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 (24)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Aug. 12, 2002 | CIA | ACLU-RDI 4524

A heavily redacted cable from the field to CIA headquarters relating to the status of Abu Zubaydah.  The unredated portions refer to the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah.

May 27, 2008
Non-legal Memo, Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding
Oct. 08, 2002 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 1297
Investigation into incident where a soldier of the 239th MP Company sprayed a detainee with a water hose. If found guilty, soldier would be punished at the least with a reduction to the grade of E-3, and seven days restriction. The circumstances ...
June 24, 2005
Investigative File (AR 15-6)
Use of water, Water dousing
Oct. 03, 2002 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 3401
This interview of a detainee at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. The detainee states "the United States has an 'oppressive Government' because the Government is responsible for killing Muslims by indiscriminately 'bombing civilians."' He was advised ...
May 18, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Use of water, Other, Physical assault
Aug. 01, 2002 | OLC | ACLU-RDI 6542
This August 1, 2002 OLC memo from Jay Bybee to John Rizzo discusses whether certain proposed conduct in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah would violate the prohibition against torture found at Section 2340A of title 18 of the U.S. Code. The memo ...
Legal Memo
Jay S. Bybee
John A. Rizzo
Jay Bybee, John A. Rizzo
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound