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 (47)

When interrogator left the interrogation room for a few minutes, Special Forces members had entered the room and were blowing smoke on detainee when interrogator returned to the room. Detainee states that others touched his hands with an ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Transcript)
Physical assault, General, Use of electricity
Translator tells of incident during interrogation states that when they stepped away from the interview booth Special Forces members entered the booth; all crouched around the prisoner; blew cigarette smoke in his face; and threatened him. The ...
Dec. 21, 2005
Investigative File, Interview (Transcript)
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity
This Court Martial record discusses the court martial proceedings of Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick, II, who was charged for offenses he committed while assigned to the Abu Ghraib Detention Facility on or about November 08, 2003. SSG ...
This Court Martial record (volume 6 of 8) discusses the court martial proceedings of Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick, II, who was charged for offenses he committed while assigned to the Abu Ghraib Detention Facility on or about November 08, ...
Interview of a detainee at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. The detainee accused Pakistani Police with giving him electric shocks and U.S. troops of beating him. He said he was yelled at by interrogators in Kandahar and then admitted to lying to them ...
May 18, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Use of electricity
A 17 year-old Iraqi male detainee, Basim Mohammed Hussein, complains of back pain after being beaten by coalition forces. Claims to have been beaten at a house near Al-Adamiya Palace. He was beaten for eight days, including having his head was ...
Medical report on a 30-Year-Old Iraqi male detainee wherein the detainee claims he was "tortured" and "[electrical] shocks" were used on him when he was interrogated. The medical exam did not show signs of trauma or abuse as complained of.
Apr. 18, 2005
Medical (Physical (non-death))
Face slap or insult slap, General, Use of electricity, Physical assault
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
Sworn statement from a CACI contractor who screened detainees arriving at Abu Ghraib from Asamiya Palace (alternate spelling: Adhamiya Palace) from mid-December 2003 through January 2004. The Screener describes in her statement hearing ...