Guantanamo ops manual leaked online

An operating manual for the Guantanamo prison camp was leaked onto the Internet via Wikileaks.org. Dated March 2003, the 238-page text entitled “Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta” provided details of how to handle prisoners:

The document prohibits abuse or corporal punishment but says new detainees should be held in near isolation for their first two weeks.

One section of the manual says some detainees should not have access to visitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross, something the US military has denied.

Precise instructions are given on how to search a prisoner's cell, and how to pepper spray an unruly detainee.

Four pages are taken up to explain how new prisoners should be taken off the plane they arrive on and transported to the main prison camp.

A U.S. military spokesman admitted that the manual was “authentic” though he added that it was also “out-of-date.” In addition, Army Lt. Col. Ed Bush said that the manual was unclassified yet “not intended for mass distribution.”

As a Reuters article points out accusations of abuse at the prison camp have been brought up by prisoners, human rights groups and even former military members who worked there.

Sources- BBC News, Associated Press, Reuters, Wired.com, Wikileaks.org

Image- CBC