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 (67)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
June 29, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2599
Sworn statement of an Operations Sergeant who discusses interrogation practices. Refers to a detainee, "our number one target," who was captured by Iraqi police, who "beat [redacted] with the pistol to the point where his head was split open in a ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General, Assault/death, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Threat, Environmental manipulation
June 20, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2602
Statement of detainee captured by Special Forces and taken to a place that he believed belonged to the CIA. States that he was held in a box "one meter long and one meter high," given no food for three days, and prevented from sleeping by "loud ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Sept. 26, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 4786
Sworn statement by a Iraqi national who became a detainee at Abu Ghraib with member of his family. He claims that his brother was with the Saddam regime and when he went to visit his sister in Iraq he was taken in to custody as a detainee and ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Family/others, Use of phobias, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Nov. 08, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2315
Report on an informal investigation conducted by Brigadier General Richard P. Formica into specific allegations of detainee abuse within CJSOTF-AP [Combined Joint Special Operating Task Force – Arabian Peninsula] and 5th SF [Special Forces] Group ...
June 15, 2006
Oversight Report, Investigative File
Richard P. Formica
Ricardo Sanchez, George R. Fay, Richard P. Formica
Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Use of electricity, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Sept. 04, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2078
This document is a letter from the defense counsel of an accused soldier for an adjournment in the proceedings for the soldier to be assigned new defense counsel and to allow that new counsel to prepare for trial in the matter. The facts of the ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Letter, UCMJ (Article 32)
Sexual, Assault/death, Family/others, Hooding/Goggling, Physical assault, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Sept. 16, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2250
Criminal Investigation Command (CID) report into allegations of assault, cruelty and maltreatment of a detainee by guards at Abu Ghraib. Among the detainee's allegations, he stated that a US Army Sergeant hung him by his arms from the bars of a ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Donald J. Ryder, Thom Jones
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity, Other
Mar. 05, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2278
Investigation into abuse of detainee at Ramadi Palace before arriving at Abu Ghraib. Detainee alleges that he was hood and handcuffed, kicked and hit with the butt of a rifle in the back. Doctor found no signs of bruising. Marine Corps had ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, General, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
May 03, 2004 | DOA | OJAG | ACLU-RDI 2294

This document is the Court Martial - charge and prosecution package for Specialist Charles A. Graner, Jr. of the 372nd Military Police Company. SPC Graner was a key figure in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and this document contains the ...

Feb. 15, 2006
Photograph, UCMJ (Court-Martial), Judicial (Transcript)
Charles A. Graner, Jr.
Physical assault, Sexual, Assault/death, Family/others, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Sexual, Religious, Forced physical training, Threat, Environmental manipulation, Other Humiliation
June 12, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2298
Detainee alleged that while at Abu Ghraib prison several soldiers slapped; punched; choked; struck his head, shoulders, and arms with a retractable metal baton; jumped on him; forced him to lean against a wall in a seated position; forced him to ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Walling, Sexual, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Forced physical training
Nov. 02, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2300
Detainee reported that he was arrested after US forces found a weapon in his home. He was detained at Al Sijood Palace, Iraq, and it was during this detention he states he was hooded; flexicuffed; punched; kicked; yelled at; and threatened. ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling