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The New York Times on Sunday released information culled from 700 classified documents pertaining to hundreds of Guantanamo prison detainees. The Times obtained the material through Wikileaks last year. The new trove of documents provides the American public with the most honest accounting of the reality at Guantanamo, and the only profile of the hundreds of detainees, since the controversial prison opened in 2002. A full range of information is revealed, from the charges leveled against prisoners, to what was found in their pockets upon arrest. Detailed records of interrogations are included, which for some detainees span 5 and 6 years. Guantanamo is a lighting rod for outrage, as credible reports of torture at the facility continue to surface, and the US government continues to assert that Guantanamo prisoners are not protected by the US constitution. While Guantanamo is arguably the most repressive and obscure arm of the US prison system, a secretive program at federal prisons is also causing alarm among civil liberty advocates. In 2006 the Bush administration authorized a new type of isolation unit, the Communication Management Unit, or CMU. Prisoners are transferred from the general population to a CMU without any warning or detailed explanation. Their ability to communicate with family is reduced from an average of 300 minutes a month, down to two-15 minute phone calls a week. The inmates in CMUs are generally tagged as terrorists by the government, and this includes a significant minority population of environmental activists designated as eco-terrorists. Another minority population is comprised of inmates who became activists in prison, agitating for improved conditions. The overwhelming majority of those housed in CMUs – 65%- are Muslim.

GUEST: Alexi Agathocleous, Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights; Will Potter, independent journalist and author of the new book, Green is the New Red: An Insiders Account of a Social Movement Under Seige

Find out more at www.ccrjustice.org/cmu and www.greenisthenewred.com.