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)

A CID Investigation was initiated based on the claims by a Sergeant that he witnessed several counter-intelligence (CI) agents abuse Iraqi detainees during interrogations while he was stationed in Samarra, Iraq. The Sergeant stated he saw CI ...

Mar. 02, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death

Investigation into allegations by senior Psyops officers in Afghanistan who witnessed indiscriminate assaults in May 2004 by Special Forces on villagers during raids in Gurjay and Surkhagen. Abuses included hitting and kicking villagers in ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death

Iraqi detainee alleged that he was taken from his cell to another location by plain-clothed Americans who beat him in the head and stomach, dislocated his arms, "stepped on the [his] nose" and broke it, and stuck a pistol in his ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, Thom Jones
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death
Investigation initiated following discovery of a CD during an office clean-up in Afghanistan, containing numerous pictures of American soldiers posing with pistols and M-4 rifles pointed at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees and ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Investigation initiated following discovery of a CD during an office clean-up in Afghanistan, containing numerous pictures of American soldiers posing with pistols and M-4 rifles pointed at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees. The ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
A Lieutenant Colonel admitted to issuing a death threat and firing his pistol next to the head of a detainee suspected of being part of a plot to assassinate U.S. troops, including the Lt. Col. This was supposedly done during an interrogation. ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death

Detainee alleged that he was captured in mid-April, 2004 at his house in Ammaria (Al Amiryah), Iraq, held at a U.S. facility in Ammaria, then transferred to Baghdad Airport and, finally, Abu Ghraib. The detainee alleged that, at Ammaria, two ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Other Humiliation

Investigation into report by the senior Counterintelligence Technician, 1st Brigade Combat Team, enclosing sworn statements of two detainees concerning abuse by members of the 2nd Squadron, 5th Cavalry. The detainees' sworn statements are not ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death

Investigation initiated on the basis of a report by a serviceman's wife that he had a photograph of himself pointing a gun at the head of a bound and hooded detainee. When interviewed, the soldier explained that he was following orders and ...

Detainee alleged that he was arrested by U.S. forces and placed in a hole in the ground with other detainees at an unknown location in Samara, Iraq for about three days, then threatened with death and taken to a room where he was placed on a box ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
John Peterson, Jacqueline J. Scott
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Use of phobias, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming, Other