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 (6709)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
July 21, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 29

Investigation initiated on the basis of a report by a serviceman's wife that he had a photograph of himself pointing a gun at the head of a bound and hooded detainee. When interviewed, the soldier explained that he was following orders and ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling
Aug. 03, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 30
Detainee alleged that he was arrested by U.S. forces and placed in a hole in the ground with other detainees at an unknown location in Samara, Iraq for about three days, then threatened with death and taken to a room where he was placed on a box ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
John Peterson, Jacqueline J. Scott
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Use of phobias, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming, Other
Aug. 03, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 83
Army commenced an investigation prompted by "allegations documented in an excerpt from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the Treatment by the Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and Other Protected Persons by the Geneva ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Nudity
Sept. 20, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 84
Investigation into two detainees' allegation that they had been assaulted by U.S. forces while being transported from Camp Cuervo to Abu Ghraib. One detainee reported that the soldier who assaulted him said "It's all because of you mother ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General
Sept. 21, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 85
Investigation into allegation by detainee that a US soldier kicked him in the back of the legs, back, and stomach while he was at a detention camp at Mahmodia, Baghdad. The detainee also reported he was hooded with a sandbag, handcuffed him with ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, General, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling
Sept. 02, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 86
Report of investigation of detainee’s allegation that a male U.S. soldier had slapped him across the face, causing him to bleed from the nose or the mouth and pushing him into concertina wire at the base of a chain link fence, causing the ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General
Sept. 24, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 87
Investigation initiated after Military Police (MP) sent memo to CID re two detainees who related physical abuse in two separate instances: one by two unidentified Iraqi National Guard (ING) soldiers and two unknown U.S. soldiers, and the second ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General
Sept. 23, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 88
CID Report of investigation into detainee's allegation that he was Hooded, roughly handled and choked by a U.S. soldier after being captured in his home. The interrogation reports (Secret) did reveal any allegations of abuse, and the detainee ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Oct. 14, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 89
CID Report of investigation into detainee's allegation that, as 2 U.S. soldiers and an interpreter entered and searched his home, a third U.S. soldier walked in and struck him in the mouth with the butt of his rifle. Medical record states ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General
July 16, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 90
CID Report of investigation initiated by Secretary of Defense on basis of “a photograph suspected to depict U.S. Army personnel abusing an Iraqi detainee.” The photograph, taken with a digital camera and found on a government computer, depicts ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Nelson van Eck, Jacqueline J. Scott
Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling