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 (227)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
May 25, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2494
Collection of five (5) sworn statements about abuse in detention facilities in Iraq, attached to ACLU-RDI 2493. None of the statements report witnessing any physical abuse at Abu Ghraib, but all recount claims by detainees of abuse at other ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
George R. Fay
Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Sexual, General, Threat, Family/others, Use of phobias, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
June 06, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2551
Sworn statement by a screener at Abu Ghraib prison regarding two (2) Iraqi women and their two (2) brothers detained at Abu Ghraib prison in January 2004. States, "One [brother] said he was raped with a bottle, and they mentioned another brother ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Nudity, Sexual, Other Humiliation
June 29, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2599
Sworn statement of an Operations Sergeant who discusses interrogation practices. Refers to a detainee, "our number one target," who was captured by Iraqi police, who "beat [redacted] with the pistol to the point where his head was split open in a ...
June 30, 2006
Interview (Statement)
Physical assault, General, Assault/death, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Threat, Environmental manipulation
Nov. 08, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2315
Report on an informal investigation conducted by Brigadier General Richard P. Formica into specific allegations of detainee abuse within CJSOTF-AP [Combined Joint Special Operating Task Force – Arabian Peninsula] and 5th SF [Special Forces] Group ...
June 15, 2006
Oversight Report, Investigative File
Richard P. Formica
Ricardo Sanchez, George R. Fay, Richard P. Formica
Use of water, Water dousing, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Family/others, Use of electricity, Stress positions, Cramped confinement, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
DOD | ACLU-RDI 2407
This DOD memo is to address allegations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib in the wake of news reports and features, i.e. Sixty Minutes II, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. It lists the events and action taken in response and specifically ...
June 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt
Physical assault, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual
July 26, 2003 | DON | ACLU-RDI 649
USMC Investigation into incident of abuse where a superior officer ordered a subordinates to take a detainees’ money, strip them naked to their underwear and release them in their underwear. Some soldiers protested. Investigator recommends ...
May 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File
John F. Kelly
Threat, Assault/death, Nudity
Sept. 01, 2004 | DON | ACLU-RDI 651
On June 23, 2003 Marines detained four Iraqi men for looting. The men were searched, stripped of their clothes (except for their shoes and underwear), and then released. On June 28, 2003 fired upon and disabled a truck that attempted to speed ...
May 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo, Investigative File
Henry P. Osman
Henry P. Osman, William A. Navas, Jr
Physical assault, General, Nudity
May 19, 2004 | DOA | ACLU-RDI 2069
This is the Court-martial record of trial with the verbatum transcript of the proceeding of Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits. Spc. Sivits pleaded guilty to some charges and was found guilty of others. The charges were that on November 8, 2003 Spc. ...
Feb. 15, 2006
UCMJ (Court-Martial), Judicial (Transcript)
Jeremy C. Sivits
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Threat, Assault/death, Stress positions, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Forced physical training
Sept. 16, 2005 | CID | ACLU-RDI 2250
Criminal Investigation Command (CID) report into allegations of assault, cruelty and maltreatment of a detainee by guards at Abu Ghraib. Among the detainee's allegations, he stated that a US Army Sergeant hung him by his arms from the bars of a ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Investigative File (CID), Photograph
Donald J. Ryder, Thom Jones
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Isolation, Environmental manipulation, Light or sound, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Religious, Manipulation of interrogator’s identity, Other
May 05, 2004 | DOD | ACLU-RDI 2267
The executive summary, dated May 5, 2004, contains a table listing Military Police officers from the 377th Military Police Company who were flagged for various offenses. The pending investigations concern the deaths of two Bagram detainees ...
Feb. 15, 2006
Non-legal Memo
David D. McKiernan, Antonio Taguba, Ricardo Sanchez, Thomas F. Metz, James R. Helmly, Ivan L. Frederick, II, Javal Sean Davis, Megan M. Ambuhl, Charles A. Graner, Jr., Sabrina D. Harman, Jeremy C. Sivits, Michael N. Ertman, Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt, Lynndie Rana England
Physical assault, Sexual, General, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Sexual, Other