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 (35)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
May 01, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2274
CID report of investigation into allegations made by a detainee that, after his first arrested on April 25, 2004 he was punched, kicked and slapped at then transported to a facility at Mosul Airfield known as the “Disco”. He stated that during ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID)
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Nudity
Sept. 16, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2250
Criminal Investigation Command (CID) report into allegations of assault, cruelty and maltreatment of a detainee by guards at Abu Ghraib. Among the detainee's allegations, he stated that a US Army Sergeant hung him by his arms from the bars of a ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Donald J. Ryder, Thom Jones
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity, Other
June 01, 2005 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2229
Emails include a PowerPoint slide entitled "CID Detainee Summary Briefing for the Director of the Army Staff," The summary discusses detainee abuses and deaths, highlighted among the deaths are the deaths of Abed Hamed Mowhoush, Zaydun Ma'mun ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Email
Abed Hamed Mowhoush, Zaydun Ma'mun Fadhil, Dilawar, Habibullah
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Other
Aug. 20, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2222
Emails include a PowerPoint slide entitled "CID Detainee Summary Briefing for the Director of the Army Staff," The summary discusses detainee abuse and deaths, highlighted among the deaths are the deaths of Abed Hamed Mowhoush, Zaydun Ma'mun ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Email
Lewis E. Welshofer, Jr., Jeff L. Williams, William J. Sommer, Jerry L. Loper
Abed Hamed Mowhoush, Zaydun Ma'mun Fadhil, Habibullah, Dilawar
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Other
May 20, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2120
Email includes two proposed copies of Donald J. Ryder's briefing to the Senate Arms Service Committee. One of the briefings is enclosed, it mentions that there are 69 CID investigations, forty-two of the sixty-nine cases involved incidents that ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Email
Donald J. Ryder
Carl Levin, John Warner, Donald J. Ryder
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Other
May 19, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2116
Email includes a presentation entitled "Deaths of Detainees Under US Military Control." The presentation states that as of May 19, 2004, there have been 63 detainee deaths: 58 deaths in Iraq and 5 in Afghanistan. The 58 deaths in Iraq were ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Email
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General
May 20, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2117
Email refers to a proposed press release from the Commanding General discussing the detainee death and abuse investigations. [The press release is attached, the first page of the attachment is blank]. The press release explains that there are ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Email
Donald J. Ryder
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Other
May 07, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 1837
Original email describes a visit from [redacted], a committee member of an Islamic human rights organization. The email also references a conversation between the author and [redacted] discussing alleged abuse cases that took place at Abu Ghraib.
Dec. 21, 2005
Email
Geoffrey D. Miller, Ricardo Sanchez
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other
July 19, 2005 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 1534
This document is a response to an inquiry to cases of detainee abuse at Guantanamo. There are eleven (11) cases of substantiated misconduct, the incidents are not listed in chronological order.
July 22, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Other, General, Sexual, Forced physical training, Other, Use of water, Physical assault, Other Humiliation
Apr. 05, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 1343
This report by a DAIG Team interviewed 24 individuals and conducted 4 sensing sessions consisting of 23 Soldiers. All Soldiers interviewed and sensed were given surveys to assess factors associated with combat stress. The inspection took place ...
July 15, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other