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 (107)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
May 07, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6617
Report from the Office of Inspector General on Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities from September 2001-October 2003, specifically focusing on the use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs). In September 2016, a version ...
Sept. 29, 2016
Oversight Report
CIA Office of Inspector General
Bruce Jessen
Gul Rahman, Abu Zubaydah, Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Threat, Mock Burial, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Nudity
Dec. 01, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6468
This document is an email describing the allegations of a detainee (whose name is redacted). The detainee claims to have been abused by two FBI agents in Afghanistan who later came back to interrogate him in GTMO. Detainee claimed that the FBI ...
Oct. 30, 2009
Email
Valarie E. Caproni
Redacted; Charlene Thornton
Valerie E. Caproni, Charlene B. Thornton, Julie F. Thomas, Frankie Battle, Thomas J. Harrington
Threat
Dec. 01, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6467
This document is an email describing the allegations of a detainee (whose name is redacted). The detainee claims to have been abused by two FBI agents in Afghanistan who later came back to interrogate him in GTMO. Detainee claimed that the FBI ...
Oct. 30, 2009
Email
Valerie E. Caproni
[Redacted] (OGC) (FBI); Charlene B. Thorton (INSD) (FBI); Frankie Battle (CTD) (FBI); Julie F. Thomas (OGC) (FBI); [Redacted] (CTD) (FBI); T.J. Harrington (CTD) (FBI); [Redacted] (CTD) (FBI); M. [Redacted] (CTD) (FBI); [Redacted] (CTD) (FBI)
Valerie E. Caproni, Charlene B. Thornton
Threat
Nov. 29, 2004 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 6328
The document is an untitled letter from a detainee alleging abuse by the American military. The detainee states that he was questioned about the role of Iraqi intelligence in furthering international terrorism and about where Iraq had hidden its ...
June 15, 2011
Letter
Physical assault, General, Walling, Assault/death, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Apr. 30, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5104
CIA copy of a New Yorker article tracing the responsibility for American soldiers brutalizing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Janis Leigh Karpinski, Ricardo Sanchez, Antonio Taguba, Ivan L. Frederick, II, Charles A. Graner, Jr., Javal Sean Davis, Megan M. Ambuhl, Sabrina D. Harman, Jeremy C. Sivits, Lynndie Rana England, Joseph M. Darby, Scott Bobeck, Jerry Phillabaum, Donald J. Ryder, Jason Kennel, Thomas Pappas, Steven Jordan, Geoffrey D. Miller, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Ricardo Sanchez
EIT, Use of water, Water dousing, Other, Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Sexual, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
May 23, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5091
CIA copy of L.A. Times article reporting on the Pentagon's reversal on its conclusion about the death of Abed Hamed Mowhoush, an Iraqi general who died in U.S. custody in 2003. The article describes the history of the Pentagon's position, which ...
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt
Abed Hamed Mowhoush
EIT, Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Threat, Family/others, Hooding/Goggling, Environmental manipulation
Apr. 30, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5082
CIA copy of Antiwar.com article describing the release of photographs revealing abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Janis Leigh Karpinski, Donald H. Rumsfeld
EIT, Threat, Use of electricity, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Apr. 30, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 5081
CIA copy of London Sky News article describing Prime Minister Tony Blair's response to photographs showing American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Tony Blair, Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt, Ivan L. Frederick, II
EIT, Threat, Use of electricity, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Other, Environmental manipulation
Jan. 17, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 5072
This article reported that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American officer in Iraq, had ordered criminal investigations into allegations of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Mar. 15, 2013
Other
Ricardo Sanchez, Ennis Whitehead, III, Allen West
Threat
May 05, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 5061
This article describes criminal investigations into detainee deaths and assaults in Iraq and Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. It documents Condoleeza Rice's public "apolog[y] to the Arab world," and Donald ...
Other
Condoleeza Rice, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Richard B. Myers, John McCain, Thomas Andrew Daschle, Tom DeLay, William Frist, Donald J. Ryder, Antonio Taguba, Peter Pace, George W. Casey, Jr.
Physical assault, Threat, Nudity, Other