A never-before-seen military manual detailing the day-to-day operations of the U.S. military's Guantánamo Bay detention facility has been leaked to the web, affording a rare inside glimpse into the institution where the United States has imprisoned hundreds of suspected terrorists since 2002.The 238-page document, "Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures," is dated March 28, 2003. [Here's an alternate link.] It is unclassified, but designated "For Official Use Only." It hit the web last Wednesday on Wikileaks.org....
The Camp Delta document includes schematics of the camp, detailed checklists of what "comfort items" such as extra toilet paper can be given to detainees as rewards, six pages of instructions on how to process new detainees, instructions on how to psychologically manipulate prisoners, and rules for dealing with hunger strikes....
The Pentagon did not reply to a request for comment on the document.
One piece from the manual is already raising some eyebrows, as it documents that it was literally SOP (standard operating procedure) to hide detainees from visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who are the final word on documenting conditions in prisons, and are by law supposed to have access to all prisoners. Emphasis below in bold in mine:
17-4 Levels of Visitation
All detainees will have a level of ICRC contact designated for them. These different levels are as follows:
a. No Access: No contact of any kind with the ICRC. This includes the delivery of ICRC mail.
b. Restricted: ICRC is allowed to ask the detainee about health and welfare only. No prolonged questions.
c. Unrestricted: ICRC is allowed full access to talk to the detainee.
d. Visual: Access is restricted to visual inspection of the detainee's physical condition. No form of communication is permitted. No delivery of ICRC mail.
According to a report from Reuters, posted at Yahoo News:
...incoming prisoners are to be held in near-isolation for the first two weeks to foster dependence on interrogators and "enhance and exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in the interrogation process."Styrofoam cups must be confiscated if prisoners have written on them, apparently because prisoners have used cups to pass notes to other captives. "If the cup is damaged or destroyed, the detainee will be disciplined for destruction of government property," the rules say. (emphasis mine)
The use of isolation techniques to foster dependency and induce mental disorganization is a hallmark of the CIA-Military developed torture paradigm of the 1950s-1960s, known by the acroynm DDD (dependency, debility, dread), which I've described in other articles.
It's one outrageous revelation after another, and still this sickening government and its meretricious, malignantly narcissitic and war-mongering leaders still stand in office. What a dark, dark era this is!
[Follow-up to this story at "Consequences of Gitmo Leak: the Pentagon Replies".]
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