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 (125)

This May 2002 cable serves as a "reaffirmation" of headquarters consent for the use of the confinement box and the restrictions surrounding its use. The cable also authorizes the use of the box with Abu Zubaydah.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
Cramped confinement
This CIA list includes Abu Zubaydah's reported terrorist activity, injuries at the time of capture, highlights from reporting, legal authority for interrogation techniques used, and interrogation techniques used on Abu Zubaydah.
This CIA memo labeled "Legal Background" describes Title 18's probation against torture in the US criminal code and how the phrase "severe mental pain or physical suffering" is described. The memo states that at this time, none of the ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This CIA cable describes the phase of Abu Zubaydah's interrogation and states that he underwent confinement, walling and the waterboard during his initial cycle of interrogations. The cable also describes his general behavior in his cell as well ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding, Physical assault, Walling, Cramped confinement
This June 21, 2002 email is an invitation to a meeting to discuss the future of the Abu Zubaydah interrogations. Attendees include people from the CTC and the Abu Zubaydah Interrogation Team (including James Mitchell), among others.
Dec. 20, 2016
Email
James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
This June 17, 2002 email discuses replacing psychologist Jim Mitchell with another SERE psychologist whose name is redacted during the July headquarters meeting. The email also includes the contents of a cable regarding "preparing for [redacted] ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Email, Cable
James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
Isolation
This April 19, 2002 SPOT Report describes the make up of Abu Zubaydah's interrogation team, his current condition, and plans for his interrogation.
Dec. 20, 2016
Oversight Report
James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
This May 2004 memo to the Deputy Director for Science and Technology discusses the Office of Technical Service's (OTS) support of the Counterterrorism Center (CTC) by: 1) developing the enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs); 2) hiring SERE ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
Abu Zubaydah, Gul Rahman
EIT, SERE
This April 2002 cable is redacted almost in full with the exception of a paragraph that questions the effectiveness of the confinement box on Abu Zubaydah, recognizing that it had a history of demonstrated effectiveness in the SERE program.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
SERE, Cramped confinement
This cable details the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah that took place on August 5, 2002 at the which the IC SERE psychologists were present. This interrogation included the use of walling, the water board, attention grab, confinement box, hooding, ...