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)

This document, prepared by the Chief of Medical Services, summarizes and reflects upon the rendition, detention and interrogation program. The findings include that in a particular no evidence was found that the use of waterboard produced ...
This cable includes the text of the January 28, 2003 DCI approved "Guidelines on Interrogations Conducted Pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum of Notification of 17 September 2001". The cable also asks that all personnel involved in ...
A list of bullet points discussing legal principles applicable to the CIA's detention and interrogation of detainees, including the use of the "enhanced interrogation techniques." Many of the principles listed appear in the OLC's interrogation ...
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 ...
This document, prepared by the Chief of Medical Services, summarizes and reflects upon the rendition, detention and interrogation program. The findings include that in a particular no evidence was found that the use of waterboard produced ...
These guidelines, issued by George Tenet, detail permissible interrogation techniques (including EITs), medical and psychological personnel who must be present, interrogation personnel, approvals required, and recordkeeping requirements.
This document is the CIA's response to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program. "The comments presented in this paper on The Senate Select Committee on ...
CIA summary of 60 Minutes program on detainee abuse in Iraq. The summary details the program's review of the released Abu Ghraib photos and some of the U.S. army officials involved in the scandal.
CIA copy of L.A. Times article reporting on the Pentagon's reversal on its conclusion about the death of Abed Hamed Mowhoush, an Iraqi general who died in U.S. custody in 2003. The article describes the history of the Pentagon's position, which ...
CIA copy of an article from the London Independent on Sunday reporting on the death of a son of an Iraqi policeman and the "brutal" treatment of some Iraqi prisoners while in British custody. The article describes physical beatings and violent ...