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 (40)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Apr. 07, 2003 | ACLU-RDI 2405

This fax contains a response letter to The Human Rights watch Ex. Dir. Kenneth Roth addressing his points made in an earlier letter to Sec. Def. Rumsfeld about releasing Taliban armed forces from Guantanamo since the war in Afghanistan is ...

June 15, 2006
Letter
William J. Haynes, II
William Howard Taft, IV | Scott W. Muller | John C. Yoo | John Bellinger
William J. Haynes, II, John C. Yoo, Scott W. Muller, William Howard Taft, IV, John B. Bellinger, III
July 07, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 5019

This memo by Alberto Mora, General Counsel of the Navy, gives the chronology of his opposition (and the opposition of other members of the Navy) to the harsh interrogation techniques authorized for use at Guantanamo Bay by Secretary of Defense ...

Feb. 27, 2006
Legal Memo
Alberto Mora
Albert T. Church
Alberto Mora, Albert T. Church, Donald H. Rumsfeld, William J. Haynes, II, Mary Walker, Thomas F. Kranz, William R. Molzahn, Charlotte O. Wise, Richard W. Schieke, Michael F. Lohr, Kevin M. Sandkuhler, Peter Murphy, David Brant, Michael Gelles, Steven J. Morello, Thomas W. Taylor, Michael E. Dunlavey , Diane E. Beaver, Gordon R. England, William J. Fallon, Kevin P. Green, Susan M. Livingstone, George W. Bush, Jaymie Durnan, Paul Wolfowitz, Jane Dalton, Daniel Dell'Orto, John C. Yoo, Patrick Leahy, Daniel J. Ramos, James T. Hill, Geoffrey D. Miller
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Sexual
May 26, 2004 | Judicial | ACLU-RDI 3551

Email from Jason Callen, law clerk to Judge Frank Easterbrook, Seventh Circuit, to Jack Goldsmith and forwarded or blind-copied to Lawan Robinson, Confidential Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, Office of Legal ...

Sept. 19, 2005
Email
Jason Callen
Jack L. Goldsmith
John C. Yoo, Jack L. Goldsmith, Lawan Robinson, Jason W. Callen
Jan. 08, 2005 | ACLU-RDI 3548

A series of blog posts by a former OLC lawyer, Marty Lederman, discussing the difference between the DOJ's memo on torture from August 2002 and the memo on torture from December 30, 2004 (ACLU-RDI 3547).  The posts conclude that the Bush ...

June 01, 2005
Other
John C. Yoo, Daniel B. Levin, Alberto R. Gonzales, Richard J. Durbin
Waterboarding, Mock Burial, Rendition, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Religious, Use of water, Threat, Environmental manipulation, Other Humiliation
May 26, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 374
Editorials, Articles, Opinion Editorials and Letter to the Editor re: Abu Ghraib and the War in Iraq. Some of the OP-EDs are from former or current government officials. Many of the articles and opinions are from ordinary citizens expressing ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Other
John C. Yoo
General, Other Humiliation, Physical assault
June 22, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3835
Email discusses and includes a press release of a press briefing with Judge Alberto Gonzales. Judge Gonzales discusses, generally, the war on terror.
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Thomas A. Johnson
Ed Cummings | Christopher N. Camponovo
Thomas A. Johnson, Edward R. Cummings, Christopher N. Camponovo, Alberto R. Gonzales, Russell K. LaMotte, Jacob K. Cogan, Rosemary A. DiCarlo, Janis Chapman-Gates, Susan P. Suh, Richard Grenell , Monica L. Cummings, Eric L. Owens , Daniel Dell'Orto, Keith B. Alexander, George W. Bush, William J. Haynes, II, Jay S. Bybee, John C. Yoo, Scott McClellan, James T. Hill, Mary Walker, Geoffrey D. Miller, John P. Abizaid, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Newt Minow, Lloyd Cutler
Mohammed al Qahtani, Jose Padilla, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
May 29, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 4053
Emails discuss and include John Yoo's Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled "Terrorists Have No Geneva Rights."
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
John C. Yoo, David P. Stewart, JoAnn J. Dolan, Harry R. Melone, George W. Bush
May 16, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4055
Emails discuss a news article and a Meet the Press interview. The original email states "Newsweek reports that they have obtained a series of OLC memos from the fall of 2001 forward, quotes a State Department lawyer as saying "we were horrified" ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
JoAnn J. Dolan
JoAnn J. Dolan | Edward R. Cummings | Todd F. Buchwald | James H. Thessin
JoAnn J. Dolan, Edward R. Cummings, Todd F. Buchwald, James H. Thessin, Alberto R. Gonzales, Colin L. Powell, William Howard Taft, IV, John C. Yoo
OLC | ACLU-RDI 4559

An OLC memo from John Yoo to John Rizzo regarding "what is necessary to establish the crime of torture."  The memo states that an individual must act with the "specific intent" to inflict severe mental pain or ...

Legal Memo, Letter
John C. Yoo
John A. Rizzo
John C. Yoo, John A. Rizzo, Jennifer Koester
| ACLU-RDI 6625
This document is a list of past OLC advice on interrogation dated October 2, 2007.
Chart/List
John C. Yoo, Alberto R. Gonzales, Jay S. Bybee, John A. Rizzo, Daniel B. Levin, William J. Haynes, II, James B. Comey, Steven G. Bradbury
EIT