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
June 18, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4570

This letter from Goldsmith to Director Tenet requests that the CIA Inspector General’s report be returned to the IG so that edits may be made to the report’s summary of the Attorney General’s statements at a July 2003 meeting ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
George Tenet
Jack L. Goldsmith, George J. Tenet, John D. Ashcroft, John L. Helgerson, Scott W. Muller
July 07, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4574

This letter from Goldsmith to Muller addresses the use of interrogation techniques on a certain high-value detainee and is a follow-up to 2 previous memos approving 33 techniques (an OLC memo approved 9 and a memo from Secretary Rumsfeld ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, John A. Rizzo, Scott W. Muller, John A. Rizzo, Jay S. Bybee, John D. Ashcroft, James B. Comey, Donald H. Rumsfeld
EIT
June 18, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4601

An OLC memo from Jack Goldsmith to John Helgerson, the CIA's Inspector General, expressing disagreement with the Special Review's representation of OLC opinions on two points -- whether John Ashcroft (Attorney General) authorized ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
John L. Helgerson
Jack L. Goldsmith, John L. Helgerson, John D. Ashcroft, John A. Rizzo, George J. Tenet
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water
July 22, 2004 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 4576
In a letter to Acting CIA Director McLaughlin, Attorney General Ashcroft confirms his advice that the use of certain interrogation techniques (other than waterboarding) in the interrogation of a particular detainee outside territory subject to ...
Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
John D. Ashcroft
John E. McLaughlin
John D. Ashcroft, John McLaughlin, John A. Rizzo, Jay S. Bybee
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
Dec. 03, 2001 | ACLU-RDI 3603
Letter from John Walker Lindh's attorney, James J. Brosnahan, requesting information on the location of his client, detained enemy combatant, John Walker Lindh. Mr. Brosnahan states in his letter that he needs the appropriate government official ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Letter
Colin L. Powell, John D. Ashcroft, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George J. Tenet, Robert M. McNamara, Jr.
John Walker Lindh