begg was to send Lehnert his “warmest regards.” It was as surprising as it was genuine and heartfelt, especially as it contrasts so profoundly with the harsh treatment the detainees later received. Aamer described how Lehnert showed “dignity and humility” to the prisoners, recalling that when Aamer asked to know how his wife and child were faring, Begg said the general made a phone call and returned with candies to celebrate the news that Aamer’s wife had given birth to his son.

Begg went on to describe Guantanamo as a “bipartisan project…overseen by Democrat(s) and by Republican(s)…overseen by a Black president and white presidents. It’s been overseen by East Coasters and West Coasters. And it is wholly American as far as the rest of the world thinks.”

I don’t usually spend these newsletters writing about a few minutes in one show, but I’ve been thinking about moments like this quite a bit recently. Primarily because I’m coming up on my first anniversary as the EP at On Point, and I’ve been thinking about how our newly reimagined show has been able to cement its identity as a place where long-form journalism is able to explore the complexities of the lived experience, and how invaluable that is in understanding the nuance of the world we live in. I really hope you’re hearing that in On Point.

Looking ahead, keep an eye out for announcements about our next special series, slated for March, as well as a deep dive into a technological development that has the potential to be this century’s most transformative force, later this spring. And yes, we’ll be telling that story from the perspective of those living that experience. I can’t wait for you to hear it.

Jonathan Dyer
Executive Producer, On Point