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 (36)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Feb. 07, 2002 | WH | ACLU-RDI 3863
White House Press Release on the status of detainees at Guantanamo with a fact sheet from the on the treatment, housing, access and medical treatment of detainees. The press release makes a specific point of stating "neither the Taliban nor ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
George W. Bush
Feb. 07, 2002 | WH | ACLU-RDI 3663
Press release from the Office of the White House Press Secretary, discussing the status of Taliban and Al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo. The press release outlines that detainees are not POWs and while they will be treated humanely and in ...
Nov. 23, 2004
Other
Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush
Sept. 20, 2002 | EOP | ACLU-RDI 3542

A letter from President Bush describing progress against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and work with other countries.

June 01, 2005
Letter
George W. Bush
John Dennis Hastert | Robert C. Byrd
John Dennis Hastert, Robert C. Byrd
Nov. 13, 2001 | EOP | ACLU-RDI 3540

Presidential order authorizing detention of individuals and trial by military commission. From http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113-27.html.

June 01, 2005
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
Feb. 07, 2002 | WH | ACLU-RDI 3541
This White House memo describes U.S. policy toward detainees at Guantanamo.  States that they are not entitled to POW treatment but that they are treated humanely and given many of the protections that POWs are given.

June 01, 2005
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
Feb. 07, 2002 | WH | ACLU-RDI 201
This is a memo from President Bush to the Vice President and other key administration personnel stating that "none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world because, among ...
Apr. 06, 2005
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
Richard B. Cheney | Colin L. Powell | Donald H. Rumsfeld
George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Colin L. Powell, John D. Ashcroft, George J. Tenet