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.
An exchange of letters between Senator Charles Grassley and Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella regarding the OLC's August 2002 memo defining torture. Senator Grassley initiated the exchange by forwarding to AAG Moschella for response ...
This Department of the Army Inspector General report is the result of the Acting Secretary of the Army's February 10, 2004 directive to conduct an assessment of the Army's detainee and interrogation operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The aim ...
This email contains a letter from Marilyn A. Dorn, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), General Counsel's Office (GC), concerning four (4) legal cases: 1) United States v. CW3 Welshofer; 2) United States v. CW2 Williams; 3) United States v. SPC ...
The document is an internal FBI email, regarding an attached urgent report that provides details from a military service member deployed in Iraq who observed serious physical abuses of civilian detainees in Samara, Iraq in the fall of 2003.
The document is an internal FBI email sent from Eleni Kalisch to FBI Director Robert Mueller, regarding an HPSCI briefing concerning detainee interrogations. The briefing included information about the yield of information from detainee ...
The document is a form to request and authorize temporary duty travel for Department of Defense personnel, filled out for a redacted entity's service in Bishek, Kyrgyzstan, Bagram, Afghanistan, and Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The document is a series of documents related to the service of a Major deployed as the Officer in Charge of the DH HAT Team. The document includes a personal letter from a member of the OIC's team, certificate of release/discharge from active ...
The document is an email sent from the Navy Criminal Investigative Service to the FBI, regarding a status report on the Navy abuse investigation and the FBI's inquiry into FBI personnel contact with two redacted detainees.
The document is an NCIS report of investigation, regarding a Request for Assistance (RFA) which tasked NCIS Guantanamo Bay to interview a British citizen detained at Guantanamo. The report includes information about the detainee interview as well ...
The document is an internal FBI email regarding the preparation of a chronology of events with respect to FBI involvement with the issue of treatment/mistreatment of detainees.
The document is an internal FBI email regarding the Office of Inspector General's initiation of a full investigation into the FBI's handling of allegations of detainee abuse, including any FBI personnel who may have either witnessed or ...
The document is a redacted internal FBI email regarding allegations of abuse by private contractors at the Abu Ghurayb Prison and other detention facilities in Iraq.
The document is an internal FBI email regarding a Washington Post report in which it was alleged that the FBI was involved in abuses at the Abu Ghuraib Prison.
The document is series of an internal FBI emails regarding whether any FBI personnel had firsthand knowledge of any abuse of detainees at Abu Ghuraib Prison. The emails conclude that no FBI personnel had any such knowledge.
The document is a memorandum of understanding between the FBI and two redacted parties regarding the parties' desire to physically collate [redacted] automated biometric identification system within the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services ...
The document is a memorandum of understanding between the FBI and two redacted parties regarding the exchange of fingerprints and other biographical data for military detainees and known or suspected terrorists. The memorandum also outlines the ...
The document includes notes from FBI Director Robert Mueller's meeting with the SAAC Executive Council during the conference held at the FBI Headquarters from September 28 through 30, 2004. The notes detail the Council's concerns and appreciation.
The document is a memorandum including the minutes from the SAAC Executive Council Meeting held at the FBI Headquarters from September 28 through 30, 2004. The document includes information provided by every speaker at the conference.
The document is a memorandum from the Department of Defense Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Arabian Peninsula (CJSOTF-AP) for all service members in the force, regarding proper detainee treatment.
The document is a memorandum summarizing the results of the 10/26/04 debriefing of a previous Iraq Deployment On-Scene Commander (OSC) and two Deputy On-Scene Commanders and recommendations for future Iraq deployments. The topics of discussion ...
The document is a statement for the record for FBI Executive Assistant Director John Pistole before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The statement discusses FBI interrogation needs and techniques for counterterrorism efforts ...
The document is an internal FBI memorandum sent from the Counterterrorism Division to all divisions, regarding the establishment of the Terrorism Incident Response Protocol (TIRP) - a tool to improve the efficiency of responses to acts of ...
The document is an internal FBI memorandum sent from the General Counsel to all divisions, regarding an appropriate course of action in response to requests received from military criminal investigative services to interview FBI personnel ...
The document is a letter from Assistant Director Eleni P. Kalisch of the Office of Congressional Affairs to Senator Patrick Leahy, regarding Senator Leahy's claim that FBI Director Mueller withheld key information about the mistreatment of ...
The document is an internal FBI email sent from Valerie Caproni to FBI Director Robert Mueller, regarding the definition of the abuse and/or mistreatment of prisoners as well as what type of conduct should and should not be reported.
The document is an internal FBI email, regarding the use of extreme and abusive interrogation techniques against detainees by the military as well as the procedures for reporting such techniques to the Department of Defense.
The document is an internal FBI email, regarding FBI involvement in overseas aggressive interrogations and collaborating with the military to form some categories and advice.
This document is a memorandum alerting Toni Fogle of the FBI's Internal Affairs Division of an investigation into the death of a detainee, Haji Sher Mohammad, and requesting to interview a special agent who administered a gunshot residue test to ...
This heavily redacted memo contains notes from a meeting on specific interrogation techniques, including the waterboard, sleep deprivation, and water dousing, between DOJ attorneys, including Dan Levin and Steven Bradbury, and CIA personnel. ...
This letter is from Jack Goldsmith to Scott Muller stating that he received a copy of the Inspector General Report on the CIA Enhanced Interrogation Program and is concerned about how these techniques are applied in practice.
This letter from Daniel Levin to John Rizzo is the Office of Legal Counsel's response to the proposed use of twelve interrogation techniques during the interrogation of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and whether or not these techniques would violate U.S. ...
An Army questionnaire, including forty-four questions, given to a First Lieutenant regarding soldier training, soldier morale and the treatment of detainees. The handwritten responses are mostly illegible or redacted.
The First Lieutenant ...
An email noting a positive response of aggressive treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The response, which is included in the email as a forward, states that a member of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in the Critical ...
This is an email responding to an FBIHQ request. The author states that during their GTMO tenure, they witnessed aggressive treatment, interview/interrogation techniques of detainees by non-FBI Bureau personnel.
An email about FBI agents getting contacted by the military to partake in interviews as witnesses to allegations of prisoner abuse. One FBI Agent will be asked to recall any injuries or marks or complaints on a detainee he interviewed at ...
This email concerns a Video Tele Conferece on interrogation policy to "determine a legal basis of this on how it relates to the Geneva Convention". Heavily redacted.
This report discusses an investigation into the alleged abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib Detention Facility. The investigation was ordered initially by LTG Ricardo S. Sanchez, Commander, Combined Joint Task Force Seven (CJTF-7). LTG Sanchez ...
An investigation into an allegation that, on December 31, 2003, a soldier threatened a detainee with a gun, fired the gun on the ground next to the detainee, and "butt-stroked" the detainee. The investigation "established ...
Report of investigation into the abuse and mock execution of Iraqi civilians by a U.S. soldier on two separate occasions. Investigation established that the soldier committed the offenses of assault, conspiracy, release of a detainee without ...
Investigation into a soldier accused of robbery and malingering after he stole 180,000 Iraqi Dinar from two homes during a patrol search and then shot himself in the foot after being informed that he would be recommended for disciplinary action ...
Documents related to an investigation into the death of a detainee in custody at Abu Ghraib prison. The detainee had been on a hunger strike for eight days prior to his death. The report concluded that the death was due to natural causes.