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 (683)

This is a report from interrogators at COBALT, a CIA black site in Northern Kabul, Afghanistan, describing the status of Gul Rahman's interrogation. It is reported that Rahman was not responding to interrogation by Bruce Jessen; the responder ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Email, Cable
Bruce Jessen
Gul Rahman
EIT, Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature
This is a memo from someone (name redacted) located at the site of interrogation to Jim Pavitt, Deputy Director for Operations for the CIA, reporting on the status of an investigation of the death of a detainee. Though the name of the detainee is ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo
James Pavitt
James Pavitt
Gul Rahman
This August 3, 2002 cable provides authorization to implement more aggressive techniques in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, including the use of the water board and mock burial, as described in this cable. The cable also provides information ...
This CIA cable states that a scenario occurred when IC SERE Psychologists entered Abu Zubaydah's cell to begin an isolation phase. The cable is heavily redacted.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This is a moderately redacted cable which summarizes the mechanics and legal basis for use of enhanced interrogation techniques on detainees. The cable states that "our attorneys have presented our legal analysis to the legal adviser to the NSC, ...
This heavily redacted cable seems to describe a proposal for "turning up the heat" in the interrogation of detainee Abu Zubaydah. One unredacted sentence references moving onto "Option B" in the interrogation; another reveals the psychologists' ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This heavily redacted message describes one instance (starting on August 4, 2002) of "the aggressive phase" of high value captive interrogation and recommends its use as a template for future interrogation. Nothing new has been disclosed since ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Cable
ALEC Info Director
EIT
This redacted memo, sent from HQS/ALEC to the CIA, explains that the interrogation process with Abu Zubaydah is "at somewhat of a standstill" and presents options for proceeding in such a way that increases pressure on Zubaydah to provide ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Threat, Family/others, Cramped confinement
This August 4, 2002 cable details the first and second sessions of the aggressive phase of interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. Throughout these sessions Abu Zubaydah continued to maintain his position that he had no additional information.
This heavily redacted paper "discusses the techniques and strategies for resisting interrogation described in captured al-Qa'ida training manuals and other documents. It suggests methods for recognizing when sophisticated resistance to ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Non-legal Memo, Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT