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
SOUTHCOM | ACLU-RDI 2388
Memo in response to a request for information concerning the effectiveness of interrogation techniques approved by the Secretary of Defense. These techniques went beyond those permitted by the Army Field Manual. The heavily redacted memo includes ...
June 15, 2006
Letter
Geoffrey D. Miller
Geoffrey D. Miller
DOD | ACLU-RDI 2394
DOD Deleted Page Information Sheet
DOS | ACLU-RDI 2396

These notes are a synopsis of points the British government raised with Sec. State Powell concerning the living conditions of detainees at Guantanamo. The Notes detail talking points and matters covered in Sec. State Powell's response to the ...

June 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Notes
Colin L. Powell, Pierre-Richard Prosper
DOD | ACLU-RDI 2407
This DOD memo is to address allegations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib in the wake of news reports and features, i.e. Sixty Minutes II, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. It lists the events and action taken in response and specifically ...
June 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt
Physical assault, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
DOD | ACLU-RDI 2409
This DOD memo details the U.S. authority for detaining foreign nationals engaged in military-type activities and specifically cites the 1949 Geneva Convention. "Persons currently being detained by the US military…are subject to the protections ...
DOD | ACLU-RDI 2410
This DOD memo is to address allegations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib in the wake of news reports and features, i.e. Sixty Minutes II, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. It lists the events and action taken in response and specifically ...
June 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt
DOD | ACLU-RDI 2419
This DoD Memo addresses the circumstances leading up to the creation of the Guantanamo facility and the conflict Al Qaida and Taliban forces have initiated against the United States and the other western powers. The memo states that the U.S. has ...
DOD | ACLU-RDI 2441
DOD cable is part of an email attachment with talking points to address questions concerning Detainee operations. Dupe to RDI 2440.
DOD | ACLU-RDI 2443
Memo requests assistance in gathering information concerning investigations into abuse of detainees under US military control. The memo seeks to have various organs of the DOD that come in to contact with such information to cooperate in the ...
June 30, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Carol A. Haave
Carol A. Haave
Executive | ACLU-RDI 2454
Discussion of Geneva Convention. Illustrates points where Iraq has violated the Convention.