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 (127)

Edward H. Lueckenhoff's email detailes the problems at Abu Ghurayb prison and that he met with AUSAs Dana Biehl and Bruce Pagel who visited the prison. He states that AUSA Pagel advised that he [Pagel] was aware of the allegations of abuse at the ...
Summarizes allegations against an Army officer accused of assault and threatening to kill Iraqi detainee. Describes investigation and military justice process.
May 16, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Ricardo Sanchez, Raymond T. Odierno
Instructions on how to handle Abu Ghraib investigation on a public relations level. Primary message is that abuses at Abu Ghraib was committed by a "small group of soldiers and civilian contractors who apparently failed to respect the dignity of ...
May 16, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Ricardo Sanchez, George R. Fay, Paul J. Kern, Anthony R. Jones
Department of Defense talking points on Abu Ghraib detainee abuse which highlight how abuse is fundamentally against American military standards, how the majority of U.S. soldiers conduct themselves honorably, and how the abuse will be ...
Department of Defense talking points on the Abu Ghraib prison abuse. Main points include how disturbing the images are, how the Secretary and the DOD are taking the charges seriously, how the Department will hold violators accountable, how the ...
Department of Defense Memo re: Talking Points on Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse. Public release.
Transcript of a media conversation where Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Public Affairs Lawrence Di Rita provides background to the Abu Ghraib investigation.
Proposed press release about detainee abuse in Iraq. Packet includes an article from CNN.com about the Abu Ghraib photos, a release from the Coalition Forces Office of Public Affairs announcing the initiation of an investigation into detainee ...
May 16, 2005
Non-legal Memo
Ricardo Sanchez, Antonio Taguba, Donald J. Ryder
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