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 (35)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Jan. 21, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 763
Interviewee was assigned to AG as a Member of the Military Intelligence Group (dates unknown). Recalled seeing MPs make detainees perform physical exercise, while yelling at them. This occurred either before a detainee was interrogated, but it ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript, Questionnaire)
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Sleep deprivation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced physical training
June 04, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 819
[Handwritten, at times illegible] Interviewee was a member of Military Intelligence arrived to AG on or about October 24, 2003, answered that he/she never witnessed detainee abuse or sexual assault. Interviewee did attest to the nudity of ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Questionnaire)
Thomas Pappas
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Sexual, General, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Nudity, Forced physical training
May 24, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 846
Interviewee was assigned to AG on October 21 as the Chief of the Terrorist, Foreign Fighters and Extremist element of the JIDC. Interviewee recalled one detainee being handcuffed to the cell bar, which restricted his movement. Interviewee ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Ricardo Sanchez, Thomas Pappas
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming, Forced physical training
June 10, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 14

Approximately 73-year-old Iraqi woman reported that she had been subjected to assault and sexual abuse, including being sodomized with a stick and touched in private areas; that she was forced to "swim" in water thrown on ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Jacqueline J. Scott, Nelson van Eck, Thom Jones
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Sexual, General, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Sexual
July 28, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 28

An investigation into a detainee's allegation that he was "tortured" at a U.S. facility in Mosul in March 2004. Detainee indicated that after being arrested but before arriving at the facility, his captors -- American men in civilian ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Threat, Family/others, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other
July 21, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 29

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 ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling
Aug. 03, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 30
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
Aug. 03, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 83
Army commenced an investigation prompted by "allegations documented in an excerpt from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the Treatment by the Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and Other Protected Persons by the Geneva ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Nudity
Sept. 23, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 88
CID Report of investigation into detainee's allegation that he was Hooded, roughly handled and choked by a U.S. soldier after being captured in his home. The interrogation reports (Secret) did reveal any allegations of abuse, and the detainee ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
July 05, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 91
Investigation prompted by NYT article containing victim's allegations of torture and abuse during detention in Abu Ghraib from November 29 through December 31, 2003. Investigation concludes there is not “sufficient evidence to prove or disprove ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Bisher Amin Khalil al Rawi
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation