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)

Memo details a complaint made by a Private First Class (PFC), alleging that his unit members engaged in unlawful behavior. The PFC first alleged that while on patrol his platoon sergeant, a Sergeant First Class, ordered soldiers to fire upon ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Other
The investigative file details a complaint made by a Private First Class (PFC), alleging that his unit members engaged in unlawful behavior. The PFC first alleged that while on patrol his platoon sergeant, a Sergeant First Class, ordered ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Legal Memo, Non-legal Memo, Investigative File
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Other
This Article 32 Proceedings concerns an accusation of an incident of detainee abuse at Camp Bucca. Iraq. The subject of the hearing is Sergeant Scott A. McKenzie, a female Master Sergeant and a Specialist accused of knocking down, punching and ...
July 01, 2005
UCMJ (Article 32)
Scott A. McKenzie
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Sexual, General, Stress positions
This is the Court Martial record of Specialist Timothy F. Canjar. It includes the charges against Spc. Canjar and his plea(s) as well as. Spc. Canjar was charged with: 1) dereliction of duty; 2) maltreatment of detainees (4 counts); 3) intent to ...

A memo from Secretary Rumsfeld approving a set of interrogation techniques, including some that it admits may be "inconsistent with" provisions of the Geneva Conventions.  The techniques include "Pride and Ego Down," ...

Interview of a detainee at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. The detainee was visably sick when interviewed, and remained so through out. Detainee stated that he had no connection to terrorism and knew nothing about the September 11, 2001 attacks other ...
May 18, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual

On November 14, 2003, a soldier provided a sworn statement saying that while he was deployed to Iraq, he "saw what I think were war crimes.... In my mind, my chain of command did nothing to stop these war crimes, and allowed them to ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other
Summary of allegations by the Special Rapporteur of abuse of a detainee held in custody at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base in 2002-2003. The claim of abuses included: prolonged standing; kneeling; painful and awkward positions; hooding; ...
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights litigation requesting that the Commission take measures to have the legal status of detainees held at Guantanamo be determined by a competent court, and to protect against the torture of detainees.
Dec. 30, 2004
Judicial (Pleading)
Physical assault, Assault/death, Stress positions, Isolation, Temperature, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Emails discuss an OSCE meeting and the concerns of various human rights organizations over alleged torture and abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The original email has a report attached, which briefly discusses the death ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Francis M. Gaffney
JoAnn J. Dolan
JoAnn J. Dolan, Francis M. Gaffney, Sharon E. Ahmad, George W. Bush
John Walker Lindh, Dilawar, Habibullah
Stress positions