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 (115)

A letter from the OLC providing legal advice regarding the continued use of sleep deprivation on a detainee.  It concludes that continued use would be consistent with all applicable law, and that "the continuation of the ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo
EIT, Sleep deprivation

A letter from the OLC providing legal advice regarding the continued use of sleep deprivation on a detainee. It concludes that continued use would be consistent with all applicable law, and that "the continuation of the technique … ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo
EIT, Sleep deprivation

An OLC memo withdrawing the interrogation memo of July 20, 2007.

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo
David J. Barron
Eric H. Holder, Jr.
David J. Barron, Eric H. Holder, Jr., John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury

A letter from Jack Goldsmith to John Helgerson requesting time to review the descriotion of the OLC's advice in the Special Review before it is sent to Congress.  [OLC Vaughn Index #26]

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
John L. Helgerson
Jack L. Goldsmith, John L. Helgerson, Scott W. Muller

A letter from Jack Goldsmith to Scott Muller regarding the CIA Inspector General's Special Review of the CIA's interrogation program.  The letter expresses concern at the fact that, according to the Special Review, aspects of the CIA's ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, Scott W. Muller, John L. Helgerson, John A. Rizzo
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding

This letter from Jack Goldsmith to Scott Muller relates to Muller's request that OLC "reaffirm three pages of bullet points" titled "Legal Principles Applicable to CIA detention and Interrogation of Captured Al-Qa'ida ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, Scott W. Muller

This letter from Jack Goldsmith to Scott Muller relates to Muller's request that OLC "reaffirm three pages of bullet points" titled "Legal Principles Applicable to CIA detention and Interrogation of Captured Al-Qa'ida ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, Scott W. Muller

This letter from Goldsmith to Director Tenet requests that the CIA Inspector General’s report be returned to the IG so that edits may be made to the report’s summary of the Attorney General’s statements at a July 2003 meeting ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
George Tenet
Jack L. Goldsmith, George J. Tenet, John D. Ashcroft, John L. Helgerson, Scott W. Muller

This letter from Goldsmith to Muller addresses the use of interrogation techniques on a certain high-value detainee and is a follow-up to 2 previous memos approving 33 techniques (an OLC memo approved 9 and a memo from Secretary Rumsfeld ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, John A. Rizzo, Scott W. Muller, John A. Rizzo, Jay S. Bybee, John D. Ashcroft, James B. Comey, Donald H. Rumsfeld
EIT

This letter from Acting Assistant Attorney General Levin to Muller regards whether a certain detainee may be subjected to waterboarding. Levin asks the CIA to provide specific details of the technique in practice, including "whether the ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Daniel B. Levin
Scott W. Muller
Daniel B. Levin, Scott W. Muller, Jay S. Bybee, John A. Rizzo, John L. Helgerson
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding