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
Apr. 02, 2002 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 1979
Army Questionnaire: Questions for the Soldiers of Gereshk Collection Point concerning his observations and experience in dealing with detainees, training before deployment and Rules of Engagement. The questionnaire appears to be in response to ...
Apr. 02, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3808
Action request for appropriate handling of request by redacted government to interview detainees at Guantanamo
Apr. 02, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4213
State Department cable to Geneva Mission to deliver a letter to Theo van Boven, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, assuring him that "the [Guantanamo] detainees are not being subjected to mental or physical abuse," detailing nature of ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Colin L. Powell
Colin L. Powell, David W. Bowker, William Howard Taft, IV, Edward R. Cummings, Kevin Edward Moley
Apr. 03, 2002 | CID | ACLU-RDI 165
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 ...
Apr. 04, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4426
Email from Brent Blaschke with the comments "Here's the latest GTMO matrix for the SVTS". Attachment not included
Jan. 12, 2005
Email
Brent E. Blaschke
William Howard Taft, IV | JoAnn J. Dolan
Brent E. Blaschke , JoAnn J. Dolan, William Howard Taft, IV
Apr. 05, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3569
This email contains a forwarded email from Linda Watt, Foreign Policy Advisor, SOUTHCOM, about the construction of the detainee facilities at Guantanamo. It states how many detainees will be housed there and the expectation of the resumption of ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Email
Linda Watt, Gregory M. Suchan, Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Gordon Gray, Chris Duvall, Brent E. Blaschke , James J. Carragher
Apr. 05, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3779
This State Department cable provides talking points concerning informing foreign governments about the transfer of their citizens/nationals to Guantanamo after they were picked-up on the battle field of Afghanistan, and policy guidance for ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Colin L. Powell
Colin L. Powell, James A. Larocco
Apr. 06, 2002 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 3381

A summary of a FBI interview of a detainee being held at Camp X-Ray about the conditions of confinement in the camp.  During the interview, the detainee stated that Military Police "have been mistreating the detainees by pushing them ...

May 18, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, General, Other Humiliation, Religious
Apr. 07, 2002 | ACLU-RDI 6677
This is a memo detailing the visit of a three-person behavioral interrogation team's visit to Abu Zubaydah's holding compound and "evolving" interrogation room. It includes details of the team's suggestions for cell modifications, including "the ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
Light or sound, Environmental manipulation
Apr. 08, 2002 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4543

An OLC memo concluding that Congress cannot interfere with the President's exercise of his authority as Commander in Chief to control the conduct of operations during war, including his authority to promulgate rules to regulate military ...

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
Patrick Philbin
Daniel J. Bryant
Patrick Philbin, Daniel J. Bryant, John C. Yoo