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 (4791)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
July 23, 2004 | Legislative | ACLU-RDI 3679
Letter from Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) requesting Sec. State Powell Dept's release several internal Administration documents regarding the treatment of enemy prisoners and combatants.
Oct. 15, 2004
Letter
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Colin L. Powell
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Colin L. Powell
July 23, 2004 | Legislative | ACLU-RDI 3680
Letter from Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) requesting Sec. of State Powell to have the State Department provide the Committee on Foreign Relations with copies of documents, and any other legal memoranda prepared after September 11, 2001, that interpret ...
Oct. 15, 2004
Letter
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Colin L. Powell
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Colin L. Powell
FBI | ACLU-RDI 6141
An email by an FBI agent regarding an observation of a non-FBI approved tactic being used on a detainee at Guantanamo Bay. The FBI agent reports observing a detainee sitting on the floor of a room with an Israeli flag draped around him, loud ...
Aug. 30, 2004
Email
Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other Humiliation, Other
May 07, 2004 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 4503

A one-paragraph excerpt from the CIA's Special Review.  The paragraph summarizes a 2002 OLC memo's analysis of the anti-torture statute.

Aug. 14, 2004
Oversight Report
John L. Helgerson
May 07, 2004 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 4504

This documents is Appendix A of the CIA's Special Review.  It describes the procedures and resources for the drafting of the Special review.

Aug. 14, 2004
Oversight Report
John L. Helgerson
George J. Tenet, John McLaughlin
CIA | ACLU-RDI 4505

Almost entirely redacted document entitled "Proposal for an enhanced interrogation strategy in the War on Terrorism." [OIG Vaughn # Other-51]

Aug. 14, 2004
Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah
May 14, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2463
This email concerns a Video Tele Conferece on interrogation policy to "determine a legal basis of this on how it relates to the Geneva Convention". Heavily redacted.
USAF | ACLU-RDI 2464
This memo from General Wooley from the Air Force Special Operations Command is to remind all Air Force personnel that all who come into contact with EPWs or detainees will strictly adhere to standards of behaviour contained in international and ...
June 30, 2004
Non-legal Memo
Micahel W. Wooley
Michael W. Wooley
Oct. 15, 2003 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 3
Letter inquires about CIA's operations in Afghanistan. Makes formal request to visit CIA's facility at Bagram airbase and all other detention facilities in Afghanistan.
May 03, 2004 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 5
Letter regarding abuse of prisoners urging government to take steps in situation. Refers to Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba's report regarding the inquiry into the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
May 18, 2004
Letter
Kenneth Roth
Condoleeza Rice
Condoleeza Rice, George J. Tenet, Antonio Taguba, William J. Haynes, II