Leaked Gitmo Gulag Manual online at CCR

It's a 238-page manual in a huge bloated 1.8 Megabyte .PDF file, 
and CCR's server is horribly slow. It may take quite a few minutes to
download it. 

MichaelP says he was unable to get to it at all via the URL below,
but we had no trouble. It was just terribly slow. 

http://ccrjustice.org/files/Camp%20Delta%20Operating%20Procedures.pdf

Michael suggests if you cannot access it at the URL above, try pointing
your browser to http://ccrjustice.org
instead and then look
for "a fairly obvious link." [The link is in the Nov 16, 2007 press
release reproduced below.]

It's probably better to download the file and then read it from your
own machine than trying to read it online with your .pdf reader.

NY Transfer

                            ***

Center for Constitutional Rights - Nov 16, 2007
http://www.ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/leaked-guant%C3%A1namo-manual-shows-red-cross-denied-access-groups-detainees

Leaked Guant!namo Manual Shows Red Cross Denied Access 
to Groups of Detainees

CCR Calls for Release of Current Manual and Full ICRC Access 
to All Detained in U.S. Custody

CONTACT: Jen Nessel, press@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 16, 2007, New York " After the recent leak of the "Camp Delta
Standard Operating Procedures Manual" from March 2003, the Center for
Constitutional Rights (CCR) called for action to address what it
considered one of the most troubling aspects of the do***ent, the
denial and restriction of access by the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) to variously designated groups of detainees at the
camp. The results of Red Cross visits are not made public, but access
is mandated in order to ensure the humane treatment of all prisoners.

Geneva Conventions

The 2003 SOP manual sharply restricts Red Cross access to Guant!namo
prisoners, in direct violation of Article 26 of Common Article III of
the Geneva Convention of 1949. The SOP manual states that All
detainees will have a level of ICRC contact designated for them " the
four levels being No Access, Restricted, Unrestricted, and
Visual. Yet the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of
war states that the ICRC shall have access to all premises occupied by
prisoners of war, be able to interview the prisoners without witnesses
present, and that the duration and frequency of these visits shall not
be restricted.

According to CCR attorneys, one of the reasons the government created
the new designations enemy combatant and unlawful enemy combatant
was to cir***vent Geneva requirements that the Red Cross be allowed to
monitor the treatment of people held in U.S. custody. The government
went further in creating a system of secret CIA black sites where
ghost detainees could be kept entirely hidden from view and subject
to what President Bush called an alternative set of procedures that
are widely believed to have included waterboarding and other forms of
torture. It recently came to light that the administration has
continued this program after having told the world it was suspended
more than a year ago.

Despite the written policy in the SOP manual, in December 2003, the
head of the U.S. delegation to the International Conference of the Red
Cross and the Red Crescent told a press briefing, we feel that all
aspects of the Geneva convention have been met and as you know the ICRC
has access to Guant!namo and that is an im****tant part of the
responsibilities that always has existed for the ICRC.

The SOP manual has a cover page by Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller that
authorizes its use. Miller was commander of prison camps at the time
and, according to the Miami Herald repeatedly told re****ters that the
International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC had full access at the
Pentagon's showcase detention and interrogation center.

A State Department spokesperson told The New York Times in 2005,
there's no legal requirement [to provide ICRC access to Guant!namo].
Nevertheless, and even though we're not required to do so, we do
provide access to the vast majority of detainees under our control, and
we do accord Geneva protections to them.

In February 2006 White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, The
International Committee for the Red Cross has been provided full access
to the detainees [at Guant!namo].

Calls for Transparency

Given the administrations contradictory statements about CIA ghost
detainees, who then and now are kept hidden from the Red Cross, and the
revelation of four designations of access to the men at Guant!namo at
least up until 2003, attorneys with the Center for Constitutional
Rights called for a full accounting by the U.S. government of all
levels of ICRC access to all men and women and children in its custody.

The Pentagon claims that the manual is out of date and has been
replaced by a new set of policies, said CCR Senior Attorney Shayana
Kadidal. The burden is on the Bush administration to make the new
manual public. It's clear that the administration has been less than
forthcoming about the ICRCs access to prisoners in the past, so it's
up to them to prove that theyve cleaned up their act.

State Department Re****ts Criticize Other Countries for Lack of ICRC
Access There is a stark contrast between the Pentagon's written policy
of concealing prisoners from the ICRC or restricting ICRC access to
them on the one hand and the U.S. State Department's repeated
declarations that the ICRC is the international guarantor of prisoner
protection on the other. The State Department's annual Human Rights
re****ts routinely cite the ICRC as the authority on the condition of
prisoners. Not only has the State Department repeatedly cited
unrestricted ICRC prison inspections as a mark of probity, it has also
held any restrictions on ICRC inspections up to sharp criticism, as it
did in the 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2006 re****ts on Tajikistan,
2005 and 2006 re****ts on human rights in Eritrea, the 2005 re****ts on
Armenia and Macedonia, the 2002 and 2003 re****ts on Iraq, and the 2002
re****ts on Malaysia and Uzbekistan.

