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 (254)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Nov. 18, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 5114
Army Presentation summarizing the current situation in Al Qaim Husaybah, Iraq in November 2003. The presentation includes a HUMINT summary and threat assessment describing a planned attack on coalition forces by an unnamed anti-coalition group, ...
Jan. 14, 2014
Non-legal Memo
Abed Hamed Mowhoush
EIT, Stress positions
Sept. 14, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 5118
General Sanchez states in his memo that "[this] memorandum established the interrogation and counter-resistance policy for CJTF-7." The memo contains two enclosures: 1. Interrogation Techniques; 2. General Safeguards. Gen. Sanchez states that ...
Jan. 14, 2014
Non-legal Memo
Ricardo Sanchez
Ricardo Sanchez, Daniel Kazmier
Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Other
Jan. 04, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5102
CIA copy of an article from the London Independent on Sunday reporting on the death of a son of an Iraqi policeman and the "brutal" treatment of some Iraqi prisoners while in British custody. The article describes physical beatings and violent ...
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Robert Harkins, William Moore
Baha Mousa, Kifah Taha
EIT, Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Sept. 23, 2009 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 5020

This report concerns allegations that mind-altering drugs were administered to facilitate the interrogation of detainees under DOD control between September 2001 and April 2008. The report concluded that it could not substantiate the claim ...

June 28, 2012
Oversight Report
Patricia A. Brannin
Donald H. Rumsfeld, Peter H. Daly, William Melendez, Jay W. Hood, David M. Edgington, Charles A. Blanchard, Thomas W. Cunningham, James T. Faust, Ronald L. Burgess, Jr., Jay Alan Liotta, Laurence K. Burgess
Jose Padilla
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Other
Feb. 15, 2006 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 5000

A State Department memo addressing whether Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture applies to the CIA's interrogations in foreign countries. The State Department determined that the prohibitions against torture do apply, despite its ...

Apr. 03, 2012
Legal Memo
Phillip Zelikow
Phillip Zelikow
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Nudity
Nov. 29, 2004 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 6328
The document is an untitled letter from a detainee alleging abuse by the American military. The detainee states that he was questioned about the role of Iraqi intelligence in furthering international terrorism and about where Iraq had hidden its ...
June 15, 2011
Letter
Physical assault, General, Walling, Assault/death, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Jan. 09, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 5603
This is the Autopsy Report and Death Certificate of Manadel Al-Jamadi, a detainee at Abu Ghraib Prison. The Report states that Mr. Al-Jamadi was taken in to custody by Navy SEALs and sustained injuries during his capture that led to his death. It ...
Jan. 14, 2011
Medical (Autopsy, Death Certificate)
Manadel Al-Jamadi
Physical assault, General, Stomach/abdominal slap, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Nov. 22, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 5624
This is the Autopsy Report Autopsy Report: Hussein Farhad Ali, a detainee who was captured by US forces in Mosul, Iraq. It is reported that Mr. Ali died within 72 hours after being taken in to custody. The Report indicates that Mr. Ali suffered ...
Jan. 14, 2011
Medical (Autopsy)
Hussein Farhad Ali
Use of water, Water dousing, Other, Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Mar. 10, 2006 | CID | ACLU-RDI 5505
This is a CID investigation into the reported abuse and death of an unknown Iraqi male at Theater Internment Facility (TIF), Camp Bucca, Umm Qasr, Iraq. The person making the claim is a Staff Sergeant (SSGT) who has worked at the facility on or ...
Jan. 14, 2011
Investigative File (CID), Interview (Statement, Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Isolation
July 29, 2009 | OPR | ACLU-RDI 5022

The DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) released this report investigating whether Department of Justice attorneys violated their ethical obligations in issuing several memoranda authorizing the use of Enhanced Interrogation ...

July 19, 2010
Oversight Report
Frank Wolf, Larry Thompson, Ted Ullyot, George J. Tenet, Steven G. Bradbury, Jay S. Bybee, John C. Yoo, Patrick Leahy, David S. Addington, John D. Ashcroft, John B. Bellinger, III, David Brant, Michael Chertoff, Adam Ciongoli, Paul Clement, James B. Comey, Alice Fisher, Timothy E. Flanigan, Ari Fleischer, Jack L. Goldsmith, Alberto R. Gonzales, Stephen Hadley, William J. Haynes, II, John L. Helgerson, H. Marshall Jarrett, Patrick Leahy, Daniel B. Levin, John McCain, John McLaughlin, Paul McNulty, Harriet Miers, Alberto Mora, Steven J. Morello, Scott W. Muller, Robert S. Mueller, Patrick Philbin, Colin L. Powell, Condoleeza Rice, John A. Rizzo, Chuck Rosenberg, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Michael Mukasey, Mark Filip, Barack H. Obama, David Margolis, Michael Gelles, Robert J. Delahunty, Diane E. Beaver, Thomas J. Romig, David Leitch, John B. Wiegmann, Alan Kreczko, Christopher Schroeder
Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Mohammed al Qahtani, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity, Other