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 (570)

Email described that in December, 2003, a US soldier dropped an unconscious Iraqi male off to a medical facility; medical examinations concluded that the Iraqi male died from blunt force trauma to the head. The email concluded that an army ...
Sept. 20, 2005
Email
Donald J. Ryder
Physical assault, General

An investigation into the death of Hussein Abdullah Awad Al-Juwadi (ISN 159756). On 11 May 2004 he reportedly abruptly collapsed and became unconscious. Resuscitation was initiated and continued during: transport to the facility hospital ...

Nov. 08, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Hussein Abdullah Awad Al-Juwadi

Investigation into possible abuse in Tikrit, Iraq. A detainee alleged that he had been slapped in the face by an Iraqi interpreter during an interrogation and said that he had been held in a cramped cell with loud music, not allowed food, ...

Nov. 08, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, General, Cramped confinement, Dietary manipulation, Light or sound, Environmental manipulation
Detainee Abduhl Kaddim Altia died while at Abu Ghraib prison. The circumstances of death: Died while in US custody in Abu Ghraib prison. Detainee complained of chest pain to his son and then collapsed." Iraqi male, 64 years old (1940 DOB listed), ...
June 16, 2005
Medical (Autopsy)
Abduhl Kaddim Altia
Sworn statement of an Operations Sergeant who discusses interrogation practices. Refers to a detainee, "our number one target," who was captured by Iraqi police, who "beat [redacted] with the pistol to the point where his head was split open in a ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General, Assault/death, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Email to M. Chris Briese concerning a statement of an Iraqi civilian detained by the 2/501st Military Police (MP) Unit at Abu Ghraib Prison, Baghdad, Iraq. The detainee states he was turtored "from morning until the morning of the next day"; ...
Email with an executive summary of a CID investigation into validity of statements by a soldier claiming to have been involved in the abuse and murder of Iraqi detainees on January 18, 2004, while he worked in the Intensive Care Ward, Camp ...
This Article 32 Proceeding pertains to charges brought against four (4) soldiers for causing the drowning deaths of two (2) Iraqis in the Tigris River outside Samarra, Iraq on January 3, 2004 by forcing them in to the river. The soldiers were ...
July 01, 2005
UCMJ (Article 32)
Physical assault
Sworn statement by a detainee who claimed to have served in the Iraqi Army as a technician. Detainee states that he was handcuffed and had a bag put over his head. He was held "for 17 days" with a bag over his head, "handcuffed to the floor." ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity, Dietary manipulation
Sworn statement by an Iraqi detainee, referring to abuse of the detainee and her brothers and sister at Adamiya. States, "I saw an Iraqi put a bottle in my brother's rectum. There were Iraqi people doing it and Americans watching. There were six ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Other Humiliation, Sexual