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 (172)

Investigation into allegations by senior Psyops officers in Afghanistan who witnessed indiscriminate assaults in May 2004 by Special Forces on villagers during raids in Gurjay and Surkhagen. Abuses included hitting and kicking villagers in ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death

Iraqi detainee alleged that he was taken from his cell to another location by plain-clothed Americans who beat him in the head and stomach, dislocated his arms, "stepped on the [his] nose" and broke it, and stuck a pistol in his ...

Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Jacqueline J. Scott, Thom Jones
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death

A CID Investigation was initiated based on the claims by a Sergeant that he witnessed several counter-intelligence (CI) agents abuse Iraqi detainees during interrogations while he was stationed in Samarra, Iraq. The Sergeant stated he saw CI ...

Mar. 02, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death
This document is the Charge Sheet against Sergeant Scott A. McKenzie for his Court Martial on abusing Iraqi detainees. It includes the charges; Articles of the UCMJ he is accused of violating; details of the charges; Sgt. McKenzie's plea to each ...
July 01, 2005
Legal Memo, UCMJ (Court-Martial)
David D. McKiernan
Scott A. McKenzie
Face slap or insult slap, Walling, General, Assault/death, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Other Humiliation, Physical assault, Threat

An investigation into an allegation that, on December 31, 2003, a soldier threatened a detainee with a gun, fired the gun on the ground next to the detainee, and "butt-stroked" the detainee. The investigation "established ...

Oct. 15, 2004
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death
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 ...
During a raid, jointly conducted by U.S. Marine Corps personnel with the 24th MEU (SOC) and Iraqi National Guards (INGs), a weapons cache was found. It was alleged that ING personnel slapped the owner of the home during an interrogation and shot ...
May 15, 2006
Investigative File
Physical assault, General, Threat, Assault/death
Summary of investigations into abuse of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq. 56 incidents not in facility: 7 death investigations. (3 homicides. 1 justifiable homicide. 3 investigations pending). 19 thefts. 29 assaults. 1 sexual assualt. 141 ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Physical assault, Assault/death, Threat
Investigation initiated following discovery of a CD during an office clean-up in Afghanistan, containing numerous pictures of American soldiers posing with pistols and M-4 rifles pointed at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees and ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling
Investigation initiated following discovery of a CD during an office clean-up in Afghanistan, containing numerous pictures of American soldiers posing with pistols and M-4 rifles pointed at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees. The ...
Jan. 31, 2005
Investigative File (CID)
Physical assault, Threat, Assault/death, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling