For the first time, employees at Guantanamo have come forward and in interviews with the New York Times, contradicted claims of the military on whether there was harsh or coercive treatment of detainees.

Many detainees at Guantánamo Bay were regularly subjected to harsh and coercive treatment, several people who worked in the prison said in recent interviews, despite longstanding assertions by military officials that such treatment had not occurred except in some isolated cases.

The people, military guards, intelligence agents and others, described in interviews with The New York Times a range of procedures that included treatment they said was highly abusive occurring over a long period of time, as well as rewards for prisoners who cooperated with interrogators.

The Times goes on to describe some of the abusive treatment to which the detainees were subjected for as long as 14 straight hours at a time.

"It fried them,'' the official said, explaining that anger over the treatment the prisoners endured was the reason for speaking with a reporter.

Here's how the Times describes its sources:

The new information comes from a number of people, some of whom witnessed or participated in the techniques and others who were in a position to know the details of the operation and corroborate their accounts.

Those who spoke of the interrogation practices at the naval base did so under the condition that their identities not be revealed. While some said it was because they remained on active duty with the military, they all said that being publicly identified would endanger their futures.

Kudos to the guards for speaking out.