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 (135)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
July 02, 2004 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 6610
This letter from John Helgerson, Inspector General of the CIA, to Jack Goldsmith of the OLC addresses the DOJ's proposed modifications to the IG report. Helgerson writes, "we have carefully reviewed the comments of the [DOJ] regarding the Special ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Letter
John L. Helgerson
Jack L. Goldsmith
John L. Helgerson, Jack L. Goldsmith, George J. Tenet, Pat Roberts, Porter Goss, John D. Rockefeller, IV, Jane Harman
July 02, 2004 | CIA-OGC | ACLU-RDI 6611
This letter from Scott Muller to John Bellinger concerns further discussions that clarified the approval of certain interrogation techniques. He writes, "the authorized techniques are those previously approved for use with Abu Zubaydah (with the ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo, Letter
Scott W. Muller
John B. Bellinger | James B. Comey
James B. Comey, John B. Bellinger, III, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Scott W. Muller
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
July 02, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6346
The document is an internal FBI email, regarding a letter to be sent by the FBI Office of General Counsel to the DoD detailing previously unreported detainee abuse allegations. In one email, an agent, whose name is redacted, speaks passionately ...
June 15, 2011
Email
Valerie E. Caproni, Marion E. Bowman, J. Stephen Tidwell
July 23, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6187
The document is an internal FBI email, regarding an update on two prisoner abuse cases that are pending.
Jan. 15, 2010
Email
Robert S. Mueller, Bruce J. Gebhardt, Valerie E. Caproni, Robert A. Spencer
July 11, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6304
The document is an internal FBI email, regarding a request that FBI agents who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo fill out surveys on whether they witnessed abuse of detainees.
Dec. 18, 2009
Email
Steven C. McCraw, Frankie Battle, Thomas J. Harrington, Joseph M. Demarest, Jr.
July 07, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6202
A series of emails regarding whether hard copies of the FBI Legal Handbook have been issued to agents in the past years, or whether only digital issues have been issued. The emails also note that testimony before Congress should stress that ...
Oct. 30, 2009
Email
Valerie E. Caproni, Patrick W. Kelley, Maureen Baginski
July 12, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6223
An email in reply to a received "'positive' response." The response reports that the FBI agent observed aggressive treatment of a detainee who appeared to have blood shot eyes and what appeared to be blood that congealed to his eyelashes.
July 02, 2004 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 4572

This letter from John Helgerson, Inspector General of the CIA, to Jack Goldsmith of the OLC addresses the DOJ's proposed modifications to the IG report. Helgerson writes, "we have carefully reviewed the comments of the [DOJ] regarding the ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
John L. Helgerson
Jack L. Goldsmith
John L. Helgerson, Jack L. Goldsmith, George J. Tenet, Pat Roberts, Porter Goss, John D. Rockefeller, IV, Jane Harman
July 02, 2004 | CIA-OGC | ACLU-RDI 4573

This letter from Scott Muller to John Bellinger concerns further discussions that clarified the approval of certain interrogation techniques. He writes, "the authorized techniques are those previously approved for use with Abu Zubaydah ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Scott W. Muller
John Bellinger | James B. Comey
Scott W. Muller, John B. Bellinger, III, James B. Comey, Donald H. Rumsfeld
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
July 15, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6376
This email briefly discusses a letter drafted by CIRG to ORG to send to the Department of Defense regarding detainee treatment observed by members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit at GTMO. The response states that the redacted respondent has no ...