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 (36)

National Security Council Fax Cover Sheet with the comment "Here is an Advanced Copy of the Memorandum That Will Be Sent to Your Principals Later This Afternoon." No further comments. No attachments.
Routing and tranmittal cover sheets from December 2001 though February 2002 re: Detainee Detention Flow Charts. No attachements

Presidential order authorizing detention of individuals and trial by military commission. From http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113-27.html.

June 01, 2005
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
This White House memo describes U.S. policy toward detainees at Guantanamo.  States that they are not entitled to POW treatment but that they are treated humanely and given many of the protections that POWs are given.

June 01, 2005
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
George W. Bush

A letter from President Bush describing progress against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and work with other countries.

June 01, 2005
Letter
George W. Bush
John Dennis Hastert | Robert C. Byrd
John Dennis Hastert, Robert C. Byrd
White House memo from Alberto R. Gonzalez, Counsel to the President, concerning detention Issues in the War on Terrorism.
May 04, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Alberto Gonzalez
George W. Bush
George W. Bush, Alberto R. Gonzales, Donald H. Rumsfeld
Yaser Esam Hamdi, Jose Padilla
This is a memo from President Bush to the Vice President and other key administration personnel stating that "none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world because, among ...
White House Press Release on the status of detainees at Guantanamo with a fact sheet from the on the treatment, housing, access and medical treatment of detainees. The press release makes a specific point of stating "neither the Taliban nor ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
George W. Bush
This is a White House press release describing the treatment of detainees as humane and consistent with the Geneva Conventions. It states that all Guantanamo detainees are being provided: three meals a day that meet Muslim dietary laws; water; ...
Daily White House Press Briefing for February 7, 2002. The Press Secretary made an opening statement and then took questions from reporters.
Dec. 23, 2004
Non-legal Memo
Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush