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 (227)

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 deprivation, dietary ...
This memo discusses and summarizes the OLC opinions issued in 2002 and 2003 about the legal standards for interrogations of detainees.
Aug. 31, 2016
Legal Memo, Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This CIA cable describes Abu Zubaydah's condition in detention as of July 19, 2002. The cable states that the next stage of Zubaydah's detention will include confinement, dressing changes, walling and a head immobilizer, as requested by IC SERE ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Walling, Cramped confinement, Isolation, Other, Physical assault
Bruce Jessen's Resume.
Dec. 20, 2016
Other
Bruce Jessen
EIT, SERE
This CIA memo discusses the timeline for the use of enhanced interrogation techniques post 9/11 on high value detainees at black sites.
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
George J. Tenet, George Bush
EIT, SERE
This CIA document is heavily redacted and identifies James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen as contractors who administered enhanced interrogation techniques to Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
James Mitchell , Bruce Jessen
Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
EIT
This cable describes the current state of the interrogations for Abu Zubaydah and recommends the use of sleep deprivation to "degrade his ability to keep up his full mental capacities."
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Sleep deprivation
This cable discusses the proposed strategy for the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and the involvement on contract psychologist Dr. James Mitchell.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This CIA document contains USG's plan to obtain intelligence more quickly from unlawful combatants through interrogation. The plan discusses the current CTC interrogation team for Abu Zubaydah and the plan to train more CIA officers to deploy ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Other
George Bush, Bruce Jessen, James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE
This email correspondence discusses the Mental Status Examination and Recommended Interrogation Plan for Gul Rahman that were prepared by Bruce Jessen. These were both reviewed by someone at the CIA's Counterterrorism Center whose name is ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Email, Medical
Bruce Jessen
Gul Rahman
EIT