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 (42)

This document is the Court Martial - charge and prosecution package for Specialist Charles A. Graner, Jr. of the 372nd Military Police Company. SPC Graner was a key figure in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and this document contains the ...

Detainee alleged that while at Abu Ghraib prison several soldiers slapped; punched; choked; struck his head, shoulders, and arms with a retractable metal baton; jumped on him; forced him to lean against a wall in a seated position; forced him to ...
A detainee claims that he was in a vehicle with other Iraqi men who possessed AK-47s. The men attempted to avoid a road-side checkpoint and were stopped by US gunfire. While the men were detained at the roadside, several Iraqi civilians began to ...
This is a statement by a Sergeant interrogator/translator who reported four incidents of potential detainee abuse that he witnessed or were related to him by detainees. The first incident of possible detainee abuse was the rough handling of a ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Forced physical training
Interpreter states that a detainee told him that the guards had punished him for not answering a question by forcing him to do physical exercises. He did not answer because he was praying.
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Statement)
Forced physical training
A detainee claims that during an interview conducted on 06/03/04, he was made to stand with his arms outstretched for three hours, then forced to kneel until he had a heart problem and collapsed. He stated he was taken to the hospital, but the ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Forced physical training
This Court Martial record discusses the court martial proceedings of Specialist Roman Krol, who was charged for offenses he committed while assigned to the Abu Ghraib Detention Facility on or about October 25, 2003. Specialist Roman Krol was ...
This document is a translated statement made by a detainee taken in to custody. Detainee describes abuse he received when taken in to custody at the Iraq/Saudi Arabia boarder. He said he was forced to exercise. He also stated to have been put in ...
Sept. 20, 2005
Investigative File (CID), Interview (Statement)
General, Stress positions, Forced physical training, Physical assault
Memo from General Miller re: Allegations of inhumane treatment of detainees. General Miller directs the interrogators at Guantanamo to cease the use of the "Fear-Up Harsh" interrogation; only DOD personnel may approve interrogation plans; ...
This document is a response to an inquiry to cases of detainee abuse at Guantanamo. There are eleven (11) cases of substantiated misconduct, the incidents are not listed in chronological order.
July 22, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Other, General, Sexual, Forced physical training, Other, Use of water, Physical assault, Other Humiliation