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 (77)

This June 18, 2002 cable details the message that the interrogation team delivered to Abu Zubaydah, which is redacted, the interrogation techniques used on him and his reactions to them, and an assessment of his resistance posture. The cable ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
SERE, Physical assault, Attention grasp, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity
This email chain includes two cables discussing the status of Abu Zubaydah's interrogation and describing his condition. The first cable is dated August 2, 2002 and describes Abu Zubaydah's condition on day 45 of the isolation phase. It also ...
This 2002 cable requests that IC Psychologist James Mitchell remain at the undisclosed location in order to provide continued assistance in the Abu Zubaydah interrogation. The cable states that Mitchell's role is "key" and they need him there to ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
CTC/UBL
James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding
This June 2002 cable reports on a meeting held to discuss the next phase of the Abu Zubaydah interrogation. Attendees include psychologist James Mitchell. At the meeting, it was agreed upon that Abu Zubaydah was withholding information on direct ...
Cable
CTC/UBL
James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
SERE, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Other
This memo describes the "key" role that contract interrogators/debriefers play in the CIA's Rendition and Detention Program. The memo states that before September 11, 2001 the CIA had no resident expertise in interrogation, and so they sought ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
EIT, SERE
This cable describes the enhanced interrogation techniques that interrogation teams can employ, pending approval and sets forth federal law which limits the use of these techniques by U.S. government personnel and requires that interrogation ...
Almost entirely redacted document entitled "Proposal for an enhanced interrogation strategy in the War on Terrorism." The only page which is not entirely redacted is an outline of the team responsible for Abu Zubaydah's interrogation.
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah, Jose Padilla
SERE
This document, prepared by the Chief of Medical Services, summarizes and reflects upon the rendition, detention and interrogation program. The findings include that in a particular no evidence was found that the use of waterboard produced ...
A letter from the CIA to OLC requesting that the OLC reaffirm its analyses in several previously issued memos relating to interrogation. The letter states that "we rely on the applicable law and OLC guidance to assess the lawfulness of detention ...