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 (66)

This documenis an academic paper presented by Philip B. Heyman of Harvard University.

A series of blog posts by a former OLC lawyer, Marty Lederman, discussing the difference between the DOJ's memo on torture from August 2002 and the memo on torture from December 30, 2004 (ACLU-RDI 3547).  The posts conclude that the Bush ...

This letter is from Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, two former Guantanamo detainees. The letter is on the letterhead of the Centre for Constitutional Rights and states that
Court Martial Records of SPC Megan Ambuhl, who did not participate in abuse of detainees, but pled guilty to Dereliction of Duty for not reporting the activities of MP and MI personnel at Abu Ghraib Prison. She was sentenced to forfeiture of 1/2 ...
This is a sworn statement by a civilian contractor, screener assigned to Abu Ghraib prison in December 2003. He stated that he made a statement in reference to an incident involving a family of Iraqi civilians, a sister and two (2) brothers, one ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Interview of a civilian contractor with the Titan Corp. assigned to Abu Ghraib prison as an interrogator. The gentleman recalls several incidents of detainees being inappropriately treated before, during and after interrogations. He specifically ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Walling, General, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
This sworn statement by a Corporal, interrogator assigned to the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion and the 205th Military Intelligence Battalion. Explained that detainees would be brought to him either in handcuffs or not, would request that ...
Interviewee was the Platoon Sergeant for the 4th Platoon of the 372nd Military Police Company, he/she arrived on October 1, 2003. Recalled hearing about a soldier take a female detainee into the wood shack, but did not recall the specifics of ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas
Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation
Interviewee made more than one trip to AG. First was a an interrogator assigned to AG to review interrogation database/report protocol. Second as a member of Tiger Team. Observed the following techniques, sleep deprivation, altering of meal ...
Interviewee arrived to AG in October 2003, was assigned to the prison. Stated that he/she would receive instructions from MI regarding sleep management of detainees. Stated that he/she was unaware of detainee humiliation, however, due to ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation