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 (5)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Aug. 31, 2006 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6796
A letter providing legal advice regarding whether the conditions of detention at certain overseas CIA facilities are consistent with the applicable standards of the DTA. It concludes that the conditions of confinement did not constitute "cruel, ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury
EIT, Cramped confinement, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Forced grooming, Other Humiliation
Aug. 31, 2006 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4553

An OLC memo from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo analyzing whether certain conditions of confinement used by the CIA in covert overseas facilities are consistent with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.  The conditions are: (1) ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury
Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming
Aug. 31, 2006 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4554

A letter providing legal advice regarding whether the conditions of detention at certain oversears CIA facilities are consistent with the applicable standards of the DTA.  It concludes that the conditions of confinement did not constitute ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury, Lindsey Graham, Stephen Hadley, John McCain, Pete Hoekstra, Duncan Lee Hunter
Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Isolation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Forced grooming, Environmental manipulation, Other Humiliation
Apr. 06, 2006 | CID | ACLU-RDI 4530
This CID investigation concerns an allegation of a assault upon a detainee while at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). Detainee alleged that he was assaulted by a black man dressed in an army uniform and was "slapped around" for ten (10) days ...
Oct. 01, 2008
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Aug. 26, 2006 | CID | ACLU-RDI 4528
On 24 Dec 2003 American forces raided a house in the Slaikh Alrabee neighborhood of Baghdad. The men inside were taken in to custody with blindfolds and cuffed behind their backs. The men allege that during their arrest they were abused by being ...
Sept. 24, 2008
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming