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 (168)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
July 29, 2009 | OPR | ACLU-RDI 6584
This Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) report was written in response to public debate over Jay Bybee's leaked memo titled "Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340-2340A", which was replaced soon after by Daniel ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Oversight Report
Jay S. Bybee, John C. Yoo, Daniel B. Levin, Steven G. Bradbury, Patrick Philbin, Alberto R. Gonzales
Abu Zubaydah, Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Gul Rahman
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Sexual, Threat, Assault/death, Mock Burial, Rendition, Family/others, Use of electricity, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Religious, Forced grooming
Jan. 28, 2003 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6509
These guidelines, issued by George Tenet, detail permissible interrogation techniques (including EITs), medical and psychological personnel who must be present, interrogation personnel, approvals required, and recordkeeping requirements.
June 10, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Chart/List
George Tenet
George J. Tenet
EIT, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Other Humiliation
June 13, 2014 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5936
This document is the CIA's response to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program. "The comments presented in this paper on The Senate Select Committee on ...
Dec. 08, 2014
Non-legal Memo
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein | The Honorable Saxby Chambliss
Gul Rahman, Khalid Al-Masri, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Physical assault, Threat, Use of electricity, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Nudity, Other Humiliation
June 20, 2014 | Legislative | ACLU-RDI 5937
This document expresses the minority views of Vice Chairman Chambliss and Senators Burr, Risch, Coats, Rubio, and Coburn written in response to the full Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program. ...
June 20, 2014
Oversight Report
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury, George W. Bush, Ali Soufan, Pasquale D'Amuro
Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Jose Padilla, Hassan Ghul
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Threat, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Nudity, Other Humiliation
CIA | ACLU-RDI 5083
CIA summary of 60 Minutes program on detainee abuse in Iraq. The summary details the program's review of the released Abu Ghraib photos and some of the U.S. army officials involved in the scandal.
Mar. 15, 2013
Non-legal Memo
Ivan L. Frederick, II, Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt, Janis Leigh Karpinski
EIT, Physical assault, General, Sexual, Threat, Use of electricity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Apr. 30, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5104
CIA copy of a New Yorker article tracing the responsibility for American soldiers brutalizing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Janis Leigh Karpinski, Ricardo Sanchez, Antonio Taguba, Ivan L. Frederick, II, Charles A. Graner, Jr., Javal Sean Davis, Megan M. Ambuhl, Sabrina D. Harman, Jeremy C. Sivits, Lynndie Rana England, Joseph M. Darby, Scott Bobeck, Jerry Phillabaum, Donald J. Ryder, Jason Kennel, Thomas Pappas, Steven Jordan, Geoffrey D. Miller, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Ricardo Sanchez
EIT, Use of water, Water dousing, Other, Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Sexual, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
May 07, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 5066

This article describes the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, focusing on the photographed bodies of deceased detainees. It describes the CIA Inspector General's and DOJ's investigations into the possibility that the Abu ...

Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Antonio Taguba, Ivan L. Frederick, II, Fazel Akbar
Manadel Al-Jamadi, Abed Hamed Mowhoush, Abdul Wali
Physical assault, Other Humiliation
Feb. 28, 2009 | CID | ACLU-RDI 5571
This is a CID investigation in to the reported killing and mutilation of an unarmed Afghani civilian in Helmand Province Afghanistan by a Special Forces soldier. This CID investigation alleges that a Master Sergeant (MSG) shot the Afghani male on ...
Jan. 14, 2011
Chart/List, Investigative File (CID), Notes, Photograph, Interview (Statement, Summaries/Notes)
Unknown Afghan Male, Foward Operating Base Robinson, Helmand Provence, Afganistan, March 1, 2008
Physical assault, Other Humiliation, Other
May 27, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 5485
A CID prosecution of a Sergeant First Class (SFC) for the murder of Iraqi civilian, Salih Taher Khaleefa, and the maltreatment of an unidentified Iraqi juvenile. The investigation found that the SFC "shot and killed Mr. Khaleefa without ...
Jan. 14, 2011
Investigative File (CID), Notes, Photograph, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Salih Taher Khaleefa
Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Threat, Assault/death, Other Humiliation
July 29, 2009 | OPR | ACLU-RDI 5022

The DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) released this report investigating whether Department of Justice attorneys violated their ethical obligations in issuing several memoranda authorizing the use of Enhanced Interrogation ...

July 19, 2010
Oversight Report
Frank Wolf, Larry Thompson, Ted Ullyot, George J. Tenet, Steven G. Bradbury, Jay S. Bybee, John C. Yoo, Patrick Leahy, David S. Addington, John D. Ashcroft, John B. Bellinger, III, David Brant, Michael Chertoff, Adam Ciongoli, Paul Clement, James B. Comey, Alice Fisher, Timothy E. Flanigan, Ari Fleischer, Jack L. Goldsmith, Alberto R. Gonzales, Stephen Hadley, William J. Haynes, II, John L. Helgerson, H. Marshall Jarrett, Patrick Leahy, Daniel B. Levin, John McCain, John McLaughlin, Paul McNulty, Harriet Miers, Alberto Mora, Steven J. Morello, Scott W. Muller, Robert S. Mueller, Patrick Philbin, Colin L. Powell, Condoleeza Rice, John A. Rizzo, Chuck Rosenberg, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Michael Mukasey, Mark Filip, Barack H. Obama, David Margolis, Michael Gelles, Robert J. Delahunty, Diane E. Beaver, Thomas J. Romig, David Leitch, John B. Wiegmann, Alan Kreczko, Christopher Schroeder
Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Mohammed al Qahtani, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity, Other