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 (18)

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page

This May 7, 2004 Special Review by the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General examines the CIA’s counterterrorism detention and interrogation activities, including the apparently unauthorized use of mock executions, a hand gun, a ...

This letter from Acting Assistant Attorney General Levin to Muller regards whether a certain detainee may be subjected to waterboarding. Levin asks the CIA to provide specific details of the technique in practice, including "whether the ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Daniel B. Levin
Scott W. Muller
Daniel B. Levin, Scott W. Muller, Jay S. Bybee, John A. Rizzo, John L. Helgerson
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding

A letter from Jack Goldsmith to Scott Muller regarding the CIA Inspector General's Special Review of the CIA's interrogation program.  The letter expresses concern at the fact that, according to the Special Review, aspects of the CIA's ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, Scott W. Muller, John L. Helgerson, John A. Rizzo
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding

A letter from the CIA to OLC requesting that the OLC reaffirm its analyses in several previously issued memos relating to interrogation.  The letter states that "we rely on the applicable law and OLC guidance to assess the lawfulness ...

An OLC memo concluding that the CIA’s proposed interrogation plan for Abu Zubaydah — which contemplates methods including “insects placed in a confinement box” and “the waterboard” — does not violate ...

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page