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 email sent to Executive Assistant Directors and Assistant Directors at FBIHQ asking for materials relevant to the ACLU's FOIA request of documents/records created from 9/12/2004 to 5/25/2004 that pertain to the treatment of detainees held ...
An email included a forwarded chain of emails regarding the protocol for reporting in Afghanistan. A Special Agent may or may not have been a witness to the death of a detainee and had been interviewed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Services ...
An email chain that again references an FBI agent who was present in Afghanistan during a detainee death and faced possible Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation.
A chain of emails discussing the possible investigation by a Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigator of a FBI agent who had been present in Afghanistan when a prisoner died. The agent filled out an action report upon return, and ...
An chain of emails advising an FBI official what to do with an FBI Special Agent who has been approached by an Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigator regarding the capture in Afghanistan of a subject who was later killed reportedly ...
Chain of emails discussing whether or not FBI agents receive Department of Justice lawyer representation during interviews with non-FBI personnel when the potential of being charged with criminal responsibility exists. The inquiring FBI official ...
An email regarding the interview of an FBI Special Agent by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service/IG as an witness to abuse of a detainee by Special Forces in Afghanistan. The agent did not witness any abuse and provided a statement and other ...
An email, including a chain of forwarded emails, concerning an Naval Criminal Investigative Service interview of a Las Vegas FBI Special Agent regarding an incident in which the FBI agent is alleged to have been present during an interview ...
An email, including forwarded emails, regarding the legality of another agency requesting to interview FBI personnel. The author of one of the forwarded emails states that whenever this type of request is made, both the agent and FBI are to be ...
An email including two forwarded emails about the, "potential issues... regarding employee rights and liabilities," of a previous handling of an Army request for a roster of FBI personnel in Iraq from October to December 2003. One of the email ...
An email which includes three forwarded emails about who has "ownership" of the Army investigation into allegations of prisoner abuse; an email quotes, "What a mess." The third forwarded email concerns protocols about Army CID interviewing FBI ...
An email between FBI officials which includes a forwarded email in order to show recipients how officials have, "been trying to balance the issues for personnel and the Bureau--while we've been waiting for some guidance." The forwarded email ...
An email between FBI officials which includes a forwarded email in order to show recipients how officials have, "been trying to balance the issues for personnel and the Bureau--while we've been waiting for some guidance." The forwarded email ...
An email, which includes two forwarded emails, between two FBI officials regarding detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay. The forwarded emails discuss the possible procedural paths to take in a situation where six reports from FBI personnel who were ...
An email thread between FBI officials regarding FBI procedural guidelines on Department of Defense requests to interview FBI Special Agents as witnesses to allegations of detainee abuse or deaths.
Email thread between FBI officials regarding a Department of Defense military investigator's request to interview FBI Special Agents as witnesses to allegations of detainee abuse or deaths. One email cites that a redacted Special Agent was ...
Two forwarded emails documenting the redacted author receiving a letter from Army CID requesting a roster of FBI personnel in Iraq from October to December 2003. This request is part of an investigation of allegations of abuse against detainees ...
An email discussing the Army's requests for an FBI internal report describing abuses witnessed by the FBI and a list of FBI employees who performed interrogations at Abu Gharib. The NY Times mentioned the internal report in an article on ...
An email by an FBI SSA to an FBI agent to make the recipient aware of their "situation/relationships" surrounding an Army CID request for interview. The FBI SSA will be present at the interview merely on behalf at the FBI. The FBI agent is ...
This email, by an FBI SSA, is to all FBI agents who were witnesses to a prisoner's allegations of abuse. The email asks all agents to reach out to a redacted Army official to partake in an informal, voluntary interview, which will be followed ...
Two emails between FBI agents regarding FBI agents who are listed as witnesses in an internal investigation because they had some sort of contact with a prisoner making allegations of abuse. The Army was informed that they would be available for ...
An email between two FBI officials where one asks the other for advice regarding accusations of prisoner abuse being made against two of their agents in Baghdad. The military is asking for access to documents that indicate the two agents ...
A response by an FBI official to another FBI official providing requested advice regarding alleged accusations of prisoner abuse being made against two FBI agents. The official clarifies that the two agents were not accused of prisoner abuse, but ...
This document is a statement signed by an FBI Special Agent in the presence of a Supervisory Special Agent. The agent recounts their assignment by the Defense Humint Services Headquarters to lead a Humint Augmentation Team in support of a special ...
This heavily redacted investigative file by the FBI transcribes an interview with an FBI Special Agent. The interview's nature seems to be to obtain additional facts surrounding allegations made against a fellow FBI Special Agent, who may or may ...
This considerably redacted investigative file by the FBI transcribes an interview with an FBI Special Agent. The interview's nature seems to be to obtain additional facts surrounding allegations made against a fellow FBI Agent, who may or may not ...
This heavily redacted investigative file by the FBI transcribes an interview with an FBI Special Agent. The interview's nature seems to be to obtain additional facts surrounding allegations made against a fellow FBI Special Agent, who may or may ...
This heavily redacted investigative file by the FBI transcribes an interview with an FBI Special Agent. The interview was meant to obtain additional facts surrounding allegations made against a fellow FBI Special Agent, who is the subject of the ...
A cover letter from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Office of the Inspector General enclosing requested materials on detainee issues. The classified materials include items from several internal investigation units, which are to be ...
A cover letter from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Justice providing requested material on detainee issues. The classified materials include: 304 documents pertaining GTMO, 19 ...
This document is a letter accompanying hard copies of EC related to GTMO activities. The author of the letter asks the recipient to upload or serialize the material due to a lack of resources on the author's end.
This email, by an FBI agent who had previously dealt with GTMO detainees, is a response to an Inspection Division request made on July 9, 2004 about possible observance of "aggressive treatment, interrogations or interview techniques on GTMO ...
This email, by an FBI agent who had previously dealt with GTMO detainees, is a response to an Inspection Division request made on July 9, 2004 about possible observance of "aggressive treatment, interrogations or interview techniques on GTMO ...
Email by FBI Special Agent Jon E. Bibnik responds to an Inspection Division request about possible observance of "aggressive treatment, interrogations or interview techniques on GTMO detainees." Bibnik responds affirmatively and recounts an ...
An email sent by an inspector of the Inspection Division of the Office of Inspections to a redacted list of FBI agents who conducted assignments at GTMO post 9/11/2001. The email requests the agents to respond positively or negatively if they, ...
This special inquiry document reports that an inspector requested an SSA previously detailed to GTMO to provide a statement of observed behavior regarding the treatment of military detainees at the facility. Said SSA witnessed no aggressive ...
A cover letter from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the Office of the Inspector General enclosing requested materials on detainee issues. The classified materials includes: Critical Incident Response Group Behavioral Analysis Unit Volume ...
An OLC memo concluding that the CIA’s proposed interrogation plan for Abu Zubaydah — which contemplates methods including “insects placed in a confinement box” and “the waterboard” — does not violate ...
An OLC memo addressing whether certain enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA are consistent with the United States's obligations under Article 16 of the United Nations Convention Agsinst Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or ...