Detainee Policies

Releases Documents

Release 1

24 October, 2012

Starting today, Thursday, 25th October 2012, WikiLeaks begins releasing the ’Detainee Policies’: more than 100 classified or otherwise restricted files from ​the United States Department of Defense covering the rules and procedures for detainees in U.S. military custody. Over the next month, WikiLeaks will ​release in chronological order the United States’ military detention policies followed for more than a decade. The documents include the Standard Operating ​Procedures (SOPs) of detention camps in Iraq and Cuba, interrogation manuals and Fragmentary Orders (FRAGOs) of changes to detainee policies and ​procedures. A number of the ’Detainee Policies’ relate to Camp Bucca in Iraq, but there are also Department of Defense-wide policies and documents relating ​to Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and European U.S. Army Prison facilities.

Among the first to be released is the foundation document for Guantanamo Bay ("Camp Delta") – the 2002 Camp Delta SOP manual. The release of the ​’Detainee Policies’ marks three years of Camp Delta (Guantanamo Bay) SOP manuals released by WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks has now released the main ​Guantanamo Bay operating manuals for 2002, 2003 and 2004. The previously unpublished 2002 manual went on to shape successive years in the ​Guantanamo Bay prison complex and other U.S. military prisons around the world, such as Abu Ghraib. "This document is of significant historical importance. ​Guantanamo Bay has become the symbol for systematised human rights abuse in the West with good reason," said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "But ​how is it that WikiLeaks has now published three years of Guantanamo Bay operating procedures, but the rest of the world’s press combined has published ​none?"

In relation to Iraq, the release includes Operation Orders (OPORD) regarding policies for screening and interrogating detainees. The documents also include ​routine instructions relating to staffing, scheduling of legal visitation, procedures for administering medical treatment, how medical records and daily staff ​journals are to be kept, cigarette rationing and what items are "authorised for detainee possession".

A number of what can only be described as ’policies of unaccountability’ will also be released. One such document is the 2005 document ’Policy on Assigning ​Detainee Internment Serial Numbers’. This document is concerned with discreetly ’disappearing’ detainees into the custody of other U.S. government ​agencies while keeping their names out of U.S. military central records – by systematically holding off from assigning a prisoner record number (ISN). Even ​references to this document are classified "SECRET//NOFORN". Detainees may be disposed of in this manner without leaving a significant paper trail.

Another formal policy of unaccountability is a 2008 Fragmentary Order that minimises the record-keeping surrounding interrogations. Following revelations ​of torture tapes and pictures from Abu Ghraib and the political scandal over the destruction of Central Intelligence Agency interrogation tapes, the FRAGO ​eliminates "the requirement to record interrogation sessions at Theatre Internment Facilities". Although the FRAGO goes on to state that interrogations that ​take place at Division Internment Facilities and Brigade Internment Facilities must be recorded, it then states that these should be "purged within 30 days". ​This policy was subsequently reversed by the new Obama administration.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said: "The ’Detainee Policies’ show the anatomy of the beast that is post-9/11 detention, the carving out of a dark space ​where law and rights do not apply, where persons can be detained without a trace at the convenience of the U.S. Department of Defense. It shows the ​excesses of the early days of war against an unknown ’enemy’ and how these policies matured and evolved, ultimately deriving into the permanent state of ​exception that the United States now finds itself in, a decade later."

A number of documents relate to the policies surrounding the interrogation of detainees (2004, 2005, 2008). Direct physical violence is prohibited, in writing, ​but a formal policy of terrorising detainees during interrogations, combined with a policy of destroying interrogation recordings, has led to abuse and ​impunity. We learn of policies that apply to international forces: a 13-page interrogation policy document from 2005 relates to all personnel in the Multi-​National Force–Iraq (MNF–I). It details "approved" "interrogation approaches". The documents detail the promotion of exploitative techniques such as the ​"Emotional Love Approach: Playing on the love a detained person has for family, homeland or comrades". In the "Fear Up (Harsh)" approach, by contrast, "the ​interrogator behaves in an overpowering manner with a loud and threatening voice in order to convince the source he does indeed have something to fear; ​that he has no option but to co-operate".

The ’Detainee Policies’ provide a more complete understanding of the instructions given to captors as well as the ’rights’ afforded to detainees. We call upon ​lawyers, NGOs, human rights activists and the public to mine the ’Detainee Policies’ and investigate important issues such as the denial of access to the ICRC ​(International Committee of the Red Cross) to detainee facilities, as well as to research and compare the different generations of SOPs and FRAGOs to help us ​better understand the evolution in these policies and why they have occurred. Publicise your findings using the hashtag #WLfindDP