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 (138)

Interviewee was assigned to AG as a Member of the Military Intelligence Group (dates unknown). Recalled seeing MPs make detainees perform physical exercise, while yelling at them. This occurred either before a detainee was interrogated, but it ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript, Questionnaire)
Use of water, Other, Physical assault, Face slap or insult slap, Sleep deprivation, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced physical training
Interviewee arrived to AG in October 2003, was assigned to the prison. Stated that he/she would receive instructions from MI regarding sleep management of detainees. Stated that he/she was unaware of detainee humiliation, however, due to ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas
Physical assault, General, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Environmental manipulation, Hooding/Goggling, Other Humiliation
This sworn statement is made by a Military Police 1LT (MP) assigned to Abu Ghraib prison from 18 Aug 2003 until 12 Mar 2004. The statement describes prison operations and the interaction between MPs and Military Intelligence Units (MI). The 1LT ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Antonio Taguba
Use of phobias, Other Humiliation

Telephonic interview of a Military Intelligence interrogator (Rank & Rate unknown) regarding detainee interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison. The MI Interrogator stated "I never placed any of my detainees on sleep deprivation. I did use a stress ...

Mar. 03, 2005
Non-legal Memo, Interview (Transcript, Statement)
Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Nudity, Other Humiliation
Interviewee arrived to AG October 15, 2003 to conduct interrogation operations. Stated that "I did see naked detainees. I think it happened one night in December. . . . I believe anytime there was a new detainee in the segregation area they ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Use of phobias, Nudity, Other Humiliation
Interviewee was assigned to AG in early October as a the day shift Supervisor of Tier 1-3. Stated that he/she was unaware of detainee abuse and photos until it was reported on TV. Did recall, in mid-December "[o]ne day as I was walking the hard ...
Interviewee worked in in-screeing and interrogation operations. Recalled an incident at Camp Cropper Baghdad International Airport, where interrogators with teh 519th MI Brigade put a detainee in a stress position, he was on his knees with his ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Thomas Pappas, George R. Fay, Ricardo Sanchez
Physical assault, Stress positions, Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Nudity, Other Humiliation
This statement of an Army Major (0-4) who was a member of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, V Corps in Iraq after February 2004 described the general operating procedures of the various intelligence detention facilities, including Abu ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Statement)
Geoffrey D. Miller, Thomas Pappas, Ricardo Sanchez, Janis Leigh Karpinski, Barbara G. Fast
Use of phobias, Sleep deprivation, Other Humiliation
Interviewee was assigned to AG on November 04, 2007 as a member of the 1st Military Intelligence Brigade. Recounted an incident when new arrivals came to AG, stated as "I was standing there, one of the detainees tried to adjust the sandbag on ...
Sworn statement regarding detainee abuse. The interviewee identified an individual in a photo stating he always carried a K-bar knife and stated that "the death of the detainee was from integration from MI. She told me it was listed as a heart ...
Mar. 03, 2005
Interview (Transcript)
Use of phobias, Other Humiliation, Other