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 (123)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Feb. 24, 2004 | EOP | ACLU-RDI 4697
White House memo from Alberto R. Gonzalez, Counsel to the President, concerning detention Issues in the War on Terrorism.
May 04, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Alberto Gonzalez
George W. Bush
George W. Bush, Alberto R. Gonzales, Donald H. Rumsfeld
Yaser Esam Hamdi, Jose Padilla
Feb. 07, 2002 | WH | ACLU-RDI 201
This is a memo from President Bush to the Vice President and other key administration personnel stating that "none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world because, among ...
Apr. 06, 2005
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
Richard B. Cheney | Colin L. Powell | Donald H. Rumsfeld
George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Colin L. Powell, John D. Ashcroft, George J. Tenet
Aug. 31, 2004 | DOA | OJAG | ACLU-RDI 467

An email between members of the Staff Judge Advocate, forwarding a Washington Post article titled "Documents Helped Sow Abuse, Army Report Finds," from August 30, 2004.

Mar. 23, 2005
Email
Ricardo Sanchez, Paul J. Kern, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Alberto Mora, Geoffrey D. Miller, George W. Bush, John P. Abizaid, George R. Fay, Thomas Pappas
Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Religious
May 13, 2004 | Legislative | ACLU-RDI 359
Transcript of the testimony of Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Secretary of Defense), Gen. Peter Pace (USMC, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), and Joel Kaplan (Deputy Director of the OMB).
Dec. 31, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
John Warner, Paul Wolfowitz, Peter Pace, Joel Kaplan, George W. Bush, Robert C. Byrd, Jeff Sessions, Alan Wayne Allard, Carl Levin, David Petraeus, Edward M. Kennedy, Lawrence J. Lanzillotta, John McCain, John P. Abizaid, Tommy Franks, Colin L. Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Ricardo Sanchez, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Charley Cooper, James M. Inhoff, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Sue Collins, Mark Dayton, Elizabeth Dole, Bill Nelson, Hillary Clinton, Keith B. Alexander, Jack Reed, Jim Talent, Douglas J. Feith
May 12, 2004 | Legislative | ACLU-RDI 360
Transcript of the testimony of Donald Rumsfeld, Gen. Richard Myers (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), and Larry Lanzillotta (Principal Deputy Secretary of Defense) regarding requests for the 2005 defense budget. Afghanistan, Iraq and ...
Dec. 31, 2004
Interview (Transcript)
Ted Stevens, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Richard B. Myers, Lawrence J. Lanzillotta, Daniel Inouye, Peter Schoomaker, Robert C. Byrd, Vernon E. Clark, Harry N. Cordes, John P. Abizaid, Ernest Frederick Hollings, George W. Bush, William Thad Cochran, Patrick Leahy, Eric K. Shinseki, Lawrence B. Lindsey, Nicholas Evan Berg, Pietro Vichi Domenici, Thomas Richard Harkin, Thomas E. White, L. Paul Bremer, David S. C. Chu, Christopher Samuel Bond, Richard J. Durbin, Antonio Taguba, Dianne Feinstein, James R. Helmly, George R. Fay, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Byron Leslie Dorgan, Arlen Specter, Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr., Richard Craig Shelby, Conrad Ray Burns
May 13, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3718
Letter from Douglas Davidson, U.S. Deputy Representative to the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) re: Revelations of Abuse and Humiliation of Iraqi Detainees by U.S. & Coalition forces in Iraq. Amb. Davidson expressed ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Letter
Douglas Davidson
George W. Bush, Geoffrey D. Miller, Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt, Douglas Davidson
June 01, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3719
State Department memo on treatment of detainees in Iraq during the U.S. occupation. This is a talking points memo to address concerns and questions about the U.S. role, commitment and treatment of certain persons in accordance with international ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush
Feb. 07, 2002 | ACLU-RDI 3792
Interview with White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer concerning the various legal issue involved in the applicability of the Geneva Convention as it pertains to detainees and the Vice President's traveling to Kuwait, Egypt, the United Arab ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Interview
Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney
Feb. 13, 2002 | ACLU-RDI 3795
Washington Post Article re: Extended Detention in Cuba Mulled - Officials Indicate Guantanamo Bay Could Hold Tribunals, Carry Out Sentences
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
George W. Bush, Donald H. Rumsfeld
Nov. 26, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3799
DOS Memo re: Background on Detainee Policy. This is part of a larger memo that is not attached herein. The background information contained here states: On November 13, 2001, President Bush issued a Military order authorizing the detention of ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Non-legal Memo
George W. Bush, Donald H. Rumsfeld