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
July 01, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6128
This email includes a chain of forwarded emails expressing an Army CID's desire to interview FBI special agents who are witnesses in an investigation surrounding allegations of prisoner abuse. The prisoner alleges to have been tortured in "an act ...
Apr. 27, 2009
Email
Toni M. Fogle
Use of water, Physical assault, Stress positions, Other
July 02, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 39
CID Report and accompanying documents related to an investigation into allegation of abuse of a detainee in Peshawar, Pakistan and Kandahar, Afghanistan. The detainee claimed that he was beaten on his hands, feet, and chest while detained. The ...
Oct. 15, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault
July 02, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 105
Investigations into numerous alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison and Al-Ademeya Palace based on reports from CACI and Titan translation employees. Alleged abuses include the physical beatings and humiliation of various detainees, forced exercise ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Use of water, Water dousing, Other, Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Use of electricity, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Forced physical training
July 02, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 735
Sworn Statement of a Sergeant assigned to Abu Ghraib prison. The Sgt. recalled finding a detainee naked in their cell, the detainee was identified as a high level official. Recalled the detainee was embarrassed about being naked in the cell ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Nudity
July 02, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2533
CID Report summarizing findings related to allegations of abuse at Adhamiya, most of which are unfounded. States, "Investigation established probable cause to believe [names redacted] committed the offense of False Official Statement" in ...
June 30, 2006
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Sexual
July 02, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2672
Statement is by an interrogator with the 312th Military Intelligence Battalion, The interrogator states "I have witnessed numerous problems with detainees dropped off. Their paperwork is cryptic in as much as they rarely put the detainee's name ...
July 02, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 3323
Email details four (4) incidents of detainee abuse at Guantanamo: Three (3) unspecified; and one (1) involving dogs used against a detainee.
May 18, 2005
Email
Valerie E. Caproni
Bruce J. Gebhardt
Valerie E. Caproni, Bruce J. Gebhardt, J. Stephen Tidwell, Marion E. Bowman, Janice K. Fedarcyk, Patrick W. Kelley
Use of phobias
July 02, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 4023
Letter from UN Commission on Human Rights to U.S. Ambassador Kevin Edward Moley re: Request for Information on Detainee Treatment and Legal Status. The letter refers to Commission resolutions on torture and requests investigation into allegations ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Theo van Boven | Leandro Despouy | Paul Hunt
Kevin Edward Moley
Kevin Edward Moley
July 02, 2004 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 4572

This letter from John Helgerson, Inspector General of the CIA, to Jack Goldsmith of the OLC addresses the DOJ's proposed modifications to the IG report. Helgerson writes, "we have carefully reviewed the comments of the [DOJ] regarding the ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
John L. Helgerson
Jack L. Goldsmith
John L. Helgerson, Jack L. Goldsmith, George J. Tenet, Pat Roberts, Porter Goss, John D. Rockefeller, IV, Jane Harman
July 02, 2004 | CIA-OGC | ACLU-RDI 4573

This letter from Scott Muller to John Bellinger concerns further discussions that clarified the approval of certain interrogation techniques. He writes, "the authorized techniques are those previously approved for use with Abu Zubaydah ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Scott W. Muller
John Bellinger | James B. Comey
Scott W. Muller, John B. Bellinger, III, James B. Comey, Donald H. Rumsfeld
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding