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
May 07, 2004 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 4504

This documents is Appendix A of the CIA's Special Review.  It describes the procedures and resources for the drafting of the Special review.

Aug. 14, 2004
Oversight Report
John L. Helgerson
George J. Tenet, John McLaughlin
CIA | ACLU-RDI 4505

Almost entirely redacted document entitled "Proposal for an enhanced interrogation strategy in the War on Terrorism." [OIG Vaughn # Other-51]

Aug. 14, 2004
Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah
Aug. 04, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 4501

(A CIA affidavit states that this was a 1-page memo dated Aug. 4, 2004 from CIA to OLC and that it contained "communications from the CIA to OLC on a matter in which the CIA requested legal advice from OLC.")  The document ...

July 24, 2008
Legal Memo
Richard J. Durbin
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water
Aug. 01, 2002 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4502

This is a heavily redacted version of an OLC memo later released in less-redacted form (at ACLU-RDI 4548).  This unredacted portions of this version of the memo from the OLC to the CIA discuss the anti-torture statute 18 U.S.C. 2340, ...

July 24, 2008
Legal Memo
Jay S. Bybee
John A. Rizzo
Jay S. Bybee
May 07, 2004 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 4503

A one-paragraph excerpt from the CIA's Special Review.  The paragraph summarizes a 2002 OLC memo's analysis of the anti-torture statute.

Aug. 14, 2004
Oversight Report
John L. Helgerson
July 25, 2005 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4498
Letter from Margaret P. Grafeld, DOS to Amrit Singh, ACLU re: the ACLU's FOIA Request. Letter states that the document production requested is being complied with in some parts and denied or withheld in part.
Aug. 09, 2005
Letter, Judicial
Margaret P. Grafeld
Margaret P. Grafeld
July 25, 2005 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4499
Letter from Margaret P. Grafeld, DOS to Amrit Singh, ACLU re: the ACLU's FOIA Request. Letter states that the document production requested is being complied with in some parts and denied or withheld in part.
Aug. 09, 2005
Letter, Judicial
Margaret P. Grafeld
Margaret P. Grafeld
Jan. 28, 2003 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 4500

This is a heavily redacted version of a CIA memo later released in less-redacted form.  The less-redacted version is available at ACLU-RDI 4562.  This version of the document shows that CIA interrogators were permitted to use both ...

July 24, 2008
Non-legal Memo
George Tenet
George J. Tenet
EIT
July 25, 2005 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4496
Letter from Margaret P. Grafeld, DOS to Amrit Singh, ACLU re: the ACLU's FOIA Request. Letter states that the document production requested is being complied with in some parts and denied or withheld in part.
Aug. 09, 2005
Letter, Judicial
Margaret P. Grafeld
Margaret P. Grafeld
Aug. 29, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4497
State Department email from Nicholas Miscione concerning the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) request to visit the detainees held in Afghanistan. No attachment included.
Aug. 09, 2005
Email
Nicholas M. Miscione
Margaret J. Pollack | Richard L. Greene | Joyce E. Leader | Douglas Kelly
Nicholas M. Miscione, Richard L. Greene, Margaret J. Pollack