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 07, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2547
Sworn statement by an individual who was present at an interrogation. Refers to a detainee who alleged that he had been abused, "stripped, had a bag placed over his head, and was burned on the foot with a cigarette and hit on the side of his ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Use of electricity, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
July 07, 2004 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 2718

Refers to FBI Caproni draft testimony for a 07-14-04 hearing re the Critical Need for Interrogation in the Global War on Terrorism. No attachments provided. Text entirely redacted.

Oct. 15, 2004
Email
Deborah J. Clifton
Jack L. Goldsmith | Betty Lofton | Patricia Massie | Julie Samuels | James A. McAtamney | Ethan Kanter | Patrick Philbin | Rachel Brand | Matt Dummermuth | Robert J. Faurot | Winnie Brinkley | Daniel B. Levin | Steven G. Bradbury
Valerie E. Caproni, Renee Lerner, Dyone Mitchell, Lawan Robinson, George Smith
July 07, 2004 | CRIM | ACLU-RDI 2719
Email from Jordan Leiter to Julie Samuels referencing an attachment bearing the name "CRIM DIV comment on draft DOJ statement on Interrogation in War Against Terrorism".
Oct. 15, 2004
Email
Jordan Leiter
Julie Samuels
Jordan Leiter, Julie E. Samuels
July 07, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 2817
Memorandum from the FBI that provides the Assistant Attorney General with recommendations regarding detainees to appear before the Transfer Review Board ON March 30, 2004. The FBI's repatriation evaluations are attached. Contents of the ...
Dec. 15, 2004
Non-legal Memo
Patrick Rowan
Patrick Rowan
July 07, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3721
This is a cable to the U.S. Mission in Geneva, forwarding letters received by U.N. Representatives Theo van Boven, Leandro Despouy and Paul Hunt. The letters from Messrs.’ Boven, Despouy and Hunt focus on the treatment of detainees and the ...
July 07, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4470
Emails between Cara Abercrombie and Josua Dorosin re: Detainees Policy and Status
Jan. 12, 2005
Email
Cara L. Abercrombie
Joshua L. Dorosin
Cara L. Abercrombie, Joshua L. Dorosin
July 07, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4574

This letter from Goldsmith to Muller addresses the use of interrogation techniques on a certain high-value detainee and is a follow-up to 2 previous memos approving 33 techniques (an OLC memo approved 9 and a memo from Secretary Rumsfeld ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, John A. Rizzo, Scott W. Muller, John A. Rizzo, Jay S. Bybee, John D. Ashcroft, James B. Comey, Donald H. Rumsfeld
EIT
July 07, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 4692
White House Cover Sheet re: Detainees - International Committee of the Red Cross
June 08, 2005
Letter
John Bellinger
William Howard Taft, IV | Patrick Philbin | William J. Haynes, II
John B. Bellinger, III, William J. Haynes, II, William Howard Taft, IV, Patrick Philbin
July 07, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 5019

This memo by Alberto Mora, General Counsel of the Navy, gives the chronology of his opposition (and the opposition of other members of the Navy) to the harsh interrogation techniques authorized for use at Guantanamo Bay by Secretary of Defense ...

Feb. 27, 2006
Legal Memo
Alberto Mora
Albert T. Church
Alberto Mora, Albert T. Church, Donald H. Rumsfeld, William J. Haynes, II, Mary Walker, Thomas F. Kranz, William R. Molzahn, Charlotte O. Wise, Richard W. Schieke, Michael F. Lohr, Kevin M. Sandkuhler, Peter Murphy, David Brant, Michael Gelles, Steven J. Morello, Thomas W. Taylor, Michael E. Dunlavey , Diane E. Beaver, Gordon R. England, William J. Fallon, Kevin P. Green, Susan M. Livingstone, George W. Bush, Jaymie Durnan, Paul Wolfowitz, Jane Dalton, Daniel Dell'Orto, John C. Yoo, Patrick Leahy, Daniel J. Ramos, James T. Hill, Geoffrey D. Miller
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Sexual
July 07, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6202
A series of emails regarding whether hard copies of the FBI Legal Handbook have been issued to agents in the past years, or whether only digital issues have been issued. The emails also note that testimony before Congress should stress that ...
Oct. 30, 2009
Email
Valerie E. Caproni, Patrick W. Kelley, Maureen Baginski