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 (65)

An OLC memo from Jack Goldsmith to John Helgerson, the CIA's Inspector General, expressing disagreement with the Special Review's representation of OLC opinions on two points -- whether John Ashcroft (Attorney General) authorized ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Legal Memo, Letter
Jack L. Goldsmith
John L. Helgerson
Jack L. Goldsmith, John L. Helgerson, John D. Ashcroft, John A. Rizzo, George J. Tenet
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water

This May 7, 2004 Special Review by the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General examines the CIA’s counterterrorism detention and interrogation activities, including the apparently unauthorized use of mock executions, a hand gun, a ...

Lengthy, but almost entirely redacted, document that apparently discusses the CIA’s detention and interrogation program for “high value targets.” The document provides some detail regarding the “standard” and ...

This CIA documents is a draft psychological assessment of Abu Zubaydah, discussing his background, personality, emotional and mental skills, strengths, motivations, and future worldview, among other things. The document is very similar to file ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Non-legal Memo, Medical (Psychological)
Abu Zubaydah

This draft psychological assessment of Abu Zubaydah discusses his background, personality, emotional and mental skills, strengths, motivations, and future worldview, among other things. The document refers to the use of "initial ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Non-legal Memo, Medical (Psychological)
John C. Yoo
John C. Yoo
Abu Zubaydah

Memorandum for the record regarding a meeting with a senior CIA officer about the detention and interrogation program of the CIA. The unredacted portions of the document primarily discuss the alleged effectiveness of the program. [REDACTED] ...

Aug. 24, 2009
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Bin al Shibh, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, Majid Khan, Abd al Aziz Ali, Walid Bin Attash, Mohd Farik Bin Amin

The Vaughn declaration of CIA Director Leon Panetta, discussing CIA records that describe the contents of the videotapes destroyed by the CIA.  The declaration notes that the records primarily concern the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and ...

June 09, 2009
Judicial (Affidavit/Declaration, Vaughn Declaration/Index)
Leon E. Panetta
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein
Leon E. Panetta
Abu Zubaydah
EIT

The CIA's Vaughn Index of records describing the contents of the interrogation videotapes destroyed by the CIA.  This Index was attached to Leon Panetta's Vaughn Declaration of the same date.  Most of the records listed in the Index ...

June 09, 2009
Judicial (Vaughn Declaration/Index)
Leon E. Panetta
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Waterboarding, Use of water

A Vaughn index of CIA records, including cables sent from the field to headquarters, relating to the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah.  The CIA stated that the index includes the first half of the records created in August 2002 that describe ...

May 01, 2009
Judicial (Vaughn Declaration/Index)
John L. McPherson
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein
Abu Zubaydah

An OLC memo concluding that the CIA’s proposed interrogation plan for Abu Zubaydah — which contemplates methods including “insects placed in a confinement box” and “the waterboard” — does not violate ...