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 (75)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
June 18, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6623
An OLC memo from Jack Goldsmith to John Helgerson, the CIA's Inspector General, expressing disagreement with the Special Review's representation of OLC opinions on two points -- whether John Ashcroft (Attorney General) authorized "expanded use" ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
Jack L. Goldsmith
John L. Helgerson
Jack L. Goldsmith, John L. Helgerson, John A. Rizzo
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
Oct. 12, 2007 | ACLU-RDI 6626
This document is a list of past DOJ advice on interrogation dated October 12, 2007.
Aug. 31, 2016
Chart/List
Alberto R. Gonzales, Jay S. Bybee, John A. Rizzo, William J. Haynes, II, Scott W. Muller, John McLaughlin, James B. Comey, Steven G. Bradbury
EIT
Apr. 29, 2008 | ACLU-RDI 6628
This document is a list of classified DOJ legal advice regarding the CIA's interrogation program dated April 29, 2008.
Aug. 31, 2016
Chart/List
John A. Rizzo, George J. Tenet, Scott W. Muller, John McLaughlin, John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury
EIT
June 01, 2006 | CIA-OGC | ACLU-RDI 6631
This document is a fax from John Rizzo to Steven Bradbury containing Mr. Rizzo's draft Q&A responses for an upcoming hearing on detention and interrogation.
Aug. 31, 2016
Cable
John A. Rizzo
Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo, John C. Yoo, Jay S. Bybee, William J. Haynes, II, Jack L. Goldsmith, Alberto R. Gonzales, Scott W. Muller, Daniel B. Levin, John Ashcroft
EIT
Dec. 12, 2007 | ACLU-RDI 6633
This document is a list of DOJ advice on interrogation dated December 12, 2007.
Aug. 31, 2016
Chart/List
John A. Rizzo, Scott W. Muller, John McLaughlin, John A. Rizzo, Daniel B. Levin, James B. Comey, Steven G. Bradbury, John B. Bellinger, III
EIT
Nov. 09, 2007 | ACLU-RDI 6634
This document is a list of DOJ advice on interrogation dated November 9, 2007.
Aug. 31, 2016
Chart/List
Scott W. Muller, John A. Rizzo, John McLaughlin, Jay S. Bybee, Daniel B. Levin, John Ashcroft, James B. Comey, Steven G. Bradbury
EIT
July 22, 2004 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 6578
In the letter to Acting CIA Director McLaughlin, Attorney General Ashcroft confirms his advice that the use of certain interrogation techniques (other than waterboarding) in the interrogation of a particular detainee outside territory subject to ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo, Letter
John D. Ashcroft
John E. McLaughlin
John McLaughlin, David Ayres, John A. Rizzo, Jay Bybee
Use of water, Waterboarding
Jan. 05, 2010 | ACLU-RDI 6614
This is a January 5, 2010 memorandum written by David Margolis, Associate Deputy Attorney General, to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General. It contains Margolis' review of OPR's findings of misconduct against Yoo and Bybee. ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Oversight Report
David Margolis
David Margolis, Jay S. Bybee, John C. Yoo, Steven Bradbury, Frank Wolf, Michael Mukasey, Mark Filip, Alberto R. Gonzales, Daniel B. Levin, Jack L. Goldsmith, Patrick Philbin, Adam Ciongoli, John D. Ashcroft, John A. Rizzo, Michael Chertoff
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming, Other
May 20, 2005 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6562
This letter from Steven Bradbury, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, confirms that the legal guidance of the Attorney General's office as stated in a December 14, 2004 letter from Daniel Levin to John Rizzo, still pertains.
Aug. 31, 2016
Letter
Steve Bradbury
John A. Rizzo, Daniel B. Levin, Steven G. Bradbury
Aug. 31, 2006 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6563
This letter from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo memorializes the advice that Bradbury gave to Rizzo regarding whether the conditions of confinement used by the CIA in its covert overseas facilities are consistent with common Article 3 of the 1949 ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Letter
Steven G. Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
Steven G. Bradbury, John A. Rizzo
Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other