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
May 17, 2005 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5031
CIA printout of 10 U.S.C 918, Art. 118, describing the military definition of, and punishments for, murder.
May 15, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 5870
This is a CID investigation into the death of Abdullah Fawzzi, a detainee at the 115th Combat Support Hospital (CSH), Baghdad Central Confinement Facility (BCCF) Abu Ghraib, Baghdad, Iraq on January 30, 2005. Mr. Fawzzi was initially a patient of ...
Jan. 14, 2011
Investigative File (CID), Photograph, Medical (Autopsy, Death Certificate, Physical (non-death)), Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Abdulla Fawzzi
Physical assault
May 14, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2277
Detainee alleged he was detained with a bag over his head for 14 days, was beat in the stomach and kidney, hit on the lips, thrown into concertina wire. He states that all his statements were made under torture. When the detainee was initially ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Threat, Assault/death
May 13, 2005 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 608
One detainee spit on another because they were placed in the recreation yard together. Actions take in response were loss of comfort items for five days and segregation for five days.
May 13, 2005 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 1776
Lists Chapter 10s and Article 15s from Ft. Hood and Ft. Carson. The soldiers names have been redacted.
May 13, 2005 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4734
Letter from Margaret P. Grafeld, DOS to Amrit Singh, ACLU re: the ACLU's FOIA Request. The letter states that the document production requested is being complied with in some parts and denied or withheld in part.
May 13, 2005
Letter, Judicial
Margaret P. Grafeld
Margaret P. Grafeld
May 13, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 5916
This CID investigation in to the alleged unlawful shooting death of an unnamed Iraqi male following a firefight. The Report states that on March 20, 2005, in the vicinity of Salman Pak, Baghdad, Iraq, a man who was engaged with coalition forces ...
Chart/List, Investigative File (CID), Notes, Photograph, Medical (Autopsy, Physical (non-death)), Interview (Statement, Summaries/Notes)
Unknown Iraqi Male, vicinity of Salman Pak, Baghdad, Iraq
Physical assault
May 13, 2005 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 5911
This DOS Cable from the DOS Washington to the US Mission Geneva, Switzerland contains a communication to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This is the US's reply to ICRC's notes verbale of Jan 6, 2004 and Mar 25, 2004 and its ...
Oct. 28, 2011
Cable, Letter
Kevin Edward Moley
May 11, 2005 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 2330
This withheld document is an extract from a report from the ICRC.
May 10, 2005 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4549

An OLC memo concluding that the CIA’s interrogation techniques do not violate the torture statute if used individually.

Apr. 16, 2009
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo, James B. Comey, Daniel B. Levin, John L. Helgerson, George J. Tenet, Jay S. Bybee, George W. Bush
EIT, SERE, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Nudity, Use of water, Physical assault