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 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 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 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 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 ...
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 Detainee Processing Checklist. Lists Packet Requirements, along with "New Guidance from Ironhorse" and instructions to "Think of detainee's packet like it is a court case?"
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
Army Memo from Provost Marshall re: Guidelines for the Interrogation of Prisoners. This memo lays out the prohibition on striking of prisoners by interrogators. Holds Military Police (MP) solely responsible for all actions and deems them ...
Art. 32 investigation. Gives an account of an incident of abuse where an Iraqi guard was placed at gunpoint and beaten by US soldiers. Recommends that SSG McKenzie be charged with Cruelty and Maltreatment and Assault with a Dangerous Weapon. It ...
Court Martial Records of SPC Megan Ambuhl, who did not participate in abuse of detainees, but pled guilty to Dereliction of Duty for not reporting the activities of MP and MI personnel at Abu Ghraib Prison. She was sentenced to forfeiture of 1/2 ...
In October 2003, Specialist Cruz participated in the abuse of detainees in the Hard Site at Abu Ghraib. Spc. Cruz and others ordered three (3) detainees to strip naked. The detainees were handcuffed together with metal handcuffs "to mess with ...
First Lieutenant Glenn A. Niles, Jr. assaulted three (3) detainees at Al Taji Police Station, Baghdad on July 30, 2003. He admitted to striking two (2) detainees in the stomach with a closed fist and kicking the third in the shoulder. A petition ...
Specialist Sivits was arraigned at a special court martial in May 2004 for his role in abuses at Abu Ghraib prison on 11/8/03. He pled guilty to the charges of maltreating and conspiracy to maltreat detainees for his role in an incident of abuse ...
Apr. 06, 2005
UCMJ (Court-Martial), Judicial (Transcript) Jeremy C. Sivits
This CID investigation reviewed allegations of multiple occurrences of detainee abuse committed by a single soldier while stationed in Afghanistan. The investigation found that the soldier was investigated at the Command level and an AR 15-6 was ...
Military Police Report related to an Army CID investigation #0153-04-CID146-71446, alleging detainee abuse and reveling photographs depicting detainees being abused and mistreated. Investigation was initiated after a soldier's wife reported ...
Military Police Investigative Report in to allegations of a soldier in Afghanistan pointing a gun at the head of a restrained detainee. The soldier offered a statement in which he states 1) the gun was a BB gun and not his service weapon; and 2) ...
Military police report relating to a CID investigation into allegations reported in a May 2004 Playboy article entitled "Death and Dishonor". Soldiers quoted in the article alleged that soldiers assigned to the 1/15th Infantry Battalion had, ...
This Military Police Investigative Report is based on allegations of detainee abuse at Camp Red, Baghdad. The allegations are that soldiers hooded detainees; made detainees stand on bricks; and threatened them with being run over with a Humvee. ...
This Military Police Investigative Report is based on the death of a detainee while in custody during “Operation Stronghold”. The allegations concern the shooting death of Mohammed Sayari by a Special Forces team. The investigation revealed ...
This document is a memo to file for the Criminal Investigation Division to establish interim policy concerning the investigation and autopsy of detainee deaths occurring in the custody of the Armed Forces of the United States in a deployed ...
This document is a memo to file for the Criminal Investigation Division to clarify existing guidance concerning the initiation of reports of investigations regarding abuse of prisoners and detainees in deployed situations. Policy revision ALCID ...
This document is a memo to file for the Criminal Investigation Division to establish interim policy concerning Criminal Investigation Operational Procedures. The memo states that "In a deployed environment, whether combat or peacekeeping mission, ...
This document is a memo to file for the Criminal Investigation Division to establish interim policy concerning the Forwarding of Original Case Files Pertaining to Detainee Abuse/Death Investigations. The memo direct that “Upon closure of any CID ...
This document is a memo to file for the Criminal Investigation Division to establish a policy concerning the entering aliases or other names used to identify individuals within the ROI. The memo states “Aliases are not restricted to names and ...
This document is a memo to file for the Criminal Investigation Division to remove the requirement for the original case files of Requests For Assistance (RFA) pertaining to allegations of the abuse of detained persons by U.S. military and ...
Email with an executive summary of investigation into the death of an Iraqi enemy prisoner of war. Obeed Hethere Radad was confinded in an isolation cell with his hands secured. A guard claimed he thought Radad was trying to escape and shot him ...
Email with an executive summary of CID investigation into a Lieutenant Colonel's admission of issuing a death threat and firing his pistol next to the head of a detainee (an uncooperative Iraqi police officer suspected of being part of a plot to ...
Email containing an executive summary of CID investigation into allegations that a soldier threatened a detainee with a gun, fired the gun on the ground next to the detainee, and "butt-stroked" the detainee during a "knock-and-search" operation ...
Email with an executive summary of an investigation into allegations in a May 2004 Playboy article entitled "Death and Dishonor". Soldiers quoted in the article alleged that soldiers assigned to the 1/15th Infantry Battalion had, among other ...
Executive summary of investigation into the cause of death of Abbas Alwan Fadil, a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq. Autopsy of the detainee was pending at the time of the summary. The preliminary examination "revealed no signs of trauma or ...
Email with an executive summary of a CID investigation into validity of statements by a soldier claiming to have been involved in the abuse and murder of Iraqi detainees on January 18, 2004, while he worked in the Intensive Care Ward, Camp ...
Email with an executive summary of investigations into a recordable compact disc containing images of suspected detainee abuse in in Afghanistan between January 11 and January 19, 2004. The images on the CD depicted U.S. soldiers holding weapons ...
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 ...
Army Standard Operating Procedures for Detainees at Camp Duke, Iraq. Lists standard operating procedure, including: treatment of the detainees and guard procedures, camp rules, procedures for filing a complaint, health and welfare, incoming, ...
Forces Command Regulation (FORSCOM Reg.) 350-5: Joint Training Exercises. The purpose of this regulation is to prescribe policy, procedures, and responsibilities relative to planning for, participation in, and support of joint training exercises ...
Email from Army Officer to Army Officer re: Detainee Operations Training. To ensure that all units with duty at detention centers are trained in accordance with CFLCC [Combined Force Land Component Command] intent expressed in your white paper. ...