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 (133)

Hand written note from Colin Powell to Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz concerning a note from UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw.
This is a State Department talking points memo on how to address the issues of detainees and detainee abuse. It references speeches and interviews that President Bush and other administration officials have given to describe and give context as ...

An OLC memo from Daniel Levin (Acting Assistant Attorney General) to John Ashcroft (Attorney General) and James Comey (Deputy Attorney General), updating them on the status of interrogation advice. The letter contains sections for general ...

This letter from Scott Muller to John Bellinger concerns further discussions that clarified the approval of certain interrogation techniques. He writes, "the authorized techniques are those previously approved for use with Abu Zubaydah ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Letter
Scott W. Muller
John Bellinger | James B. Comey
Scott W. Muller, John B. Bellinger, III, James B. Comey, Donald H. Rumsfeld
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Use of water, Waterboarding

This letter from Goldsmith to Muller addresses the use of interrogation techniques on a certain high-value detainee and is a follow-up to 2 previous memos approving 33 techniques (an OLC memo approved 9 and a memo from Secretary Rumsfeld ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
Scott W. Muller
Jack L. Goldsmith, John A. Rizzo, Scott W. Muller, John A. Rizzo, Jay S. Bybee, John D. Ashcroft, James B. Comey, Donald H. Rumsfeld
EIT
White House Press Release on the Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism. The memo/press release is broken in to sections that list: Findings; Definition and Policy; Orders and regulations that pertain ...
Dec. 23, 2004
Non-legal Memo, Other
George W. Bush
George W. Bush, Donald H. Rumsfeld
Letter from Lawyers Against Torture to President George W. Bush re" Lawyer's Statement on Bush Administration's Torture Memos stating that the torture memoranda circumvent long established and universally acknowledged principles of law and common ...
Press release of trancript of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell On BBC TV with Huw Edwards. Sec. Powell discusses Iraq; Abu Ghraib prison abuse; and the President Bush & UK PM Blair relationship..
Dec. 17, 2004
Email
Sara A. Stryker
George W. Bush, Colin L. Powell, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Richard B. Myers, Sara A. Stryker

Press release of trancript of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell On BBC TV with Huw Edwards. Sec. Powell discusses Iraq; Abu Ghraib prison abuse; and the President Bush & UK PM Blair relationship.

Dec. 17, 2004
Other
Colin L. Powell, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Richard B. Myers, George W. Bush
Email from Sara Stryker to Jeremy Caddel re: Excerpt from Secretary's Walk-out with Haitian Interim Prime Minister. Sec. Powell received questions on the 60 Minutes segment on the Abu Ghraib prison abuse; Iraqi security; and the return of Iraqi ...