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 (1708)

This document is testimony given by Steven Bradbury, acting Assistant Attorney General of the OLC before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The testimony contains Mr. Bradbury's summary of the four legal standards that apply to the ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Interview (Statement)
Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury
EIT
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
This is a list of 3 Classified DOJ Legal Opinions released in May 2005. There are three memos from Bradbury to Rizzo on the list: (1) Re: Application of 18 U.S.C. 2340-2340A to Certain Techniques that May Be Used in the Interrogation of High ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Chart/List
John A. Rizzo, Steven Bradbury
This legal memorandum from John Yoo to Alberto Gonzales addresses treaties and laws applicable to the conflict in Afghanistan and the treatment of persons captured by U.S. armed forces. The memorandum concludes that these treaties do not protect ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo
Alberto R. Gonzales
John C. Yoo, Alberto R. Gonzales, Robert J. Delahunty
The September 2004 memorandum from Daniel Levin to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General provides an update on the status of interrogation advice. The memo includes previously given and current/pending advice for the CIA and DOD.
This legal memorandum from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo examines the application of the War Crimes Act, the Detainee Treatment Act, and Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions to certain techniques that may be used by the CIA to interrogate ...
This legal memorandum from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo analyzes whether particular conditions of detention at certain CIA facilities overseas are consistent with the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005. The memorandum concludes that conditions at ...
This July 22, 2004 letter from Daniel Levin to Scott Muller asks Muller to provide a "precise description" of the waterboard interrogation technique, so that the OLC can determine if it is consistent with 18 USC §§ 2340 and 2340A.
Aug. 31, 2016
Letter
Daniel B. Levin
Scott W. Muller
Scott W. Muller, Daniel B. Levin
SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding
This memorandum from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo analyzes whether certain enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA in the interrogation of high value al Qaeda detainees would violate US law under Article 16. The memorandum concludes ...
This memorandum from Steven Bradbury to John Rizzo examines whether certain interrogation techniques can be used in the interrogation of high value al-Qaeda detainees. The memorandum concludes that none of these specific techniques, considered ...