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 (31)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Dec. 30, 2004 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 4586

A background paper on the CIA's combined use of interrogation techniques, addressed to Daniel Levin, Acting Assistant Attorney General. The document states that "Effective interrogation is based on the concept of using both physical and ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Non-legal Memo, Letter
Daniel B. Levin
Daniel B. Levin
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity
Apr. 22, 2005 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 4588

This document was faxed from the CIA to Steven Bradbury (OLC). It describes the CIA's technique of "horizontal sleep deprivation," wherein a detainee is placed on a large blanket on the floor and chained such that he cannot sleep. ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Non-legal Memo, Letter
Steven G. Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation
June 18, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4601

An OLC memo from Jack Goldsmith to John Helgerson, the CIA's Inspector General, expressing disagreement with the Special Review's representation of OLC opinions on two points -- whether John Ashcroft (Attorney General) authorized ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
John L. Helgerson
Jack L. Goldsmith, John L. Helgerson, John D. Ashcroft, John A. Rizzo, George J. Tenet
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water
Sept. 06, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 4583

An OLC memo to the CIA addressing whether the use of "twelve particular interrogation techniques (attention grasp, walling, facial hold, facial slap (insult slap), cramped confinement, wall standing, stress positions, sleep depravation, ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Daniel B. Levin
John A. Rizzo
Daniel B. Levin, John A. Rizzo
EIT, Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Nudity
July 22, 2004 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 4576
In a letter to Acting CIA Director McLaughlin, Attorney General Ashcroft confirms his advice that the use of certain interrogation techniques (other than waterboarding) in the interrogation of a particular detainee outside territory subject to ...
Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
John D. Ashcroft
John E. McLaughlin
John D. Ashcroft, John McLaughlin, John A. Rizzo, Jay S. Bybee
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
May 23, 2008 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 4506
DOJ letter regarding ACLU, et al., v. Department of Defense, et al., which states that the CIA has re-reviewed documents concerning waterboarding and produced redacted versions of some of those documents. Letter also mentions that on May 12, ...
May 23, 2008
Letter, Judicial
Michael J. Garcia | Sean H. Lane | Peter M. Skinner
Melanca D. Clark
Michael J. Garcia, Sean H. Lane, Peter M. Skinner
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
| ACLU-RDI 413

This document is the Claim for Compensation; documents in support of the claim; and correspondence from the Army Claim Service concerning a claim by an Iraqi/Swedish citizen for compensation for his alleged torture and other mistreatment ...

Feb. 28, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Letter, Photograph
Antonio Taguba
Use of water, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity
CIA | ACLU-RDI 6504
This document is a fax from [redacted], [redacted] Legal Group, DCI Counterterrorist Center, CIA to Steve Bradbury, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice, containing answers composed by the CIA' s Office of Medical Services to the ...
Letter
Steve Bradbury
Steven G. Bradbury
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature
May 27, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6560
This letter is from Jack Goldsmith to Scott Muller stating that he received a copy of the Inspector General Report on the CIA Enhanced Interrogation Program and is concerned about how these techniques are applied in practice.
Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
John A. Rizzo, Scott W. Muller, Jack L. Goldsmith
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding
Sept. 06, 2004 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6561
This letter from Daniel Levin to John Rizzo is the Office of Legal Counsel's response to the proposed use of twelve interrogation techniques during the interrogation of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and whether or not these techniques would violate U.S. ...
Letter
Daniel B. Levin
John A. Rizzo
John A. Rizzo, Daniel B. Levin
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
EIT, Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Stomach/abdominal slap, Attention grasp, Facial hold, Walling, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Nudity