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)

This CID investigation concerns an allegation of an assault upon a detainee while at FOB Headhunter. The detainee alleges that after he was captured he was hooded, was struck about the head and body by fists and kicked. He also stated he was hit ...
Oct. 01, 2008
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Threat, Assault/death

This CID investigation relates to allegations of prisoner maltreatment and abuse by an Iraqi individual captured on July 22, 2004. The detainee alleges he was abused by members of the CIA while being held in a small room at an unknown location ...

Oct. 01, 2008
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death
This CID investigation into claims made by three Iranian detainees alleging they knew of a fellow Iranian being murdered at Airbase H3, Iraq. They allege the murder took place while they were being detained and interrogated by Coalition Forces. ...
CID investigation into the death of a detainee, Manadel Al-Jamadi. Mr. Al-Jamadi was captured on Nov. 4, 2003 by members of U.S. Navy Seal Team Seven (ST-7), who located Mr. Al-Jamadi at his residence south of Baghdad, Iraq. Mr. Al-Jamadi ...
Oct. 01, 2008
Investigative File (CID)
Manadel Al-Jamadi
Physical assault, Stomach/abdominal slap, Other
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 ...
This is the Autopsy Report & Death Certificate for Ali Abdullah Ahmed, a 21 year old Yeminis male being held at Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility, Cuba. Mr. Ahmed, along with Mana Shaman Allabardi Al Tabi and Ali Yasser Talal al Zahrani each ...
Aug. 28, 2008
Medical (Autopsy, Death Certificate)
Ali Abdullah Ahmed
This is an NCIS investigation of the apparent suicide deaths of three Guantanamo Bay detainees on June 10, 2009. The Detainees: Yasser Al Zahrani; Mana Shaman Allabardi Al Tabi; and Ali Abdullah Ahmed each apparently took their own lives by ...
Aug. 28, 2008
Investigative File (NCIS)
Yasser Al Zahrani, Ali Abdullah Ahmed, Mana Shaman Allabardi Al Tabi

This is a heavily redacted version of a CIA memo later released in less-redacted form.  The less-redacted version is available at ACLU-RDI 4562.  This version of the document shows that CIA interrogators were permitted to use both ...

July 24, 2008
Non-legal Memo
George Tenet
George J. Tenet
EIT

(A CIA affidavit states that this was a 1-page memo dated Aug. 4, 2004 from CIA to OLC and that it contained "communications from the CIA to OLC on a matter in which the CIA requested legal advice from OLC.")  The document ...

July 24, 2008
Legal Memo
Richard J. Durbin
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water

This is a heavily redacted version of an OLC memo later released in less-redacted form (at ACLU-RDI 4548).  This unredacted portions of this version of the memo from the OLC to the CIA discuss the anti-torture statute 18 U.S.C. 2340, ...

July 24, 2008
Legal Memo
Jay S. Bybee
John A. Rizzo
Jay S. Bybee