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
Oct. 24, 2003 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5065
Asia Times Online article written by Nir Rosen, who travelled with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq. The article discusses various American soldiers' understandings of why they are at war.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Greg Reilly, Ray Winters
May 13, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 5068
This article describes "a set of secret rules for the interrogation of high-level Qaeda prisoners" that the Bush Administration, Department of Justice, and CIA adopted after September 11.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Bin al Shibh, Walid Bin Attash, Jose Padilla
Use of water, Waterboarding, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other
July 15, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 5069
This article criticizes the CIA's use of secret detention facilities and its interrogation methods. It states, "several of the CIA's detainees probably have been tortured and "a controversial Justice Department opinion defending such abuse was ...
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
George J. Tenet
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah
Use of water, Waterboarding
Jan. 08, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 5070
This article describes public opinion in Iraq about U.S. detention practices. It states, "Iraqis resent many things about the U.S. occupation, but the detention of roughly 13,000 prisoners - most of whom have not been formally charged - has ...
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Mahmoud Shukur Mahmoud, Atheer Majid, Lahib Majeed, Umar Majeed
Oct. 30, 2003 | ACLU-RDI 5071
This article criticizes U.S. detainment processes in Iraq. It states, "Many [Iraqis] languish in prisons indefinitely...there is no judicial process for thousands of detainees."
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Scott Blow, Clinton Reiss
Jan. 17, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 5072
This article reported that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American officer in Iraq, had ordered criminal investigations into allegations of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Ricardo Sanchez, Ennis Whitehead, III, Allen West
Threat
Oct. 24, 2003 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5079
CIA copy of Asia Times Online article by Nir Rosen following the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Greg Reilly, Chris Alfeiri, Clinton Reiss
Mar. 22, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5080
CIA copy of Philadelphia Inquirer article reporting on the withholding of names of six U.S. soldiers arrested in Iraq as a result of the prisoner-abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
Apr. 30, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5081
CIA copy of London Sky News article describing Prime Minister Tony Blair's response to photographs showing American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Tony Blair, Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt, Ivan L. Frederick, II
EIT, Threat, Use of electricity, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Other, Environmental manipulation
Apr. 30, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5082
CIA copy of Antiwar.com article describing the release of photographs revealing abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Janis Leigh Karpinski, Donald H. Rumsfeld
EIT, Threat, Use of electricity, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual