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.
This document, prepared by the Chief of Medical Services, summarizes and reflects upon the rendition, detention and interrogation program. The findings include that in a particular no evidence was found that the use of waterboard produced ...
This memorandum authored by Bruce Jessen and others to Col. Coomey on February 28, 2002 includes specific recommendations for interrogation procedures based on conditions at Camp X-Ray. The memorandum contains "Cardinal Pre-Conditions for ...
This memo sets forth the reasons why the CIA granted Mitchell, Jessen, and Associates (MJA) a "sole source contract" to support the Counterterrorism Center's rendition, detention, and interrogation program, and describes the type of support that ...
This heavily redacted cable provides authorization and authority for Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell to use the full range of level 1 EITs and the level 2 water board. All envelope information is redacted.
Almost entirely redacted document entitled "Proposal for an enhanced interrogation strategy in the War on Terrorism." The only page which is not entirely redacted is an outline of the team responsible for Abu Zubaydah's interrogation.
This is an undated note from Jim Mitchell in which he proposes his ideas for "the broad features of the training program" and offers his and Bruce Jessen's help putting the training together and delivering it or helping to "craft the product". ...
This January 17, 2003 memorandum provides authorization and authority for James Mitchell, Bruce Jessen, and a third interrogator, whose name is redacted, to use the "full range" of enhanced measures, including waterboarding, in addition to their ...
This memo includes: 1) a chronology detailing the evolution of the CIA's High-Value Detainee Interrogation Techniques, how they were defined, legalized, and authorized; 2) a report on the intelligence collected after the application of the ...
This February 1, 2003 memo from James Mitchell sets forth his relevant experience and qualifications for providing "psychological consultation to interrogation programs".
This memo describes the CIA's rendition, detention, and interrogation program, including the legal authorities under which the program operates and the safeguards and controls that have been undertaken to prevent deviation, improvisation, abuse ...
This memo discusses the importance of the High Value Terrorist Detainee Program in preventing future terrorist attacks, specifically the information that has been gleaned from terrorist detainees.
This heavily redacted paper "discusses the techniques and strategies for resisting interrogation described in captured al-Qa'ida training manuals and other documents. It suggests methods for recognizing when sophisticated resistance to ...
This heavily redacted message describes one instance (starting on August 4, 2002) of "the aggressive phase" of high value captive interrogation and recommends its use as a template for future interrogation. Nothing new has been disclosed since ...
This heavily redacted cable seems to describe a proposal for "turning up the heat" in the interrogation of detainee Abu Zubaydah. One unredacted sentence references moving onto "Option B" in the interrogation; another reveals the psychologists' ...
This cable seems to provide the Director of Central Intelligence's guidelines for the operation of detention facilities, and specifically for COBALT, a CIA black site in Northern Kabul, Afghanistan. Almost everything but the acknowledgement is ...
This memo is a response from a redacted doctor to a request from the CIA Inspector General for comments on the "Draft Special Review--Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Program" report (2003-7123-IG). Everything but the envelope ...
This is a memo from someone (name redacted) located at the site of interrogation to Jim Pavitt, Deputy Director for Operations for the CIA, reporting on the status of an investigation of the death of a detainee. Though the name of the detainee is ...
This May 2004 memo to the Deputy Director for Science and Technology discusses the Office of Technical Service's (OTS) support of the Counterterrorism Center (CTC) by: 1) developing the enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs); 2) hiring SERE ...
This CIA document is heavily redacted and identifies James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen as contractors who administered enhanced interrogation techniques to Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
This CIA memorandum for the Deputy Director of Operations is a review of the CIA Detainee Program with particular focus on the guidelines for detention and interrogation on May 12, 2004. The memorandum is heavily redacted and states that the CIA ...
This March 2004 paper written by James Mitchell and John Jessen discusses the importance of knowing how human memory works for intelligence collection efforts. The paper also includes some interrogation and debriefing techniques to employ on ...
This November 27, 2007 memo justifies the future use of contractors as High Value Detainee Interrogators (HVDI). The memo states that before September 11, 2001 the CIA had no resident expertise in interrogation and therefore contract ...
This memo describes the "key" role that contract interrogators/debriefers play in the CIA's Rendition and Detention Program. The memo states that before September 11, 2001 the CIA had no resident expertise in interrogation, and so they sought ...
This is a redacted memo which discusses the interrogations Mitchell and Jessen are involved with and where they are needed. Mitchell is associated with the interrogation of several different detainees, all redacted except for Gul Rahman.
This is a report from interrogators at COBALT, a CIA black site in Northern Kabul, Afghanistan, describing the status of Gul Rahman's interrogation. It is reported that Rahman was not responding to interrogation by Bruce Jessen; the responder ...
This memo sets forth the reasons why the CIA granted Mitchell, Jessen, and Associates (MJA) a "sole source contract" to support the Counterterrorism Center's rendition, detention, and interrogation program, and describes the type of support that ...
This document, prepared by the Chief of Medical Services, summarizes and reflects upon the rendition, detention and interrogation program. The findings include that in a particular no evidence was found that the use of waterboard produced ...
This document is a CIA Memo drafted for the Deputy Director for Operations via the Associate Deputy Director for Operations/Counterintelligence. The previous release of this document (on June 13, 2016) included more redactions such as Bruce ...
This document, prepared by the Chief of Medical Services, summarizes and reflects upon the rendition, detention and interrogation program. The findings include that in a particular no evidence was found that the use of waterboard produced ...
This paper written by James Mitchell and John Jessen discusses interrogation resistance techniques described in Al Qaeda training documents, how to recognize when these techniques are being employed, and strategies for developing countermeasures.
This document is a CIA Memo drafted for the Deputy Director for Operations via the Associate Deputy Director for Operations/Counterintelligence. The memo contains background information related to the treatment and condition of detainees as it ...
This document is a memorandum from the chief of the Counterintelligence Evaluation Branch of the Counterespionage Group in the Counterintelligence Center about an interview conducted with John B. Jessen regarding the death of Gul Rahman.
This CIA memorandum states that Gul Rahman has refused to confirm his identity or provide information to interrogators. The memorandum requests assistance to apply "alternative psychological pressures" to move Rahman "toward a debriefing mode."
This memorandum states that Gul Rahman was successfully rendered without incident and that there were not security issues or problems in executing the rendition.
This memorandum describes the plan for obtaining cooperation of Gul Rahman, including possible enhanced interrogation due to the fact that Rahman is likely withholding valuable information.
This memorandum states that an individual in custody after a raid is possibly Gul Rahman and that the station will work to make a positive identification.
This document contains an interview of a redacted subject on the death of Gul Rahman. The interviewee describes Rahman's behavior as a detainee and the events that happened after learning of Rahman's death.
This letter is the CIA's response to questions raised by Daniel Levin, OLC, regarding the use of waterboarding. The letter describes the CIA's limits in administering the technique. [OLC Vaughn Index #72]
This is a January 5, 2010 memorandum written by David Margolis, Associate Deputy Attorney General, to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General. It contains Margolis' review of OPR's findings of misconduct against Yoo and Bybee. ...