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 (2667)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Apr. 13, 2006 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 5109

An OLC memorandum concluding that revisions of the Army Field Manual 2-22.3 and Appendix M to that manual "are consistent with the requirements of law, in particular with the requirements of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005." The ...

Mar. 15, 2010
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury, William J. Haynes, II, Patrick Philbin
Physical assault, General, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity
Dec. 22, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6217
The document is an FBI cover sheet for the release of interview reports from New York pertaining to detainee ISN 661. The reports are for the Department of Defense, Criminal Investigation Task Force.
Jan. 15, 2010
Other
Mamdouh Ibrahim Ahmed Habib
Sept. 02, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6469
This document is a memo in reference to a NCIS request for the FBI to release information on all people who have had interaction with two detainees who have alleged abuse at the hands of military personnel and their interpreters. The detainees' ...
Oct. 30, 2009
Non-legal Memo
FBI Office of General Counsel
Counter Terrorism Unit
Mar. 12, 2001 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 5969
This summary of an interview completed by the U.S. Naval Criminal investigative Service with Guantanamo Bay detainee, Moazaam Begg, was released by the Department of Defense Office of the General Counsel; the DOD's release letter to the ACLU is ...
Apr. 08, 2009
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Moazzam Begg
Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Sexual, Threat, Rendition, Use of electricity
Oct. 23, 2001 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4540

This memo considers the use of military force to prevent or deter terrorist activity domestically and concludes that, “the President has both constitutional and statutory authority to use the armed forces in military operations, against ...

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo | Robert J. Delahunty
Alberto Gonzalez | William J. Haynes, II
Robert J. Delahunty, William J. Haynes, II, John C. Yoo, George W. Bush, David S. Kris
Mar. 13, 2002 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4542

An OLC memo concluding that, “the President has plenary constitutional authority, as the commander in chief, to transfer such individuals who are held and captured outside the United States to the control of another country.” ...

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
Jay S. Bybee
William J. Haynes, II
Jay S. Bybee, William J. Haynes, II, Alberto R. Gonzales, John C. Yoo, Robert J. Delahunty, Patrick Philbin
Feb. 07, 2003 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6818
This memo from John C. Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, to the President of the American Bar Association provides the legal justification for the treatment of U.S. Civilians as Enemy Combatants, specifically regarding their lack of right ...
Jan. 07, 2009
Non-legal Memo
John C. Yoo
William J. Haynes, II
Robert Hirshon , Alfred P. Carlton Jr.
Feb. 22, 2007 | CID | ACLU-RDI 5170
CID investigation into the death of a detainee, Major General (MG) Abed Hamed Mowhoush. MG Mowhoush was interrogated by U.S. personnel on November 24 and 26, 2003. The names of the interrogators are redacted (except for Staff Sgt. Aaron N. ...
Nov. 10, 2008
Investigative File (CID)
Abed Hamed Mowhoush
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Other
June 20, 2007 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 5951
This is the Autopsy Report & Death Certificate of Abd Al-Rahman M. Al-Umari a detainee at Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. It is reported that Mr. Al-Rahman committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell. The Report states that CPR & other ...
Nov. 10, 2008
Medical (Autopsy, Death Certificate)
Abd Al-Rahman M. Al-Umari
Feb. 20, 2008 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 5952
This is the Autopsy Report & Death Certificate for Abdul Razzak, a detainee at Guantanamo Bay Detention facility, Cuba. The Report states that Mr. Razzak succumbed to organ failure complicating metastatic colon cancer. The Report further found ...
Nov. 10, 2008
Medical (Autopsy, Death Certificate)
Abdul Razzaq Hekmati