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 (40)

The memo discusses whether a change to the FISA law would render it unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment. Specifically it considers and concludes that changing the law from requiring that foreign intelligence gathering be “the ...

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo
David S. Kris
John C. Yoo, David S. Kris

This memo considers the use of military force to prevent or deter terrorist activity domestically and concludes that, “the President has both constitutional and statutory authority to use the armed forces in military operations, against ...

A memo from John Yoo to John Bellinger analyzing whether the President may suspend certain articles of the ABM treaty.  The concludes that in both cases proposed, the president may suspend the articles.

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
John C. Yoo | Robert J. Delahunty
John Bellinger
John C. Yoo, John B. Bellinger, III, Robert J. Delahunty

An OLC memo concluding that, “the President has plenary constitutional authority, as the commander in chief, to transfer such individuals who are held and captured outside the United States to the control of another country.” ...

An OLC memo concluding that Congress cannot interfere with the President's exercise of his authority as Commander in Chief to control the conduct of operations during war, including his authority to promulgate rules to regulate military ...

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
Patrick Philbin
Daniel J. Bryant
Patrick Philbin, Daniel J. Bryant, John C. Yoo

An OLC memo concluding that the “the President’s authority to detain enemy combatants, including U.S. citizens, is based on his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief” and that the Non-Detention Act cannot interfere ...

An OLC memo advising “that caution should be exercised before relying in any respect” on John C. Yoo’s October 23, 2001 memo, Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States. ...

Mar. 02, 2009
Legal Memo
Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury, John C. Yoo, Alberto R. Gonzales, William J. Haynes, II, Robert J. Delahunty

An OLC memo stating that "the purpose of this memorandum is to confirm that certain propositions stated in several opinions issued by the Office of Legal Counsel in 2001-2003 respecting the allocation of authorities between the President ...

A heavily redacted version of a report authored by the CIA's Office of the Inspector General.  The report was later released in less-redacted form.  It discusses the CIA's use of the "enhanced interrogation techniques," ...

This legal memo from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Justice Department to the Department of Defense analyzes the legal standards governing military interrogations of "alien unlawful combatans" held outside the United ...