No WMDs, but plenty of MWDs at Gitmo in 2004

From March 2003 to 2004, US forces invaded Iraq, supposedly largely based on the justification that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of destruction. But they proved non-existent, as many experts had been saying all along – although the mainstream media largely failed to provide those experts with a voice.

However, there were plenty of MWDs existent through this period – and in use. MWDs – Military Working Dogs – were a regular feature of life in 2003 and 2004, not just in the US military prison camp Abu Grahib, Iraq, but also much closer to home, at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay.

On December 3, 2007 Wikileaks released the secret 2004 manual for the base, together with a detailed list of changes over its 2003 predecessor.

Between The SOP Manual from 2003 includes a whole chapter on Military Working Dogs – chapter 26. MWD teams are to be deployed for “psychological deterrence”, walking the “Main Street” of Camp Delta during shift “to demonstrate physical presence to detainees”. That is, menacing dogs are required to be a constant presence.

Dogs are also used on “detainee transfer” missions. Upon request, dogs can be used to assist a special team called an “Immediate Reaction Force” to extract prisoners from their cells – though it appears more of an Overreaction Force. This team consists of 5 heavily armed guards. The “Number One Man” pins the detainee to the ground with a shield, and then the “Number Two” through “Number 5” Men are responsible for one limb of the detainee each.

The procedure is portrayed in the movie “The Road to Guantanamo” in a manner consistent with the SOP manual.

Dogs can assist this 5-man force in extracting one detainee, according to section 26-2-b-(2)(b) of the Camp Delta manual.

In the 2004 manual, chapter 26 is substantially unchanged, and the policy remains. MWDs were regularly used at Guantanamo, while WMDs remained undetected in Iraq.

In response to the Wikileaks release of the 2003 manual, a US military spokesman told Reuters that no dogs are used at Guantanamo today, but did not say when or when such a change was made.