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 (32)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Apr. 11, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4214
State Department cable concerning the German representative to the Council of Europe. Committee of Ministers. Justice Ministry committee told U.S. Embassy officials thast military commissions are "extraordinary courts" and thus "run counter to ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Donald H. Rumsfeld, Colin L. Powell
Feb. 07, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4232
DOS Cable re: President Bush Making a Decision on the Legal Status of the Guantanamo Detainees. The cable also mentions Sec. of Def. meeting with UK Def. minister Hoon, and a British TV show called "The American Embassy".
Dec. 30, 2004
Cable
Colin L. Powell
Colin L. Powell, George W. Bush, Donald H. Rumsfeld
May 05, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4271
Email from Sara Stryker to Jeremy Caddel re: Excerpt from Secretary's Walk-out with Haitian Interim Prime Minister. Sec. Powell received questions on the 60 Minutes segment on the Abu Ghraib prison abuse; Iraqi security; and the return of Iraqi ...
Dec. 17, 2004
Email
Sara A. Stryker
Sara A. Stryker, Colin L. Powell, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt, Ricardo Sanchez
May 13, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4274

Press release of trancript of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell On BBC TV with Huw Edwards. Sec. Powell discusses Iraq; Abu Ghraib prison abuse; and the President Bush & UK PM Blair relationship.

Dec. 17, 2004
Other
Colin L. Powell, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Richard B. Myers, George W. Bush
May 13, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 4276
Press release of trancript of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell On BBC TV with Huw Edwards. Sec. Powell discusses Iraq; Abu Ghraib prison abuse; and the President Bush & UK PM Blair relationship..
Dec. 17, 2004
Email
Sara A. Stryker
George W. Bush, Colin L. Powell, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Richard B. Myers, Sara A. Stryker
Jan. 17, 2002 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3574
This State Department cable is a report on detainees as well as an assessment of the ground situation in Afghanistan. The cable focuses on a description of the Qandahar airport holding facility holding the Cuba-bound al-Qaida and Taliban ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Cable
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad, Colin L. Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Stephen Hadley, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz
May 10, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3601
DOS Letter to U.S. Representative, Ike Skelton, regarding the International Committee of the Red Cross' (ICRC) report, which contains allegations of detainee mistreatment in Iraq.
Nov. 23, 2004
Letter
Donald H. Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, Isaac Newton Skelton IV, Colin L. Powell, George W. Bush, P. Michael McKinley, William E. Landfair, Paul V. Kelly, Elizabeth H. Richard
Dec. 03, 2001 | ACLU-RDI 3603
Letter from John Walker Lindh's attorney, James J. Brosnahan, requesting information on the location of his client, detained enemy combatant, John Walker Lindh. Mr. Brosnahan states in his letter that he needs the appropriate government official ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Letter
Colin L. Powell, John D. Ashcroft, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George J. Tenet, Robert M. McNamara, Jr.
John Walker Lindh
Apr. 01, 2003 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3620
This DOS Cable discusses a visit to a detention facility in Afghanistan. It explains that there was a previous issue at the facility of overcrowding and lack of resources, but that the current climate is better. Also, the cable notes that the ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Cable
Robert P. Finn, Colin L. Powell, Laura E. Kennedy , Franklin Pierce Huddle, Jr., Ryan C. Crocker, John Edward Herbst, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad
Isolation
June 17, 2002 | ACLU-RDI 3634
Letters sent from various individuals at Amnesty International to George W. Bush and Colin L. Powell requesting proper treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan. The main theme of the letters is the US' violation of international ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Letter
Colin L. Powell, George W. Bush, Frank E. Schmelzer , Donald H. Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Jack Straw, John Winston Howard
Bisher Amin Khalil al Rawi, Jamil El Banna, Moazzam Begg, David Hicks, Feroz Ali Abassi