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 (4)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
May 13, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3842

Email includes news articles about high level detainees, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah and the "harsh" interrogation methods the CIA employs. The email includes another article, which reports specific accounts of abuse.

Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Jonathan B. Schwartz
Katherine M. Gorove | Michael J. Dennis
George W. Bush, Jonathan B. Schwartz, Katherine M. Gorove, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Frank E. Schmelzer , Michael J. Dennis, Mark P. Lagon, Lorne Craner, Michael G. Kozak, Miriam K. Hughes, Janice A. Smith
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Walid Bin Attash
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming
July 22, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3853
Email forward of a paper written on the three War on Terror cases decisions issued by the Supreme Court in 2004. The paper summarizes Rumsfeld v Padilla, Hamdi v Rumsfeld and Rasul, et al v Bush. All three cases were brought by, or on behalf of, ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Katherine M. Gorove
Joshua L. Dorosin | JoAnn J. Dolan | Curtis A. Bradley
Katherine M. Gorove, Joshua L. Dorosin, JoAnn J. Dolan, Curtis A. Bradley, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Janice A. Smith
Jose Padilla, Yaser Esam Hamdi, Shafiq Rasul
June 07, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4070

Emails discuss and include a Wall Street Journal article entitled "Pentagon Report Set Framework for Use of Torture: Security or Legal Factors Could Trump Restrictions, Memo to Rumsfeld Argued." The article discusses a classified ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Robert K. Harris
Edward R. Cummings | Samuel M. Witten | Tom Malionek | Jonathan B. Schwartz
Donald H. Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, James T. Hill, Condoleeza Rice, Patrick Leahy, William J. Haynes, II, Thomas Malionek, William J. Gehron, Robert K. Harris, Edward R. Cummings, Samuel M. Witten, Michael G. Kozak, James H. Thessin, Jonathan B. Schwartz, William Howard Taft, IV, Robert E. Dalton, Katherine M. Gorove, Lois L. Allder, Daphne W. Cook, Darlyce M. Eley
Threat, Family/others, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious
May 07, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4176
Emails discuss talking points for use by the U.S. expert on the Committee Against Torture, discussing what the U.S. will say in response to prisoner abuses in Iraq. Talking points included.
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Robert K. Harris
William Howard Taft, IV | James H. Thessin | Samuel M. Witten
Robert K. Harris, William Howard Taft, IV, James H. Thessin, Samuel M. Witten, Katherine M. Gorove, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, Elizabeth H. Richard, JoAnn J. Dolan, Edward R. Cummings, Aaron W. Jost, Mark P. Lagon, Elizabeth L. Riley, Anne R. Sorensen, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Charles A. Allen, Patrick Rowan