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 (28)

This April 2002 cable provides an updated interrogation plan for Abu Zubaydah, which includes descriptions of the physical environment, security measures, and interrogation process, including the use of interrogation techniques.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature
This July 2002 cable is a request for guidance from headquarters on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. The cable expresses hesitation about using these techniques on subjects being held in solitary confinement without legal ...
This CIA cable discusses the strategy for the post-isolation phase of the Abu Zubaydah interrogation and provides details on Abu Zubaydah's current status. The cable notes that the post-isolation strategy may include time in the "confinement ...
Sept. 26, 2016
Cable
James Mitchell , Bruce Jessen
Abu Zubaydah
SERE, Cramped confinement, Isolation
This cable provides formal authorization to proceed with portions of the next phase of Abu Zubaydah's interrogation, which include "more aggressive techniques" in order to obtain information, that the interrogation team concludes he is ...

An OLC memo concluding that the CIA’s proposed interrogation plan for Abu Zubaydah — which contemplates methods including “insects placed in a confinement box” and “the waterboard” — does not violate ...

A Detainee Screener states that a detainee complained of rough treatment and being hit. The detainee complained of being put in uncomfortable position on plane ride, guards were rough with him and pushed his hands and feet flat during in-processing.
Dec. 21, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Physical assault, General, Cramped confinement
United Nations Special Rapporteur report on allegations of potential detainee abuse at Kandahar, Afghanistan. This is an annex of a report which purports to describe how suspected Taliban detainees were bound and hooded while in U.S. custody in ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Physical assault, Stress positions, Cramped confinement
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 ...