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)

A heavily redacted memorandum from the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence to the Deputy Director for Operations, the DCI Counterterrorist Center, and Senior Deputy General Counsel re the Interrogation of Abu Zabaydah.
May 27, 2008
Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water
Heavily redacted report regarding the "successful raid and capture of Abu Zubaydah". The document references the use of waterboarding during Abu Zabaydah interrogations. The document also mentions that waterboarding was used in the interrogation ...
May 27, 2008
Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water
Heavily redacted and typed draft outline and plan identical to Other Document #87. The document mentions waterboarding.
May 27, 2008
Other
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water

This document (identical to ACLU-RDI 4590, 4592, and 4593) is an undated draft memo from the OLC analyzing whether the CIA interrogation program would violate Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture. The document argues that they do not ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo
EIT, SERE

This document (identical to ACLU-RDI 4589, 4592, and 4593) is an undated draft memo from the OLC analyzing whether the CIA interrogation program would violate Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture. The document argues that they do not ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo
EIT, SERE

This page of handwritten notes of an OLC attorney lists documents (primarily OLC memos) related to the CIA interrogation program. [OLC Vaughn Index #129]

Aug. 24, 2009
Notes
Alberto R. Gonzales, John C. Yoo, Jay S. Bybee, John A. Rizzo, William J. Haynes, II
Abu Zubaydah
EIT

This document (identical to ACLU-RDI 4589, 4590, and 4593) is an undated draft memo from the OLC analyzing whether the CIA interrogation program would violate Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture. The document argues that they do not ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo
EIT, SERE

This document (identical to ACLU-RDI 4589, 4590, and 4592) is an undated draft memo from the OLC analyzing whether the CIA interrogation program would violate Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture. The document argues that they do not ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo
EIT, SERE

This draft memo addresses the application of the Geneva Conventions to the conflicts with al Qaeda and the Taliban, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The memo primarily analyzes which prisoners qualify as prisoners of war. The document concludes ...

This document is an undated draft memorandum analyzing whether the McCain Amendment would prevent the CIA from using its "enhanced interrogation techniques." The memo concludes that the McCain Amendment would not do so because (1) ...