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.
Army Memo from General Odierno re: Detainee Collection Point Access Control Guidance. Limits outside access to detainees by the International Committee of the Red Cross, legal representatives and certain members of the US/Coalition Forces
This memo gives detailed description of Enemy Prisoners of War and Detainee categories, from Category A (High Level) to Category D (no information of intelligence value).
Army Memo from Major General Odierno to Ironhorse Commanders, Leaders and Soldiers re: Treatment of Detainees. The purpose of this memo is to provide guidance for the treatment of enemy prisoners of war (EPW) civilian internees (CI) and other ...
Army Memo from Provost Marshall, Tikrit, Iraq re: Standard Operating Procedures for Detainee Collection. The purpose of this memorandum is to standardize the operations of the Task Force Detainee Collection Points and provide guidance for the ...
Army Memo from Provost Marshall, Task Force Ironhorse re: Standard Operationg Procedure for Death of a Detainee. The purpose of this memorandum is to outline the actions needed in order to properly dispose of and record the death of a Detainee in ...
Army Action Plan re: Checklist for Brigade Level Detention Facilities regarding conditions/processes within detention facilities, as well as a form for "Overall Conditions of Facility"
Coalition Provisional Authority Forces Apprehension Form. Standard form requesting information about the detainee and the circumstances surrounding his apprehension
Army Presentation re: Detention Operations for Collection and Handling of Detainees. Also gives "Issues," or problems within detainee operations, including "excessive detention period at BCTs," "All evidence not ...
Army Information Paper re: Detainee Operations and 60 Minutes profile of Detainee Abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison. This paper is a chronology of events surrounding the detainee operations and reminder of Army values and the expectations senior command ...
This email is a request for guidance in training and equipping the Army’s 2nd Brigade with detainee operations. One of the Generals on the email chain states “Let's not get confused with running "prison" operations and ...
General Helmly addresses the detainee abuse scandal involving Reserve soldiers. He commends the Reserve soldiers for their service while reminding them of their moral and ethical responsibilities as soldiers and their obligation to uphold the ...
General Kern testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the detainee abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison. Gen. Kern stated "We set our course to find truth, not to “whitewash” or to convict those who are not incriminated". And ...
The email is an assessment and review of the necessary training and assets in order to handle detainees in the wake of the Inspector General's report on detainee treatment. Gen. Cody states "as we know we’ve will be doing these missions for a ...
This Memo is fowarding Gen. Sanchez's September 14, 2003 memo (ACLU RDI 935) which states "this memo that the interpreters are civilians who are subject to the Geneva Conventions; the interrogation techniques are only for “security internees”; ...
General Sanchez states in this memo that the interpreters are civilians who are subject to the Geneva Conventions; the interrogation techniques are only for “security internees”; safeguards must be adhered to during interrogations; segregation of ...
This email is to ensure that all FBI personnel touring through Guantanamo Bay and who participate in interrogations of detainees adhere to the Bureaus policies on the treatment of suspects and their own personal conduct when conducting ...
General Sanchez establishes guidlines (attached) for all interrogations and states in this memo that: the interpreters are civilians who are subject to the Geneva Conventions; the interrogation techniques are only for “security internees under ...
Interviewee (title and length of assignment unknown).
Interviewee recalled witnessing two incidents. In the first incident, the detainee was being interrogated, and at one point [redacted] told the detainee to roll down his jumpsuit and ...
Interviewee was assigned to AG in October 2003 as a member of the Tiger Team.
Interviewee recalled an interrogation where a member of the interrogation team was among those attacked/injured in an earlier mortar attack believed to be perpetrated ...