When the photos from Abu Ghraib first surfaced in 2004, and shocked and disgusted the world, remember how the Bush administration blamed it on "a few bad apples"?
Well, it appears that those bad apples are pretty high up the tree.
It turns out that the U.S. military has a 238-page manual, dated 2003, outlining the standard operating procedures for the prison at Guantanamo, and it covers some pretty familiar techniques, like using stress positions and dogs to break the prisoners.
The manual was leaked online last week. And I'm betting that Lynndie England didn't write it.
From Wired magazine:
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 manual also includes instructions on how to use military dogs to intimidate prisoners. [...] According to media reports, [Maj. Gen. Geoffrey] Miller introduced harsh interrogation methods to Guantanamo, such as shackling detainees into stress positions and using guard dogs to exploit what the former head commander in Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez referred to as "Arab fear of dogs.">> Read the full article from Wired. >> Download the Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures. ###
