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 (147)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Aug. 31, 2006 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6796
A letter providing legal advice regarding whether the conditions of detention at certain overseas CIA facilities are consistent with the applicable standards of the DTA. It concludes that the conditions of confinement did not constitute "cruel, ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury
EIT, Cramped confinement, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Forced grooming, Other Humiliation
Dec. 06, 2006 | ACLU-RDI 6511
N/A
June 13, 2016
Non-legal Memo
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature
June 07, 2006 | ACLU-RDI 6500
N/A
June 13, 2016
Email
George W. Bush, Michael Hayden
Stress positions, Other Humiliation
Nov. 08, 2006 | ACLU-RDI 6490
This is a heavily redacted message from John Rizzo to Michael Hayden, Michael Morell, and Stephen Kappes, describing an ICRC meeting with detainees and how the detainees' allegations to the ICRC do not "sound far removed from the reality."
June 13, 2016
Email
John A. Rizzo
Michael Hayden, Stephen Kappes, John A. Rizzo, Michael Morell
Dec. 06, 2006 | ODNI | ACLU-RDI 5933
Faxed memorandum from Benjamin Powell to Distribution regarding a November 29, 2006 meeting where representatives from the NSC, DOD, State Department, DOJ, CIA, and ODNI met to discuss security issues concerning the 14 High Value Detainees being ...
Oct. 31, 2014
Non-legal Memo
Benjamin Powell
Ashley Deeks
Ashley S. Deeks
Feb. 15, 2006 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 5000

A State Department memo addressing whether Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture applies to the CIA's interrogations in foreign countries. The State Department determined that the prohibitions against torture do apply, despite its ...

Apr. 03, 2012
Legal Memo
Phillip Zelikow
Phillip Zelikow
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Nudity
May 04, 2006 | ACLU-RDI 6433
This documents the interview of Detainee 269 at GTMO on 5/4/06. It states that Detainee 269 was interviewed in an air conditioned room with his hands free and his feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. The synopsis states that the purpose of the ...
Nov. 01, 2011
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Other
June 12, 2006 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 5896
DOS Cable from the US Embassy New Deli, India to DOS Washington re: Media Reactions June 10-12, 2006. The Cable includes a summary of media reactions under the following headings: Guantánamo Bay- "US is under pressure to defend 3 jail suicides", ...
June 19, 2006 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 5904
DOS Cable from the US Embassy New Delhi, India to DOS Washington, re: Media Reactions June 17-19, 2006. The Cable includes sixteen (16) news articles from Indian New outlets and features the headline Global War on Terror, with several news ...
Aug. 18, 2006 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 5912
This DOS Cable from the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan to the DOS Washington describes the Pakistani news coverage of matters concerning US policy, and matters of interest to the US government for August 2006.