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 (57)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Apr. 21, 2003 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 4958

Detainee interviewed at Camp Delta, Guantanamo does not complain of his own treatment, but does relate a story he heard occurred at Guantanamo where a female interrogator removed her blouse, embraced the detainee from behind and put her hand ...

Jan. 02, 2007
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, Sexual, Threat, Assault/death, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious
July 23, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 4957
This email is a response to a Bureau wide memo sent by Steve McCraw to illicit information from FBI agents who toured through Guantanamo Bay to report any suspected or witnessed abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The agent stated "I did not ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Non-legal Memo, Email
Steven C. McCraw
Physical assault, Sexual, Other Humiliation, Religious
July 08, 2004 | USAF | ACLU-RDI 2466
This memo details how a Staff Sergeant took photos of himself standing with his rifle with his left foot propped on the detainee's buttocks, who is lying in the sand with hands bound behind his back and a sack covering his head. Photo was taken ...
June 30, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Physical assault, Other Humiliation
Aug. 08, 2005 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2472
A detainee who was not interested in being interrogated got in to a verbal spat with an interrogator who, after becoming angry with the detainee, threw a refrigerator and a chair at the detainees, injuring the detainee. There was also some very ...
June 30, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, Other Humiliation
DOD | ACLU-RDI 2407
This DOD memo is to address allegations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib in the wake of news reports and features, i.e. Sixty Minutes II, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. It lists the events and action taken in response and specifically ...
June 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt
Physical assault, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Aug. 01, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 652
An inquiry in to the abuse of a detainee taken in to custody after a raid on a residence by the U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines (2/2). The captured Iraqi alleged that he was verbally and physically abused during the course of ...
May 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File
Physical assault, General, Other Humiliation
May 05, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2267
The executive summary, dated May 5, 2004, contains a table listing Military Police officers from the 377th Military Police Company who were flagged for various offenses. The pending investigations concern the deaths of two Bagram detainees ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
David D. McKiernan, Antonio Taguba, Ricardo Sanchez, Thomas F. Metz, James R. Helmly, Ivan L. Frederick, II, Javal Sean Davis, Megan M. Ambuhl, Charles A. Graner, Jr., Sabrina D. Harman, Jeremy C. Sivits, Michael N. Ertman, Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt, Lynndie Rana England
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Other
July 16, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 2310
Discusses incidents of abuse of detainees by Army personnel that have been substantiated. Legal discussion point out that Article 93 does not specifically prohibit these acts, but does prohibit cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment and intent ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Physical assault, General, Assault/death, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Nudity, Sexual, Religious, Threat, Other Humiliation
May 19, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2313
Discusses existence of new photos of abuse of detainees. A CD of photographs was provided by CIA to Department of Defense who forwarded it to the Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID). Some of the photographs were the Abu Ghraib ones shown ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Donald H. Rumsfeld, Janis Leigh Karpinski
Sexual, General, Sexual, Physical assault, Other Humiliation
June 05, 2002 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 1867
Memo describes the observations of a FBI agent, who observed the improper handling of a detainee in an interrogation room at Camp Delta. The agent was in a video observation room and saw a detainee on his knees rubbing a cramp out of his leg ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Stress positions, Other Humiliation