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 (107)

Proposed Statement concerning the Baghdad Confinement Facility Detainee Abuse and an announcement of a criminal investigation surrounding the detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib.
May 16, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Ricardo Sanchez
Describes investigation into alleged misconduct by an officer. Allegations include assault and threatening to kill a detainee. The officer was removed from command and subject to Article 32 investigation and hearing.
Apr. 30, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Ricardo Sanchez, Raymond T. Odierno
General Sanchez states in this memo that the interpreters are civilians who are subject to the Geneva Conventions; the interrogation techniques are only for “security internees”; safeguards must be adhered to during interrogations; segregation of ...
Mar. 25, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Ricardo Sanchez
Ricardo Sanchez

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.

This is the deposition of Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski regarding conditions at Abu Ghraib Detention Facility. In her interview, Gen. Karpinski testified that she visited cell blocks 1A and 1B regularly; that Abu Ghraib housed juveniles ...

Interview intended to "clarify possibly conflicting statements concerning detainees being stripped naked and held in cells in the 1A area." Stated that stripping detainees "might have been an interrogation tactic that could ...

Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Summaries/Notes)
Ricardo Sanchez, George R. Fay
Nudity, Other Humiliation, Other
Sworn statement by 97B counterintelligence agent stating the he "overheard someone making a statement about a detainee dying while being interrogated by an Other Government Agency (OGA) official. The OGA then packed the detainee in ice and ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas, Ricardo Sanchez
Physical assault, Other
Sworn statement of Staff Sergeant Deployed to Abu Ghraib Correctional Facility, Abu Ghraib, Iraq October 2003. The SSG stated they were given a tour of the facility including the screening sites, Hard Site, and Camp Vigilant, but did not observe ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Thomas Pappas, Ricardo Sanchez
Use of phobias
Sworn statement of sergeant at Abu Ghraib including a description of his surprise that "certain approaches" were acceptable. He witnessed a detainee left in cold temperatures without clothes or a blanket and with untreated wounds. The sergeant ...
The interviewee is a Major who was initially assigned to Camp Bucca, but was transferred to AG around September 23-27, 2003, after Camp Bucca consolidated with AG. The Major recounted general observations; did not recall seeing detainees abused ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Barbara G. Fast, Thomas Pappas, Ricardo Sanchez
Use of phobias, Nudity, Other Humiliation