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 (41)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Apr. 27, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 862
This statement of a CACI civilian contractor for the Dept. of Defense who states that he arrived at Abu Ghraib Prison on October 5, 2003. He states that "The Joint interrogation Debriefing Center Commander gave all new arrivals a down and dirty ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Thomas Pappas, Ricardo Sanchez, Janis Leigh Karpinski
Physical assault, General, Nudity
June 01, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 867
Sworn statement of Lieutenant Colonel with the 115th Military Police Battalion. The LTC recalled being aware of one incident where a soldier urinated on a detainee. He also recalled another incident where a detainee returned to the SP/CF area ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Buford Blount, III, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Thomas Pappas, Keith Dayton, Geoffrey D. Miller
Physical assault, General, Sleep deprivation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Other
DOD | ACLU-RDI 884
Document is a transcript of a Staff Judge Advocate assigned to AG from November 26, 2003 to December 14, 2003. Described development of interrogation, the interrogation rules of engagement (IROE). Iraq interrogation policy "utilized Guantanamo ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Questionnaire)
Ricardo Sanchez, Thomas Pappas, Geoffrey D. Miller, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Barbara G. Fast
Physical assault, Sexual, Use of phobias
May 18, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 888

A statement by an individual stationed at Abu Ghraib as an individual augmentee on or about October 16, 2003. The individual stated that at Abu Ghraib, "there was no oversight of most of the interrogations being conducted as everyone was ...

Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Isolation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious
June 05, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 906
Interviewee (title and length of assignment unknown). Interviewee recalled witnessing two incidents. In the first incident, the detainee was being interrogated, and at one point [redacted] told the detainee to roll down his jumpsuit and ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Threat, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation
May 28, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 907
Interviewee was assigned to AG in October 2003 as a member of the Tiger Team. Interviewee recalled an interrogation where a member of the interrogation team was among those attacked/injured in an earlier mortar attack believed to be perpetrated ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas, Geoffrey D. Miller, George R. Fay
Physical assault, General, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
May 19, 2004 | Legislative | ACLU-RDI 358

Transcript of the testimony of Gen. John Abizaid (commander, U.S. Central Command), Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez (commander, Multinational Force-Iraq), and Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller (deputy commander for detainee operations, Multinational Force) ...

Dec. 31, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
John Warner, John McCain, James M. Inhoff, Pat Roberts, Alan Wayne Allard, Jeff Sessions, Sue Collins, John Ensign, Jim Talent, Saxby Chambliss, Lindsey Graham, Elizabeth Dole, John Cornyn, Carl Levin, Edward M. Kennedy, Robert C. Byrd, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Daniel Akaka, Bill Nelson, Ben Nelson, Mark Dayton, Evan Bayh, Hillary Clinton, Mark Pryor, John P. Abizaid, Ricardo Sanchez, Geoffrey D. Miller, Marc Warren, L. Paul Bremer, Colin L. Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Antonio Taguba, Geoffrey D. Miller, Donald J. Ryder, George R. Fay, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Thomas Pappas, David D. McKiernan, Keith Dayton, Stephen A. Cambone, William G. Boykin, Paul Wolfowitz, Marc Warren, Paul Hill, Keith B. Alexander, Richard B. Myers, Nicholas Evan Berg, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Richard B. Cheney, Barbara G. Fast, Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt, Walter L. Sharp
Physical assault, General
Feb. 21, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 261
Col. describes how he received his assignment to Iraq and the conditions he found at Abu Ghraib prison. He also describes and an incident where he referred an "unauthorized detainee interview" to Gen Pappas and that was eventually given to Capt. ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
Antonio Taguba, David D. McKiernan, John P. Abizaid, Thomas Pappas, Carolyn A. Wood, Barbara G. Fast, Ricardo Sanchez, Steven L. Jordan, Luciana Spencer, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Walter Wojdakowski, Geoffrey D. Miller, Condoleeza Rice, Donald J. Ryder, Michael D. Thompson , Marc Warren
Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Nudity
Feb. 12, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 296
Testimony of Mr. Steve Stephanowicz US Civilian Contract Interrogator, 205th Military Intelligence Brigade. Mr. Stephanowicz is a Navy intelligence specialist. He was employed by CJTF-7 to support operations in Iraq, specifically, Abu Ghraib ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
Antonio Taguba, David D. McKiernan, Steve Stephanowicz, Carolyn A. Wood, Thomas Pappas, Ricardo Sanchez, John Israel
Physical assault, Stomach/abdominal slap, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity
Feb. 10, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 307
Testimony of First Lieutenant Michael A. Drayton, Commander, 870th Military Police Company. 1LT Drayton described the tension between the Military Police and the Military Intelligence components at Abu Ghraib. Then the 1Lt stated "One of my ...
Oct. 19, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
Antonio Taguba, David D. McKiernan, Michael A. Drayton, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Jerry Phillabaum, Thomas Pappas
General, Physical assault