SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - An operations manual for the U.S. prison at Guantanamo that was mysteriously posted on the Internet is out of date but still should not have been released to the public, the military said Wednesday. The 238-page detention camp "SOP," a military abbreviation for Standard Operating Procedures, that was posted anonymously from the Internet was from 2003 and was not a classified document, said Army Lt. Col. Ed Bush, a Guantanamo spokesman. Many changes in operating procedure have been made since then, he said.
Still, the manual - which outlines procedures for such things as how often a prisoner's cell should be searched and the proper way to handle a Muslim detainee who has died - was not meant to be public, Bush said. "It had been designated 'For Official Use Only' and for many reasons, to include the safety and security of U.S. service members, was not intended for mass distribution," he said.
The manual was posted in recent days and was being reviewed Wednesday by lawyers for detainees and human rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Constitutional Rights. ACLU lawyer Jamil Dakwar said he was particularly concerned about a section that said some detainees should have no contact with representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross and another section outlining how dogs should be used to patrol the camp.
| Since when does the ACLU have a position on patrol dogs? If a Muslim prisoner doesn't want to encounter a dog, he should behave himself and stay in the areas where he's told. Seems obvious to me. |