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 (212)

This report reflects the findings of an investigation, led by Major General Antonio Taguba, into the allegations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. The investigation took place in February of 2004 and concluded that numerous instances of ...

Interview conducted by Gen. Taguba of Lt. Colonel James O'Hare of the 800th Military Police Brigade. The Lt. Colonel goes in to detail about how he came to his assignment in Iraq as well as his experiences at Abu Ghraib prison. On his experience ...
Report of investigation into the abuse and mock execution of Iraqi civilians by a U.S. soldier on two separate occasions. Investigation established that the soldier committed the offenses of assault, conspiracy, release of a detainee without ...
Nov. 08, 2004
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Jacqueline J. Scott
Threat, Assault/death

Investigation of assault by soldier who threatened to kill Iraqi civilians in custody of U.S. forces in an army compound in Baghdad, Iraq. The soldier forced a detainee to hold a round in his hands, threatening to kill him with it if he did ...

Nov. 08, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Threat, Assault/death

Investigation 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 on hooded and bound local ...

Nov. 08, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Investigation into an incident of two soldiers assaulting an Iraqi civilian who had been taken into custody of the US Army near the Iraq Museum of Military History, Baghdad, Iraq. The investigation established probable cause to believe that the ...
Nov. 08, 2004
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
John Peterson, Jacqueline J. Scott
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death
This report concerns an Iraqi police officer, Muhammed Saddam, and by a Kuwaiti interpreter working with Coalition Forces reportedly used his position to target wealthy Iraqis for raids unless they paid him to be left alone. This report focuses ...
Nov. 08, 2004
Cable
Physical assault, Family/others, Threat
A civilian employee (CE) of the DIA reports in this memo his observation and allegation of violations of the Geneva Convention concerning detainee abuse and the illegal detainment of non-combatants. The CE alleges that he witnessed the ...
Nov. 08, 2004
Non-legal Memo
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Threat, Family/others
This US Marine Corp spreadsheet lists twenty (20) cases of alleged detainee abuse. The table of cases includes ten (10) substantiated incidents and ten (10) unsubstantiated incidents. The incidents include: beating detainees with fists; holding ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Chart/List
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity
This US Marine Corp spreadsheet lists twenty-one (21) cases of alleged detainee abuse. The table of cases includes ten (10) substantiated incidents and eleven (11) unsubstantiated incidents. The incidents include: beating detainees with fists; ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Chart/List
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity