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 (212)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
July 04, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2299
A detainee claims that he was in a vehicle with other Iraqi men who possessed AK-47s. The men attempted to avoid a road-side checkpoint and were stopped by US gunfire. While the men were detained at the roadside, several Iraqi civilians began to ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Forced physical training, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity
June 09, 2005 | DOA | SOUTHCOM | ACLU-RDI 4998

General Bantz J. Craddock, Commander United States Southern Command, ordered an AR 15-6 investigation into alleged instances of abuse at Guantanamo. He appointed Brigadier General John T. Furlow and Lieutenant General Randall M. Schmidt to ...

July 14, 2005
Oversight Report, Investigative File
Randall Mark Schmidt | John T. Furlow
Bantz J. Craddock, John T. Furlow, Randall Mark Schmidt
Mohammed al Qahtani, Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity, Other
May 27, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 5485
A CID prosecution of a Sergeant First Class (SFC) for the murder of Iraqi civilian, Salih Taher Khaleefa, and the maltreatment of an unidentified Iraqi juvenile. The investigation found that the SFC "shot and killed Mr. Khaleefa without ...
Jan. 14, 2011
Investigative File (CID), Notes, Photograph, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Salih Taher Khaleefa
Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Threat, Assault/death, Other Humiliation
May 14, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2277
Detainee alleged he was detained with a bag over his head for 14 days, was beat in the stomach and kidney, hit on the lips, thrown into concertina wire. He states that all his statements were made under torture. When the detainee was initially ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, General, Threat, Assault/death
Apr. 23, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 1557
A CID Report with several Commander's reports relating to the investigation and punishment of soldiers involved in the drowning death of an Iraqi civilian, Zaydun Ma'mun Fadhil, in Samarra, Iraq on January 3, 2004. Mr. Fadhil drowned after being ...
Sept. 20, 2005
Investigative File (CID, AR 15-6), Interview (Statement, Summaries/Notes), UCMJ (Article 15)
Zaydun Ma'mun Fadhil
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Other
Mar. 29, 2005 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 4795
Interview of FBI Official-member of the Behavioral Science Division, interviewee was stationed at Guantanamo, Bay from mid-September 2002 until the end of October 2002. The agent stated that he witnessed at least three incidents of abuse, ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Interview (Statement, Summaries/Notes)
John T. Furlow
Physical assault, General, Threat, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Religious, Forced grooming, Other
Mar. 17, 2005 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 4790
Major General Michael Dunlavey was interviewed regarding his knowledge of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO). MG Dunlavey arrived to GTMO on or about December 13, 2002 as the Commander of the Joint Task Force-170. In regards to ...
Jan. 02, 2007
Interview (Statement)
Michael E. Dunlavey , Randall Mark Schmidt, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Michael R. Lehnert, Rick Baccus, Geoffrey D. Miller, Glenn A. Crowther, Albert T. Church
Physical assault, General, Threat, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity
Jan. 08, 2005 | ACLU-RDI 3548

A series of blog posts by a former OLC lawyer, Marty Lederman, discussing the difference between the DOJ's memo on torture from August 2002 and the memo on torture from December 30, 2004 (ACLU-RDI 3547).  The posts conclude that the Bush ...

June 01, 2005
Other
John C. Yoo, Daniel B. Levin, Alberto R. Gonzales, Richard J. Durbin
Waterboarding, Mock Burial, Rendition, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Religious, Use of water, Threat, Environmental manipulation, Other Humiliation
Dec. 01, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6467
This document is an email describing the allegations of a detainee (whose name is redacted). The detainee claims to have been abused by two FBI agents in Afghanistan who later came back to interrogate him in GTMO. Detainee claimed that the FBI ...
Oct. 30, 2009
Email
Valerie E. Caproni
[Redacted] (OGC) (FBI); Charlene B. Thorton (INSD) (FBI); Frankie Battle (CTD) (FBI); Julie F. Thomas (OGC) (FBI); [Redacted] (CTD) (FBI); T.J. Harrington (CTD) (FBI); [Redacted] (CTD) (FBI); M. [Redacted] (CTD) (FBI); [Redacted] (CTD) (FBI)
Valerie E. Caproni, Charlene B. Thornton
Threat
Dec. 01, 2004 | FBI | ACLU-RDI 6468
This document is an email describing the allegations of a detainee (whose name is redacted). The detainee claims to have been abused by two FBI agents in Afghanistan who later came back to interrogate him in GTMO. Detainee claimed that the FBI ...
Oct. 30, 2009
Email
Valarie E. Caproni
Redacted; Charlene Thornton
Valerie E. Caproni, Charlene B. Thornton, Julie F. Thomas, Frankie Battle, Thomas J. Harrington
Threat