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 (72)

This memo describes the CIA's rendition, detention, and interrogation program, including the legal authorities under which the program operates and the safeguards and controls that have been undertaken to prevent deviation, improvisation, abuse ...
This email discusses the sending and drafting of a cable requesting that Psychologist James Mitchell stay at the undisclosed location. This email asks that the cable not be sent until it is determined whether enhanced measures will need to be taken.
Dec. 20, 2016
Email
James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This CIA cable to the ALEC Info Director is heavily redacted and states that the IC SERE Psychologists recommend using the waterboard technique for the "aggressive" phase of Abu Zubaydah's interrogation.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
This CIA cable to the Immediate ALEC Info Director discusses medical care in the event that Abu Zubaydah has a heart attack or another serious medical condition and plans for cremation if he dies. The cable also states that the detainee must ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Isolation
This heavily redacted paper "discusses the techniques and strategies for resisting interrogation described in captured al-Qa'ida training manuals and other documents. It suggests methods for recognizing when sophisticated resistance to ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This redacted memo, sent from HQS/ALEC to the CIA, explains that the interrogation process with Abu Zubaydah is "at somewhat of a standstill" and presents options for proceeding in such a way that increases pressure on Zubaydah to provide ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Threat, Family/others, Cramped confinement
This CIA cable states that a meeting took place with Abu Zubaydah interrogation team members, including psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, to discuss specific interrogation techniques, legal guidance, and plans for the post-isolation ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
James Mitchell , Bruce Jessen
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Isolation
This heavily redacted cable seems to describe a proposal for "turning up the heat" in the interrogation of detainee Abu Zubaydah. One unredacted sentence references moving onto "Option B" in the interrogation; another reveals the psychologists' ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This CIA list includes Abu Zubaydah's reported terrorist activity, injuries at the time of capture, highlights from reporting, legal authority for interrogation techniques used, and interrogation techniques used on Abu Zubaydah.
This CIA memo labeled "Legal Background" describes Title 18's probation against torture in the US criminal code and how the phrase "severe mental pain or physical suffering" is described. The memo states that at this time, none of the ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT