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 (77)

Email includes news articles about high level detainees, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah and the "harsh" interrogation methods the CIA employs. The email includes another article, which reports specific accounts of abuse.

Summary of allegations by the Special Rapporteur of abuse of a detainee held in custody at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base in 2002-2003. The claim of abuses included: prolonged standing; kneeling; painful and awkward positions; hooding; ...

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 documenis an academic paper presented by Philip B. Heyman of Harvard University.
Interview of a detainee at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. The detainee stated he was beaten by U.S. forces at an unknown location in Afghanistan. In one instance, he was taken via helicopter to a location where he was kicked in the stomach by ...
May 18, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling
These emails are to clarify an Electronic Communication (EC) sent by the FBI's Office of the General Counsel to field agents informing them that they must report incidents of abuse that they know of or become aware of. The initial email requests ...
This FBI memo concerns the activities of FBI personnel at Abu Ghraib prison from October 2003 to December 2003. The FBI conducted 15 interviews of military personnel, each being present at Abu Ghraib prison at some point during October 2003 & ...

Cable summarizes the results of 14 interviews of FBI personnel who participated in detainee interviews at Abu Ghraib between October and December 2003. Attached to the cable is a classified chart of FBI personnel who conducted interviews at ...

Navy Chief Petty Officer, Gunners Mate, discusses in-processing and handling of detainees. States that taped up goggles are put on detainees. Other units use hoods. States, "I've never seen anybody get kicked, punched, or sexually abused. Guys ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Stress positions, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling