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 (104)

RelevanceDateRelease Date

Report on an AR 15-6 inquiry into treatment of a detainee captured by a SEAL team in January 2004. This is the conclusions and findings of the investigator. Several soldiers state that SEALs performed a battlefield interrogation, during which ...

June 30, 2006
UCMJ (Article 15)
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Other Humiliation

Statement of Sergeant First Class who served as an interrogator. Describes interrogations, and states that only specific interrogators conduct interrogations. Continues, "Our command has authorization to detain people longer than 72 ...

Sworn statement by an Iraqi detainee, referring to abuse of the detainee and her brothers and sister at Adamiya. States, "I saw an Iraqi put a bottle in my brother's rectum. There were Iraqi people doing it and Americans watching. There were six ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Sworn statement by a screener at Abu Ghraib prison regarding two (2) Iraqi women and their two (2) brothers detained at Abu Ghraib prison in January 2004. States, "One [brother] said he was raped with a bottle, and they mentioned another brother ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Nudity, Sexual, Other Humiliation
Sworn statement of a government civilian employee (GS-12) regarding detention practices. Mentions detainees "who were complaining" and who "had obvious injuries to their faces, their wrists, and water blisters on their legs." According to the ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Collection of five (5) sworn statements about abuse in detention facilities in Iraq, attached to ACLU-RDI 2493. None of the statements report witnessing any physical abuse at Abu Ghraib, but all recount claims by detainees of abuse at other ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
George R. Fay
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Sexual, General, Threat, Family/others, Use of phobias, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
A detainee who was not interested in being interrogated got in to a verbal spat with an interrogator who, after becoming angry with the detainee, threw a refrigerator and a chair at the detainees, injuring the detainee. There was also some very ...
June 30, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, Other Humiliation
This memo details how a Staff Sergeant took photos of himself standing with his rifle with his left foot propped on the detainee's buttocks, who is lying in the sand with hands bound behind his back and a sack covering his head. Photo was taken ...
June 30, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Physical assault, Other Humiliation
This DOD memo is to address allegations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib in the wake of news reports and features, i.e. Sixty Minutes II, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. It lists the events and action taken in response and specifically ...
June 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt
Physical assault, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Report on an informal investigation conducted by Brigadier General Richard P. Formica into specific allegations of detainee abuse within CJSOTF-AP [Combined Joint Special Operating Task Force – Arabian Peninsula] and 5th SF [Special Forces] Group ...