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 (43)

Interviewee was assigned to AG in mid-October 2003 as a member of the Fusion Analysis Cell; interviewee had Top Secret Clearances. Recalled an incident occurring in the hard site, where the MPs had two detainees in the middle of the cell, naked, ...

A statement by an individual stationed at Abu Ghraib as an individual augmentee on or about October 16, 2003. The individual stated that at Abu Ghraib, "there was no oversight of most of the interrogations being conducted as everyone was ...

Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Isolation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious
This statement of the Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade discusses his assumption of command of the military intelligence operations component at Abu Ghraib prison in July 2003. He discusses his chain of ...
Interviewee was assigned to AG the first week of November 2003 as a Tiger Team Analyst. Interviewee recalled seeing a CACI civilian "grab a detainee off the Humvee and drop him to the ground. He then dragged the detainee into the interrogation ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Unknown interviewee was assigned to AG to establish connectivity of computers. Recalled an incident where an MI explained to an interrogator that a detainee was unavailable for interrogation because he had been interrogated for 10 hrs, stripped ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Other
This document is the condensed notes of an interview of at Screener in Abu Ghraib Prison from Mid-December 2003 through January 2004. The interview is a verbatim rendition of the Screener’s statement and it is noted that the statement is to be ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement, Summaries/Notes)
George R. Fay
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Walling, Sexual, General, Use of electricity, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Other
Transcript of the testimony of Donald Rumsfeld, Gen. Richard Myers (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), Les Brownlee (Acting Sec. of the Army), Gen. Peter Shoomaker (Army Chief of Staff), and Lt. Gen. Lance Smith (U.S. Central Command Dep. ...
Dec. 31, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
Duncan Lee Hunter, Isaac Newton Skelton IV, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Joseph M. Darby, Antonio Taguba, Richard B. Myers, Romie Leslie Brownlee, Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt, John P. Abizaid, Geoffrey D. Miller, Donald J. Ryder, Ricardo Sanchez, David D. McKiernan, Lance L. Smith, Peter Schoomaker, Hugh James Saxton, Paul Mikolashek, Lance L. Smith, Janis Leigh Karpinski, John McKee Spratt, Jr., William McClellan Thornberry, Lane Allen Evans, Wayne Curtis Weldon, Lamar Seeligson Smith, Hugh James Saxton, John M. McHugh, Terry Everett, Roscoe G. Bartlett, Howard P. McKeon, John N. Hostlettler, Walter B. Jones, Jim Ryun, Jim Gibbons, Robin Hayes, Heather Wilson, Ken Calvert, Robert Ruhl Simmons, Jo Ann Davis, Edward L. Schrock, W. Todd Akin, J. Randy Forbes, Jeff Miller, Joe Wilson, Frank L. Lobiondo, Tom Cole, Joseph E. Bradley, Robert William Bishop, Michael R. Turner, John Kline, Candice S. Miller, John Phillip Gingrey, Michael Dennis Rogers, Trent Franks, Randall Harold Cunningham, John McKee Spratt, Jr., Solomon Porfirio Ortiz, Gary Eugene Taylor, Neil Abercrombie, Martin Meehan, Silvestre Reyes, Victor F. Snyder, James Turner, David Adam Smith, Loretta Sanchez, Douglas Carmichael McIntyre II, Ciro Davis Rodriguez, Ellen O'Kane Tauscher, Robert A. Brady, Baron Paul Hill, John Barry Larson, Susan A. Davis, James R. Langevin, Steve Israel, Richard Ray Larsen, James Hayes Shofner Cooper , James Creel Marshall, Kendrick G. Meek, Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Rodney Alexander, Timothy John Ryan
General, Other Humiliation, Physical assault
Interviewee arrived to AG in October 2003, was assigned to the prison. Stated that he/she would receive instructions from MI regarding sleep management of detainees. Stated that he/she was unaware of detainee humiliation, however, due to ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation
Interviewee arrived to AG around mid-October as the Day-shift Non-commissioned Officer in Charge. Stated that his/her job was to manage detainee sleep plans, and to make sure the detainees were showered, fed, and did not cause problems. ...