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 (97)

Summary of allegations by the Special Rapporteur of abuse of a detainee held in custody at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base in 2002-2003. The claim of abuses included: prolonged standing; kneeling; painful and awkward positions; hooding; ...
United Nations Special Rapporteur report on allegations of potential detainee abuse at Kandahar, Afghanistan. This is an annex of a report which purports to describe how suspected Taliban detainees were bound and hooded while in U.S. custody in ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Physical assault, Stress positions, Cramped confinement
Letter from Theo van Boven, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on torture to U.S. Amb. Moley re: Special Rapporteur Commission resolutions 2001/62, entitled: "Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Theo van Boven
Kevin Edward Moley
Kevin Edward Moley
This letter is from Theo van Boven, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, concerning the status of detention procedures and the military justice to be applied to certain detainees. Mr. Boven also expresses concern over the release of ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Theo van Boven
Kevin Edward Moley
Kevin Edward Moley
Fax cover sheet accompanying letter from Frank A. Sieverts of the ICRC to David Kay of the DOS subject: "Here's the letter, copy faxed also today to Jim Burger. Not sure what happened to it originally -- we thought it had beem transmitted via the ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Frank A. Sieverts
David Kaye
David Kay
Fax cover sheet from Frank A. Sieverts of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to Ed Cummings of the State Department with notation that a letter is attached for William Howard Taft, IV
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Frank A. Sieverts
Ed Cummings
William Howard Taft, IV
International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) Memo re: Standard ICRC Working Procedures for Visiting Persons Deprived of Liberty
Letter from International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to Powell, Rice and Hon. Douglas K. Feith, re: Compliments to the Permanent Mission to the United States of America
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Jakob Kellnberger
Colin L. Powell | Condoleeza Rice | Douglas J. Feith
Colin L. Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Douglas J. Feith
Letter from International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) President Kellenberger to Sec. of State Powell thanking him for meeting.
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Jakob Kellnberger
Colin L. Powell
Colin L. Powell
Letter from Christophe Girod, International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to William H. Taft IV, DOS re: Situation of Persons Detained in Afghanistan. The letter references a Note sent to other U.S. Officials and states "This Note and the ...