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 (21)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
July 07, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2547
Sworn statement by an individual who was present at an interrogation. Refers to a detainee who alleged that he had been abused, "stripped, had a bag placed over his head, and was burned on the foot with a cigarette and hit on the side of his ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Use of electricity, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
June 26, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2552
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
July 09, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2558

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 ...

June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Assault/death, Cramped confinement, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Threat, Environmental manipulation
June 17, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2573
Sworn statement discussing interrogation procedures and techniques. States, "We used 'Mutt and Jeff' with one of them being assertive, but probably not more than 20% of the time." Continues, "Ninety-nine percent of the time if there was an injury ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
SERE, Physical assault, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
June 29, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2599
Sworn statement of an Operations Sergeant who discusses interrogation practices. Refers to a detainee, "our number one target," who was captured by Iraqi police, who "beat [redacted] with the pistol to the point where his head was split open in a ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General, Assault/death, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Threat, Environmental manipulation
June 20, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2601
Sworn statement of a detainee. States that following his capture, he was held for two and a half days in a box too small for him to stand. States, "I couldn't sleep in two days. They were playing very loud Western music, like rock music." States ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Light or sound, Environmental manipulation
June 20, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2602
Statement of detainee captured by Special Forces and taken to a place that he believed belonged to the CIA. States that he was held in a box "one meter long and one meter high," given no food for three days, and prevented from sleeping by "loud ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Sept. 26, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 4786
Sworn statement by a Iraqi national who became a detainee at Abu Ghraib with member of his family. He claims that his brother was with the Saddam regime and when he went to visit his sister in Iraq he was taken in to custody as a detainee and ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Family/others, Use of phobias, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Mar. 17, 2005 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4790
Major General Michael Dunlavey was interviewed regarding his knowledge of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO). MG Dunlavey arrived to GTMO on or about December 13, 2002 as the Commander of the Joint Task Force-170. In regards to ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Interview (Statement)
Michael E. Dunlavey , Randall Mark Schmidt, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Michael R. Lehnert, Rick Baccus, Geoffrey D. Miller, Glenn A. Crowther, Albert T. Church
Physical assault, General, Threat, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity
Jan. 20, 2005 | USAF | ACLU-RDI 4792
DOD interview of FBI Behavioral Specialist who toured though Guantanamo from October 21, 2002 though January 7, 2003. The Behavioral Specialist stated that he did not see the use of Military Working Dogs (MWDs) but did hear detainees complaining ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Interview (Statement)
John T. Furlow
John T. Furlow, Geoffrey D. Miller
Physical assault, General, Sexual, Environmental manipulation, Temperature