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 (45)

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
Investigation into abuse of detainee at Ramadi Palace before arriving at Abu Ghraib. Detainee alleges that he was hood and handcuffed, kicked and hit with the butt of a rifle in the back. Doctor found no signs of bruising. Marine Corps had ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, General, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Detainee alleged that while at Abu Ghraib prison several soldiers slapped; punched; choked; struck his head, shoulders, and arms with a retractable metal baton; jumped on him; forced him to lean against a wall in a seated position; forced him to ...
A detainee claims that he was in a vehicle with other Iraqi men who possessed AK-47s. The men attempted to avoid a road-side checkpoint and were stopped by US gunfire. While the men were detained at the roadside, several Iraqi civilians began to ...
Detainee reported that he was arrested after US forces found a weapon in his home. He was detained at Al Sijood Palace, Iraq, and it was during this detention he states he was hooded; flexicuffed; punched; kicked; yelled at; and threatened. ...
Investigation based on civilian contractor's allegation that he witnessed U.S. Marines abusing Iraqi detainees. In a sworn statement the contractor says he saw Marines place bags over an Iraqi prisoners' heads and strike him in the head with a ...
Nov. 30, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Attention grasp, General, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling

Criminal Investigation Command (CID) report pertaining to the abuse of a detainee at an unknown location. The detainee alleged that he was forced to walk on hot pavement, punched and kicked all over his body, had his ribcage fractured, and was ...

Sept. 20, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Ricardo Sanchez, Pamela Andrews
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other

General Bantz J. Craddock, Commander United States Southern Command, ordered an AR 15-6 investigation into alleged instances of abuse at Guantanamo. He appointed Brigadier General John T. Furlow and Lieutenant General Randall M. Schmidt to ...

Email with an executive summary of investigations into a recordable compact disc containing images of suspected detainee abuse in in Afghanistan between January 11 and January 19, 2004. The images on the CD depicted U.S. soldiers holding weapons ...
Apr. 05, 2005
Investigative File (CID), Email
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling

An investigation into allegations by an Iraqi detinee that interrogators hand- and leg-cuffed him to the floor and pushed him over while blindfolded, causing severe pain and nerve bruising in his wrist. the investigation concluded that there ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling