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 (6709)

An email including a chain of forwarded emails regarding an FBI agent who received anonymous verbal harassment for reporting information about detainee abuse to an ongoing IG investigation. The email clears up the identity of the agent.
Apr. 27, 2009
Email
Toni M. Fogle
The document is an internal FBI email, regarding NCIS investigations into alleged detainee abuse of Guantanamo detainees.
June 15, 2011
Email
Valerie E. Caproni
An OLC memo to the CIA addressing whether the use of four enhanced techniques, "dietary manipulation, nudity, water dousing, and abdominal slaps," in the interrogation of [redacted] would violate the law. The letter concludes that use of the ...
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo, Letter
Daniel B. Levin
John A. Rizzo
Daniel B. Levin, John A. Rizzo
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Stomach/abdominal slap, Dietary manipulation, Nudity
Investigation initiated following discovery of a CD during an office clean-up in Afghanistan, containing numerous pictures of American soldiers posing with pistols and M-4 rifles pointed at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees and ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Investigation initiated following discovery of a CD during an office clean-up in Afghanistan, containing numerous pictures of American soldiers posing with pistols and M-4 rifles pointed at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees. The ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
This letter is for the Army officials who will be fielding questions regarding the allegations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. The letter is a set of talking points and policy statements that focus on the theme that "the Army is committed ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Letter
Ricardo Sanchez, Paul J. Kern, Anthony R. Jones, George R. Fay
Forward of Slate article, "Goodbye, Geneva: It's Time to Rewrite the Laws of War" by Phillip Carter, from August 24, 2004.
Email provides instructions on where to direct media queries upon the release of the Jones-Fay Investigative report in to abuse of detainees.
May 16, 2005
Email
Paul J. Kern, Anthony R. Jones, George R. Fay
Instructions on how to handle Abu Ghraib investigation on a public relations level. Primary message is that abuses at Abu Ghraib was committed by a "small group of soldiers and civilian contractors who apparently failed to respect the dignity of ...
May 16, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Ricardo Sanchez, George R. Fay, Paul J. Kern, Anthony R. Jones
Army Public Affairs memo on how to address the public release of the Jones-Fay report on the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The memo states that all questions or "queries specific to the findings of the report, and requests to interview the ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Ricardo Sanchez, George R. Fay, Paul J. Kern, Anthony R. Jones