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 (125)

This cable details the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah that took place on August 6, 2002. This interrogation included the use of walling, waterboarding "numerous times", attention grab, insult slap, confinement box, and hooding. The cable states ...
This cable details the results of the August 18, 2002 cycle of interrogation sessions of Abu Zubaydah, which is day 15 of the aggressive interrogation phase. The sessions were conducted by IC SERE psychologists. The cable states that Abu Zubaydah ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This cable discusses the preparation for Abu Zubaydah's upcoming interrogation phase and details his condition on day 30 of the isolation phase.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
Physical assault, Walling, Cramped confinement, Isolation
This cable discusses issues that may arise during interrogations of Abu Zubaydah. The cable is heavily redacted, but sections regarding decision making authority and Abu Zubaydah's confinement conditions are partially unredacted.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
This August 2002 cable regarding Abu Zubaydah's interrogation is largely redacted with the exception of one paragraph that addresses restrictions on the use of the confinement box due to Abu Zubaydah's leg wound.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
Cramped confinement
This CIA cable requests SERE psychologists' comments on the proposed enhanced interrogation techniques waterboarding and mock burial for the next interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. The cable specifically asks for the psychologists' comments on the ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
John Yoo
Abu Zubaydah
SERE, Use of water, Waterboarding, Mock Burial, Threat
This CIA document contains USG's plan to obtain intelligence more quickly from unlawful combatants through interrogation. The plan discusses the current CTC interrogation team for Abu Zubaydah and the plan to train more CIA officers to deploy ...
Dec. 20, 2016
Other
George Bush, Bruce Jessen, James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
EIT, SERE
This cable discusses the proposed strategy for the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and the involvement on contract psychologist Dr. James Mitchell.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
James Mitchell
Abu Zubaydah
EIT
This CIA cable provides information about the size and use of the confinement box for proposed use in an interrogation of Abu Zubaydah.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
Abu Zubaydah
Cramped confinement
This CIA cable contains psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen's assessment of Abu Zubaydah's current mental state, resistance posture, and recommendations for continued interrogation.
Dec. 20, 2016
Cable
James Mitchell , Bruce Jessen
Abu Zubaydah