Styrofoam cups

While the Pentagon claims the manual is out of date, it not only
do***ents illegal behavior but ****nes a light on government treatment
of the men in its custody. Entries range from the withholding of
religious articles and the aggressive use of dogs to intimidate the men
to the handling of Styrofoam cups: If the cup is damaged or destroyed,
the detainee will be disciplined for destruction of government
property.

As bad as the Guant!namo SOP manual is, we must not forget that the
United States government has at least 39 ghost detainees that weve
do***ented together with other human rights groups. These are prisoners
held in secret sites in Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, and
Spain, where no one outside the government knows where they are, how
they are being abused or even if they are alive, Kadidal continued
[re****t available here]. If the military routinely conceals the
existence of some prisoners who are being kept in a site like
Guant!namo that the ICRC knows about and visits, imagine what they do
with prisoners who are held in secret locations.

SOP Manual Details

Attorneys representing Guant!namo detainees listed what they considered
other interesting or troubling items in the manual:

4-20. Behavior Management Plan. Designed to "enhance and exploit the
disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in
the interrogation process. It concentrates on isolating the detainee
and fostering dependence of the detainee on his interrogator." No Koran
or religious items allowed.

5-2 ff, 6-13 ff. Provides long list and descriptions of records kept at
the camp (daily re****ts, incident re****ts, etc.). Many blank forms are
appended to the manual.

5-2. Notes that "writing on cups" is considered contraband.

6-4. Provides SOP for searching Koran.

6-9. Styrofoam cups, among other items, are to be inventoried. There
seems to be an obsession throughout the manual on keeping track of
Styrofoam cups.

6-15. Instructions not to use the word "suicide" in various logs;
instead must "use the phrase 'self-injurious behavior' in all
do***entation." Also, "significant activities" to be logged include
passing notes on foam cups, leading prayer, etc.

8-3. Provides rules for sending a prisoner to solitary confinement, but
"does not apply to moves ... for intelligence purposes."

8-7. Description of the five-level "detainee classification system"
used for parceling out "rewards" (like the privilege of keeping
devotional items (see 8-10).

8-10(k)(12). "Styrofoam Cups. If the cup has writing on it, confiscate
it ... and give to the Evidence Custodian. If the cup is damaged or
destroyed, the detainee will be disciplined for destruction of
government property."

10-6 Recreation time restricted to 20 minutes two times per week.

13-2. Discusses computer logging procedures for all mail sent to and
from prisoners.

13-8. "Mail containing complaints or criticisms of any governmental
agency or official" will not be allowed to be mailed out of GTMO.

15-10. Discusses how interpreters should be exploited to gather
intelligence.

16-1 ff. Lengthy section on accommodation of religion.

16-18 ff. Sections on Muslim funeral and burial rites, including
diagram of proper burial method.

17-4. Levels of visitation for ICRC, including "no access," which
allows "no contact of any kind with the ICRC."

19-8. Section on hunger striking, including requirement that a JAG sign
off before any force-feeding happens. This is clearly out of date.

24-1. Details full set of procedures for IRFing ("Immediate Reaction
Force" operations).

26-1. Use of dogs at GTMO, including for "psychological deterrence" --
dogs "will walk 'Main Street' in Camp Delta during ****ft to demonstrate
physical presence to detainees."

28-1. Includes Public Affairs "Themes for Global War on Terrorism,"
including that these detainees are the "most dangerous" but are
nonetheless treated "humanely and consistent with the principles of the
Geneva Conventions."

32-1. Discussion of suicide protocols.

Appendix A. A glossary of abbreviations. Also serves as a de facto
checklist of forms and records kept by the military. Section IV of the
appendix is an index to the whole manual. Also included are maps of
Camp Delta.

CCR has led the legal battle over Guant!namo for the last six years "
sending the first ever habeas attorney to the base and " just this
month " sending the first attorney to meet with a former CIA ghost
detainee. CCR has been responsible for organizing and coordinating the
largest ever coalition of pro-bono lawyers in order to defend the men
at Guant!namo, ensuring that nearly all have been represented. CCR will
be representing the detainees with co-counsel in the Supreme Court on
December 5.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and
protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys
who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a
non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative
use of law as a positive force for social change.

- - 30 -

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