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 (135)

Sworn statement of a detainee. States that, following his capture on April 27, 2004, he was put in a compartment so small that he could only sit in it. States he was severely beaten in an attempt to force a confession, threatened with rape, ...
Sworn statement of a U.S. Special Forces soldier who interrogated detainees in Tikrit, Iraq between February & May 2004. He is discussing interrogation and detention locations and procedures. States, "[We] used the interrogation techniques ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Assault/death, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Light or sound, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Sworn statement of an Operations Sergeant who discusses interrogation practices. Refers to a detainee, "our number one target," who was captured by Iraqi police, who "beat [redacted] with the pistol to the point where his head was split open in a ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General, Assault/death, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Threat, Environmental manipulation

Statement of Sergeant First Class who served as an interrogator. Describes interrogations, and states that only specific interrogators conduct interrogations. Continues, "Our command has authorization to detain people longer than 72 ...

Sworn statement by a detainee who claimed to have served in the Iraqi Army as a technician. Detainee states that he was handcuffed and had a bag put over his head. He was held "for 17 days" with a bag over his head, "handcuffed to the floor." ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity, Dietary manipulation
Sworn statement by a Major, who discusses detainee operations. States, "ICDC [Iraqi Civilian Defense Corps] interview techniques were a little rougher than ours and there was a guy that got slapped, so the commander decided not to leave ICDC ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Assault/death, Use of phobias, Threat
Pages 9-11 of a 12-page CID report (0106-04-CID259-80185), consisting of an Agent's investigation Report. A detainee claims that he was "physically abused while at the palace," including being "pulled by his penis, kicked, punched, and hit with a ...
June 30, 2006
Investigative File (CID)
Ali
Physical assault, General, Assault/death, Threat
This is a sworn Statement by an Army Sergeant assigned to the the Internal Reaction Force at Camp Ganci, Camp Vigilance, and Abu Ghraib Prison Detention Facility. This sworn statement concerns an incident on August 23, 2003, when, after a mortar ...
June 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID), Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Assault/death, Use of phobias, Threat
Private First Class Trefny was accused of conspiracy to assault; disobedience of a superior commissioned officer; dereliction of duty; cruelty and maltreatment of a detainee; making false statements; and aggravated assault. Specifically, he ...
June 15, 2006
Photograph, UCMJ (Court-Martial)
Jeremiah J. Trefny
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death

Sargent Travis was accused of cruelty; maltreatment; attempted assault by battery; conspiracy to maltreat; and dereliction of duty. Specifically, he conspired, witnessed and encouraged electrocution of a detainee by PFC Andrew J Sting, then ...

June 15, 2006
Photograph, UCMJ (Court-Martial)
Matthew K. Travis
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Use of electricity