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 (41)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
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
June 04, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 694
Contract interrogator from CACI assigned to Abu Ghraib from November 23, 2003 to the end of January 2004. The Interrogator stated "I never personally used or saw dogs being used in interrogations. My impression was that the dogs were used as an ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Walling, General, Threat, Family/others, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Nudity, Other
May 13, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 761
This is the second statement given by this Soldier/Interrogator concerning his observations and activities at Abu Ghraib prison. He states that he did in-fact witness Military Police and Interrogators "slap" and roughly handle detainees, ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
George R. Fay
Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Attention grasp, Assault/death, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Light or sound, Nudity, Threat, Environmental manipulation
June 01, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 788
Interviewee was assigned to AG on November 04, 2007 as a member of the 1st Military Intelligence Brigade. Recounted an incident when new arrivals came to AG, stated as "I was standing there, one of the detainees tried to adjust the sandbag on ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas, Ricardo Sanchez
Threat, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation
May 13, 2004 | DOJ | ACLU-RDI 889
Interviewee was assigned to AG sometime in January to interrogate [redacted] general-detainee. Interviewee recounted the following event. The [redacted] general and the son told the interviewee that the [redacted] general's son, who was 17 ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Threat, Family/others, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Other
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
| ACLU-RDI
Aug. 25, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 118
Investigation initiated following discovery of a CD during an office clean-up in Afghanistan, containing numerous pictures of American soldiers posing with pistols and M-4 rifles pointed at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees and ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Aug. 25, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 119
Investigation initiated following discovery of a CD during an office clean-up in Afghanistan, containing numerous pictures of American soldiers posing with pistols and M-4 rifles pointed at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees. The ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
July 28, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 28

An investigation into a detainee's allegation that he was "tortured" at a U.S. facility in Mosul in March 2004. Detainee indicated that after being arrested but before arriving at the facility, his captors -- American men in civilian ...

Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Threat, Family/others, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other