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 (53)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Jan. 20, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 852
Interviewee was assigned to the Internal Reaction Force. Interviewee recalled an incident where a MI person yelled profanity at a detainee and punched the detainee in the back of the head with a closed fist, causing the detainee to fall forward. ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript, Questionnaire)
Physical assault, Stomach/abdominal slap, General, Use of phobias, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity
Jan. 20, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 853
[Document is unreadable in parts]. Interviewee was a member of the Internal Reaction Force. Interviewee stated that he/she observed a captain beating a detainee during the weapon search. Stated "[o]ne soldier was standing next to the ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity
June 06, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 879
Interviewee was assigned to AG from late May 2003 to early November 2003 as a Military Police Guard for the 72nd MP Company. Interviewee recalled an incident when another officer called him over to look at a naked detainee for the purpose of ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
June 05, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 906
Interviewee (title and length of assignment unknown). Interviewee recalled witnessing two incidents. In the first incident, the detainee was being interrogated, and at one point [redacted] told the detainee to roll down his jumpsuit and ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Threat, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation
May 28, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 907
Interviewee was assigned to AG in October 2003 as a member of the Tiger Team. Interviewee recalled an interrogation where a member of the interrogation team was among those attacked/injured in an earlier mortar attack believed to be perpetrated ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas, Geoffrey D. Miller, George R. Fay
Physical assault, General, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Jan. 15, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 494
Commander's report of a 15-6 Investigation and Courts-Martial, dated December 2003. This document pertains to allegations that U.S. soldiers broke the jaw of an Iraqi high school boy. There is evidence that suggests the 311th MI personnel and/or ...
Mar. 23, 2005
Photograph, Interview (Statement), UCMJ (Court-Martial)
David Petraeus
Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Walling, General, Threat, Assault/death, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Forced physical training
July 27, 2002 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 3389
Interview of a detainee at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. The detainee stated he was at the Kandahar airport for 2-3 months before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. Stated he was treated harshly by the U.S. in Peshawar and Kandahar. Said he was ...
May 18, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, General, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Aug. 23, 2002 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 3393
Interview of a detainee at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. The detainee stated he was beaten by U.S. forces at an unknown location in Afghanistan. In one instance, he was taken via helicopter to a location where he was kicked in the stomach by ...
May 18, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling
Jan. 08, 2003 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 3425
Interview of detainee at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. When asked how he was doing the detainee stated "that things were not going well, and that he perceived current U.S. actions as a holy war between Christians and Muslims, propagated by ...
May 18, 2005
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
General, Cramped confinement, Temperature, Religious, Physical assault, Environmental manipulation, Other Humiliation
Mar. 06, 2003 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 3431
Interview of detainee at Guantanamo. Detainee was shown a photo book wherein he identified Usama bin Laden, but says he never met him. Then he claimed that on a previous occasion two femal interviewers hooded him and had him beaten under questioning.
May 18, 2005
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling