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 (115)

This letter from Steven Bradbury to the CIA's Associate General Counsel is a response to the CIA's August 23, 2007 letter regarding the interrogation of [redacted]. This letter states that applying the interrogation technique in question for the ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Letter
Steven G. Bradbury
This letter from Steven Bradbury to the CIA's Associate General Counsel is a response to the CIA's November 7, 2007 letter regarding the interrogation of [redacted]. This letter states that applying the interrogation technique in question for the ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Letter
Steven G. Bradbury
This September 25, 2009 OLC memo from John Yoo finds that in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the President has the constitutional power to 1) retaliate against any person, organization, or state suspected of involvement in these attacks ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo
Deputy Counsel to the President
This December 30, 2004 OLC memo from Daniel Levin interprets the federal criminal prohibition against torture. This memo supersedes the August 2002 memorandum ("Standards of Conduct under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340–2340A") in its entirety.
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
Daniel B. Levin
Deputy Attorney General
This April 15, 2009 OLC memo from David Barron states the withdrawal of four previous OLC opinions regarding CIA interrogation methods. The decision to withdraw the four opinions was made in connection with the consideration of these opinions for ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
David J. Barron
Attorney General
This May 25, 2004 letter from Jack Goldsmith asks John Helgerson for time to review the description in the CIA's memo of the OLC's advice concerning interrogations in the war on terrorism, before it is sent to Congress.
Aug. 31, 2016
Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
John L. Helgerson
Scott W. Muller, John L. Helgerson, Jack L. Goldsmith
This memorandum from the Office of the Assistant Attorney General to Alberto Gonzales examines the legal standards of conduct for interrogations under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
This memo discusses and summarizes the OLC opinions issued in 2002 and 2003 about the legal standards for interrogations of detainees.
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo, Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
Index of DOJ advice on interrogations, including OLC memos, letters, testimony.
An OLC memo to the CIA addressing whether the use of "twelve particular interrogation techniques (attention grasp, walling, facial hold, facial slap (insult slap), cramped confinement, wall standing, stress positions, sleep deprivation, dietary ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
Daniel B. Levin
John A. Rizzo