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 (227)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Aug. 11, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6662
This cable provides a report of day 8 of the cycle of interrogation carried out on detainee Abu Zubaydah on August 11, 2002. It includes details of interrogators using a combination of waterboarding, walling, cramped confinement, and hooding in ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Walling, Cramped confinement, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming
Aug. 12, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6669
This cable provides a report of day 9 of the cycle of interrogation carried out on detainee Abu Zubaydah on August 12, 2002. It includes details of interrogators using a combination of waterboarding, walling, cramped confinement, hooding, and ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Cramped confinement, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling
Aug. 15, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6671
This cable provides a report of day 12 of the cycle of interrogation carried out on detainee Abu Zubaydah on August 15, 2002. Though large portions of this report are redacted, it includes details of interrogators using a combination of ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Cramped confinement, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Apr. 01, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 6678
This is a memo from the CIA which describes the month-long custody and interrogation of detainee Abu Zubaydah and requests comments from Alec/HQs "on establishing the priority focus of the ongoing interrogations of Abu Zubaydah".
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah, Abd Al-Rahman M. Al-Umari
EIT, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound
| ACLU-RDI 6692
This CIA cable states that interrogators may use a confinement box on Abu Zubaydah to move him into a "more forthcoming posture" for one to two hours. The cable also allows the interrogators to use another redacted method as long as there are ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Cramped confinement
Dec. 20, 2016 | ACLU-RDI 6694
This cable describes the interrogation plan for a redacted detainee. The plan describes disorientation with pharmaceuticals and details complications with the detainee's medical conditions that are interfering with the interrogation plan. The ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
EIT, Sleep deprivation, Light or sound, Forced grooming, Other, Environmental manipulation, Other Humiliation
Jan. 17, 2003 | ACLU-RDI 6695
This January 17, 2003 memorandum provides authorization and authority for James Mitchell, Bruce Jessen, and a third interrogator, whose name is redacted, to use the "full range" of enhanced measures, including waterboarding, in addition to their ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
James Mitchell , Bruce Jessen
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water
| ACLU-RDI 6703
This memo includes: 1) a chronology detailing the evolution of the CIA's High-Value Detainee Interrogation Techniques, how they were defined, legalized, and authorized; 2) a report on the intelligence collected after the application of the ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah, Abdul Hadi Al-Iraqi, Mohammed Rahim Noori, Walid Bin Attash, Abd al Aziz Ali, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Issa al-Hindi, Hassan Ghul, Riduan "Hambali" Isamuddin, Abu Talha al-Pakistani, Jafaar al-Tayyar, Jose Padilla, Binyam Mohamed
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Threat, Mock Burial, Rendition, 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, Physical assault
Dec. 01, 2002 | ACLU-RDI 6706
This cable describes the enhanced interrogation techniques that interrogation teams can employ, pending approval and sets forth federal law which limits the use of these techniques by U.S. government personnel and requires that interrogation ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Legal Memo
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Other Humiliation
Mar. 13, 2007 | ACLU-RDI 6711
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 ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Legal Memo, Non-legal Memo
Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Riduan "Hambali" Isamuddin, Janat Gul, Sharif al-Masri, Abu Musab al-Baluchi, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Nudity