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 (43)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
May 03, 2004 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 3991
Letter from Cristophe Girod, International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), to William Howard Taft IV re: Working Paper on ICRC Sixth Visit to the internment facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, between January 26 th and March 8th 2004. Mr. ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Christophe Girod
William Howard Taft, IV
William Howard Taft, IV, Jay W. Hood, P. Michael McKinley, Charles A. Allen, John B. Bellinger, III, Shirin Tahir-Kheli, Benjamin R. Mixon
Mar. 26, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4017
This cable sent from the Paris Mission sent to State Department Headquarters with the following synopsis: “On March 19, 2002, post received a letter addressed to the Ambassador from the attorneys of the families of detainees who are allegedly in ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Colin L. Powell
JoAnn J. Dolan, Colin L. Powell, Bruce Swartz, John B. Bellinger, III, Eliana Davidson
June 21, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4038
Icon and email indicate that a file titled "state comments on torture day statement" is attached.
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Katherine M. Gorove
JoAnn J. Dolan | Edward R. Cummings | Michael G. Kozak
Shahnaz Gheibi, Katherine M. Gorove, JoAnn J. Dolan, Edward R. Cummings, Michael G. Kozak, Sharon E. Ahmad, John B. Bellinger, III
Feb. 27, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4132
This is a State department Talking points and press guidance memo concerning the legal basis for the U.S. holding detainees at Guantanamo. The talking points highlight that the detainees are "enemy Combatants" and not Prisoners of War (POWs) and ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Non-legal Memo
Evan T. Bloom, William Howard Taft, IV, James H. Thessin, Jonathan B. Schwartz, Edward R. Cummings, David W. Bowker, Mark F. Wong, John B. Bellinger, III, Eliana Davidson, Daniel P. Collins
Feb. 11, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3580
This State Department cable provides talking points concerning informing foreign governments about the transfer of their citizens/nationals to Guantanamo after they were picked-up on the battle field of Afghanistan. The information is on the ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Cable
Colin L. Powell
Brent E. Blaschke
Colin L. Powell, Brent E. Blaschke , Debra L. Cagan, John B. Bellinger, III
Jan. 06, 2004 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 4638
Letter from International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to Mike McKinley, Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of State re: Persons Detained in Afghanistan. The letter states "Dear Mike: Enclosed is an ICRC Verbal Note concerning the situation of ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Letter
Mike McKinley
John B. Bellinger, III, Mike McKinley
Feb. 24, 2009 | DOJ-OIG | ACLU-RDI 6168
The document includes notes from interviews conducted with FBI personnel [Redacted], regarding his knowledge of FBI operations and involvement at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, detainee-related issues that were brought by the FBI to the ...
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Patrick Rowan, David E. Nahmias, Laura H. Parsky, Bruce Swartz, John B. Bellinger, III, John S. Pistole, Kenneth L. Wainstein
Feb. 24, 2009 | DOJ-OIG | ACLU-RDI 6152
The document includes notes from interviews conducted with FBI personnel Bruce Swartz, regarding his knowledge about FBI concerns related to the mistreatment of detainees as well as his knowledge related to incidents of alleged detainee ...
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Bruce Swartz, Alice Fisher, Michael Chertoff, Christopher A. Wray, John Richter, Laura H. Parsky, John B. Bellinger, III, John Ashcroft, Larry Thompson, David E. Nahmias, Thomas J. Harrington, Pasquale D'Amuro, Geoffrey D. Miller
Feb. 26, 2009 | DOJ-OIG | ACLU-RDI 6151
The document includes notes from interviews conducted with FBI personnel Laura Parsky, regarding her work related to the issues at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay as well as concerns that she raised to the detainee Policy Coordinating ...
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Laura H. Parsky, Christopher A. Wray, John Richter, Bruce Swartz, Michael Chertoff, John B. Bellinger, III, David E. Nahmias, Alice Fisher, Pasquale D'Amuro, Marion E. Bowman, Valerie E. Caproni, Kenneth L. Wainstein, Chuck Rosenberg, Anthony Fortune, James B. Comey
Feb. 24, 2009 | DOJ-OIG | ACLU-RDI 6146
The document includes notes from interviews conducted with FBI personnel David Nahmias, regarding his knowledge about issues related to the treatment or interrogation of military detainees. He states that he regularly raised concerns about the ...
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
David E. Nahmias, Alice Fisher, Whit Cobb, Marshall Billingslea, Laura H. Parsky, Bruce Swartz, Stuart Levey, John B. Bellinger, III, Christopher A. Wray, Michael Chertoff, Larry Thompson, James B. Comey, John Ashcroft, Arthur M. Cummings, II, John S. Pistole, Robert S. Mueller, David N. Kelley
Moazzam Begg