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 (192)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Nov. 29, 2004 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 6328
The document is an untitled letter from a detainee alleging abuse by the American military. The detainee states that he was questioned about the role of Iraqi intelligence in furthering international terrorism and about where Iraq had hidden its ...
June 15, 2011
Letter
Physical assault, General, Walling, Assault/death, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Light or sound, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Nov. 22, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 5624
This is the Autopsy Report Autopsy Report: Hussein Farhad Ali, a detainee who was captured by US forces in Mosul, Iraq. It is reported that Mr. Ali died within 72 hours after being taken in to custody. The Report indicates that Mr. Ali suffered ...
Jan. 14, 2011
Medical (Autopsy)
Hussein Farhad Ali
Use of water, Water dousing, Other, Physical assault, General, Face slap or insult slap, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Nov. 17, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 116

An investigation into allegations by an Iraqi detinee that interrogators hand- and leg-cuffed him to the floor and pushed him over while blindfolded, causing severe pain and nerve bruising in his wrist. the investigation concluded that there ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Nov. 08, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2315
Report on an informal investigation conducted by Brigadier General Richard P. Formica into specific allegations of detainee abuse within CJSOTF-AP [Combined Joint Special Operating Task Force – Arabian Peninsula] and 5th SF [Special Forces] Group ...
June 15, 2006
Oversight Report, Investigative File
Richard P. Formica
Ricardo Sanchez, George R. Fay, Richard P. Formica
Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Use of electricity, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
Nov. 04, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 1762
Investigation based on civilian contractor's allegation that he witnessed U.S. Marines abusing Iraqi detainees. In a sworn statement the contractor says he saw Marines place bags over an Iraqi prisoners' heads and strike him in the head with a ...
Nov. 30, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Attention grasp, General, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Nov. 03, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 117

An investigation into allegations that U.S. forces had kicked a detainee in the legs and back while he was blindfolded and handcuffed so tightly that he received permanent nerve damage in his wrist. Investigation concluded that the allegations ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Physical assault, General, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Oct. 23, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 1564

Criminal Investigation Command (CID) report pertaining to the abuse of a detainee at an unknown location. The detainee alleged that he was forced to walk on hot pavement, punched and kicked all over his body, had his ribcage fractured, and was ...

Sept. 20, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Ricardo Sanchez, Pamela Andrews
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other
Sept. 26, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 4786
Sworn statement by a Iraqi national who became a detainee at Abu Ghraib with member of his family. He claims that his brother was with the Saddam regime and when he went to visit his sister in Iraq he was taken in to custody as a detainee and ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Family/others, Use of phobias, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Sept. 23, 2004 | CID | ACLU-RDI 88
CID Report of investigation into detainee's allegation that he was Hooded, roughly handled and choked by a U.S. soldier after being captured in his home. The interrogation reports (Secret) did reveal any allegations of abuse, and the detainee ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, John Peterson
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Sept. 22, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 657
Two (2) suspects in the theft from the Iraqi National Guard (ING) Training Camp at Camp Junction City, allege being abused while in custody. Both suspects provided facts "proven to be false and established patterns of not providing the truth". ...
June 28, 2006
Investigative File
Richard F. Natonski
Richard F. Natonski
General, Use of electricity, Cramped confinement, Isolation, Light or sound, Physical assault, Environmental manipulation