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
Aug. 03, 2006 | ACLU-RDI 4991
Oct. 02, 2006 | ACLU-RDI 4990
May 05, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4987
DOS Press Release asking if the ICRC has access to detainees in Iraq, including detainees at Abu Ghraib. The answer is yes.
Nov. 23, 2004
Other
Jonathan S. Carpenter, P. Michael McKinley, Frank E. Schmelzer
June 28, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 4988
This letter is from Leila Zerrougui, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention under the United Nations Human Rights Council to U.S. Amb. Moley concerns the military detention of Feroz Ali Abassi, Moazzam Begg, David ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Leila Zerrougui
Kevin Edward Moley
Kevin Edward Moley
Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, Feroz Ali Abassi, Moazzam Begg, David Hicks, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul
Mar. 22, 2003 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4989
State Department Cable Subject: Transfer of Detainees to Guantanamo, March 21, 2003. No further information or content
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Richard A. Boucher
May 10, 2005 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4986

An OLC memo addressing whether the combined use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (including waterboarding) violates the prohibition on torture.  The memo concludes that it would not.

Apr. 16, 2009
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo, James B. Comey, Jay S. Bybee, Daniel B. Levin
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other
Oct. 18, 2004 | DOJ | Legislative | ACLU-RDI 4983
An exchange of letters between Senator Charles Grassley and Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella regarding the OLC's August 2002 memo defining torture. Senator Grassley initiated the exchange by forwarding to AAG Moschella for response ...
Letter
William E. Moschella, Charles E. Grassley
Jan. 15, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4984

A memo directing DOD General Counsel Jim Haynes to establish a working group "to assess the legal, policy, and operational issues relating to the interrogations of detainees."  That working group would later recommend ...

June 01, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Donald H. Rumsfeld
William J. Haynes, II
Donald H. Rumsfeld, William J. Haynes, II
July 13, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 4981
This email is a response to a Bureau wide memo sent by Steve McCraw to illicit information from FBI agents who toured through Guantanamo Bay to report any suspected or witnessed abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. This FBI agent touring through ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Non-legal Memo, Email
Steven C. McCraw
Sleep deprivation
July 15, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 4982
This email is a response to a Bureau wide memo sent by Steve McCraw to illicit information from FBI agents who toured through Guantanamo Bay to report any suspected or witnessed abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. This FBI agent touring through ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Non-legal Memo, Email
Steven C. McCraw
Sleep deprivation