WikiLeaks Releases US Staff Manual at Gitmo

WikiLeaks began publishing more than 100 Pentagon documents today that may shed more light on techniques used to interrogate detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, reports Reuters. The first release is the 2002 staff manual for Gitmo, and more will follow over the next month, reports AFP. A statement from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says the docs show "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."

The group maintains that the dump will show that while regulations forbid direct physical abuse, interrogators still routinely terrorized their subjects through a variety of techniques. Any bombshells? Maybe not. "Unlike other recent releases, with the Detainee Policies WikiLeaks seems to be focusing on history more than news," notes Forbes. Meanwhile, Assange is still holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and rumored to be in poor health. (More WikiLeaks stories.)