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 (17)

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July 22, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4577

This letter from Acting Assistant Attorney General Levin to Muller regards whether a certain detainee may be subjected to waterboarding. Levin asks the CIA to provide specific details of the technique in practice, including "whether the ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Daniel B. Levin
Scott W. Muller
Daniel B. Levin, Scott W. Muller, Jay S. Bybee, John A. Rizzo, John L. Helgerson
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding
July 22, 2004 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 4576
In a letter to Acting CIA Director McLaughlin, Attorney General Ashcroft confirms his advice that the use of certain interrogation techniques (other than waterboarding) in the interrogation of a particular detainee outside territory subject to ...
Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
John D. Ashcroft
John E. McLaughlin
John D. Ashcroft, John McLaughlin, John A. Rizzo, Jay S. Bybee
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
May 07, 2004 | CIA-OIG | ACLU-RDI 4611

This May 7, 2004 Special Review by the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General examines the CIA’s counterterrorism detention and interrogation activities, including the apparently unauthorized use of mock executions, a hand gun, a ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Oversight Report
John L. Helgerson
John C. Yoo, John A. Rizzo, George J. Tenet, Jay S. Bybee
Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi, Jose Padilla, Binyam Mohamed, Riduan "Hambali" Isamuddin, Majid Khan, Mohd Farik Bin Amin, Saifullah Paracha
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Threat, Assault/death, Rendition, Family/others, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation
Mar. 02, 2004 | CIA-OGC | ACLU-RDI 4565

A letter from the CIA to OLC requesting that the OLC reaffirm its analyses in several previously issued memos relating to interrogation.  The letter states that "we rely on the applicable law and OLC guidance to assess the lawfulness ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller, Jack L. Goldsmith, John C. Yoo, Alberto R. Gonzales, Jay S. Bybee, John A. Rizzo
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, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other
Mar. 02, 2004 | CIA-OGC | ACLU-RDI 6608
A letter from the CIA to OLC requesting that the OLC reaffirm its analyses in several previously issued memos relating to interrogation. The letter states that "we rely on the applicable law and OLC guidance to assess the lawfulness of detention ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo, Letter
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith
Jack L. Goldsmith, Scott W. Muller, Alberto R. Gonzales, Jay S. Bybee, John A. Rizzo
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, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other
Aug. 01, 2002 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4548

An OLC memo concluding that the CIA’s proposed interrogation plan for Abu Zubaydah — which contemplates methods including “insects placed in a confinement box” and “the waterboard” — does not violate ...

Apr. 16, 2009
Legal Memo
Jay S. Bybee
John A. Rizzo
Jay S. Bybee, John A. Rizzo
Abu Zubaydah
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
OLC | ACLU-RDI 6559
This memorandum from Assistant Attorney General John Bybee to John Rizzo provides the Office of the Assistant Attorney General's view on whether certain proposed conduct during the interrogation of al Qaeda Operative Abu Zubaydah would violate ...
Legal Memo
Jay S. Bybee
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Jay S. Bybee
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation
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