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 (434)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
June 27, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2548
Sworn statement by a detainee who claimed to have served in the Iraqi Army as a technician. Detainee states that he was handcuffed and had a bag put over his head. He was held "for 17 days" with a bag over his head, "handcuffed to the floor." ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity, Dietary manipulation
June 06, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2551
Sworn statement by a screener at Abu Ghraib prison regarding two (2) Iraqi women and their two (2) brothers detained at Abu Ghraib prison in January 2004. States, "One [brother] said he was raped with a bottle, and they mentioned another brother ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Nudity, Sexual, Other Humiliation
June 26, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2552
Sworn statement by an Iraqi detainee, referring to abuse of the detainee and her brothers and sister at Adamiya. States, "I saw an Iraqi put a bottle in my brother's rectum. There were Iraqi people doing it and Americans watching. There were six ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other Humiliation, Sexual
June 20, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2553

Sworn statement of female Iraqi detainee whose siblings were also held at Adhamiya. States, "I have two sisters and five brothers. One brother died at [redacted]." Detainee was interrogated at Adhamiya palace for four or five days ...

June 30, 2006
Interview (Transcript)
Physical assault, Threat, Use of electricity, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
June 20, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2554
Sworn statement by a Iraqi national who became a detainee at Abu Ghraib along with his sister and brother. He claims that his brother was with the Saddam regime and when he went to visit his sister in Iraq he was taken in to custody as a detainee ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Dietary manipulation
July 09, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2558

Statement of Sergeant First Class who served as an interrogator. Describes interrogations, and states that only specific interrogators conduct interrogations. Continues, "Our command has authorization to detain people longer than 72 ...

June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Assault/death, Cramped confinement, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Threat, Environmental manipulation
June 17, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2573
Sworn statement discussing interrogation procedures and techniques. States, "We used 'Mutt and Jeff' with one of them being assertive, but probably not more than 20% of the time." Continues, "Ninety-nine percent of the time if there was an injury ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
SERE, Physical assault, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
June 06, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2597
Statement of a US Army major. Contains summaries of interviews with two detainees. First detainee, who was arrested on December 24, 2003, reported that he was "beaten ... and punched, ... hung by a nail from the wall with his hands bound behind ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Stomach/abdominal slap, Sexual, General, Stress positions
June 29, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2599
Sworn statement of an Operations Sergeant who discusses interrogation practices. Refers to a detainee, "our number one target," who was captured by Iraqi police, who "beat [redacted] with the pistol to the point where his head was split open in a ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General, Assault/death, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Threat, Environmental manipulation
June 20, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2600
Sworn statement of a detainee. States that, following his capture on April 27, 2004, he was put in a compartment so small that he could only sit in it. States he was severely beaten in an attempt to force a confession, threatened with rape, ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Dietary manipulation