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 (248)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Jan. 31, 2003 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6605
This cable includes the text of the January 28, 2003 DCI approved "Guidelines on Interrogations Conducted Pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum of Notification of 17 September 2001". The cable also asks that all personnel involved in ...
Sept. 26, 2016
Cable
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other Humiliation, Other
May 10, 2005 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6582
An OLC memo from Bradbury to Rizzo addressing whether the combined use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (including waterboarding) violates the prohibition on torture. The memo concludes that it would not violate the torture statute if used ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo
Steve Bradbury
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Steven G. Bradbury, James B. Comey, Jay Bybee, Daniel B. Levin
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other
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
June 16, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 6453
This document is a FBI Situation Report for FBI Detachment in Afghanistan. It contains logistical information about FBI presence as well as detainee information, summaries of detainee interviews, and updates about FBI missions throughout ...
Nov. 01, 2010
Other
Other
June 19, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 6449
This document is a FBI Situation Report for FBI Detachment in Afghanistan. It contains logistical information about FBI presence as well as detainee information, summaries of detainee interviews, and updates about FBI missions throughout ...
Nov. 01, 2010
Other
Other
May 04, 2006 | ACLU-RDI 6433
This documents the interview of Detainee 269 at GTMO on 5/4/06. It states that Detainee 269 was interviewed in an air conditioned room with his hands free and his feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. The synopsis states that the purpose of the ...
Nov. 01, 2011
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Other
June 29, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 6371
This document is an Initial Army CID report concerning allegations by a detainee that he was tortured for approximately 24 hours by agents of the FBI while held at the Baghdad International Airport detention facility. Records revealed that the ...
July 21, 2009
Oversight Report
Stomach/abdominal slap, Other, Physical assault
FBI | ACLU-RDI 6141
An email by an FBI agent regarding an observation of a non-FBI approved tactic being used on a detainee at Guantanamo Bay. The FBI agent reports observing a detainee sitting on the floor of a room with an Israeli flag draped around him, loud ...
Aug. 30, 2004
Email
Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other Humiliation, Other
July 01, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6128
This email includes a chain of forwarded emails expressing an Army CID's desire to interview FBI special agents who are witnesses in an investigation surrounding allegations of prisoner abuse. The prisoner alleges to have been tortured in "an act ...
Apr. 27, 2009
Email
Toni M. Fogle
Use of water, Physical assault, Stress positions, Other
Sept. 01, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 5987
This document is a statement signed by an FBI Special Agent in the presence of a Supervisory Special Agent. The agent recounts their assignment by the Defense Humint Services Headquarters to lead a Humint Augmentation Team in support of a special ...
Apr. 27, 2009
Interview (Statement)
Use of water, Other, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Other