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 (23)

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 ...

A series of blog posts by a former OLC lawyer, Marty Lederman, discussing the difference between the DOJ's memo on torture from August 2002 and the memo on torture from December 30, 2004 (ACLU-RDI 3547).  The posts conclude that the Bush ...

Sworn statement of a Soldier who witnessed a Captain taking a detainee in to the desert and making a detainee dig his own grave. He also states that a Staff Sargent fired a live round at or near the detainees. This document relates to an AR 15-6 ...
May 16, 2005
Investigative File (AR 15-6), Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Threat, Assault/death, Mock Burial
Sworn statement of a Soldier who witnessed a Captain taking a detainee in to the desert and making a detainee dig his own grave, and of a Staff Sargent firing a live round at or near the detainees. This document relates to an AR 15-6 ...
May 16, 2005
Investigative File (AR 15-6), Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Mock Burial
Sworn statement of a soldier who witnessed an incident where an Army Captain abused a detainee. The Soldier witnessed the Captain kicking and threatening detainees with a gun and treating them in a disrespectful way. Soldier witnessed the captain ...
May 16, 2005
Investigative File (AR 15-6), Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Threat, Assault/death, Mock Burial
Sworn statement of a soldier who witnessed an incident where an Army Captain abused a detainee. The Soldier witnessed the Captain kicking a detainee and threatening him with a loaded weapon while yelling at him. The soldier also states the ...
May 16, 2005
Investigative File (AR 15-6), Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Mock Burial
Memo for the Record concerning an AR 15-6 investigation findings of investigation in to alleged detainee abuse and mock executions by U.S. forces. The investigator cannot determine if the mock executions were actually conducted or just perceived ...
May 16, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File (AR 15-6)
Raymond T. Odierno
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Mock Burial
A soldier was convicted for striking a detainee and threatening the same detainee with a loaded weapon. In addition, the soldier was found to have attempted to impede an investigation by influencing sworn statements. He tried to prevent a ...
Apr. 18, 2005
Interview (Statement), UCMJ (Article 15, Article 32)
Physical assault, Assault/death, Mock Burial, Threat