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 (97)

Letter from an individual to Sec. of State Powell concerning the treatment of his uncle and US refusal to state where he was and if he was still alive. The gentleman states "Everything the government is doing to my uncle is against the US ...
Dec. 17, 2004
Letter
Colin L. Powell
Colin L. Powell
Letter from William F. Schultz, Executive Director, Amnesty International to U.S. President George W. Bush re: Human Rights in Afghanistan.
Dec. 17, 2004
Letter
William F. Schultz
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
Press release from the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding the "chaos" in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. The ICRC urgently appeals to the Coalition forces and all other persons in authority to do everything possible to protect ...
ICRC press release announcing its renewed assurance of its highest consideration for the Permanent Mission of the U.S.
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
Charles L. Daris
Press release/declaration by International Committee of the Red Cross' President, Jakob Kellenberger regarding the ICRC's position on the Iraq crisis. Mr. Kellenberger reminds the U.S., Iraq and the U.K. of their obligations under the Geneva ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
Charles L. Daris
Letter from OAS/Inter-Commission on Human Rights to Colin L. Powell requesting precautionary measures for detainees in Guantanamo. The letter states that 254 detainees were brought to Camp X-ray on or about Jan 11, 2002 from Afghanistan, Mr. ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Juan Mendez
Colin L. Powell | Roger F. Noriega
Colin L. Powell, Roger F. Noriega, Harry R. Melone
Press release from Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs announcing the release of a Swedish citizen who had been held at Guantanamo for over two years.
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
Sharon E. Ahmad
United Nations Report re: Preserving Civil Liberties and Fighting Terrorism Efficiently: Is It Possible?
Email from Robert Harris to Nina E. Schou, Gilda M. Brancado, Francis M. Gaffney, Katherine M. Gorove, JoAnn Dolan and Samuel M. Witten forwarding a letter from Kofi Annan on behalf of the Uighur community about the oppression of the Uighur ...

Report of the International Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights to the Special OSCE Meeting on the Prevention of Torture, Vienna, 6-7 November 2003. The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights is a non-governmental organization ...