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 report, issued by John Helgerson, examines whether CIA interrogators used unauthorized interrogation techniques on high value detainees, including Abd al-Rahman Al-Nashiri.
This January 22, 2003 email is a message from [redacted] stating that he has informed the CTC that he no longer wants to be associated with the interrogation program "due to serious reservation" and will be retiring shortly.
This document is a heavily redacted message concerning a White House meeting on enhanced techniques, and mentions that the Justice Department memorandum provides a legal "safe harbor" where conduct is lawful and no prosecutions will be mounted.
This document is a heavily redacted letter from Scott Muller to the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence proposing a draft response to a Human Rights Watch letter.
This July 9, 2002 email from [redacted] to [redacted] re: Description of Physical Pressures, includes the contents of a memo from an operational psychologist describing "potential physical and psychological pressures" to be used on a particular ...
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 ...
A letter from the CIA to OLC requesting that the OLC reaffirm its analyses in several previously issued memos relating to interrogation. The letter states that "we rely on the applicable law and OLC guidance to assess the lawfulness of detention ...
This document is a CIA Report of Investigation regarding the rendition and detention of German citizen Khalid Al-Masri. The report concludes that there was an "insufficient basis to render and detain" Al-Masri, his prolonged detention was ...
These guidelines, issued by George Tenet, detail permissible interrogation techniques (including EITs), medical and psychological personnel who must be present, interrogation personnel, approvals required, and recordkeeping requirements.
This document is a fax from [redacted], [redacted] Legal Group, DCI Counterterrorist Center, CIA to Steve Bradbury, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice, containing answers composed by the CIA' s Office of Medical Services to the ...
This heavily redacted message describes one instance (on August 4, 2002) of "the aggressive phase" of high value captive interrogation and recommends its use as a template for future interrogation.
This message contains a discussion between CIA and CTC officials about defending the interrogation program in the public domain and the necessity of retaining secrecy around the program.
Report from the Office of Inspector General on Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities from September 2001-October 2003, specifically focusing on the use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs).
This is a heavily redacted message from John Rizzo to Michael Hayden, Michael Morell, and Stephen Kappes, describing an ICRC meeting with detainees and how the detainees' allegations to the ICRC do not "sound far removed from the reality."
This note from the Counterterrorism Center is heavily redacted and discusses the implications of a detainee being granted POW status and potential violations of the Geneva Convention.
This heavily redacted memo asks that language discussing the legality of given activities and judgment calls from senior agency officials not be included in written traffic.
This message from Scott Muller to James Pavitt describes a planned move of CIA detainees from Guantanamo in light of an upcoming Supreme Court case which will decide whether Guantanamo is U.S. territory.
This is a heavily redacted message discussing OMS concerns about the use of enhanced interrogation techniques and the legal responsibility for the program.
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 February 27, 2004 memo from James L. Pavitt, Deputy Director for Operations to the Inspector General, discusses the success of the CIA's new counterterrorism detention and interrogation program, by providing detailed accounts of the use of ...
This is a DOD OIG review of 13 senior-level investigations of detention and interrogation that were initiated as a result of allegations of detainee abuse made in 2004. The purpose of the OIG review "was to evaluate the reports to determine ...
CID Report of investigation regarding alleged assault on two detainees (an uncle, aged 50-52, and his nephew, aged 19) during their transport from Camp War Eagle to Camp Cuervo, Baghdad, Iraq, on May 7, 2004. The detainees were put in the back of ...
This photo relates to the case of a “high value” Iraqi detainee, who, according to a report by The Constitution Project, was Ibrahim Khalid Samir al-Ani, a Baathist intelligence officer wrongly accused of having met with 9/11 hijacker Mohammed ...