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 (61)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Jan. 31, 2003 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 4613

This CIA documents is a draft psychological assessment of Abu Zubaydah, discussing his background, personality, emotional and mental skills, strengths, motivations, and future worldview, among other things. The document is very similar to file ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Non-legal Memo, Medical (Psychological)
Abu Zubaydah
Jan. 28, 2003 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 4500

This is a heavily redacted version of a CIA memo later released in less-redacted form.  The less-redacted version is available at ACLU-RDI 4562.  This version of the document shows that CIA interrogators were permitted to use both ...

July 24, 2008
Non-legal Memo
George Tenet
George J. Tenet
EIT
Jan. 29, 2003 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 4964
Detainee describes how he was taken in to custody in the filelds of Afghanistan. No mention of his experiences at the hands of US Military or while at Guantanamo.
Jan. 09, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2678
Cable issued to ensure that all civilian internees and enemy prisoners of War (POWs) are properly processed and treated humanely. The cable states that some capturing units may not be able to detain those captured and that some ...
Jan. 15, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2338
The index lists this document as: SECDEF Rescission dtd 15 Jan 03.
Jan. 21, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2341
The document sets for standard operating procedures for interrogation operations taking place at Guantanamo under the Joint Interrogation Group (JIG) of the Joint Task Force (JTF) Guantanamo Bay. It states that "[t]here is much you will be asked ...
June 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
Jan. 16, 2003 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2387
Medical Exam of a detainee at Guantanamo. Heavily redacted medical report from January 16, 2003. The report concludes that the detainee has suffered no injuries or trauma.
Jan. 08, 2003 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 3505
Email discussing the debriefing of redacted. Entire contents redacted, except the heading of the paragraphs.
Feb. 06, 2006
Email
John S. Pistole | Kenneth L. Wainstein | Larry A. Mefford | Pasquale D'Amuro
Larry A. Mefford, John S. Pistole, Kenneth L. Wainstein, Pasquale D'Amuro
Jan. 15, 2003 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 1877
DOD Memo from an assistant legal advisor. The memo is redacted, however, it appears to disagree with aggressive techniques approved by the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and Southern Command, stating that the CITF policy precludes ...
Jan. 17, 2003 | CID | FBI | ACLU-RDI 1878
Memo summarizes the interview of a Camp Delta detainee. The interview was conducted by two Special Agents with the FBI and CID, also, an Arabic linguist was present to translate. The detainee was uncooperative, he said it was because the Koran ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Other Humiliation, Religious