Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
November 16, 2007
‘All cups are considered equal …’

Mulling over the leaked Camp Delta Standard Operation Procedures (pdf, protection removed, 4.2mb) for Guantanamo one wonders, what the people who have written it think about themselves and others.

It is banality of evil documented on 250 or so pages. Consider the bureaucracy of the system that is ouzing from each page:

Chapter 8 – Detainee Behavioral Management

8-8. GTMO Form 508-1

a. The GTMO Form 508-1 is used to determine which rewards the detainee will lose or gain.

b. Process for issuing a GTMO Form 508-1 for discipline:
(1) Details about incident phoned to DOC to begin processing a DD Form 508.
(2) DA Form(s) 2823 filled out by personnel witnessing the incident, detailing the incident.
(3) PL determines discipline based on matrix and previous record of offenses by detainee, then prepares GTMO Form 508-1 for on-duty CO’s review. The form must include a brief description of the offense, the number of times the detainee has committed offenses, and the discipline to be imposed.
(4) If the on-duty CO concurs, the discipline is entered on the DD Form 508 from the GTMO Form 508-1.
(5) After all required forms are complete, the onduty CO signs the DD Form 508 as the Confinement Officer and forwards to JDOG S3 for approval. Upon approval, the offense is entered into the discipline log for the detainee.
(6) A copy of the GTMO Form 508-1 is sent to the block to be briefed to the detainee by the Block NCO, SOG, or PL. The copy will be retained with the detainee’s records on the block.
(7) All original forms will be forwarded to Detention Services Branch at the end of shift.

c. Process for issuing a GTMO Form 508-1 for
reward:

Gitmo prisoners receive ‘rewards’ …

In May 1943, after personal suggestion from Heinrich Himmler, the SS issued the "Dienstvorschrift für die Gewährung von Vergünstigungen an Häftlinge", the "Service Regulation for Permissioning Privileges to Prisoners". Under the detailed regulation, concentration camp inmates who were ‘good workers’ could be ‘rewarded’. Possible rewards were allowance to wear a military haircut (instead of being kept bald), cigarettes, stuff from the cantine or a visit to the camp brothel.

As far as we can tell, Gitmo does not have a regulated camp brothel. But that may just be for lack of female prisoners who could be ‘disciplined’ by getting raped there. It is certainly not for lack of will to write the regulating Standard Operation Procedures of such.

‘Rewards’ in Gitmo are a bigger piece of soap, the privilege to get toilet paper as required, toothpaste on Sundays or being allowed to keep a styrofoam cup in the cell. All ‘reward’ items can of course also be again confiscated to ‘discipline’ the prisoner.

8-10. Confiscation of Items

k. Items

(12) Styrofoam Cups. If the cup has writing on it, confiscate, complete a DA 4137, and give to the Evidence Custodian. If the cup is damaged or destroyed, the detainee will be disciplined for destruction of government property. Also, consult the damaged property matrix to determine the length of time the detainee loses the Styrofoam cup. If the detainee has lost his cup due to discipline, he will receive a cup with his meal but must return it at the completion of the meal. Due to supply issues, different size cups may be used at anytime. All cups are considered equal regardless of size.

What do the authors, who considered and wrote about the equality of styrofoam cups, think about the equality of men?

Comments

“All cups are considered equal…” damn good catch, Bernhard — it also gives the guard a way to enforce a bit of discretionary discipline.
I recall Victor Frankl’s description of the power the fellow inmate had who ladled out the “soup” — he could scoop up some vegetables from the bottom or just skim the thin broth from the top and pour it into your bowl, “All spoonfuls of soup are equal…”
My understanding from what I have read of witnesses is that it is sometimes small things that hurt the prisoner more — not to ignore the grosser forms of torture.
Again, I remember from Frankl how he described a blow from a guard that missed — the guard didn’t even bother to take another swing — and Frankl says that blow in a way hurt more than all the other beatings he had.
Finally, there is another point in the styrofoam cup — that if there are markings on it, it is a cause for discipline. Prisoners have scratched poetry on them with their fingernails and the prisoners must not have such an opportunity to express and confirm their humanity.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Nov 17 2007 7:11 utc | 1

goodness. forcing someone read through that doc could probably qualify as torture somewhere outside the machine. sounds like a big highly-controlled experiment, only w/o any control group.

Posted by: b real | Nov 17 2007 8:24 utc | 2

This Miller guy commander, I wonder if it’s his language, I bet he could have written it. The guy is the Americanized “good German Nazi soldier” par exellence. Look at him talking and you know what you have in front of you.
These guys think a well formulated SOP somehow makes their abuses more professional looking and therefore morally superior and ethically more right than those other “run down the mill” ad-hoc punishments, uncontrolled by a bureaucratic procedures (tortures). All it has to do is to look as if everything were just “standard procedure”, technically correct and “right to the letter of the law”. Package the thing in nice buerocratic language. If it’s written black on white and in the books, it’s legal, it’s good and it’s right. Basta.
We know those types.

Posted by: mimi | Nov 17 2007 17:30 utc | 3

superb post B …just superb
and horrific

Posted by: siun | Nov 17 2007 18:30 utc | 4