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)

State Department cover sheet for a document from the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs entitled "PM Cover Sheet" with Log Number: #106 and designating the Secretary of State as the recipient. The subject title is "Detainee Issues". There is ...
Interpreter states that a detainee told him that the guards had punished him for not answering a question by forcing him to do physical exercises. He did not answer because he was praying.
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Statement)
Forced physical training
State department cable stating that the Speaker of the House of Commons found that Defense Minister Art Eggleton misled Parliament about when he learned that Canadian Special Forces captured Al-Qaida terrorists and turned them over to the U.S.. ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Colin L. Powell
Peter W. Mason, Colin L. Powell, Sharon E. Ahmad, Condoleeza Rice
DOS Cable from Colin L. Powell to U.S. Ambassador to Australia, John Thomas Schieffer. The Cable discusses the POW status or non-status of the Taliban and Al-Qaida detainees, and explains the specific privileges the detainees will be afforded.
No relevant text.
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Steven A. Solomon
Marianne J. Hata | Edward R. Cummings
Charles L. Daris, Steven A. Solomon, Marianne J. Hata , Edward R. Cummings
State Department cable concerning: Australian Foreign Minister's comments suggesting ways in which the U.S. and its allies can cooperate on the war on terror; The U.S. Ambassador's meeting in Brisbane; and due process for the Guantanamo ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Colin L. Powell
State Department email concerning a meeting of the Army General Counsel and a briefing on the legal status and possible release of the Guantanamo detainees.
This is a memo from President Bush to the Vice President and other key administration personnel stating that "none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world because, among ...
This White House memo describes U.S. policy toward detainees at Guantanamo.  States that they are not entitled to POW treatment but that they are treated humanely and given many of the protections that POWs are given.

June 01, 2005
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
Press release from the Office of the White House Press Secretary, discussing the status of Taliban and Al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo. The press release outlines that detainees are not POWs and while they will be treated humanely and in ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Other
Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush