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 (52)

This CIA cable describes Abu Zubaydah's condition in detention as of July 19, 2002. The cable states that the next stage of Zubaydah's detention will include confinement, dressing changes, walling and a head immobilizer, as requested by IC SERE ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, Walling, Cramped confinement, Isolation, Other, Physical assault
This cable includes the contents of Abu Zubaydah's April 2004 mental status exam and December 2003 psychological assesment conducted by Mitchell and Jessen.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable, Medical
Bruce Jessen, James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
This CIA cable recommends the continuation of the interrogation/debriefing process, particularly for Abu Zubaydah and mentions the psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
James Mitchell , Bruce Jessen
Abu Zubaydah
This April 2002 cable provides an updated interrogation plan for Abu Zubaydah, which includes descriptions of the physical environment, security measures, and interrogation process, including the use of interrogation techniques.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
Cramped confinement, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Temperature
This May 2002 cable contains a summary of the interrogation status of Abu Zubaydah. The summary states that because this is not a law enforcement interrogation, the interrogation team is not limited to the use of traditional law enforcement ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
This October 23, 2006 email includes a cable describing Abu Zubaydah's current condition in isolation and observations of a rehearsal of the next phase of Abu Zubaydah's interrogations, which included the use of confinement boxes and the water ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Email, Cable
Abu Zubaydah
Use of water, Waterboarding, Cramped confinement, Isolation
This heavily redacted cable states requests to employ "additional interrogation tactics" to move Abu Zubaydah into "forthcoming posture" regarding future terrorist attacks. The cable says to refer to the redacted text below for the particulars ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
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 CIA cable discusses the strategy for the post-isolation phase of the Abu Zubaydah interrogation and provides details on Abu Zubaydah's current status. The cable notes that the post-isolation strategy may include time in the "confinement ...
Sept. 26, 2016
Cable
James Mitchell , Bruce Jessen
Abu Zubaydah
SERE, Cramped confinement, Isolation
This cable provides formal authorization to proceed with portions of the next phase of Abu Zubaydah's interrogation, which include "more aggressive techniques" in order to obtain information, that the interrogation team concludes he is ...