After September 11, 2001, U.S. officials authorized the cruel treatment and torture of prisoners held in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, and the CIA's secret prisons overseas.

This database documents the U.S. government's official experiment with torture. At present, the database contains well over 100,000 pages of government documents obtained primarily through Freedom of Information Act litigation and requests filed by the ACLU, and through litigation of Salim v. Mitchell, a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of the survivors and the family of a dead victim of the CIA torture program. To learn more about the database, please read the About and Search Help pages. If you're a developer, you can also access this data through our API.

Search Result (304)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Nov. 30, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3698
Letter from Margaret P. Grafeld, DOS to Amrit Singh, ACLU re: the ACLU's FOIA Request. The letter states that the document production requested is being complied with in some parts and denied or withheld in part.
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter, Judicial
Margaret P. Grafeld
Margaret P. Grafeld
Nov. 26, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3799
DOS Memo re: Background on Detainee Policy. This is part of a larger memo that is not attached herein. The background information contained here states: On November 13, 2001, President Bush issued a Military order authorizing the detention of ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush, Donald H. Rumsfeld
Nov. 17, 2004 | DOS | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 3759
State Department presentation delivered by Adam Roberts, Professor of International Relations at Oxford University and Fellow of Balliol College, entitled "Counter-terrorism, Armed Force and the Laws of War."
Dec. 30, 2004
Non-legal Memo
Adam Roberts
Nov. 16, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3669
This State Department document is a talking points memo addressing the Guantanamo detainees and their treatment. It states: The United States has detained al-Qaida, Taliban, and other enemy combatants who pose a threat to the U.S. and our allies; ...
Nov. 16, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3670
State Department memo addressing the release of January 2002 photographs of unidentified Guantanamo detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The memo states that although there was criticism of the release of the photo(s) the release was not a ...
Nov. 10, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3667
This is a letter from U.S. representative in the UK as the Director of United Kingdom, Benelux, and Ireland Affairs to Ms. Helen Clark, MP, UK House of Commons thanking her for her recent letter and concerns over the detainment and treatment of ...
Dec. 02, 2004
Letter
Alexander Karagiannis
Helen Clark
Alexander Karagiannis
Oct. 29, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3918
Letter from Margaret P. Grafeld, DOS to Amrit Singh, ACLU re: the ACLU's FOIA Request. The letter states that the document production requested is being complied with in some parts and denied or withheld in part.
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter, Judicial
Margaret P. Grafeld
Margaret P. Grafeld
Oct. 09, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3984
Partially redacted press guidance for DOD release of draft military instruction, which lists/defines certain violations of laws of war and other offenses triable by military commission. The talking points instruct that if inquired about the ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Ronald W. Miller
Ronald W. Miller, Pierre-Richard Prosper
Oct. 09, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4130
This document is a State Department press release of a press conference held by State Department Spokesman David Boucher concerning issues on the Middle-East peace progress with the Israelis and Palestinians, specifically discussing Yassar ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
Richard A. Boucher
George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Ari Fleischer, Richard A. Boucher, Anthony Charles Zinni, Colin L. Powell
Oct. 02, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4044
Emails discuss a rewrite of a statement on torture. [Document is not included].
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Ashley S. Deeks
Edward R. Cummings | JoAnn J. Dolan | Joshua L. Dorosin
Ashley S. Deeks, Shahnaz Gheibi, Edward R. Cummings, JoAnn J. Dolan, Joshua L. Dorosin, Katherine M. Gorove, Heather Troutman , Sharon E. Ahmad, Rhonda H. Shore