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. 25, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3728
This State Department cable states that a letter was received from Stephen Toope, Chairman of the United Nations' Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. The letter concerns a report by the Working Group Enforced or Involuntary ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Kevin Edward Moley
Oct. 21, 2003 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 3729
Summary of allegations by the Special Rapporteur of abuse of a detainee held in custody at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base in 2002-2003. The claim of abuses included: prolonged standing; kneeling; painful and awkward positions; hooding; ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Use of electricity, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Environmental manipulation
Oct. 22, 2002 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 3730
United Nations Special Rapporteur report on allegations of potential detainee abuse at Kandahar, Afghanistan. This is an annex of a report which purports to describe how suspected Taliban detainees were bound and hooded while in U.S. custody in ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Physical assault, Stress positions, Cramped confinement
Oct. 22, 2003 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 3731
Letter from Theo van Boven, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on torture to U.S. Amb. Moley re: Special Rapporteur Commission resolutions 2001/62, entitled: "Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Theo van Boven
Kevin Edward Moley
Kevin Edward Moley
Dec. 08, 2003 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3732
This State Department cable relates a letter received from Theo van Boven, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, concerning the status of detention procedures and the military justice to be applied to certain detainees. Mr. Boven also ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Kevin Edward Moley
Dec. 08, 2003 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 3733
This letter is from Theo van Boven, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, concerning the status of detention procedures and the military justice to be applied to certain detainees. Mr. Boven also expresses concern over the release of ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Theo van Boven
Kevin Edward Moley
Kevin Edward Moley
Dec. 28, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3734
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.
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter, Judicial
Margaret P. Grafeld
Margaret P. Grafeld
Jan. 25, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3735
This State Department memo states who the participants are for a meeting with International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) being held on January 25, 2002.
Dec. 30, 2004
Non-legal Memo
William Howard Taft, IV, Paula J. Dobriansky
Jan. 25, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3736
List of issues to be disucssed at meeting with International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) , including confidentiality, how to deal with press, and have ICRC acknowledge that DOD has the lead and that they've been debriefed.
Apr. 22, 2002 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 3737
Fax cover sheet accompanying letter from Frank A. Sieverts of the ICRC to David Kay of the DOS subject: "Here's the letter, copy faxed also today to Jim Burger. Not sure what happened to it originally -- we thought it had beem transmitted via the ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Frank A. Sieverts
David Kaye
David Kay