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
June 24, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4067
Emails discuss and include a cable from the U.K. Bar Association Chair and others expressing their opinion on interrogation methods utilized by the U.S. military in Iraq and Guantanamo. The U.K. Bar Association Chair stated that the "extreme ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
JoAnn J. Dolan
Edward R. Cummings | Todd F. Buchwald | Joshua L. Dorosin | James H. Thessin
Thomas Malionek, William J. Gehron, JoAnn J. Dolan, Edward R. Cummings, Todd F. Buchwald, Joshua L. Dorosin, James H. Thessin, Michael J. Dennis
Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Forced grooming, Other Humiliation
May 24, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4065
Emails include a New York Times article entitled "U.S. Disputed Protected Status of Iraq Inmates." The article discusses the American government's adamant position that many detainees in Iraq are not entitled to the full protections of the Geneva ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Robert K. Harris
Edward R. Cummings
Janis Leigh Karpinski, Robert K. Harris, Edward R. Cummings, Thomas Malionek, Lance L. Smith, Darlyce M. Eley, William J. Gehron, Marc Warren
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Isolation, Nudity
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
Apr. 01, 2003 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3620
This DOS Cable discusses a visit to a detention facility in Afghanistan. It explains that there was a previous issue at the facility of overcrowding and lack of resources, but that the current climate is better. Also, the cable notes that the ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Cable
Robert P. Finn, Colin L. Powell, Laura E. Kennedy , Franklin Pierce Huddle, Jr., Ryan C. Crocker, John Edward Herbst, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad
Isolation