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
May 01, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 679
Interviewee was an Assistant Interrogation Analyst with the 302nd Military Intelligence Brigade. Recalled one occasion in which a MP pushed a hooded-"untruthful" against a railing, causing the detainee to bleed. "I saw a naked detainee who ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Physical assault, General, Threat, Isolation, Nudity, Forced physical training
May 01, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2580
Sworn Statement that discusses raid in Al-Winat village. States, "I took custody of the above named individuals," whose names are redacted.
May 01, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 6426
This document is an updated interrogation Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Slayer, Iraq, updated in May 2004. It contains an interrogation code of conduct instructing interrogators to "treat detainees humanely," forbidding the hooding of ...
May 01, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 6749
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 ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah, Gul Rahman
EIT, SERE
| ACLU-RDI
Apr. 30, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 104
An investigation into the February 28, 2004 shooting of Muhamad Husain Kadir, an Iraqi cow herder who was flex-cuffed, by PFC Edward L. Richmond (name disclosed in later-produced court-martial records).  The platoon stationed at Taal Al Jal ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Edward L. Richmond, Jacqueline J. Scott
Muhamad Husain Kadir
Physical assault, General
Apr. 30, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 425

Letter from Detainee's counsel to Army Claims Service for alleged abuse, torture and other mistreatment by U.S. Army in Iraq. The attorney is making the claim under the Military Claimns ack and seeks compensation in excess of $100,000.00. The ...

Feb. 28, 2005
Legal Memo, Letter
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Assault/death, Rendition, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Isolation, Threat
Apr. 30, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 601
Two detainees got into a scuffle following a headed discussion. Other detainees in the bay separated the two and led one into the latrine to calm him down. Upon exiting the latrine, the detainee threw a flip flop at another detainee. When the ...
Apr. 30, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 655
Marine Corps inquiry in to possible abuse of a detainee on April 13, 2004 at the Al Mahmudiya Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Iraq. Members of the guard force at the Detention Facility were accused of shocking a detainee using a power cord by ...
June 28, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File (AR 15-6)
James N. Mattis
James N. Mattis
Use of electricity
Apr. 30, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 1004
Autopsy No: ME04-14; 47 year-old white male detainee died while in US custody. Cause of death: Blunt Force Injuries and Asphyxia; Manner of Death: Homicide. Autopsy revealed deep bruising of the chest wall, numerous displaced rib fractures, ...
Apr. 18, 2005
Medical (Autopsy, Death Certificate)
Physical assault, General