Explosive New Documents Reveal More Details of Bush-Era Torture, Including Prisoners Tortured to Death

The more we learn, the uglier it gets.

Over 1,000 pages of government documents were released yesterday providing new details of the Bush administration's treatment of prisoners in the so-called "war on terror" Among other things, the documents reveal just how closely the Department of Defense collaborated with the CIA in its extrajudicial practices of indefinite detention and torture.

Released via FOIA requests, the paper trail includes confirmation of the existence of a previously "undisclosed detention facility" at Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base, as well as evidence that the DoD schemed to keep the Red Cross away from its detainees by holding off on registering their capture with the International Committee of the Red Cross for two weeks "to maximize intelligence collection."

Another salient and disturbing document includes correspondence sent to DoD transportation officials recommending that a set of Gitmo prisoners scheduled for released be detained for longer, due to fear of bad press.

In an e-mail sent to members of the Defense Department's Transportation Command (including Gen. Norton Schwartz, who is now the Air Force Chief of Staff) on February 17, 2006, an anonymous official -- the name was redacted -- wrote: