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 (67)

This document is the Charge Sheet against Sergeant Scott A. McKenzie for his Court Martial on abusing Iraqi detainees. It includes the charges; Articles of the UCMJ he is accused of violating; details of the charges; Sgt. McKenzie's plea to each ...
July 01, 2005
Legal Memo, UCMJ (Court-Martial)
David D. McKiernan
Scott A. McKenzie
Face slap or insult slap, Walling, General, Assault/death, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Other Humiliation, Physical assault, Threat
This is the Court Martial record of Specialist Timothy F. Canjar. It includes the charges against Spc. Canjar and his plea(s) as well as. Spc. Canjar was charged with: 1) dereliction of duty; 2) maltreatment of detainees (4 counts); 3) intent to ...

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 ...

Interview of a detainee at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. The detainee stated that before his arrest he believed in the humane treatment of prisioners in the United States. For this reason, when he was first interrogated, he cooperated with ...
May 18, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, Sexual, Threat, Assault/death, Other Humiliation, Sexual
The purpose of the memo was to provide updated information on the courts-martial involving allegations of military police's abuse against detainees in Abu Gharib Prison in Iraq. It outlines courts-martial on seven military police charged with ...
Court Martial Records of SPC Megan Ambuhl, who did not participate in abuse of detainees, but pled guilty to Dereliction of Duty for not reporting the activities of MP and MI personnel at Abu Ghraib Prison. She was sentenced to forfeiture of 1/2 ...
Sworn statement from CACI civilian Contractor, recalled statements made to him/her by female detainee(s). The detainee(s) recounted their experiences at Al Azimiyah Palace. He stated "have never witnessed and physical abuse in Abu Ghraib. I have ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Interviewee was assigned to AG on September 15, 2003. Interviewee provided a sworn statement in which he/she stated that at Camp Cropper, "it was well known that detainees who were brought into the facility complained of beatings from members of ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Threat, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Nudity, Other Humiliation
Interviewee was assigned to AG on September 15, 2003. Interviewee provided a sworn statement in which he/she stated that at Camp Cropper, "it was well known that detainees who were brought into the facility complained of beatings from members of ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Threat, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Nudity, Other Humiliation
This sworn statement is a firsthand account of an Army Corporal with the 325 Military Intelligence Battalion who witnessed detainees at Abu Ghraib prison stripped naked, made to do physical training (PT) and humiliated. This Corporal stated that ...